Alternative finance

Self-employed borrowers and business owners the banks find hard to read: mortgage arrears, past defaults, bankruptcy history, or income that does not fit a template. Credit impairment should not be the end of the conversation.

In practice that usually means one of these: a default or judgment on your file from a dispute you thought was settled, tax debt the ATO is chasing, a business whose last two years of returns do not reflect how it is trading now, a discharged bankruptcy, or simply income that arrives irregularly enough that a bank's template cannot read it.

Every bank has its own policies and criteria, and a no from one is not a no from the market. We take a solutions-based approach: we assess your circumstances properly, then take your case to specialist and private lenders who tailor loans around flexibility rather than formulas.

Banks decline on policy more often than on merit. A default under a certain amount is invisible to one lender and disqualifying to another. One lender wants two years of returns, another will assess on twelve months of business bank statements, and a third accepts an accountant declaration. None of them is being unreasonable; they simply have different appetites, and the difference is not published anywhere you can look it up.

Specialist lenders price for the risk they are taking rather than declining it. That means finance is often available, and it means it costs more than a bank while you need it. The honest framing is that you are buying access and time, not a good rate.

So the plan matters as much as the loan. We treat specialist lending as a bridge with a defined end: fix the reason the bank said no, demonstrate clean conduct, and refinance to mainstream pricing when your file supports it. A specialist loan with no exit plan is how people stay expensive for years.

Specialist lenders generally move faster than banks, though how fast depends entirely on how complete the picture is when we put it forward. The steps below are indicative.

1. The full story. We need to know everything, including the parts that are uncomfortable. A specialist lender can price around a default it was told about. It will usually withdraw over one it finds itself.
2. Position the case. We write up what happened, what changed, and what the position looks like now. Presenting the file properly is most of the work and most of the difference.
3. Match to appetite. We take it to the lenders on our panel whose criteria actually fit, rather than testing the market with your credit file.
4. The lender decides. If approved, terms are issued and documents follow. Approval, pricing and conditions are the lender's decision alone, and they are never certain until they are given.
5. The exit plan. We agree at the outset what has to be true for you to refinance to mainstream pricing, and roughly when. Then we review it rather than leaving you there.

Specialist lending is priced above bank rates. We treat it as a bridge, not a destination, and plan the path back to mainstream refinancing as your position recovers.

Two things decide whether that works. The first is that the exit has to be real: a default ageing off your file, tax debt cleared, or two clean years of returns. Without one of those, refinancing later is a hope rather than a plan. The second is that the loan has to be affordable at its actual price, not at the price you are aiming for. If it only works on the assumption you refinance within a year, it does not work.

Be careful about what secures it. Much of this lending is secured against property, including the family home. That is what makes it available, and it is also what is at risk if the business does not recover as expected.