In November 2018, Foresters Community Finance first heard from Bryan. Bryan had recently retired and was seeking a loan for rental bond as he moved to better accommodation in far north Queensland. As many people know rental bond is quite a significant amount for a person to have on hand and for Bryan applying for a loan with Foresters made it easier for him to live better. Bryan started with a $1,400 rental bond loan.

Bryan is a respected member of the community and is highly in tune with his budget, how to calculate loans and interest rates. He runs a personal ledger of all his spending, income and repayment timings. Bryan also lends very small amounts out to family and friends in need.

Shortly after taking out the loan, Bryan was diagnosed with cancer and spent several months undergoing chemo treatment. During the times he was in hospital for treatment, Bryan would arrange with Foresters to delay his loan repayments, however each time he would promptly catch up with them once out of hospital.

Bryan would also arrange with his housekeeper to make his loan repayments and pay for other expenses. Unfortunately, in trusting this person to do the right thing he gave them $400 to pay off his loan and sadly this person went on a vacation with that money. Bryan learnt the hard way that he should only pay us directly. Bryan then arranged with us to extend the loan until such time that he could complete the loan.

After some great news on his cancer treatment success and some 12 months later, Bryan renovated his kitchen and also took the opportunity to renew all his small and other appliances. This time Foresters assisted Bryan with a No Fee and No Interest loan.

Shortly into this new loan Bryan’s illness returned. To avoid repayment issues, Bryan changed to a better bank account and arranged for the loan to remain in good standing, without reliance or ability of others to access that bank account for withdrawals.

Foresters Community Finance has been providing support to those in need for over 100 years. Bryan is one of many the customers that Foresters is able to provide with no or low interest loans to help them during times of need.

The Foresters and Cufa teams wish Bryan a speedy recovery.

Should you want to find out more about the loan products Foresters has to offer, please visit foresters.org.au and for our new cash loan product freshpath.com.au.

Cufa acquired Foresters in mid-2019.