ACL 390611 | MFAA Member | Established 2005
Business Debt Consolidation.With the Total Cost Shown.
Several facilities, several lenders, several repayment dates. Consolidating into one structure lowers the monthly number. Whether it lowers what you pay in total is a different question, and it is the one we answer first.
15 minutes with a commercial specialist. Bring a list of what you owe and to whom, nothing else. If consolidating would cost you more overall, we’ll show you that, and we charge you nothing either way. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement and we disclose it in writing before any work begins.
Intellect Finance – Business Debt Specialists
Independent since 2005 | ACL 390611What Is Business Debt Consolidation?
Business debt consolidation replaces several separate facilities with one. Commercial property debt, equipment finance, an overdraft, business credit cards and sometimes a tax debt are paid out and refinanced into a single structure with one repayment.
The reason it works is that the facilities being paid out are usually priced on very different risk. An unsecured card sits at one end and a property-secured term loan at the other. Rolling the expensive end into the cheap end reduces the blended rate and, because the new facility runs over a longer term, reduces the monthly payment substantially.
That is also where the trap is. A lower payment over a longer term can cost more in total interest than the shorter, dearer facilities it replaced, and the debt that was previously unsecured now sits behind your property. Both of those are manageable, but only if you know about them before you sign rather than three years in.
Common Situations
Why People Come to Us for Business Debt Consolidation
Six situations account for almost every consolidation we look at. Two of them we usually advise against.
Facilities spread across four lenders
Property with one, equipment with two others, an overdraft with a fourth. Nobody has a full picture, including you, and the blended cost is higher than anyone realises until it is added up.
Cards and overdraft funding the business
Working capital carried on the most expensive credit available. This is the clearest case for consolidating, because the gap between card pricing and secured pricing is the widest gap in business lending.
Equipment agreements maturing at different times
Five chattel mortgages on five schedules. Each has its own early termination position, so this one needs modelling carefully rather than assuming they all roll in cleanly.
A tax debt that keeps growing
The ATO has reporting powers once a debt passes a threshold and an age. Dealing with it before that point is materially easier than after. Speak to your accountant early.
Property equity sitting idle
Equity in commercial premises doing nothing while unsecured debt costs several times more. Usually worth doing, provided you accept what securing that debt means.
The repayments have become unmanageable
This is the one to be careful with. If the cause is trading rather than structure, consolidation buys time without fixing anything. See cashflow and working capital instead.
Social Proof
120+ Five-Star Google Reviews
Business owners, investors and developers alongside home buyers. Pulled live from Google.
Joseph Sukkar
Principal Broker · ACL 390611
Who You’re Dealing With
Built on 25 Years in Australian Finance
Joseph Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded Intellect Finance in Penrith in 2005. Since then the team has arranged more than 6,500 loans for clients across Australia, from first homes to complex commercial and asset finance.
Business debt consolidation sits with Charbel, our Commercial and Complex Lending Specialist, and it is the kind of file where the useful work happens before anything is lodged. Every facility being paid out carries its own exit cost, and those are added up and set against the saving before any of it makes sense. The monthly repayment almost always falls. Whether the debt costs more or less over its full term is the number we model and put beside your current position.
Part of Our 100+ Lender Panel
The names most people recognise are residential lenders. Much of what we arrange runs through funders that do not advertise to the public. Accreditation with a lender is not an endorsement by it, and which lender suits you is decided by your file rather than by who is on this list.
Not Sure What It All Costs You Now?
Bring the list. Fifteen minutes, no paperwork.Before You Consolidate
What Consolidation Actually Does to Your Debt
Consolidation does not reduce what you owe. It changes the rate, the term and the security behind it. The monthly repayment almost always falls. The total cost over the life of the debt can go either way, and so can your exposure. Six things decide which.
The payment falls because the term stretches
Most of the drop in your monthly outgoing comes from spreading the same balance over more years, not from the lower rate. That is worth having if cash flow is the constraint, but it is worth knowing which of the two is doing the work.
