Sole Trader and ABN Business Overdrafts: Who Gets What Limit
Business Overdrafts
Sole traders and ABN holders · Entity structure · Practical guidance
The real question is not just whether a sole trader can get an overdraft. It is which entity can apply, which limit band that entity can reach, what the lender will check, who is personally exposed, and what happens if the business later changes structure. This guide follows that decision sequence using current Australian lender terms.
Quick Answer
Yes. Sole traders can get business overdrafts, but structure can change the ceiling and who is personally exposed. One lender caps sole traders at less than half its company cap on the same product, and the majors gate access through current registration age, turnover, financial data and guarantees.
Also called: a business overdraft facility, an overdraft on a business account, or an ABN overdraft.
| Your question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Can a sole trader get a business overdraft? | Yes. Every bank reviewed for this guide accepts sole traders, and AMP explicitly offers its overdraft to sole traders. Eligibility still depends on trading history, GST status, turnover, account conduct and credit assessment. |
| Do sole traders get the same overdraft limit as companies? | Not always. AMP publishes $2,000 to $20,000 for sole traders and $2,000 to $50,000 for single-director companies on the same product. Other lenders usually publish one product range and apply structure rules through eligibility. |
| Is the lender looking at my ABN or my ACN? | Both when both exist. The ABN helps establish the current trading identity and registration history; the ACN identifies the company. NAB, ANZ and Westpac all use current ABN/ACN history in eligibility or limit rules. |
| Whose credit profile can be checked? | Potentially both the individual and the business entity. AMP explicitly says it may check you and, for a company, the business. ANZ says each director of a multi-director company needs an individual credit check before full approval. |
| Who gives the guarantee? | A sole trader does not normally give a separate personal guarantee because the sole trader is already the borrower. Company directors may guarantee company debt; trustee and partnership arrangements depend on who is the borrower and guarantor. |
| Can a trust or a partnership hold one? | Yes, but structure rules differ. NAB publishes detailed partnership and trust tests. ANZ GoBiz accepts partnerships and certain trusts with a corporate trustee. CommBank and Westpac also name trusts and partnerships in published eligibility. |
| What should I check before I apply? | Check five things first: the exact borrowing entity, how long its current ABN/ACN has existed, GST and turnover gates, what bank or accounting data is available, and which people may be credit checked or asked to guarantee the facility. |
| Does incorporating automatically increase what I can borrow? | No. AMP publishes a higher company ceiling, but a new company is a new borrower. ANZ and NAB link access to time under the current ABN/ACN, so restructuring can reset the history clock and reduce short-term eligibility. |
| Does the overdraft follow me if I restructure? | No. The facility belongs to the entity that borrowed. A change from sole trader to company normally means a new borrower, a new credit assessment and a new facility rather than simply transferring the old limit. |
Can a sole trader get a business overdraft, and up to how much?
Yes. Sole traders can get business overdrafts, but the maximum published limit can depend on business structure. AMP is the cleanest example: it currently publishes $2,000 to $20,000 for sole traders and $2,000 to $50,000 for single-director companies on the same product. The company ceiling is two and a half times the sole-trader ceiling. AMP's own help page states both ranges together. Figures rechecked 23 August 2026.
The major banks mostly do something different: they publish a product range, then use structure, trading history and financial-data rules to decide who can reach it. NAB QuickBiz publishes $5,000 to $50,000. CommBank publishes unsecured limits from $2,000 to $250,000. Westpac publishes $5,000 to $250,000 unsecured. ANZ GoBiz advertises unsecured access from $2,000 to $200,000, while its current GoBiz borrowing-limit table allows total business overdrafts up to $300,000 for some established businesses; amounts from $200,000 to $300,000 may require a General Security Agreement. Those are product and profile limits, not a promise of approval.
The point most search results miss is what happens after the lender says your structure is allowed. ANZ currently publishes three overdraft bands based on current ABN/ACN age, reconciled financial data and turnover: up to $25,000 where annual turnover is below $75,000; up to $50,000 where the current ABN/ACN is under 12 months or the business has 6 to 12 months of reconciled data; and up to $300,000 where the current ABN/ACN and reconciled data are both longer than 12 months. NAB requires more than 12 months under the current registered ABN or ACN for QuickBiz, while AMP accepts registrations older than 6 months and Westpac requires at least 12 months trading with a valid ABN or ACN.
