Banking royal commission: robo-loan ‘cost me my home and all my assets’

A sole parent with an eight-year-old son lost her Perth home over a bank loan gone wrong.

Meredith Campbell and Amanda Schofield yesterday. Picture: Colin Murty

Amanda Schofield is a sole parent with an eight-year-old son who lost her Perth home over a bank loan gone wrong. She says the Commonwealth Bank lent her $255,000 in “robo-approved” loans for two properties, the second effectively bought on 100 per cent credit.

“They gave me a loan they knew was unaffordable, and I never saw the loan application form that showed how they calculated ‘affordability’,” she said.

The family home was forcibly sold for $50,000, three years after a listed $495,000 sale price, and she now finds herself raising her son on welfare and child-support ­payments.

Ten years ago, she had $280,000 in assets “and all of it is gone”. During her battle with the bank, she was paying interest of $107,000 on just one loan.

On Sunday, she will fly from Perth to Canberra to join other bank victims protesting against the limitations of the royal commission, which they say falls far short of addressing victims’ financial and personal heartache. Even the federal government’s promise to adopt all of its 76 recommen­dations is not sufficient, she said.

Travelling on the same flight will be her friend Meredith Campbell, who said scrutiny of mortgage brokers and loan default receivers must come next.

Ms Campbell’s 10-year battle against Bankwest began when her property was used as security against her then-partner’s loan without her signed consent. She was prevented from selling a property to pay off her debt when the bank increased its rate four times in a year.

She later discovered a consumer mortgage document in her name she’d never seen.

“I’ve lost my adult kids, they’ve walked away from me over it all,” Ms Campbell said.

“I want the regulators to be on our side instead of the banks’ side,” she said. “I want the banks to abide by the banking laws.”