A lower rate can still cost more
Interest accrues for longer. A cheaper rate over a much longer term routinely produces a larger total interest bill than the expensive short facilities it replaced. We model both numbers and show you the total, because the monthly figure alone will always look like a win.
Unsecured debt becomes secured debt
The rate on a card falls when it is rolled into a property-backed facility because the lender’s risk falls. The reason the lender’s risk falls is that your property now stands behind debt that previously did not touch it. That is a transfer of risk to you, not a free saving.
Every facility paid out has its own exit
Discharge fees on property debt, break costs on anything fixed, early termination positions on each equipment or chattel mortgage agreement. Five facilities means five exit calculations, and they are added to the cost of the new one before any of this makes sense.
A tax debt is its own category
The ATO may report a business tax debt to credit reporting bureaus once specific conditions are met, including at least 100,000 dollars overdue by more than 90 days and no engagement with the ATO about it. Once reported it affects what every other lender will do. Timing matters more here than anywhere else on this page.
Consolidation does not fix a cash flow problem
Consolidation reschedules debt. It does not generate income. Where the facilities accumulated because the business spends before it collects, the balance rebuilds after consolidation, and now it is secured against your property. The honest answer in that case is a working capital facility, not this one.
Checked August 2026. The ATO states it may report a business tax debt where the business has an ABN and is not an excluded entity, has one or more tax debts of which at least 100,000 dollars is overdue by more than 90 days, is not engaging with the ATO to manage the debt, and has no active complaint with the Tax Ombudsman about the reporting. See disclosure of business tax debts. Best Interests Duty scope is sourced from ASIC Regulatory Guide 273, and interest deductibility from ATO guidance on interest deductions. We are not tax agents. Confirm your position with a registered tax agent or the ATO. Everything else on this page is described in the important information at the foot of the page.
We don’t publish rates, and we’d be cautious of anyone in commercial who does. What we can do is total up what you are paying now, total up what the consolidated position would cost over its full term, and put the two side by side. Ask us to add it up.
The Honest Comparison
Consolidate or Just Pay Them Down in Order?
There is a version of this where you do nothing structural and simply attack the most expensive facility first. For some businesses that is the better answer.
Paying down the dearest first
- Costs nothing to start and needs nobody’s approval
- No exit costs, no new security, no property put behind old debt
- Total interest usually lower, because the terms stay short
- The monthly outgoing stays where it is, so it does nothing for cash flow now
- Requires surplus cash every month, which is often the thing you do not have
One facility and one repayment
- Frees monthly cash immediately, which is the point when cash is the constraint
- Removes the highest-cost credit from the mix entirely
- One repayment, one lender, one review date instead of five
- A tax debt can often be dealt with before it reaches reporting territory
- Total cost modelled against the current position before anything is lodged
Consolidate for cash flow, not for the saving. If you have surplus cash each month and the facilities are manageable, paying down the most expensive one first will almost always leave you better off in total, and it costs you nothing to do. We will say that on the call. Consolidation earns its cost when the monthly outgoing is the binding constraint, when unsecured credit is carrying working capital it was never meant to carry, or when a tax debt needs resolving before it is reported. Where the underlying problem is that the business spends before it collects, neither of these columns is the answer and we will point you at a working capital facility instead.
Find Out If Consolidating Is Worth Its Cost
Bring the facilities and the monthly outgoing. We will tell you if paying the dearest one down first leaves you better off. No obligation.The Difference
We Show You What the Whole Thing Costs
Every consolidation looks good when you compare monthly figures. The comparison that matters is what the whole thing costs before and after, over its full term.
Both Numbers Side by Side
What you pay monthly now against what you would pay after, and what the debt costs in total now against what it would cost in total after. If the second comparison goes the wrong way, you see that before you decide, not afterwards.
Always in Writing
Business purpose lending sits outside the consumer credit rules, so Best Interests Duty does not apply to a business consolidation. ASIC Regulatory Guide 273 limits that duty to credit regulated under the National Credit Act. We disclose in writing how we are paid before you proceed regardless.