So the useful question is not only “what is the maximum?” It is “which limit band can my current entity actually enter?” Structure decides the borrower; registration age, GST status, turnover, financial data, credit conduct and guarantees decide how far that borrower gets.
This page covers that entity layer. The main business overdraft guide covers how overdrafts work, fees, limit sizing, documents and alternatives. If you are comparing a separate revolving facility rather than an account-linked overdraft, use the business line of credit and overdraft page.
Which entity structures can hold a business overdraft at which lenders?
Sole traders, companies, partnerships and trusts can all qualify somewhere, but no single published rule applies across lenders. AMP limits its product to sole traders and single-director companies. NAB accepts all four common structures subject to detailed partner, director and trust rules. ANZ GoBiz now explicitly accepts sole traders, companies, partnerships and certain trusts with a corporate trustee, with up to five directors or partners. CommBank and Westpac also publish eligibility for the four common structures.
The table is an evidence map, not an approval promise. It separates what the lender publishes about the borrower structure from the product limit it publishes. Where a lender uses age or financial-data bands rather than an entity-specific cap, the table says so.
| Structure | What is assessed | Published access and limit evidence | Guarantee position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | The individual plus the current ABN trading record. There is no separate company borrower. | AMP: $2,000 to $20,000. NAB QuickBiz: $5,000 to $50,000. CommBank: $2,000 to $250,000 unsecured. Westpac: $5,000 to $250,000 unsecured. ANZ GoBiz uses profile bands rather than a sole-trader cap: advertised unsecured access $2,000 to $200,000, with total overdraft borrowing up to $300,000 for some established profiles. | No separate personal guarantee is normally needed because the individual is already the borrower and personally liable for the debt. |
| Single-director company | The company plus its director. AMP explicitly says it checks the person and the business for a single-director company. | AMP: $2,000 to $50,000. NAB, ANZ, CommBank and Westpac use their normal published product ranges or profile bands. NAB and Westpac add sole-director company-secretary conditions. | The director may have to guarantee the company debt. AMP requires the single director to give a personal guarantee. |
| Multi-director company | The company plus its directors. ANZ says each director must complete an individual credit check before full approval on a multi-director company. | AMP: not offered. NAB QuickBiz: companies with up to five directors. ANZ GoBiz: up to five directors. CommBank and Westpac publish company eligibility without a separate director-number cap on the overdraft pages reviewed. | Director guarantees may be required. ANZ and Westpac both publish a director/personal-guarantee position for unsecured company borrowing. |
| Partnership | The partnership trading record plus the partners behind it. | NAB QuickBiz: no more than two individual partners and no company partner. ANZ GoBiz: partnership with up to five partners; company-as-partner structures are not suitable for GoBiz. CommBank and Westpac name partnerships. AMP does not offer the product to partnerships. | Partners can already be personally liable for partnership debts. Any separate guarantee depends on the facility structure and lender documents. |
| Trust with a corporate trustee | The trustee company, the trust structure and the directors behind the trustee. The deed matters because it establishes the trustee's powers. | NAB publishes detailed discretionary-trust tests and allows a trustee company with up to five directors. ANZ GoBiz accepts fixed-unit or discretionary trading trusts with a corporate trustee. CommBank and Westpac name trusts. AMP does not offer the product to trusts. | The trustee is the borrower; directors of a corporate trustee may also be asked to guarantee. |
| Trust with an individual trustee | The individual trustee, the trust's current ABN registration, and the trust's trading history. | NAB can accept up to two individual trustees subject to its trust tests. ANZ GoBiz's published trust pathway requires a corporate trustee. CommBank and Westpac name trusts without publishing the same trustee split. AMP does not offer the product to trusts. | The individual trustee is directly exposed as trustee and may also be a guarantor depending on the documents. |
What does the lender check after your structure is eligible?
- Current registration age: how long the borrower has operated under the ABN or ACN it is applying with.
