Business Overdraft Rates and Fees in Australia: The Real Cost
Rates and Fees
Australian business owners · What a facility actually costs · Published figures only
A business overdraft has three prices, not one: the rate on what you draw, the holding fee on the limit whether you draw it or not, and the one-off fees. This guide carries every rate and fee published by fourteen Australian bank brands and five non-bank lenders as at 22 August 2026, shows the annual cost at $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $250,000 under three usage shapes, and explains what to compare once a lender gives you your actual rate and fee structure.
Quick Answer
A business overdraft normally has three core prices, not one: interest on what you draw, a holding fee on the approved limit, and one-off fees; excess or default charges can apply if the facility terms are breached. Published customer rates read on lender pages on 22 August 2026 run from 8.75 to 24.95 percent a year, while the most common percentage holding fees run from 1.00 to 1.75 percent of the limit a year. Most Australian banks do not publish a final customer rate. Before choosing a facility, compare the quoted rate, fee base, limit, expected average drawings and one-off costs as one annual dollar figure.
Also searched as: commercial overdraft rates, business overdraft costs, overdraft line fee, compare business overdraft rates.
| Your question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What is the cheapest published rate? | 8.75 percent a year, CommBank's secured overdraft, published as a "from" rate. Westpac publishes no customer overdraft rate at all: its rates page lists base rates (the Small Business Overdraft Rate of 8.11 percent, effective 4 August 2026) with customer margins added at assessment. The cheapest published unsecured bank rate is Great Southern Bank's 11.70 percent, which is the top rung of a five tier credit ladder. The cheapest unsecured rate published as a single flat figure is NAB QuickBiz's 16.25 percent. |
| What is the highest published rate? | 24.95 percent a year, the top of the band Shift publishes on its non-bank Business Overdraft. Great Southern Bank's unsecured facility tops out at 21.70 percent for its lowest published credit tier. |
| Can I know my exact overdraft rate before I apply? | Often not. Of fourteen Australian bank brands read on 22 August 2026, four published a customer rate, three published only a reference or base rate with a customer margin added, six published no rate, and one had left business banking. Where the margin is private, the exact customer rate appears in the lender's offer rather than in the public rate table. |
| What does the holding fee cost? | Most commonly 1.00 to 1.75 percent of your approved limit a year, charged whether or not you draw. Three published facilities carry no holding fee. One publishes a weekly percentage that annualises to 2.392 percent, which on its own worked example is charged on the limit. |
| Is a flat annual fee cheaper than a percentage line fee? | Against a 1.70 percent annual line fee, the break-even limit is $29,118 for a $495 flat fee and $46,765 for a $795 flat fee. Below those limits the 1.70 percent fee is cheaper; above them the flat annual fee is cheaper, before interest and one-off charges. |
| What does an unused overdraft cost? | If nothing is drawn, debit interest is normally zero, but a holding or facility fee can still apply to the approved limit. On a $100,000 limit the examples on this page are $1,700 a year at a 1.70 percent line fee, $495 or $795 under Shift's flat annual fee, and zero where the published facility has no holding fee. Prospa's 0.046 percent weekly service fee annualises to $2,392 if the approved limit is the base, as its worked example implies. |
| Does offering security lower the overdraft rate? | It does in the four bank comparisons where both secured and unsecured figures are published. The published gap is 6.05 percentage points at CommBank, 5.60 at Westpac, 4.15 at Beyond Bank and 2.25 at Great Southern Bank; fees and security costs still need to be compared as well. |
| What should I do after I compare the advertised rates? | Set the limit you actually need, estimate your average drawn balance, decide whether security belongs in the comparison, then compare the exact rate and fee basis in the lender's offer. If the facility will mostly sit unused, compare the holding fee and a business line of credit before treating the lowest headline rate as the winner. |
| Can my overdraft rate or limit change after approval? | It can. Business overdrafts can be reviewed after approval, and the facility terms may allow repricing, limit changes or cancellation in stated circumstances. Before accepting an offer, check the review date, interest-rate basis, customer margin, notice provisions, security or guarantee terms and any on-demand or cancellation clauses, not just the starting rate. |
| Are any lenders waiving establishment fees? | Yes, until 30 September 2026, on Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA commercial overdrafts approved inside the window. It expressly does not apply to applications submitted through a broker, which is a term almost nobody prints. |
What does a business overdraft cost in Australia right now?
As at 22 August 2026, lender-published business overdraft customer rates in Australia run from 8.75 percent a year on a secured bank facility to 24.95 percent at the top of a non-bank band. Published unsecured bank figures include Great Southern Bank's 11.70 to 21.70 percent credit ladder plus NAB QuickBiz's flat 16.25 percent; Westpac publishes base rates only (its Small Business Overdraft Rate was 8.11 percent, effective 4 August 2026), with customer margins set at assessment. Every figure on this page was read on the lender's own product page or fee schedule and carries its source date.
That range is the answer to the question people actually type, but it is not the answer to what the facility costs you. The normal cost of a business overdraft has three main components, and only one of them is the headline rate. Conditional charges can also apply if you exceed the limit or breach the facility terms.
The rate on drawn funds. Charged only on what the account is actually overdrawn by, usually calculated daily. This is the number in the advertisement and the number that dominates the bill on a heavily used facility.
The holding fee on the limit. Charged for keeping the facility available, whether you use it or not. It goes by several names, most often a line fee or a facility fee, and it takes five different published shapes across the Australian market. On a facility you rarely draw, this can be the dominant recurring cost even when debit interest is close to zero.
The one-off fees. An establishment or application fee at set-up, and in some cases a securities administration or documentation fee. These are often harder to compare because several lenders do not publish the amount and instead confirm it in the offer.
The reason this matters is arithmetic rather than opinion. Run a 14.80 percent rate against a 1.70 percent line fee and the two charges are equal when the average drawn balance is 11.5 percent of the limit, because 0.017 divided by 0.148 is 0.115. Below that usage level, the holding fee is larger than the interest charge. That is why a standby facility can be cheaper at a higher headline rate if its holding fee is lower or zero.
For market-wide context rather than a rate you can apply for, the Reserve Bank publishes an indicator series for small business lending. It sits well below what the banks advertise, because it is a weighted indicator across existing facilities rather than a shop-front price, and the gap between the two is worth carrying in your head when you read any comparison table.
Three market figures behind this section
- 10.76% small business variable overdraft indicator rate a year. Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F5 Indicator Lending Rates, series FILRSBVOO, observation 31 July 2026, published 10 August 2026.
