Automated living expenses

Hi. Not sure if this has been brought up previously. I have heard some banks have started to automatically calculate living expenses by going through transaction accounts held within the same bank. Apparently this is similar to US where the banks there would ask for login ID to access your transaction history if the account is held externally/with other banks.

Obviously this is only a small step towards automation and would expect the system would get smarter over time

 

Fortunately it's not quite that simple. Lenders are starting to do a more detailed analysis of people's spending habits, but for the most part even the (still only a few) lenders that are reviewing transaction statements are only giving it a cursory glance.

Living expenses has been a major point of contention with regulators and the Royal Commission so there is probably more to come. On the other hand I think banks are trying to find ways to be somewhat flexible on this, because they know that if they apply what people actually spend to their calculators, they won't be approving many loans at all.

 

while on the other hand, many of clients, their actual living expenses are way below the HEM, but banks still apply HEM, which, again, is not a true reflection of ppl's circumstances.

 

Ahh... let me pose a problem here.

Example
If my parents are listed as a secondary card holder on my credit card, and they are much more spendy than I am (for arguments sake lets say my disposable income is $30,000, but they put $50,000* spending through the card each year).

But they reimburse me each month before the card is due and I pay it off (together with my share of card spending) before the due date.

How does the bank treat this sort of "spending" which shows up on my credit card?

Is the HEM applied going to be bigger than my income? Do they count the reimbursement as income? Am I going to count my lucky stars I am anal about tracking every dollar so they reimburse me for exactly their share?

Am I going to go through these emotions the next time I apply for a loan?


*I do spend all the reward points I get for this on Caltex fuel gift cards for them. That's the deal

 

Cashdeck and Bankstatements.com.au whom many brokers use to retrieve clients bank statements and transaction histories are introducing a service to allocate living expenses. Whether it will be a true reflection is yet to be determined.