How WeMoney helped Dean roll several loans into one Latitude repayment

Dean's story at a glance

• Member: Dean, 36 (NSW), a fitter by trade working at a mill in a small country town, with a young family and a wife who also works
• Before WeMoney: a mortgage plus a handful of other debts, tracked only by moving money between a bills and mortgage account and checking in weekly
• What he consolidated: several loans, into one repayment through Latitude, a lender matched in WeMoney
• How WeMoney helped: a straightforward application, uploading his details and payslips, and a quick handoff into Latitude's own process
• His experience: he'd had the app on his phone for close to a year before he ever used it, and only came back to it when he needed a small loan
• After: one Latitude repayment instead of several, easier weekly tracking, and by his own account a better rate collectively

Before WeMoney

Dean is 36, a fitter by trade, and works at a mill in a small country town. He and his wife have a young family, and both work, which he calls a pretty good income between them. He is upfront that money management is not his strongest habit.

"I should be probably a little bit more careful with what I do."

Day to day, tracking was simple rather than close. Money went into a couple of accounts, one for bills and the mortgage, and whatever was left was theirs to spend, checked over once a week.

"We've got a couple of accounts where we put money in and that sort of comes out like a bills and a mortgage account, and then we're just sort of left with our own money. We monitor it weekly to sort of see where everything's going."

How he found us

Dean wasn't drawn in by an ad. He was comparing banking apps at the time, and WeMoney turned up near the top of a search.

"I was sort of looking between banks and stuff like that and it sort of popped up. It was sort of one that popped up in the top list of searching in on the App Store."

He downloaded it, had a look through it, and then didn't open it again for close to a year. It sat there until he needed a small loan, and going looking for that is what brought him back.

"At the time I just needed a small loan, and it sort of triggered my memory of what was in it, and I went back into it."

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How WeMoney helped

Dean didn't shop around at other banks first. He went straight in on WeMoney and let it show him what was there.

"I didn't apply through any other banks. I just remember seeing it, and I had a range of options in there. I didn't know whether it would work or what would happen with it, but I just applied and it just sort of happened."

Things weren't at their best for him around then.

"It wasn't great. A couple of things had popped up in life, but it definitely helped a lot, and I'm definitely in a better position because of it."

The application itself he found easy: his details in, payslips uploaded, done.

"It was pretty easy, to be honest. It happened pretty quickly, and it was very easy."

From there, the handoff into Latitude's own application was just as smooth, by his account.

"It was very easy. It sort of just went straight into it, and it was a very quick and easy process. They didn't encounter any problems at all. It all happened pretty quickly and easily."

As with every match on WeMoney, Latitude remained responsible for the credit decision, the loan contract and the settlement. WeMoney's role was to show Dean his matched options so he could compare them before he went ahead.

Asked what made him trust the app enough to hand over his details in the first place, he's honest that this far out he can't really say.

"I don't remember handing over too many details, and there was nothing that alarmed me."

On the lender itself, he felt matched well.

"It all made sense with what was going on. They seemed pretty flexible themselves, from what I found. It seemed to match me well."

After WeMoney

Several loans closed into the one Latitude repayment, and Dean says it changed things for the better.

"You know when it's coming out, and it's not as much, and it's all in one. It's definitely a lot easier."

He believes the collective rate came down too, though he's careful to hedge it as his own read rather than a number he's checked line by line.

"Probably collectively, over them, yes, definitely, because it's only going into the one payment."

The Latitude loan runs over two years, though Dean is hoping to have it cleared within twelve months, and he says the lender didn't charge him anything for paying it out early.

"It's over two years, but hopefully it'll be paid out within twelve months, and they didn't give me a payout cost or anything like that."

He'd recommend WeMoney to someone in a similar spot.

"If I knew someone was going through a struggling time, or wanted to look into consolidating money, I'd definitely recommend them based on my experience."

He's just as honest, though, that he hasn't gone back into the app much since. Only one of his accounts is connected in it, and he remembers budgeting tools sitting in there that he's never actually used.

"It had a fair few different things in there, like budgeting tools and stuff. It was a well set up app, but I've never been triggered to use it more often."

Talking it through is what got him thinking about the rest of it, particularly connecting his other accounts so he can see where his spending actually goes.

"I've got a fair few different accounts, where money's coming out and what it's going to. If you could connect all of them, you could look back and see where all your spending's gone over a period of time."

By the end of the call, he'd more or less talked himself into going back in.

"I probably need to look into it more myself, now that you've triggered my memory there. Obviously it worked for me on that front, but there's probably a lot of other things that could help me as well. I need to look into it a bit more and start using it a bit more."

See what a single repayment could look like

If you're juggling a mortgage and a few other debts and only really check in on them once a week, like Dean did, it can be hard to see the whole picture. Connecting your accounts in WeMoney can show your loans and repayments together, and you can then review consolidation options you may be eligible for and compare the repayment, rate, term, fees and total amount repayable against what you're paying now.

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Dean's figures, rate and timing are his individual experience. Consolidating restructures debt rather than removing it, and a lower repayment does not automatically mean a lower total cost. Eligibility and outcomes vary by member and lender, and his story is not a promise that another person will receive the same result.

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