- 9.00% small business variable term lending indicator rate a year, which is 1.76 percentage points below the overdraft series. Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F5, series FILRSBVRT, observation 31 July 2026, published 10 August 2026.
- 4.35% cash rate target, in effect since 6 May 2026 and held at the meeting of 11 August 2026. It is the reference point one non-bank prices its overdraft directly against. Reserve Bank of Australia, cash rate target, read 22 August 2026.
This page expands the cost section of our guide to how a business overdraft works several levels deeper. If you want the mechanics of the facility itself, how it attaches to your trading account and when a lender can review it, start there and come back here for the pricing.
Which Australian banks publish the lowest business overdraft rates?
On the published numbers read 22 August 2026, CommBank has the lowest secured starting rate at "from 8.75 percent a year". Great Southern Bank has the lowest secured flat rate at 9.45 percent a year on residential security. For unsecured bank overdrafts, Great Southern Bank publishes a five-tier ladder from 11.70 to 21.70 percent and NAB QuickBiz a flat 16.25 percent, while Westpac publishes no customer rate: its rates page lists base rates only (8.11 and 8.84 percent, effective 4 August 2026), with margins added at assessment.
Those are honest answers to the question as asked, and they are also close to useless on their own, for two reasons.
The first is that "best" depends on which of the three charges dominates your file. A business that draws its limit to the floor every month should optimise the rate and largely ignore the fee. A business holding a standby facility it touches twice a year should do the reverse, and for that business a facility carrying no holding fee costs less across the year than one priced two percentage points lower on the rate, whatever the brand on it. There is no single best overdraft, only a best one for a given usage shape, and the arithmetic in the next two sections is how you tell which is yours.
The second is that most Australian banks do not publish an overdraft rate. Of the fourteen bank brands read for this page on 22 August 2026, four published a rate a customer could act on, three published only a reference or base rate to which an unpublished margin is then added, six published no rate at all, and one has withdrawn from business banking entirely. Suncorp says so in as many words on its own rates page: interest rates are determined by your individual business circumstances, and it does not publish a single lending rate. ANZ publishes the structure instead of the number, and its wording is the clearest statement of how this market actually prices. So when a comparison table shows a tidy rate against every major bank, a good part of that table is not the bank's number.
The table below is the full published market, banks and non-banks together, with the holding fee structure given its own column because that is the column that decides most files. Where a lender publishes nothing, the cell says so rather than borrowing a figure from somewhere else.
Swipe horizontally to compare lenders →
| Lender or segment | Limit range | Advertised rate | Holding fee structure | Establishment fee | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CommBank Business Overdraft | From $2,000 secured; up to $250,000 unsecured | From 8.75% p.a. secured, from 14.80% p.a. unsecured, both variable | Line fee 1.70% p.a., charged on the limit or the outstanding balance, whichever is higher in the period | Charged at set-up; amount confirmed in the letter of offer, not published | commbank.com.au, page states current as at 15 May 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| NAB QuickBiz Overdraft | $5,000 to $50,000, unsecured | 16.25% p.a. variable | Service fee 1.75% p.a. of the facility limit, debited on the last banking day of each month | Not published | nab.com.au; rates page current as at 17 Aug 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| NAB Business Overdraft | From $20,000, secured or unsecured; no maximum published | Not published. Fees and variable rates stated to be available on application | Not published | Not published | nab.com.au; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Westpac Business Overdraft, secured | Not published | Base rate only: Small Business Overdraft Rate 8.11% p.a. (effective 4 August 2026); customer margin added at assessment | Line fee 1.20% p.a. of total limit, charged monthly | $0 on applications received and approved 7 Apr to 30 Sep 2026 and settled within 90 days, limits to $1 million; excludes applications submitted through third parties or brokers | westpac.com.au; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Westpac Unsecured Business Overdraft | $5,000 to $250,000 | Not published as a customer rate; base rate plus margin, confirmed at application | Line fee 1.50% p.a. of total limit | Same offer and same exclusion as the secured facility above | westpac.com.au; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| ANZ Business Overdraft and GoBiz | $2,000 to $200,000 unsecured; $2,000 minimum on the standard facility | Not published as a number. Published as a structure: the ANZ Index Rate applicable to your facility, plus a margin set out in your letter of offer | Credit Facility Fee on the facility limit, calculated daily and debited quarterly: $250 p.a. to $9,999, $400 to $19,999, $600 to $49,999, then 1.7% p.a. of the limit from $50,000 to $499,999, price on application above that | No approval fee on GoBiz; otherwise subject to negotiation | anz.com.au product pages read 22 Aug 2026; fees schedule effective 01.2025 |
| AMP Bank Business Overdraft | $2,000 to $50,000 for a single director company; $2,000 to $20,000 for a sole trader | Not published. The rate fields on AMP's own pages render empty | Monthly service fee 1.00% p.a. of the approved credit limit, in arrears, waived for the first 12 months | $200 or 1% of the approved credit limit, whichever is greater | amp.com.au; fees schedule effective 8 Dec 2025; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Great Southern Bank Business Plus Overdraft, unsecured | $10,000 to $50,000 | 11.70% to 21.70% p.a. across five published credit tiers: 11.70 exceptional, 12.70 great, 15.70 good, 17.70 average, 21.70 below average | Overdraft facility fee $30 a month, payable even if the facility is not used | $495 | greatsouthernbank.com.au; rate schedule effective 15 May 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Great Southern Bank Business Overdraft, secured | Not published | 9.45% p.a. on residential security; 10.35% p.a. on commercial security | None. Line fee $0 and service fee $0 | $750, plus a $235 securities administration fee | greatsouthernbank.com.au, rates current as at 27 May 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Suncorp Bank Business Overdraft | From $10,000; no maximum published outside a package | Not published. Suncorp states it does not publish a single lending rate | Facility Fee on the approved facility limit, quarterly in arrears: $150 to $100,000, $300 to $250,000, $500 to $500,000, then 0.75% p.a. above $500,000 | Published as a structure only, determined at application | suncorpbank.com.au; fees schedule effective 23 Jul 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| BOQ Business Overdraft | From $10,000 | Base rates published, margin not: 12.01% p.a. on residential security, 12.76% p.a. on other security | Agreed Credit Advance Fee 0.40% of the approved limit, minimum $90, charged quarterly | Application fee 0.75% of the approved limit, minimum $750 | boq.com.au; fees guide dated May 2026; rates read from BOQ's live rate feed 22 Aug 2026 |
| Bendigo Bank Business Overdraft | From $20,000 | Not published for the product. Reference rates are published with a note that a margin may apply on top | Line fee available on application | Available on application | bendigobank.com.au; rate schedule effective 22 May 2026, fees 15 May 2026 |
