What is financial difficulty?

What is financial difficulty?

Financial difficulty means you are unable to repay what you owe and are experiencing difficulty meeting your repayment obligations. This can be as a result of an unexpected event or unforeseen changes outside your control.

Virgin Money understands that peoples' circumstances change; you might have been made redundant, lost a source of income, suffered family violence, an illness or experienced loss or difficulty due to a natural disaster.

If you are unsure of whether you are experiencing difficulty, please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Assistance Team.

You may find the following websites helpful, which provide information on managing your money:

How can we assist?

How can we assist?

We have a dedicated Customer Assistance Team which is there to assist customers who are experiencing financial difficulty in meeting their commitments. If we identify that you may be experiencing financial difficulty, we may contact you to discuss your situation and the options available to help you.

You can ask us to deal with your financial counsellor or representative rather than dealing with you. In this instance, we will require their contact details in writing which can be provided by completing the Authorised Representative Authority Form – Collections and Financial Difficulty Assistance and sending it to us via email, post or fax.

If you have a joint account, we can consider your application for assistance and if you ask us to, we can do so without involving the other account holder initially. If you are a guarantor and we have made a demand for you to service a default, and you would like to apply for financial assistance, please contact us to discuss your options.

We will not require you to access your superannuation to pay any amount you owe us under a loan, however you may wish to discuss this option with a financial counsellor. You can also find out more about this from the Department of Human Services, see humanservices.gov.au.

  • What is the assessment process?

    Once an application has been received, our Customer Assistance team will be prompt to respond to you or your representative. Our team will initially review your financial situation and where necessary contact you for further supporting documentation.

    It is important for you to be as open and as realistic as you can be about your financial position. In turn we will be compassionate in trying to understand your situation and when discussing any way we can help.

    An assessment will be completed and the assistance that we may offer will depend on your personal circumstances. We will review and consider any reasonable and mutually acceptable proposal you suggest. We will notify you in writing as to whether we will provide you with Financial Difficulty Assistance and the reasons for our decision. If your application is granted, we will also include details of the arrangement which may include repayments you will need to make and what will happen at the end of the arrangement.

    Restoring financial position possible

    In circumstances where restoring your financial position is possible, assistance may include options such as:

    • Agreeing to interest only payments for a short period;
    • Extending the terms of your loan to reduce your payments;
    • Temporary postponing or deferring payments; or
    • Capitalisation of arrears.

    Where a financial assistance arrangement is accepted and entered, this may result in an increase in your repayments and or to pay more interest over the loan term.

    Restoring financial position unlikely

    In circumstances where restoring your financial position is unlikely, assistance may include options such as:

    • Agreeing on an alternative arrangement, plan or contract; 
    • Changing the terms of your loan; 
    • Giving you time to sell your property; or
    • Giving information about bankruptcy or insolvency arrangements.

    Financial assistance is approved on a temporary basis, provided that we reasonably expect that you will be in a position to meet your financial obligations following our assessment and in the future.

  • What are the redraw options?

    If you've been paying more than the scheduled repayments into your home loan you might be able to access these funds via a redraw. To find out more about this you can contact our Customer Care Team on 13 81 51.

  • What about my payments?

    Automated payments that have been created as a transfer order or from an external institution will remain in place. It’s important to continue to make repayments to your loan whilst your application for financial assistance is being considered.

  • Exceptional circumstances

    In exceptional circumstances, we may look outside normal processes to find a way to assist you if you are experiencing long term hardship as a result of a material change in circumstances.

How to apply for assistance or contact us

Apply for assistance

If you would like further information on how we may be able to assist you if you are experiencing financial difficulty in meeting your commitments or would like assistance with completing an application, please call the toll-free hotline number listed below and speak to one of our Customer Assistance Team members.

Alternatively, you can download Financial Hardship application form for assistance with financial difficulty. and submit it directly to our team using the contact details below.

Contact our Customer Assistance Team

It's important that you contact us as soon as possible if you're having difficulties making your repayments and tell us about your situation. We are here to help.

Phone

1800 701 997

8.30am - 5pm Monday to Friday (AEST)

Email CustomerAssistanceTeam@virginmoney.com.au
Mail

Customer Assistance Team
GPO Box 898
Brisbane QLD

If you are not satisfied with the assistance provided, you can contact our Customer Relations team.