100+ Lenders with Different Appetites for Tax Debt
Some lenders will not consider a facility that pays out an ATO balance. Others do it routinely and have a process for it. Knowing which is which before an application is lodged is the difference between a clean approval and a decline that sits on your file.
We’ll Tell You Not To
Where the numbers say paying down in order leaves you better off, or where the real problem is trading rather than structure, that is what we will say. We are paid by the lender on settlement, so declining to arrange something costs us. It still beats arranging the wrong thing.
The Process
What Happens and What We’ll Need
The modelling comes before the application. There is no point assessing lenders for something that should not be done.
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15 minutes
The list
What you owe, to whom, at what rate, over what remaining term, and what secures each one. No documents at this stage. You will finish the call knowing whether consolidating is likely to help and which facilities are worth including.
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We model
Total cost now against total cost after
Current repayments and total remaining interest across every facility, set against the consolidated repayment and total interest over the new term, with every exit cost added in. If the total goes the wrong way we tell you, and you have lost nothing but the fifteen minutes.
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You gather
Statements and financials
Only once the numbers justify proceeding. We confirm exactly which of these the chosen lender needs.
- Statements for every facility being paid out
- Payout figures from each lender
- Two years of business financials
- Two years of tax returns
- ATO portal statements and any payment plan
- Recent management accounts
- Details of security offered
- ID for each director, trustee or guarantor
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We manage
Approval then simultaneous payouts
The tricky part of a consolidation is settlement, because several facilities have to be paid out and discharged together. We coordinate the payout figures, the timing and the discharges so nothing is left half done and no facility keeps drawing interest after it should have closed.
Track Record
Commercial Is Not a Sideline For Us
Most brokerages run almost entirely residential and treat business debt as somebody else’s problem. We have run a commercial desk alongside residential since 2005.
Related Options
If Consolidation Isn’t the Answer
Often the presenting problem is debt and the actual problem is something else. These are the facilities that address the cause rather than the symptom.
Cashflow and working capital
Where the debt built up because the business pays before it collects.
Invoice finance
Releasing cash tied up in unpaid invoices rather than borrowing against it.
Commercial property refinance
If the only facility worth moving is the property loan itself.
Unsecured commercial loan
Where you would rather not put property behind business borrowing at all.
Low doc commercial
Trading well, but the financials are not current enough to re-qualify cleanly.
Every commercial facility we arrange
Back up to the full commercial finance range if none of these is it.
Send Us the List of What You Owe.
We’ll total it up both ways and tell you which is cheaper.Questions Answered
Business Debt Consolidation FAQs
The questions business owners ask us most often before getting in touch.
What is business debt consolidation?
Business debt consolidation replaces several separate facilities with one. Commercial property debt, equipment finance, an overdraft, business credit cards and sometimes a tax debt are paid out and refinanced into a single structure with one repayment. It is usually done to reduce the monthly outgoing and to simplify administration rather than to reduce the total amount owed.
Does consolidating business debt save money?
It reduces the monthly repayment. Whether it reduces total cost is a separate question and often the answer is no. Consolidation usually lowers the payment by spreading the balance over a longer term, and a longer term at a lower rate can still cost more in total interest than the shorter facilities it replaced. Both numbers need modelling before you decide.
What happens to unsecured debt when I consolidate?
It usually becomes secured. Business credit cards, overdrafts and unsecured loans are typically consolidated into a facility secured by property. The rate falls because the lender’s risk falls, and the reason the lender’s risk falls is that your property now stands behind debt that previously did not touch it. That is a real transfer of risk, not just a cheaper rate.
Can I include an ATO tax debt in a consolidation?
Often yes, and there can be good reason to. The ATO may report a business tax debt to credit reporting bureaus where the business has an ABN and is not an excluded entity, has at least 100,000 dollars overdue by more than 90 days, is not engaging with the ATO to manage the debt, and has no active complaint with the Tax Ombudsman about the reporting. Speak to your accountant and to us before it reaches that point.