| Beyond Bank Business Overdraft | From $10,000 | Reference rates 8.84% p.a. mortgage secured and 12.99% p.a. unsecured, with a margin added on top depending on borrower and security | None. No monthly fee, even when the facility is not drawn down | $295 approval or variation fee unsecured; $595 establishment fee mortgage secured | beyondbank.com.au; rates current as at 10 Jun 2026, fees effective 1 Jul 2026 |
| St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA commercial overdraft | Not published | Not published. All three state variable interest rates and nothing further | Not published. All three fee schedules record the commercial overdraft line fee as set out in your facility offer | $0 on applications received and approved 7 Apr to 30 Sep 2026; the standard amount is not published | stgeorge.com.au, bankofmelbourne.com.au, banksa.com.au; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Bankwest | No longer offered | Withdrawn from business banking. Only legacy reference rates remain published for existing facilities, at 11.77% and 13.13% p.a. | Not published | Not published | bankwest.com.au withdrawn product rates, last updated 15 May 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Shift Business Overdraft, non-bank | $10,000 to $2 million | 14.95% to 24.95% annual variable percentage rate, charged on the drawn balance only | Annual fee of $495 or $795 depending on the account limit. The threshold between the two is not published | None | shift.com.au; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Dynamoney Business Overdraft, non-bank | $20,000 minimum; $100,000 maximum without property, $500,000 with property | RBA cash rate plus 11.50% for a property owner and plus 15.00% for a non-property owner, charged on drawn funds. A premium tier is published at RBA plus 9.50%. At the 4.35% cash rate those are 15.85%, 19.35% and 13.85% | Line fee 1.50% p.a., paid monthly in arrears | None published for the overdraft; the guide records that the 4.00% broker commission option adds 1.50% to the customer rate | dynamoney.com business overdraft product information, July 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Prospa Business Line of Credit, non-bank, overdraft-style | $2,000 to $500,000 | Not published. Charged weekly at a fixed rate, calculated daily on the drawn balance | Weekly service fee of 0.046%, charged from settlement. Prospa's own $40,000 worked example implies the base is the approved limit, but it does not say so | None. Prospa states it charges no origination or establishment fee | prospa.com; page modified 27 May 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Lumi Business Line of Credit, non-bank, overdraft-style | Up to $1,000,000; minimum not published | Not published. Charged on the amount drawn, not the limit | None while the facility is open | Charged at first drawdown; amount not published and stated to depend on the limit | lumi.com.au; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Moneytech Line of Credit, non-bank, overdraft-style | Up to $250,000 without property security, to $500,000 with a caveat or mortgage | Not published for this facility | Not published for this facility | Not published for this facility | moneytech.com.au; product page modified 3 Dec 2025; read 22 Aug 2026 |
Two rows in that table repay a second reading. The Westpac establishment fee waiver is real and is running now, but it carries a term almost no comparison page prints: the offer is not available for applications submitted through third parties or brokers. If you are working through anyone, that $0 is not yours. Westpac does not publish what its standard establishment fee would have been, so what the waiver is worth is not stated anywhere, and the amount is a question for the lender rather than a number you can budget from the offer. And Bankwest is in the table precisely because it is gone. A bank exiting business lending altogether is the kind of market fact that never appears in a rate comparison, and it changes who is left to quote you.
If you are weighing an overdraft against a standalone revolving facility rather than comparing overdrafts to each other, that is a product question rather than a pricing one, and our guide to how a business line of credit works covers it. The overdraft definition and line of credit definition set out the structural difference in a paragraph each. Entity type and lender eligibility can also change the limit available, so treat "how much can I get?" as a separate eligibility question rather than assuming the limit in a rate table is available to every business.
What fees apply to a business overdraft beyond the interest rate?
Beyond interest, business overdrafts have three main fee families: a holding or facility fee for keeping the limit available, a one-off establishment or variation fee, and an excess-drawing or default charge if the limit is exceeded. The holding fee itself appears in five published structures in this lender set, which is why two facilities with similar rates can have very different annual costs. The Reserve Bank's May 2026 Bulletin analysis also shows the importance of business-lending fees: the majority of banks' fee income from business lending comes from account servicing fees, a category that includes application, settlement and establishment fees, and business-loan fee revenue has been broadly stable at 0.5 percent of business credit outstanding.
What is a business overdraft line fee?
The most common holding fee at the banks, expressed as a percentage a year of your approved limit and charged whether or not you draw a cent. CommBank publishes 1.70 percent a year, NAB 1.75 percent on its QuickBiz facility, Westpac 1.20 percent on its secured overdraft and 1.50 percent on its unsecured one, AMP 1.00 percent, and the non-bank Dynamoney 1.50 percent. Westpac publishes its own worked example, which is the clearest illustration of how the charge accrues: on a 1.20 percent line fee and a $10,000 limit in a 31 day month, the fee is 1.20 percent of $10,000 divided by 365 and multiplied by 31 days, which Westpac publishes as $10.20 for the month; the unrounded calculation is $10.19. The base matters as much as the percentage. Westpac charges on the total limit regardless of use, while CommBank charges on the limit or the outstanding balance, whichever is higher in the period, which produces the same answer on an undrawn facility and a different one if you ever exceed your limit.
Can an overdraft facility fee be charged monthly or quarterly?
A fixed amount rather than a percentage, which quietly changes the economics at both ends of the limit range. Great Southern Bank charges $30 a month on its unsecured facility, payable even when the facility is unused, which is $360 a year and works out at 0.72 percent of a $50,000 limit. Suncorp charges a quarterly facility fee on the approved limit at $150 up to a $100,000 limit, $300 to $250,000 and $500 to $500,000, before switching to 0.75 percent a year above that. ANZ runs the same hybrid in the other direction, charging $250, $400 or $600 a year on limits below $50,000 and then 1.7 percent of the limit from $50,000 to $499,999. That ANZ structure is worth a moment: at a $25,000 limit the $600 tier is 2.40 percent of the limit, which at that limit is dearer than any percentage line fee published in Australia.
What is a flat annual business overdraft fee?
A flat annual fee is independent of how much you draw, but it is not necessarily independent of the limit. Shift publishes one of two fixed annual charges, $495 or $795, depending on the account limit, on limits from $10,000 to $2 million. Shift does not publish where the break between the two sits, so this page does not invent a threshold. Section four runs the arithmetic at both figures for that reason.