- GST and turnover: whether the published revenue and GST gates are met.
- Bank or accounting data: whether the lender can see enough recent reconciled trading data to assess the business.
- People behind the entity: directors, partners, trustees, shareholders and guarantors who may need identity or credit checks.
- Existing liabilities and conduct: open limits, recent arrears, collections, tax obligations and whether the requested limit matches a real short-term cash-flow gap.
If you are moving from “am I eligible?” to “what will they actually read?”, start with the evidence you can control. Twelve months of clean transaction history can answer questions that an ABN date cannot, so use what an overdraft lender reads in twelve months of bank statements alongside what a lender checks first on a business finance file. That is the next stage after structure eligibility; this page stays focused on the entity decision.
How old does my ABN or ACN need to be for a business overdraft?
There is no single minimum across lenders. AMP and ANZ publish pathways from more than 6 months under the current registration, while NAB QuickBiz and Westpac use 12-month tests. The important word is current: changing from sole trader to company can create a newer borrower even when the underlying business has traded for years.
The ABN and ACN answer different parts of the same question. An ABN identifies the registered business and can carry the trading/GST history lenders use in policy; an ACN uniquely identifies a company as a separate legal entity. A company can have both, so the lender may use the current registration history and the company identity together.
That creates a practical sequencing rule: check the new entity's lending clock before you restructure. If a lender measures eligibility against the current ABN/ACN, years of sole-trader experience may help explain the business but do not automatically make a newly formed company old enough for that lender's automated policy.
What the ABN establishes
- Which business registration is applying
- How long that current registration has existed
- GST registration status
- The trading identity attached to invoices and business records
What the ABN does not establish
- That the business can service the limit
- That the account conduct is clean
- That the owner or directors pass credit assessment
- That an old entity's history automatically transfers to a new company
A company adds a second identifier and a second legal person. The ACN tells the lender which company exists on ASIC's register; the ABN tells the lender which business registration is trading. A sole trader has no ACN because there is no company.
Whose credit gets checked for a business overdraft?
A business overdraft application can involve the individual's credit report, the business entity's commercial record, or both, depending on the structure and lender. AMP states that it may use a consumer or commercial credit report to assess commercial credit, and for a single-director company it checks both the person and the business. ANZ says each director of a multi-director company needs an individual credit check before full approval. NAB says it requests a credit report for the business entity and applicant or applicants.
Do not collapse three different questions into one: who is assessed, what gets reported, and who is legally liable are not identical. OAIC says a consumer credit report may include commercial credit information, and a credit enquiry is recorded when a credit provider requests a report to assess an application. That does not mean every business overdraft will appear as a personal consumer facility in the same way; the reporting position depends on the structure, credit information and provider.
| Structure | What can be assessed | Personal exposure to understand |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | The individual's consumer/commercial credit information plus the ABN trading record. There is no separate company borrower. | The person is already the borrower. A formal credit application can create an enquiry on the individual's credit report. |
| Company | The company's commercial record plus one or more directors personally. AMP confirms the person-and-business check for single-director companies; ANZ confirms individual checks for each director in multi-director companies. | A director guarantee can create personal liability even though the company is the borrower. |
| Partnership | The partnership trading record and the partners/applicants behind it. NAB says it requests a credit report for the business entity and applicant(s). | Partners may already be personally liable for partnership debts, depending on the partnership structure and law. |
| Trust | The trustee is central: an individual trustee means an individual's credit profile; a corporate trustee can mean the trustee company plus its directors. The trust deed and ABN history also affect eligibility. | The trustee is the borrower in the trustee capacity; director or trustee guarantees can add personal exposure. |
Applying is different from drawing. Every formal application is a credit enquiry on the file the lender checks, an enquiry can move a score in either direction depending on the wider file, and a run of applications in a short window reads as risk on that file. That is why a borrower comparing structures should avoid treating five formal applications as five harmless quotes.
If you want to see what is actually recorded about you, the OAIC says you can obtain a consumer credit report for free once every three months. If the reason you are asking is a future home loan, the next question is not merely whether the overdraft exists; it is how an open limit or business guarantee reads in your personal borrowing position. Switchboard's guide on business guarantees and a self-employed home-loan file covers that adjacent issue.
