Urgent expenses can pop up at the worst times. Whether you’ve cracked a tooth and need to cover your medical bills or your car’s blown up and needs to be repaired, you could be forced to fork out thousands of dollars at a time when your budget is feeling tight. Fortunately, there are emergency loan options available that can help you cover your immediate costs and pay them off in instalments.
What is an emergency loan?
An emergency loan is a small cash loan that you can take out to cover a wide range of expenses. These loans can reach up to $5,000 and you can take up to two years to repay them (depending on the size of the loan you’re approved for). They’re designed to be quick and versatile, meaning once the funds hit your account, you can use them to cover just about any expenses you need (within reason, of course).
The cost of these loans is fixed and capped, so you’ll know exactly what you’re paying before you sign the final loan agreement. Your debt will typically be repaid in weekly or fortnightly instalments, but some lenders allow you to repay it monthly.
How quickly can I get an emergency loan in Australia?
Small cash loans taken out to cover emergency expenses can be approved and funded very quickly indeed. In many cases, you can have the money sent to your account in a matter of hours, sometimes as quickly as one hour. Because of the speed of this process, you’ll usually be at least approved on the same day you apply.
However, there are situations where approval and funding may take longer, such as:
- You provide incomplete or incorrect information in your application
- Your financial situation or profile is complicated
- You applied outside of business hours, such as late at night or on a weekend
- Your bank’s processing time holds up the funds hitting your account
How to apply for an emergency loan with Savvy
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Fill out our online form
Tell us how much you need, why you need it and some details about your profile.
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Get an instant outcome
Your application will run by our lender’s criteria and, if there’s a match, you can get instant conditional approval.
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Have your application assessed
From there, your lender will formally check your application to see if it’s a good fit for you.
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Approval and funding
If you’re approved, you can sign off and have the funds sent directly to your account.
Why apply for a small loan with Savvy?
What can I use an emergency cash loan for?
As mentioned, emergency cash loans can be used to cover a variety of expenses. That includes, but isn’t limited to, the following:
- Car repairs: get your vehicle back on the road quickly if it breaks down.
- Vehicle registration: car rego will usually set you back a few hundred dollars or even over $1,000 in some cases, but it’s a mandatory expense if you’re running a car.
- Veterinary costs: pay for emergency care for your pet when they require urgent medical attention.
- Home repairs: fix things like a blown hot water system or other plumbing issues and dangerous electrical faults before they develop into even bigger issues.
- New furniture: you can take out a loan to buy a new couch if yours has finally had it.
- Rent: keep up with your housing costs to avoid late fees or the threat of eviction.
- Rental bonds: if you don’t have the cash upfront, you could use a loan to cover your bond instead.
- Bills: cover important gas, electricity and water bills to keep the lights on and your home comfortable.
How much will my emergency loan cost?
The cost of your emergency loan depends on the amount you borrow and the time you take to repay it. Here’s the breakdown of fees for these loans:
Loans up to $2,000
- Loan term: 16 days to 12 months
- Establishment fee: up to 20% of loan amount
- Monthly fee: up to 4% of loan amount, recurring
Loans from $2,001 to $5,000
- Loan term: 16 days to 24 months
- Establishment fee: up to $400
- Monthly charge: up to 48.00% p.a. interest
As you can see, because fees are based on your amount for loans of $2,000 or less (and with interest charged on loans above that sum), how much you borrow will have a large say in how much you end up paying for it. However, it’s important to understand that your chosen term will also impact the cost.
For example, a $2,500 loan repaid fortnightly over one year would end up costing $3,669 overall, with repayments of $141. However, reducing the term to nine months instead would increase your repayments to $178 but cut the overall interest by almost $200 to $3,473.
The documents you’ll need to apply for an emergency loan
The documentation required will depend on the lender you go with. However, you can often apply with the following information:
- ID, such as your driver’s licence and/or Medicare card
- Up to 90 days of bank statements (or provide access to your online banking statements)
- Centrelink income statements (if applicable)
- Contact details, such as a phone number and email address