Can a business overdraft charge a weekly service fee?
A non-bank structure that reads as small and annualises as large. Prospa charges a weekly service fee of 0.046 percent, charged from settlement and payable whether or not you have drawn down. Multiply by 52 and that is 2.392 percent across a year, which is the highest annualised holding percentage in this published lender set. Prospa's own example prices a $40,000 facility at $18.40 a week, or as the page puts it, less than $3 a day, which is the same $956.80 a year seen from a friendlier angle. Prospa does not state in words what the fee is charged on, but its example only resolves if the base is the approved limit.
Which published facilities have no holding fee?
Three published facilities charge nothing at all for keeping the facility open. Beyond Bank's overdraft carries no monthly fee even when it is not drawn down, and Lumi charges no ongoing fee while its facility is open. Great Southern Bank's secured overdraft is the third: line fee $0 and service fee $0, with the cost moved to a $750 establishment fee instead. This is the structure that goes missing from comparison tables, because a blank cell reads as unpublished data rather than as a published zero, and on a standby facility a published zero is worth more than any rate difference in this market.
Is the fee charged on the approved limit?
- You pay it at zero drawings. Line fees, facility fees, monthly and quarterly service fees and weekly percentage fees all accrue on the approved limit whether or not the account is ever overdrawn.
- Asking for a bigger limit costs money. Because the base is the limit, a limit you requested for comfort is billed at the same rate as a limit you use.
- Published examples: CommBank 1.70 percent, NAB 1.75 percent, Westpac 1.20 and 1.50 percent, AMP 1.00 percent, Dynamoney 1.50 percent, Prospa 0.046 percent weekly on the base its own example implies, Great Southern Bank $30 a month, Suncorp $150 to $500 a quarter, ANZ $250 to $600 a year then 1.7 percent.
Which overdraft costs are charged on what you draw?
- Interest only, wherever the basis is published. Every lender in the table that publishes its charging basis charges interest on the debit balance rather than the limit, which is the defining feature of the product.
- One exception to watch. CommBank's line fee base is the limit or the outstanding balance, whichever is higher in the period, so a balance above the limit lifts the fee as well as the interest.
- What this means: two facilities with identical rates can differ by thousands a year on the holding fee alone, and the difference is invisible until you write both structures out at your own average drawn balance.
What establishment fees can apply to a business overdraft?
Published establishment fees range from nothing to 1.00 percent of the limit, with dollar minimums between $200 and $750. Shift and Prospa publish none, and Dynamoney publishes none on its overdraft, although its guide records that the 4.00 percent broker commission option adds 1.50 percent to the customer rate, which moves the cost into the rate rather than removing it. AMP charges $200 or 1 percent of the limit, whichever is greater. Beyond Bank charges $295 on an unsecured facility and $595 on a mortgage-secured one. Great Southern Bank charges $495 unsecured and $750 secured, plus $235 for securities administration. BOQ charges 0.75 percent of the approved limit with a $750 minimum, which on a $250,000 limit is $1,875. Bendigo, NAB, CommBank, Suncorp and the three Westpac subsidiary brands publish no amount at all.
Running now and closing on 30 September 2026, Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA are waiving the establishment fee on new commercial overdrafts, for applications received and approved between 7 April and 30 September 2026, settled within 90 days, on limits up to $1 million. The condition worth reading is Westpac's own wording that the offer is not available for any other applications, including those submitted through third parties or brokers. Temporary overdrafts are excluded as well.
What happens if you exceed your business overdraft limit?
Every published charge above assumes you stay inside the limit. Go past it and a separate and much higher rate applies, and this is the one number that never appears in a comparison table. Great Southern Bank publishes 25.45 percent a year on an unarranged credit limit on its business transaction account. Bendigo Bank publishes an overdrawn account rate of 18.48 percent and, separately, an overlimit rate of 6.00 percent that applies in addition to your overdraft rate when an approved limit is exceeded. St George publishes a casual overdraft rate of 15.01 percent for unarranged lending. Suncorp charges default interest of 2 percent a year on the whole balance for the period in default, on top of the contract rate, plus a $20 arrears administration fee. Beyond Bank charges $11 each time it honours a transaction that overdraws an account by $50 or more. BOQ charges $300 to establish a temporary limit increase.
A tax note before you total any of this up. Lending money is an input taxed financial supply, so loan interest and lending fees carry no GST in their price. There is no GST credit to claim on them, not because the credit is denied but because there is no GST there in the first place. That is general information rather than tax advice, and the treatment of your own facility is a question for a registered tax agent.
If your existing facility is being repriced at review, the fee lines are usually where the movement happens rather than the rate, and our sixty day plan for an overdraft facility review covers what to have ready.
How much does a business overdraft cost per year at $25k, $50k, $100k and $250k?
At a $50,000 limit, the two published pricing structures modelled below produce annual costs from $495 when the flat-fee example is undrawn to $8,270 when that same example is fully drawn at the higher annual fee. The table runs the same method at $25,000, $100,000 and $250,000 under undrawn, half-drawn and fully drawn usage. The comparison method is:
Effective annual cost = the rate multiplied by your average drawn balance, plus the holding fee on your limit, plus any fixed fees spread across the year.
The table below runs that formula at four limits and three usage shapes, against two published fee structures. The inputs are named once and used everywhere. The bank-style column uses CommBank's published unsecured starting rate of 14.80 percent a year and CommBank's published line fee of 1.70 percent a year of the limit, a percentage ANZ also charges as its Credit Facility Fee on limits from $50,000. The non-bank column uses the low end of Shift's published band, 14.95 percent, charged on the drawn balance only, plus Shift's published annual fee shown at both $495 and $795, because Shift does not publish where the break between them sits. Establishment fees are excluded from both columns, since they are one-off and several lenders publish none.
Take the $100,000 line as the worked example. Fully drawn, the bank-style facility costs 14.80 percent of $100,000, which is $14,800 of interest, plus 1.70 percent of the $100,000 limit, which is $1,700 of line fee, for $16,500 a year. The non-bank facility at the same drawings costs 14.95 percent of $100,000, which is $14,950, plus the annual fee of $495 or $795, for $15,445 or $15,745. Undrawn, the same two facilities cost $1,700 and $495 respectively, and the entire difference is the fee structure.
