Athena Pauses All Purchase Applications (Pre-Approvals)

pjwellsey on 30/03/2020 - 18:14

https://www.athena.com.au/start/buying

COVID-19 is turning everything upside down and its not business as usual. And top of everything we are facing unprecedented demand for Athena loans. We know when you’re buying property certainty matters. That’s why we’re pausing applications for purchases because we want make sure we are never not there for you when you need it. We are still open for refinances, but you should know these may take longer than usual.

We’ll be back in the swing of things soon. Sign up to hear when.

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Comments

  • JetBombat on 30/03/2020 - 19:24

    unprecedented demand for Athena loans

    Did they mean personal loans? With auctions and open houses on pause why would there be high demand for house loans?

    • modsec802 on 30/03/2020 - 20:02
      +2

      They don’t do personal loans. Sounds like they’re about to go belly up

  • modsec802 on 30/03/2020 - 20:02

    Sounds like they’ll go belly up pretty soon.

    • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 30/03/2020 - 20:14

      That or they don't have the financials to take on any risks. Lots of people laid off or sacked will have proof of income to satisfy an application and may not declare they are laid off.

      • modsec802 on 30/03/2020 - 20:43

        People rushing in at the moment to get a mega home loan before they’re laid off?

        • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 31/03/2020 - 09:39

          Moreso people who already applied and were part way through the mortgage application process before being laid off or stood down. The buyers may want to continue with the purchase, knowing that Athena would likely be required to give a 3/6 month reprieve as soon as it settles.

  • Numpty21 on 30/03/2020 - 21:29

    So I’m with Athena and have approx $50k available for redraw.
    Should I transfer to my saving account now??
    Advice welcome from the knowledgeable ozbargain community

    • Aussiecash on 31/03/2020 - 11:57
      +2

      cannot give you a financial advice, but if a bank goes belly up or goes through a reasonable tough times, there's a very high chance that they would freeze the redraw facility and consolidate the funds into reducing the loan itself. you won't lose any money, just the access to the $50k liquidity. how likely to happen I don't know

      • Numpty21 on 31/03/2020 - 13:20
        +1

        Cheers mate, I’m a bit concerned about them freezing the redraw.
        In these uncertain times having a bit of a buffer to fall back on is important.
        I think it may be safer to put in my saving account for now, not a big difference between my savings interest rate and mortgage interest rate anyway.
        Thx

    • Employeeicedtea229 @ Athena Home Loan on 01/04/2020 - 17:40

      Hey Numpty21, we would never freeze our customer redraws. In the super unlikely event Athena goes under, your loan would be serviced by another provider on the same terms as we have provided it to you. Another option you would have in this scenario is to reduce the balance of your loan by making a lump sum payment into your loan using your redraw funds. This would mean paying down your debt sooner and reducing your repayments if you want.
      I've just commented separately to address concerns on whether Athena is going to go under during these volatile times. We are definitely not going anywhere and are in a strong position for the future.
      In regards to your Redraw funds, will leave it with you to do what you feel most comfortable with. Both savings interest rates and home loan interest rates are low right now. Even though the % difference may seem small, make sure you calculate the difference in terms of interest earned/saved…depending on your loan amount it might end up bigger that expected.

  • Employeeicedtea229 @ Athena Home Loan on 01/04/2020 - 17:28
    +1

    Hey guys, just jumping in here given the number of concerns raised on whether Athena is going under. For full disclosure, I work at Athena.
    We're definitely not in financial trouble (you're probably thinking of course we would say this but we have good reason to). Athena enters into this global health crisis well capitalised and in a very strong position for the future. In October last year we did the biggest onshore raise in Australia. We have some of the biggest backers behind us including AirTree Ventures, AustralianSuper, Hostplus, Macquarie Bank and RESIMAC Group. Since we entered the market, we’ve made a lot of people happy and brought some real competition to the mortgage business. In our first year, we’ve saved our customers over $187 million. And that’s only going to continue. We are confident that we are well positioned for the disruption to the economy that we will all be experiencing in coming months. So we're not going anywhere.
    The last 6 months for us have been huge, especially with refinancing applications. This means we are currently taking much longer than normal to process applications which is not beneficial for anyone looking to buy a property. We have paused home loans for buying property for now so we can concentrate on our current pipeline. We don’t want to disappoint any customers during their buying process, especially when certainty is so important.
    Shout out if you have any other questions.

    • pyramid on 01/04/2020 - 17:45
      -2

      We have some of the biggest backers behind us including AirTree Ventures, AustralianSuper, Hostplus,

      Now i know why my super balance is going south….

  • paul04 on 20/06/2020 - 22:21

    @icedtea229 any indication of when Athena will be back in business for our pre approvals, trying to figure out whether we wait or start the process with someone else…

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