Should I incorporate to get a bigger business overdraft?
Usually not for the overdraft alone. Incorporating can improve a published ceiling at one lender, but it also creates a new legal borrower and can restart the registration-age test used by other lenders. The financing upside has to be weighed against the new entity's eligibility, credit checks, guarantees, tax and administration consequences.
A company is a new legal borrower, not an upgraded version of the sole trader. That can help at a lender that gives companies a different product ceiling, but it can hurt where policy rewards age under the current registration. ANZ publishes lower overdraft bands where the current ABN/ACN or reconciled accounting history is under 12 months, and NAB QuickBiz requires more than 12 months under the current registered ABN or ACN.
So do not incorporate just to chase an overdraft limit. business.gov.au notes that moving from sole trader to company changes legal, tax, reporting and administration obligations. Use your accountant and lawyer to decide whether the company structure is right for the business; then treat the finance as one consequence of that decision, not the reason for it.
Before you restructure for a bigger limit
Check the new entity's eligibility before you cancel the old ABN or close the old facility. The borrower, registration age and credit file can all change on the same day. A higher published company cap is not useful if the new company falls into a shorter-history band or is not yet eligible at the lender you wanted.
There is also a tax and structural side to incorporating that has nothing to do with overdraft limits, and it is the bigger decision. business.gov.au sets out the differences between operating as a sole trader and as a company across liability, record keeping, tax and how you take money out, including the point that as a sole trader you can draw from the business account as personal drawings while a company director cannot. Choose the structure for the business, then work out what it can borrow, not the other way around, and make the structure call with your accountant and your lawyer rather than off a lending guide.
Can a trust or a partnership get a business overdraft?
Yes. Partnerships and trusts can get business overdrafts, but the borrower and eligibility rules are more structure-specific than they are for a sole trader. NAB publishes the most detailed tests. ANZ GoBiz now explicitly accepts partnerships and fixed-unit or discretionary trading trusts with a corporate trustee, subject to its wider eligibility rules. CommBank and Westpac also name partnerships and trusts; AMP does not offer its product to either structure.
NAB does, and its published tests are the most useful thing on the subject in Australian lender material. For a partnership: no more than two individual partners, and joint borrowers who are not partnerships, or partnerships where one or more partner is a company, are not eligible. For a trust: the trust must be a non-government discretionary trust; it must have a valid ABN registered for at least 12 months; it must have been established in Australia; its beneficiaries must be individuals; and its trustee must be either a company with no more than five directors or up to two individuals, with shares in a trustee company beneficially held. If your trust is a unit trust, has a corporate beneficiary, or was established offshore, that channel is closed before anyone looks at your numbers.
Underneath the tests sit two questions a lender always has to answer on a trust file, whether or not it publishes them. The first is whether the trustee actually has power to borrow, which is a question about the trust deed rather than about the business: business.gov.au notes that a trust requires a formal trust deed setting out how the trust operates, and the deed needs to give the trustee the necessary power to borrow; if it does not, get legal advice before assuming it can be varied for an application. The second is who the lender can actually recover from. The trust is not a legal person; the trustee is the borrower. Where the trustee is a company whose only role is acting as trustee, the lender will look closely at the trustee company’s assets and any guarantees or other security, which is why the recovery position matters on a corporate-trustee file.
A partnership works the other way round. There is no shell problem, because in a general partnership each partner has unlimited liability for the debts and obligations the partnership incurs. The lender's exposure is already personal to every partner. That is also why NAB's two-partner cap exists: each additional partner is another individual file to assess and another person whose circumstances can change, and an automated channel prices that out rather than underwrites it.
Who signs the guarantee under each structure?
A sole trader does not normally give a separate personal guarantee because the sole trader is already the borrower; company directors, trustees and some partners can be guarantors depending on the facility structure. A guarantee matters when one person promises to answer for another borrower's debt. AMP requires a personal guarantee from the director of a single-director company. ANZ and Westpac both publish that a director or personal guarantee may be required on unsecured company borrowing.