Swipe horizontally to compare the two published pricing examples →
| Limit | Usage shape | CommBank example: 14.80% p.a. on drawings + 1.70% p.a. line fee on limit | Shift example: 14.95% p.a. on drawings + $495 or $795 annual fee | Which example is cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 undrawn | Standby, nothing drawn | $425 | $495 to $795 | Bank-style, by $70 to $370 |
| $25,000 half drawn | $12,500 average balance | $2,275 | $2,364 to $2,664 | Bank-style, at either annual fee |
| $25,000 fully drawn | $25,000 average balance | $4,125 | $4,233 to $4,533 | Bank-style, at either annual fee |
| $50,000 undrawn | Standby, nothing drawn | $850 | $495 to $795 | Non-bank, by $55 to $355 |
| $50,000 half drawn | $25,000 average balance | $4,550 | $4,233 to $4,533 | Non-bank, at either annual fee |
| $50,000 fully drawn | $50,000 average balance | $8,250 | $7,970 to $8,270 | Split. Non-bank by $280 at the $495 fee, bank-style by $20 at the $795 fee |
| $100,000 undrawn | Standby, nothing drawn | $1,700 | $495 to $795 | Non-bank, by $905 to $1,205 |
| $100,000 half drawn | $50,000 average balance | $9,100 | $7,970 to $8,270 | Non-bank, by $830 to $1,130 |
| $100,000 fully drawn | $100,000 average balance | $16,500 | $15,445 to $15,745 | Non-bank, by $755 to $1,055 |
| $250,000 undrawn | Standby, nothing drawn | $4,250 | $495 to $795 | Non-bank, by $3,455 to $3,755 |
| $250,000 half drawn | $125,000 average balance | $22,750 | $19,183 to $19,483 | Non-bank, by $3,267 to $3,567 |
| $250,000 fully drawn | $250,000 average balance | $41,250 | $37,870 to $38,170 | Non-bank, by $3,080 to $3,380 |
The crossover falls out of the fee structures rather than the rates, and it can be stated exactly. A percentage line fee beats a flat annual fee wherever the percentage produces the smaller dollar figure, so the break sits where the flat fee divided by the percentage equals the limit. At a 1.70 percent line fee, $495 divided by 0.017 is $29,118 and $795 divided by 0.017 is $46,765. Below roughly $29,000 of limit the percentage line fee is cheaper at either flat fee. Between about $29,000 and $47,000 the answer depends entirely on which of Shift's two annual fees applies to your account, which Shift does not publish. Above about $47,000 the flat annual fee is cheaper on the holding charge, and it stays cheaper by a widening margin all the way up, because the percentage keeps climbing with the limit and the flat fee does not.
How far does this arithmetic travel? Not as far as a quote. It compares fee structures at a fixed rate, so it does not tell you what any lender will price your file at, and the rates used are published starting points rather than offers. And it ignores establishment fees, which on the published BOQ scale would add most of a fifth of a fully drawn year's holding cost at $250,000, in year one alone. Run your own numbers on the offers actually in front of you, using the formula rather than the headline.
Do you pay fees on an unused business overdraft?
If an overdraft is completely undrawn, debit interest is normally zero, but a holding or facility fee can still apply to the approved limit. At a 1.70 percent annual line fee that is $425 on a $25,000 limit and $1,700 on a $100,000 limit; three published facilities in this lender set carry no holding fee. In practical terms, an unused overdraft can still cost money because the fee is charged for keeping the approved limit available, not for the dollars actually drawn.
What that costs varies more than anything else on this page. On a $100,000 limit held at zero drawings for a year, the published Australian market ranges from nothing to $2,392:
- Nothing at Beyond Bank, which publishes no monthly fee even when the facility is not drawn down, and at Lumi, which charges no ongoing fee while the facility is open. Great Southern Bank's secured overdraft is also zero on the holding fee, having moved the cost to a $750 establishment fee.
- $495 or $795 on Shift's flat annual facility fee. The charge is fixed rather than tied to drawings, but Shift says which annual fee applies depends on the account limit and does not publish the threshold between the two.
- $1,200 at Westpac's secured facility, $1,500 at Dynamoney and at Westpac's unsecured facility, and $1,700 at CommBank and ANZ, being 1.20, 1.50 and 1.70 percent of the $100,000 limit. NAB's QuickBiz facility charges 1.75 percent and AMP 1.00 percent, but neither lends to $100,000: at their published $50,000 ceilings those percentages come to $875 and $500 respectively.
- $2,392 at Prospa, being 0.046 percent a week multiplied by 52 weeks, if the base is the approved limit as Prospa's own worked example implies. Prospa presents the same fee as less than $3 a day.
That is a spread of $2,392 a year on an identical facility that is never used, and it is decided entirely by a fee structure most borrowers never compare. At the other end of the usage spectrum the picture inverts. On a $250,000 facility drawn to the floor, interest is about 90 percent of the annual bill, because $37,000 of interest sits against $4,250 of line fee. One percentage point on the rate is worth $2,500 a year at that limit, while the published spread between the cheapest and dearest percentage line fees, 1.00 and 1.75 percent, comes to $1,875. On a heavily drawn facility, chase the rate. On a standby facility, chase the fee.
The self-test takes one number. Estimate your average drawn balance over a year as a share of your limit, not your peak drawing and not your worst month. Then apply the 11.5 percent pivot from section one, which is where a 14.80 percent rate and a 1.70 percent line fee cost the same. Below it you are mostly buying availability, and the fee is your real price. Above it you are mostly buying money, and the rate is your real price. Then read the table in section four at your own limit.
If your bank has recently cut a facility you were relying on, the cost question changes shape, and our guide to what happens when a bank recalls or reduces an overdraft facility deals with that situation directly.
What determines the business overdraft rate you actually get?
The rate you actually get is commonly shaped by security, property ownership, trading history, credit grade, turnover and account conduct, while some lenders price from a published base or reference rate plus a private customer margin. The published bands are wide: Great Southern Bank's unsecured ladder spans 11.70 to 21.70 percent, and Shift publishes 14.95 to 24.95 percent. Where the final customer margin is not public, the exact rate is confirmed in the lender's offer rather than on the comparison page.
How does your credit grade affect the overdraft rate?
Great Southern Bank is the only Australian bank that publishes the whole ladder rather than its top rung. Its rate schedule sets the unsecured Business Plus Overdraft at 11.70 percent for an exceptional grade, 12.70 for great, 15.70 for good, 17.70 for average and 21.70 for below average. That is ten percentage points of difference on the same product with the same lender, decided by grading alone. On a $50,000 facility drawn to the floor, the distance between the top and bottom rungs is $5,000 a year.
