Financial Hardship
Are you struggling to make your loan repayments? Are you experiencing financial hardship? Bank of Sydney (BOS) may be able to help.
We know that unexpected things can happen in life and you might not be financially prepared to cope. For example, losing your job, getting sick or a relationship breaking down may cause you to struggle with your loan or credit card repayments.
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BOS has obligations under various Codes and Government principles, such as the Code of Banking Practice and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (National Credit Code), as to how we may provide financial hardship assistance to our customers. If you find yourself in a situation of financial hardship, we encourage you to talk to us about how your change in circumstances is impacting your financial position – we may be able to offer you some assistance to help you deal with the financial difficulties you’re facing. |
Getting Assistance
Our Bank Managers will individually assess each request for assistance and will work with you to develop a solution tailored to your circumstances.
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We will seek to understand your situation by gathering information from you on:
Apply for assistance using our Financial Hardship Application & Declaration Form You can return your completed form by fax or post using the following details:
Attention: Compliance |
Other information we may ask for
You may be asked to provide supporting documentation to help us assess your application and determine if we can provide you with assistance to help you overcome your financial hardship.
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We’ll let you know if we need you to provide any documents such as:
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What type of assistance will we be able to provide?
The type of assistance we may be able to provide will vary depending on your individual circumstances.
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For eligible customers, assistance may include options such as:
These are a guide of potential assistance options only – we need to look at your existing account, loan or credit card, and your particular circumstances, to see what might be suitable. |
What are your rights if you are not happy with the support provided or if assistance is declined?
We aim to assist our customers as much as we can however if the support we have offered is not to your satisfaction, you have the right to complain by lodging a complaint form.
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To deal with your concerns, we offer free internal dispute resolution to all our customers and free external dispute resolution through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for personal and small business customers. The FOS can investigate a matter, but will only do so once you have given us the opportunity to investigate and review it. You can contact the FOS at www.fos.org.au or by calling 1300 BANKING (1300 226 546). If assistance is declined, BOS will advise you of the reason your application was declined. You may wish to seek further financial advice from other parties such as a financial counsellor, about other options available to you. Financial counselling is offered free of charge through Financial Counsellors of Australia who may be contacted by calling 1300 BANKING (1300 226 546). |