What does it cost to consolidate business debts?
Every facility being paid out can carry its own exit cost. Expect discharge fees on property debt, break costs on anything fixed, early termination charges on equipment or chattel mortgage agreements, and then establishment, valuation and legal costs on the new facility. These are added together and set against the saving before anything is lodged.
Will consolidating fix my cash flow problem?
Only if the problem was the structure rather than the trading. Consolidation reschedules debt, it does not generate income. If the facilities built up because the business is spending more than it collects, a lower repayment buys time but the balance returns, now secured against property. Where the real issue is the gap between paying suppliers and being paid, a working capital or invoice facility addresses the cause.
Is the interest on a consolidated business loan deductible?
It depends on what the borrowed money was used for, not on what secures it. The ATO’s position is that only interest incurred for an income-producing purpose is deductible, and that a loan used for both private and income-producing purposes must be apportioned between them. Rolling a private debt into a business facility does not make its interest deductible. Confirm your position with a registered tax agent.
Does Best Interests Duty apply to business debt consolidation?
No, where the borrowing is for business purposes. ASIC Regulatory Guide 273 states that the best interests obligations apply only to credit products regulated under the National Credit Act, meaning credit provided to consumers for personal, domestic or household purposes or for the purchase or improvement of residential investment property. We disclose in writing how we are paid on every transaction regardless.
Visit Us
Penrith Based.Clients Australia-Wide.
Penrith is our head office and the one you can walk into without an appointment. We also meet clients at Parramatta and in the Sydney CBD by arrangement. Most consolidations run by phone, email and video, so we work with businesses in every state.
Ready When You Are
Bring Us the List.
What you owe, to whom, at what rate. Fifteen minutes and we’ll total your position now against the consolidated position over its full term, with every exit cost included. If paying them down in order leaves you better off, we’ll tell you that instead. Penrith based, clients Australia-wide. Intellect Finance Pty Ltd, ACL 390611.
Business purpose lending sits outside the consumer credit framework, so Best Interests Duty does not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid before you proceed on every transaction. Nothing on this page is credit assistance, financial advice, tax advice or an offer of credit, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member
Important information General information only. Not credit assistance or an offer of credit. We charge you no fee. Every caveat and source on this page is collected here. Tap to read.
General information only. The content on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not credit assistance, financial advice, legal advice or tax advice, and it is not an offer of credit. You should consider whether it is appropriate for you and seek your own advice before acting on it.
Nothing here is a guarantee. Loan approval, borrowing capacity, interest rates, loan to value ratios, valuations, timeframes and eligibility are determined by individual lenders and by independent valuers, not by us. They differ between lenders and change over time. Any figure, range or timeframe on this page is indicative and is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of your outcome. What can be consolidated, what security is required and what terms are available are set by individual lenders as well, and vary with the facilities involved, the security and the strength of the business. Payout and break figures are quoted by your existing lenders, not by us, and timeframes vary with the number of facilities and the discharge process.
Business purpose lending. Credit provided wholly or predominantly for business purposes is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid in writing before you proceed on every transaction regardless.
Tax and legal. GST, stamp duty, land tax and the tax treatment of any ownership structure depend on your circumstances and on how the contract is written. We are not tax agents, accountants or solicitors. Confirm the position with a registered tax agent, the Australian Taxation Office, your accountant or your solicitor before acting.
How we are paid. Intellect Finance does not charge borrowers a fee for arranging finance, and does not charge a clawback fee where a loan is discharged early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement. The basis of that commission is disclosed to you in writing in our Credit Guide before any credit assistance is provided.
Third-party information. Where this page refers to government schemes, regulatory settings, tax treatment or lender policy, that information is sourced from the relevant authority and was correct to the best of our knowledge at the date shown on this page. Those rules change, sometimes without notice. Always confirm the current position with the issuing authority or with us before relying on it.
Found something wrong? If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate or out of date, tell us at joe@intellectfinance.com.au and we will review and correct it.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member