Does property security reduce a business overdraft rate?
Three lenders publish both a secured and an unsecured customer figure, and the gap runs from 2.25 to 6.05 percentage points. CommBank publishes from 8.75 percent secured against from 14.80 percent unsecured, a gap of 6.05 points. Westpac publishes neither as a customer rate, listing base rates only with margins set at assessment. Beyond Bank publishes reference rates of 8.84 and 12.99 percent, a gap of 4.15 points. Great Southern Bank is the narrowest of the four: its secured facility at 9.45 percent sits 2.25 points below the best rung of its unsecured ladder, and it carries no line fee where the unsecured product carries $30 a month. The rate gap is therefore only part of the secured-versus-unsecured cost decision.
Can owning property affect the rate even if it is not taken as security?
Dynamoney publishes its overdraft pricing as an explicit formula rather than a range, which makes the effect visible in a way bank pricing never is. Its July 2026 overdraft guide prices the standard rate at the RBA cash rate plus 11.50 percent for a property owner and the cash rate plus 15.00 percent for a non-property owner, charged on drawn funds. At the 4.35 percent cash rate in effect since 6 May 2026, that is 15.85 percent and 19.35 percent. Three and a half percentage points, published, for owning property, on a facility where the property is not being taken as security. The same guide publishes a premium tier at the cash rate plus 9.50 percent, or 13.85 percent, conditioned on property ownership together with sixty months of trading and a minimum director score, and it also caps a non-property owner at a $100,000 limit against $500,000 for a property owner. The rate is one of three things ownership moves; the limit is another.
What does "base rate plus margin" mean on a business overdraft?
ANZ does not publish a single standard customer overdraft rate. Its fee schedule states that debit interest on overdrafts is charged on the overdraft balance at the ANZ Index Rate applicable to your facility, plus a margin set out in your letter of offer. In other words, the public material gives you the pricing structure, while the customer-specific margin, and therefore the final rate, comes from the offer.
NAB shows why indicator or prime rates must not be copied into a customer-rate comparison. It publishes business lending indicator rates, including a business overdraft prime of 10.72 percent and a QuickBiz overdraft prime of 9.12 percent, while the QuickBiz overdraft product is advertised at 16.25 percent. The 7.13 percentage-point difference shows that the indicator is not the customer price; it should not be labelled a customer margin unless NAB expressly describes it that way. Anyone quoting 9.12 percent as the QuickBiz customer overdraft rate has read the wrong row.
Do turnover and bank statements affect the rate you are offered?
Beyond that, the inputs are the ones lenders assess rather than publish: revenue and its direction of travel, how the trading account has behaved over the last twelve months in dishonours and days spent in excess, and the sector the business trades in. Some non-bank overdraft-style products are simply not priced for property development, primary production or mining services, so for a business in one of those sectors the advertised band may not be the band that applies at all. What twelve months of statements say about conduct is a longer subject and we have covered it in how a lender reads your bank statements.
How do you decide what business overdraft limit to ask for?
Start with the cashflow gap rather than the lender’s maximum. The limit has two jobs: it needs enough headroom to cover the peak working-capital shortfall, but no more than the business can justify and service. That matters because many holding fees are charged on the approved limit even when it is unused. Use the peak cash gap to size the ceiling, the average drawn balance to estimate interest, and then test the proposed limit against the lender’s assessment and offer. For a deeper sizing example, see our working-capital line sizing guide.
Does a "from" overdraft rate mean most borrowers get it?
Given how many of these rates carry the word "from", the obvious question is what share of applicants actually get it. The verified answer is that no Australian rule sets one. ASIC reissued Regulatory Guide 234 on advertising financial products and services, including credit, on 9 June 2026, replacing the 2012 version and absorbing the withdrawn RG 53. It contains no proportion, no threshold and no concept of a representative rate. Australia has no equivalent of the United Kingdom's representative APR rule. The test is qualitative: whether the overall impression misleads.
What the guide does say is directly on point. In the example dealing with loan interest rate benefits that are not available to all customers, ASIC states that the use of qualifying phrases such as "up to" or "from" should generally be approached with caution, because the overall impression created by an advertisement may still be that the maximum benefit is more widely or readily available than is the case. It adds that a statement referring the consumer to another webpage or document will not be sufficient to correct a misleading headline claim, and that promoters should identify where certain features are not available to all consumers. The statutory hooks for credit and financial services are sections 12DA and 12DB of the ASIC Act, the second of which prohibits a false or misleading representation with respect to the price of services. They are the operative provisions here rather than the Australian Consumer Law, which carves financial services out.
There is one more asymmetry worth knowing. Consumer credit advertising in Australia has to carry a comparison rate wherever an interest rate is stated, and that rate must bundle the interest and the fees into a single figure and be shown no less prominently than the headline rate. Those obligations sit in the National Credit Code, which applies to consumer credit. A business overdraft is generally business purpose finance and sits outside it, so no lender on this page is required to publish a single all-in cost figure, and none of them does. That absence is the reason a page like this has to exist: on business lending, the only way to see the total is to build it yourself.
The practical reading for a borrower is simple. A "from" rate is a floor that someone gets, not a rate you have been offered, and the law requires it not to mislead rather than requiring it to be common. Treat every "from" figure on this page as the beginning of a conversation and price your file on the formula in section four.
What should you check in a business overdraft offer before accepting it?
Check the returned offer against the search you just did. The important fields are the approved limit, exact customer rate or rate formula, holding-fee basis, one-off fees, security and guarantees, and the clauses that govern review, repricing, excess drawings, limit changes and cancellation. Then compare the facility you were actually offered, not the advertised product, in this order:
- Confirm the approved limit against the cash gap, not the maximum available. A larger limit can increase the holding fee even if you never use the extra headroom.
- Estimate the average drawn balance. The peak tells you the limit you may need; the average tells you how much interest the facility is likely to generate.
- Check the exact interest-rate basis. If pricing is a base or reference rate plus a private customer margin, record both the reference and the margin from the offer instead of filling the blank with a comparison-site estimate.
- Check every fee against its charging base. Record whether the holding fee is a percentage of the limit, a flat periodic amount or another structure, then add establishment, variation and excess-drawing charges where they apply.
- Read the security and guarantee terms. A lower secured rate can change the risk carried by the business owner, so compare the structure as well as the percentage.
- Read what can change after approval. Note the review date, notice provisions and any clauses dealing with repricing, limit reduction, cancellation or repayment on demand. The starting price is only one stage in the life of the facility.