For a sole trader, the liability is already direct and personal. That is why the 2025 Banking Code of Practice defines Director Guarantor, Sole Director Guarantor, Partnership Guarantor and Trustee Guarantor categories but no separate sole-trader guarantor category. The absence is structural: there is no company standing between the individual and the debt.
Those four definitions are worth reading as an access map in their own right, because a code negotiated across the industry has described exactly the thing this page is about:
- A Director Guarantor is a guarantor of a loan who is a director of a company which is to be the debtor for the loan.
- A Sole Director Guarantor is a guarantor who is a director of a company that has only one director, and that company is to be the debtor.
- A Partnership Guarantor is a guarantor who is a partner of a partnership, and that partner is to be a debtor for the loan. In other words, a person guaranteeing a debt they already owe.
- A Trustee Guarantor is a guarantor where the guarantor and the debtor are the same person, and that person is acting as trustee of a trust in one role and in their personal capacity in the other.
The categories are not decorative. The Code gives a guarantor a set of protections before a bank can accept the guarantee, including information about any demand already made on the borrower within the previous two years and whether an existing facility will be cancelled if the guarantee is not provided. Those particular entitlements are then expressly switched off for a Sole Director Guarantor, a Trustee Guarantor and a Partnership Guarantor, and the Code separately provides that a Director Guarantor who is not a sole director is told they have the right to receive the guarantee documents. The practical reading: the further your role sits from being the debtor already, the more the Code makes the bank tell you.
Whether the Code applies to your facility at all is its own test. It covers guarantors of loans to another individual or to a Small Business, and the Code's Small Business test is a business with annual turnover under $10 million in the previous financial year, fewer than 100 full-time equivalent employees, and less than $5 million of total debt to all credit providers, counting undrawn amounts and the facility being applied for. Most overdraft applicants sit well inside it.
The practical check before accepting an offer is simple: who is the borrower, who is the guarantor, what amount is the guarantee capped at, and what security sits beside it? Do not treat “unsecured” as meaning “no personal exposure”. ANZ says a personal guarantee may be required for directors; Westpac says director guarantees may be required for corporate borrowers; AMP requires one for a single-director company. If the offer also mentions a GSA or other security, read what “unsecured” actually means on a business facility. If you expect to apply for personal credit later, the business guarantee and home-loan guide covers that next step. Detailed enforcement mechanics remain a separate subject.
What happens to your overdraft when you change structure?
A business overdraft does not automatically transfer when you change business structure; the new entity generally needs its own credit assessment and facility. A sole trader and a company are different borrowers. If the old entity holds the overdraft, changing the business structure is not just changing the name on the account.
The timing matters because a restructure can reset the registration history lenders measure. The Australian Business Register says moving from individual/sole trader to company is an example where you may need to cancel the old ABN and apply for a new one. NAB QuickBiz requires more than 12 months under the current registered ABN or ACN. ANZ GoBiz publishes lower overdraft bands where the current ABN/ACN is under 12 months or the business has only 6 to 12 months of reconciled data. The business may feel continuous to you while the lender is looking at a new borrower with a short current-registration history.
The sequencing consequence is the practical point of this section. If a restructure is coming and a facility matters to you, do not close the old one first and apply for the new one after. Establish what the new entity can reach before the old entity stops existing, and if you want that worked through against a live facility rather than against published ranges, that is what our overdraft and line of credit page is for, and be aware that carrying an existing facility into an application is itself read: our note on whether to close a facility before you apply for finance covers how lenders treat an open limit you are not using. If your existing overdraft is coming up for its annual review at the same time, the sixty days before an overdraft facility review is the window where both conversations can be had at once rather than in sequence.
What to do before you change structure
- Check the new borrower's eligibility first. Confirm current ABN/ACN age, GST, turnover, accounting-data and structure rules before closing the old entity's facility.
- Map the people behind the new entity. Know which directors, partners or trustees will be credit checked and who may have to guarantee.
- Map every open facility. Overdrafts, cards, lines of credit and guarantees can affect the next application even when undrawn.
- Coordinate the handover. Do not assume the transaction account, overdraft, direct debits and registrations all transfer automatically.
