Support for your home loan repayment deferral

It means you didn't have to make any home loan repayments during the deferral period.​

It's important to note that, by deferring your repayments, the interest was capitalised. This means that the interest you'd have normally paid during the deferral period continued to accrue and was added to your outstanding home loan balance, to be paid after the deferred period. In turn, your outstanding balance increased, and you'll pay more interest over the life of the loan.​

For example, if you borrowed $300,000 with 20 years remaining at 3.5% and you deferred your repayments for six months, you would pay an additional $8,674 in interest and have your loan extended by 13 months. The actual cost to you depends on your own individual circumstances.​

When the deferral period ended, to help keep your repayments as similar as possible to what you were previously paying, we extended your loan term as required. Note that if you extended your home loan deferral period, your loan term wasn't extended further, which possibly resulted in a higher monthly repayment amount than what was paid before the deferral.​

Taking advantage of a repayment deferral didn't impact your credit rating or appear on your credit file during the deferral period.

When your home loan deferral ended, you needed to start making repayments again.​

To help keep your repayments as similar as possible to what you were previously paying, we extended your loan term as required. Note that if you were given an extension on your deferral period, your loan term wasn't extended further – which means you may have a higher monthly repayment amount than what you were paying before the deferral. ​

To help you when you restarted your repayments, we also put together some useful information about your new repayment amount, as well as your direct debits and/or manual payments:​

Repayment due date​

• If a repayment was due on a day that wasn't a business day, it was due on the next business day. ​
• If a repayment was due on the 29th, 30th or 31st of a month that didn't have that day, the repayment was due on the first business day of the following month.
   

Repayment amount for principal and interest repayments
Your new repayment amount was calculated at the end of your deferral period and was based on your outstanding home loan limit.

Repayment amount for interest only loans
Your new repayment amount could be seen in your transaction listing in the Bankwest App or Bankwest Online Banking on your repayment due date.

To view your new repayment amount, you needed to have logged in to the Bankwest App or online banking on the repayment due date and: ​

• selected your home loan
• in your transaction listing, the repayment amount would have been the interest amount debited from your account.
  
  

If you need help, please call us on 1300 769 173 or message us in the Bankwest App.

Direct debit repayments
Your direct debits recommenced automatically based on your new minimum monthly repayment amount. You would have needed to make sure that there were enough funds in your nominated account.

If you had a weekly or fortnightly direct debit set up, you might have needed to make extra repayments outside of your repayment schedule to make sure your full minimum monthly repayment was paid by the due date.

Manual repayments
For any manual repayments, you would have needed to make sure the repayment was made by the repayment due date. You could do this by transferring money into your home loan account or contacting us to set up a direct debit.

If you're continuing to have difficulty making your repayments, you can talk through your options with us.

Withdrawing your deferral early helped reduce the amount of interest you'll pay over the life of your loan. The actual amount of interest payable will depend on your particular circumstances.​

Things to keep in mind:
If you withdrew your deferral, your repayments might be less than what you were previously paying because your loan term was extended on the basis that you were deferring for the full deferral period. Note that if you were given an extension on your deferral period, your loan term wasn't extended further – which means you may have a higher monthly repayment amount than what you were paying before the deferral.

Restarting your repayments early didn’t reduce your extended loan term. If you want to reduce your loan term, call us on 1300 769 173. Reducing the loan term can reduce the interest you’ll pay over the life of the loan but will result in a higher monthly repayment than if you remained on your extended loan term.

If you’d previously requested direct debits to repay your home loan, those were reinstated based on your new minimum monthly repayment amount. If your previously requested direct debits were weekly or fortnightly, you might need to make extra repayments outside of your weekly or fortnightly payment schedule to make sure your full minimum monthly repayment is paid before the next interest raising date. If you set up repayments yourself, you need to reinstate these.

For home loans in arrears, you needed to pay the arrears amount before the deferral period ended to avoid any adverse impact to your credit file and any collections activity.

If you’re unsure or need help, message us in the Bankwest App or Bankwest Online Banking.

Those repayments built up in surplus on your home loan account – you could redraw them at any time.

However, if your home loan was in arrears, those repayments went towards the balance owing instead.