- Compare the facility you will use, not the product label. If the line will mostly sit undrawn, the holding fee can matter more than the rate; compare a business line of credit as well.
Can your business overdraft rate or limit change at annual review?
Yes. The initial approval is not the end of the pricing decision. A business overdraft can be reviewed under its facility terms, and a review can involve updated financial information, pricing, security and the continuing size of the limit. The practical check is the offer itself: read the review date, notice requirements and any provisions dealing with repricing, limit reduction, cancellation or repayment on demand. For the preparation side, use our 60-day overdraft review plan; if a limit has already been cut, see the bank recall and limit-reduction guide.
Before you choose a facility
Bring the comparison back to five numbers: approved limit, expected average drawn balance, quoted rate, holding-fee basis and one-off fees. If one of those numbers is not published, leave it blank until the lender's offer supplies it rather than assuming it.
If the lender is likely to price from your account conduct, read what twelve months of bank statements tell an overdraft lender before you compare offers.
How we turn a headline rate into a real comparison
When a business owner puts two overdraft offers in front of us, the rate is rarely what decides it. What we do first, before any lender conversation, is work out three things from the client's own accounts:
- The average drawn balance, not the peak. Twelve months of the trading account, averaged. Almost everyone quotes their worst month, and almost everyone's average is far below it.
- What the holding fee is charged on, and how often. A percentage on the limit, a flat amount per quarter and a percentage per week are three different products wearing the same word, and the difference is only visible once each is written out in dollars against the client's own limit.
- Whether the limit being asked for is the limit that is needed. Because the holding fee is charged on the limit, comfort is billable. A limit set for reassurance rather than for a cashflow pattern is the most common avoidable cost we see on these facilities.
None of that is a rate forecast and none of it predicts what any lender will approve or price. It is bookkeeping done before the shopping, and it is the difference between comparing overdrafts and comparing advertisements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Three families of fee sit on top of the interest rate. A holding fee is charged on your approved overdraft limit whether you draw it or not, most often 1.00 to 1.75 percent of the limit a year, though some lenders publish a flat periodic amount and three published facilities charge none. A one-off establishment fee runs from nothing to 1.00 percent of the limit, with published dollar minimums between $200 and $750. Drawing past the limit attracts a separate, much higher excess rate. All figures were read on lender pages on 22 August 2026.
Published unsecured bank overdraft rates read on lender pages on 22 August 2026 include Great Southern Bank's 11.70 to 21.70 percent credit ladder and NAB QuickBiz's flat 16.25 percent, while Westpac publishes base rates only, with customer margins set at assessment. At the banks that publish both secured and unsecured figures, the unsecured figure is 2.25 to 6.05 percentage points higher. Your own rate depends on the lender's assessment and may only be confirmed in the offer.
Compare business overdrafts by effective annual cost, not by the headline rate alone: interest on your expected average drawn balance, plus the holding fee on the approved limit, plus one-off fees spread across the period you expect to keep the facility. At a 14.80 percent rate and 1.70 percent line fee, interest and the holding fee are equal when average drawings are 11.5 percent of the limit. Low-use facilities should also be compared with a business line of credit.
The Reserve Bank’s indicator series puts the small business variable overdraft rate at 10.76 percent a year for July 2026, an indicator series rather than a rate you can apply for. Customer rates lenders actually publish, read 22 August 2026, run from 8.75 percent a year on a property-secured bank facility to 24.95 percent at the top of a non-bank band. The more useful finding is that of fourteen bank brands read this month, only three published a customer rate, so most of this market cannot be shopped on published numbers alone.
After you apply, the lender assesses the business information behind the price and confirms the approved limit, customer rate or margin, fees, security and other conditions in its offer. Before accepting, compare that returned offer using the annual-cost method on this page and read the clauses governing annual review, repricing, limit changes and cancellation. The process and timing vary by lender, and an advertised “from” rate is not a promise of the rate you will receive.
What sources support this guide?
This guide uses lender-owned product pages, rate schedules and fee documents as the primary pricing source. Every rate, fee and limit was read on 22 August 2026, and where a lender publishes nothing, the page says so instead of filling the gap. Four findings are stated openly because they run against what is widely published elsewhere. There is no single market “starting rate” band for Australian business overdrafts: the most cited comparison page carries two different floor figures in different sections of the same page, so this guide cites published lender rates and the Reserve Bank indicator series instead. Bankwest no longer offers business banking, so any table listing it as a current option is out of date. Suncorp states that it does not publish a lending rate, so any “from” figure attributed to it did not come from Suncorp. And the flat annual facility fee of $495 or $795 belongs to Shift, which does not publish the limit at which the fee changes; the widely repeated $100,000 threshold appears nowhere in Shift’s material and is not asserted on this page. One measurement note: the Reserve Bank’s F5 indicator series and its F6 and F7 lenders’ rates series measure different things and are never placed side by side here.
