PHOTO: Kmart New Zealand
A New Zealand woman says a NZ$187 (A$176) Christmas shopping trip to Kmart in Invercargill has prevented her getting a mortgage for urgently needed repairs on her home.
Kim Anderson-Robb is one of many people being tripped up by new changes to New Zealand’s Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act, The NZ Herald reports.
The change, which was intended to protect vulnerable borrowers from loan sharks, means banks have to crack down on applicants‘ spending before they can approve loans.
Anderson-Robb and her husband needed to make urgent repairs to their home in Dunedin, on New Zealand’s South Island, late last year.
It needed a complete rewiring after asbestos was found in the fuse box, and the deck, which is the only way of accessing the house, was “completely rotten to the point we will probably fall through it soon” and needed to be replaced, Anderson-Robb said.
The bathroom was also in need of upgrading, the couple said.
The couple had a $63,000 mortgage (A$59,000) and many years of work ahead of them. They wanted to increase their mortgage by $80,000 (A$75,000) to get the repairs done.
Dunedin woman Kim Anderson-Robb is perplexed that she and her husband have been turned down for a loan to renovate their house. Photo / Gerard O‘Brien
The 53-year-old applied to her bank, which she has been with for nearly 20 years, but was declined the loan because of a trip to Kmart in Invercargill, a $100 (A$94) spend at the Warehouse, and a credit card she had not used in over a year, she said.
Bank staff also queried her husband‘s daily trip to the dairy to buy a drink for when he was at work.
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