- Get tax and legal advice on the restructure itself. Finance eligibility is only one consequence of changing entity.
From our broking files, general and without figures
What we see on files where structure is the live variable, kept to direction rather than numbers, because the numbers belong to each lender's published terms and to your own file rather than to a guide.
- The application that stalls is usually the one where the entity on the ABN, the entity on the bank account and the entity on the application are not the same. Check all three before anything is lodged.
- Restructures are often sequenced backwards: the new entity is created, the old one is wound down, and only then does someone test what the new borrower can access. Check the finance path before the old structure is closed.
- Trust files are deed files. Confirm who the trustee is, whether the deed gives the trustee the necessary borrowing powers and who can bind the trust. Do not assume a deed can be changed quickly or safely just to fit a lender application.
- Incorporating does not automatically remove the owner from the credit decision. A company can add a separate business assessment, director credit checks and a personal guarantee, depending on lender and facility.
- Where a published channel excludes your structure, treat that as a channel fact rather than a verdict on the business. The next move may be a different lender or facility; it is not automatically a reason to restructure the business.
Two adjacent moments sit just outside this page and are worth naming so you know they are separate questions rather than gaps. One is what happens when a sole trader application is declined, which is about credit quality rather than structure. The other is what is available when the business has not been trading long enough to clear the twelve-month bank threshold, which is about time rather than structure. Both are their own subject, and neither is answered by changing your entity.
What if the new entity does not qualify yet?
Do not turn one policy miss into five applications. The next decision is usually whether to keep the existing structure/facility while the new entity builds history, compare a different lender tier, or use a different revolving product for the same working-capital need. The tier down is real and readable: Prospa's application takes a company, sole trader, partnership or trust on one screen and asks whether the business has been trading for more than 6 months, its published minimums split from 6 months trading for its small business loan to a minimum 2 years for its line of credit, and the page it publishes at the overdraft address presents the line of credit as the equivalent product, which is how most of that tier wears the overdraft name. Use the business overdraft guide for product mechanics and pricing, and the line-of-credit sizing guide where the issue is how much revolving headroom the cash cycle needs. The point is to solve the funding need without creating unnecessary credit enquiries or restructuring solely for a headline limit.
Your business structure is the first lending gate, not the whole decision. AMP proves that structure can change the published ceiling: $2,000 to $20,000 for sole traders versus $2,000 to $50,000 for single-director companies. ANZ shows the next gate: current ABN/ACN age, reconciled financial data and turnover can move an eligible borrower into a different limit band. A sole trader is personally the borrower; a company can add a separate business assessment, director credit checks and a guarantee. A restructure can therefore increase one lender's headline cap while reducing short-term eligibility somewhere else.
Key takeaway: before you restructure or lodge applications, map the borrower entity, current registration age, people who will be assessed, existing open limits and what finance you expect to need next.Frequently Asked Questions
There is no single business-overdraft limit for every structure or lender. AMP publishes $2,000 to $20,000 for sole traders and $2,000 to $50,000 for single-director companies. NAB QuickBiz publishes $5,000 to $50,000, CommBank $2,000 to $250,000 unsecured and Westpac $5,000 to $250,000 unsecured. ANZ GoBiz advertises unsecured access from $2,000 to $200,000 and separately publishes total overdraft borrowing up to $300,000 for some established profiles. The useful number is the band your current entity actually qualifies for, not the largest number on a product page.
It can. OAIC says a credit enquiry is recorded when a credit provider requests your credit report to assess an application, and which credit file is checked depends on your structure: a sole trader is assessed on the individual's report, while a company brings its own record alongside the directors'. A company does not isolate the directors from assessment either. ANZ publishes it plainly: for a multi-director company or partnership, an individual credit check must be completed for each director or partner before full approval begins.
It depends on the lender and the current registration. AMP and ANZ publish pathways from more than 6 months, while NAB QuickBiz requires more than 12 months under the current registered ABN or ACN and Westpac requires at least 12 months trading with a valid ABN or ACN. Age is only one gate: GST, turnover, financial data, account conduct and credit assessment can still decide the outcome. If you have just changed structure, check the new entity's clock rather than relying on the age of the old sole-trader ABN.