Swipe horizontally to inspect the source and date for each figure →
| Source | What it supports | As at |
|---|---|---|
| CommBank business overdraft product page | Secured from 8.75% and unsecured from 14.80% variable rates, the 1.70% line fee and its charging base of the limit or outstanding balance whichever is higher, and the $2,000 to $250,000 limit range | Page states current as at 15 May 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| NAB QuickBiz overdraft page, NAB business overdraft page and NAB business interest rates, fees and charges | The 16.25% QuickBiz rate, the 1.75% service fee on the facility limit debited on the last banking day of the month, the $5,000 to $50,000 limits, the $20,000 minimum on the standard overdraft, and the published business overdraft prime and QuickBiz overdraft prime indicator rates | Rates page current as at 17 Aug 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Westpac business overdraft and unsecured business overdraft pages | The Small Business Overdraft base rate of 8.11% p.a. (effective 4 August 2026; margins apply, customer rate confirmed at application), the 1.20% and 1.50% line fees on total limit, Westpac's own line fee worked example, the $5,000 to $250,000 unsecured range, and the establishment fee offer terms including the third party and broker exclusion | Read 22 Aug 2026; offer window 7 Apr to 30 Sep 2026 |
| ANZ business overdraft and GoBiz pages, and the ANZ business banking finance fees and charges schedule | That ANZ prices at the ANZ Index Rate plus a margin set out in the letter of offer, the Credit Facility Fee tiers from $250 a year to 1.7% of the limit, and the $2,000 to $200,000 GoBiz range | Product pages read 22 Aug 2026; fees schedule effective 01.2025 |
| AMP Bank business overdraft pages and account limits, fees and charges schedule | The 1.00% monthly service fee on the approved limit with a 12 month waiver, the $200 or 1% establishment fee, the sole trader and single director company limits, and that AMP publishes no rate | Fees schedule effective 8 Dec 2025; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Great Southern Bank Business Plus product page, interest rate schedule and schedule of fees, plus its secured business overdraft page | The five published credit tiers from 11.70% to 21.70%, the $30 monthly facility fee, the $495 establishment fee, the 25.45% unarranged credit limit rate, and the secured facility at 9.45% and 10.35% with no line or service fee and a $750 establishment fee | Rate schedule effective 15 May 2026; secured rates current as at 27 May 2026; fee schedule 14 Nov 2024 |
| Suncorp Bank business overdraft page, small business rates page and commercial and business lending fees and charges | Suncorp's statement that it does not publish a single lending rate, the quarterly Facility Fee tiers of $150, $300 and $500 and the 0.75% top tier above $500,000, the $10,000 minimum, and the 2% default interest and $20 arrears administration fee | Fees schedule effective 23 Jul 2026; read 22 Aug 2026 |
| BOQ business overdraft page, lending reference interest rates and business banking guide to fees and charges | The 12.01% and 12.76% base rates, the Agreed Credit Advance Fee of 0.40% of the approved limit with a $90 minimum charged quarterly, the 0.75% application fee with a $750 minimum, and the $300 emergency limit fee | Fees guide dated May 2026; rates read from BOQ's live rate feed 22 Aug 2026 |
| Bendigo Bank business lending page, schedule of interest rates for business accounts and business fees and charges | That the product rate and both fee amounts are published as available on application, and the overdrawn account rate of 18.48% and overlimit rate of 6.00% charged in addition | Rate schedule effective 22 May 2026; fees 15 May 2026 |
| Beyond Bank business overdraft page, small business interest rates and fees and charges | The 8.84% and 12.99% reference rates and the margin note, the absence of any monthly or line fee, the $295 and $595 establishment fees, and the $11 overdrawn honour fee | Rates current as at 10 Jun 2026; fees effective 1 Jul 2026 |
| St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA commercial overdraft pages, business lending fee schedules and business lending rates | That none of the three publishes a rate, limit range or line fee, that both fee schedules record the commercial overdraft line fee as set out in the facility offer, the shared $0 establishment fee window, and the 15.01% casual overdraft rate for unarranged lending | Fee schedules effective 25 Aug 2025; pages read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Bankwest withdrawn product rates and site structure | That Bankwest no longer offers business banking, and that only legacy business overdraft reference rates of 11.77% and 13.13% remain published for existing facilities | Document last updated 15 May 2026; site checked 22 Aug 2026 |
| Shift business overdraft page | The 14.95% to 24.95% annual variable percentage rate charged on the drawn balance, the $495 or $795 annual fee, the absence of any establishment fee, the $10,000 to $2 million range, and the absence of any published threshold between the two annual fees | Read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Dynamoney business overdraft product information | The RBA cash rate plus 11.50% and plus 15.00% standard pricing on drawn funds, the premium tier at plus 9.50%, the 1.50% line fee paid monthly in arrears, the absence of a published establishment fee, the 1.50% customer rate uplift attached to the 4.00% broker commission option, and the $100,000 and $500,000 limit ceilings | Guide dated July 2026; read 22 Aug 2026. It supersedes the April 2026 general business loans guide, whose overdraft rates differ |
| Prospa line of credit page, and Lumi and Moneytech product pages | Prospa's 0.046% weekly service fee, its $40,000 worked example and its absence of an establishment fee; Lumi's $1 million ceiling and absence of ongoing fees; and Moneytech's $250,000 and $500,000 limits and the absence of any published rate or fee on its line of credit | Prospa page modified 27 May 2026; Moneytech page modified 3 Dec 2025; all read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F5 Indicator Lending Rates, and the cash rate target page | The 10.76% small business variable overdraft indicator and the 9.00% variable term indicator, both for 31 July 2026, and the 4.35% cash rate target in effect since 6 May 2026 and held on 11 August 2026 | F5 published 10 Aug 2026; cash rate read 22 Aug 2026 |
| Reserve Bank of Australia, Bulletin, May 2026, Bank Fees in Australia | That the majority of banks’ fee income from business lending comes from account servicing fees, including application, settlement and establishment fees, and that fee revenue on business loans has been broadly stable at 0.5% of business credit outstanding | Published 28 May 2026 |
| ASIC Regulatory Guide 234, Advertising financial products and services (including credit): Good practice guidance, and the ASIC Act 2001 (Cth) | That no Australian rule sets a proportion of consumers who must be able to obtain an advertised rate, ASIC's caution on the use of "up to" and "from", that a link to another page cannot correct a misleading headline claim, and the operative prohibitions in sections 12DA and 12DB(1)(g) | RG 234 published 9 Jun 2026, replacing the 2012 version and the withdrawn RG 53; ASIC Act compilation in force 7 Jul 2026 |
| Australian Taxation Office guidance on deductions for operating expenses and borrowing expenses, ITAA 1997 section 25-25, Taxation Ruling TR 2000/2 and the ATO financial supplies page | That interest and bank fees and charges are ordinarily deductible operating expenses, the section 25-25 borrowing expense list and the $100 threshold and shortest-of-three spreading period, the fair and reasonable apportionment principle for mixed-purpose line of credit and redraw facilities, and that lending is an input taxed financial supply so lending fees carry no GST | All read 22 Aug 2026; TR 2000/2 current, issued 1 Mar 2000 |
Rates, fees and offers change without notice and several of the figures above are explicitly dated by the lenders themselves. The establishment fee waiver on the Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA commercial overdrafts closes on 30 September 2026. Nothing on this page is a quote, an offer, or a statement that any rate or fee is available to you, and no approval, cost or timeframe is promised. Confirm every figure with the lender before you act on it, and confirm the tax treatment of your own facility with a registered tax agent.
If you came here because you are about to apply: do not carry the lowest published rate straight into the application as an expected outcome. First work out the limit and average drawings you actually need, then compare the lender's returned rate, holding-fee base, one-off fees and security conditions as one annual cost. If you are still deciding between structures, read the line-of-credit comparison before you choose the product.
If you would rather start with the product than the price, our business line of credit and overdraft page sets out what Switchboard can arrange, and the line of credit versus bank overdraft comparison covers the choice between the two structures.
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