Supporting our business customers

We’ve introduced repayment relief initiatives to help our business customers impacted by COVID-19.

If you’re a St.George customer and need help making repayments on your business loan, equipment loan or business auto loan (business loans), you can apply for a deferral on repayments for six months.
 

Eligible customers can also defer repayments for St.George business credit cards including Amplify Business, BusinessVantage and Corporate Connections Mastercard³, for six months. Eligible customers will also receive an interest rate reduction to 9.46% per annum on new and outstanding purchases and cash balances during the deferred repayment period.
 

Businesses eligible for repayment deferral include:

• those with total business exposure of less than $10 million per customer group;
• commercial property customers who declare that, during the deferred payment period, they will not terminate leases or evict tenants due to non-payment of rent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• where the business is operated in Australia with less than 20% foreign ownership; and
• those customers above $3 million total business exposure, with current facilities that have not been in arrears in the last 90 days.

If you have an overdraft facility, you should use your available balance in the first instance and speak to your Relationship Manager if you require assistance.

If you have a cashflow/invoice/trade finance or commercial bill facility, please speak with your Relationship Manager.

If your application for repayment deferral is approved, you won’t have to make repayments on your business loan/s and/or credit card for six months. Your deferred payment period will start from the date you submitted your application².

Eligible small business customers that need additional support at the expiry of their business loan repayment deferral period can apply to extend their repayment deferral period by up to four months. Extension of the deferral period is subject to eligibility criteria and further credit assessment. For those currently with business loan repayment deferrals in place, we will be in touch with you prior to the deferred payment period ending to let you know the options available if you require additional support.

If you have already contacted us to make changes or cancel your business loan repayment deferral, you don’t need to take further action. We’re currently working through your request and will be in touch as soon as we can.

Once you’ve applied online, we’ll aim to send you an email within 24 hours confirming receipt of your application. Due to the current situation and high volume of applications, it might take us a little longer than usual to assess your application. We are working towards assessing your application within seven working days. If your application is approved, you’ll receive an email letting you know of the outcome. Or we will be in touch if we need any further information from you.

You can apply to defer your business loan or business credit card repayments online.

If your application is approved, and you make a repayment between the date you submitted your application and the date when the repayment deferral is processed, we’ll return those funds to you. If this isn’t possible, we’ll apply them to the loan balance on your accounts.

For business loan/s, interest deferred will be capitalised.

If you have questions speak to your Relationship Manager or a registered tax or BAS agent.

For business credit card/s, interest will be capitalised to the account monthly unless the closing monthly statement balance is paid in full, however at the reduced rate of 9.46% per annum on new and outstanding purchases and cash balances during the deferred repayment period.

For business loan/s, once approved, your deferred payment period will start from the date you submitted your application² for six months.

For business credit card/s, the repayment deferral will apply from the date of processing, for six months.

For your business loan/s, if your application is approved the deferred payment period will start from the date you submitted your application. We are not likely to be in a position to implement deferring your payments until May 2020.

For business credit card/s, the repayment deferral will apply from the date of processing⁴. 

Please wait until the application is approved before considering cancelling direct debits. If your application is approved and processed, to cancel an upcoming direct debit, call us on 132 142 Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm. Please note that our phone lines may be busier than usual due to the high volume of calls, but we do have people available to help. Alternately, please contact your Relationship Manager.

Once your application for repayment deferral is approved please disregard any new notices you may receive from us regarding payments in arrears. Once your application is approved, we will reverse any new fees or charges incurred as a result of your account appearing to be in arrears from the date your application has been submitted.

If your application is approved your credit score, credit rating and repayment history won’t be impacted as a result of deferring your repayments from the date your application has been submitted provided your account was otherwise in order.

No. There are no fees or charges for applying for a business loan or business credit card repayment deferral.

You will receive an acknowledgement of your submission within 24 hours of us receiving it. You will receive notification of this via email so please ensure you provide accurate contact details in your application. If for some reason you do not receive this message, please re-apply.

For business loan/s: After the deferred payment period is over, you’ll recommence making repayments on the new balance of your loan using the payment process you had originally nominated such as direct debit. The loan term will also be extended by at least six months to account for the higher loan balance.

For business credit card/s: After the deferred repayment period is over, your monthly statements will again request the usual Minimum Monthly Repayment amounts and your purchase and cash interest rates will revert to the previous rates that were in place for your credit card account before your repayment deferral period began.    

For business loan/s: If your application for repayment deferral is approved, you won’t have to make repayments on your business loan/s for six months. Your deferred payment period will start from the date you submitted your application².

For business credit card/s: If your repayment deferral is approved, your next six monthly statements will not request for any Minimum Monthly Repayment amount to be paid, and you will also receive an interest rate reduction to 9.46% per annum on new and outstanding purchases and cash balances during the deferred repayment period. You will not be required to make any repayments during the deferred repayment period, however, the removal of the minimum monthly repayment does not prevent you from paying down your balance at any point in time, and we encourage you to do so to minimise interest costs where possible.