Credit checks and guarantees are two separate questions. ANZ says that for a multi-director company an individual credit check must be completed for each director before full approval. AMP explicitly checks the director and the business for a single-director company and requires that director to give a personal guarantee. Westpac says director guarantees may be required for corporate borrowers. Published pages do not establish one universal guarantee rule for every director at every lender, so read the actual offer and guarantee documents rather than assuming the credit-check rule and guarantee rule are identical.
Your experience and trading story do not disappear, but the company is a new legal borrower and lenders can measure policy against the new entity's current registration. The Australian Business Register says changing from sole trader to company may require cancelling the old ABN and applying for a new one. NAB QuickBiz requires more than 12 months under the current registered ABN or ACN, while ANZ GoBiz publishes lower overdraft bands where the current ABN/ACN or reconciled data is under 12 months. Check the new company's eligibility before winding down the old structure.
What sources support this guide?
Every lender limit, eligibility rule, credit-check statement and guarantee position on this page was rechecked against a primary lender, regulator or government source on 23 August 2026. Two points are deliberately shown rather than smoothed over. First, ANZ currently publishes an unsecured GoBiz product range of $2,000 to $200,000 while its GoBiz borrowing-limit table allows total business overdrafts up to $300,000 for some established profiles; this guide reports both with their conditions. Second, credit assessment and credit reporting are not treated as the same thing: the page states what a lender says it checks, and uses OAIC for the separate question of what can appear on an individual credit report.
| Source | What it supports on this page | As at |
|---|---|---|
| AMP Bank, business overdraft, help page | $2,000 to $20,000 sole-trader range; $2,000 to $50,000 single-director-company range; 6-month/GST eligibility; single-director guarantee; person-and-business credit check; credit-enquiry and commercial-credit reporting wording. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| NAB QuickBiz Overdraft and eligibility criteria | $5,000 to $50,000 range; GST and turnover gates; more than 12 months under current ABN/ACN; partnership, director and trust rules; business/entity and applicant credit checks; warning about repeated credit checks. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| Westpac unsecured business overdraft | $5,000 to $250,000 range; 12-month ABN/ACN history; GST/turnover; sole trader, partnership, trust and company eligibility; sole-director company-secretary rule; director-guarantee wording. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| CommBank business overdraft | Unsecured limits from $2,000 to $250,000; eligibility naming sole trader, partnership, trust and company; current account-conduct indicators and application-document position. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| ANZ unsecured GoBiz overdraft and GoBiz borrowing limits | $2,000 to $200,000 advertised unsecured range; up to $300,000 total business overdrafts for some profiles; 6/12-month ABN/ACN and reconciled-data bands; sole trader/company/partnership/corporate-trustee eligibility; up to five directors/partners; individual checks for multi-director companies; guarantee/GSA wording. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| Australian Banking Association, 2025 Banking Code of Practice | Guarantor protections and structure-specific guarantor categories, plus the Code's small-business scope. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| business.gov.au business structures and sole trader to company guide | Legal difference between sole trader, company, partnership and trust; company as separate legal entity; trustee responsibility; structure-change legal/tax/administration consequences. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| Australian Business Register, changing structure | Examples where moving from sole trader to company can require cancelling the old ABN and applying for a new one. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| ASIC, Australian Company Number | ACN identifies a company; ABN can identify multiple business types; most companies have both. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| OAIC credit reports, credit enquiries and free access | Commercial information may appear on a consumer report; applications can create recorded credit enquiries; free access to a consumer credit report once every three months. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
| Prospa business overdraft page | Its current overdraft page routes to line-of-credit mechanics and publishes 6-month minimum trading for the small business loan versus 2 years plus property/asset ownership for the line of credit. | Rechecked 23 August 2026 |
The search gap is narrower than “what is a business overdraft”. Banks and comparison pages already answer that. The under-served question is the sequence a self-employed owner actually faces: which entity can apply, which published limit band can that entity enter, who is credit checked, who gives a guarantee, and what changes if the owner restructures? This page is built to answer that sequence from primary sources and route the generic product questions back to the main overdraft guide.
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