A story went that a black granite abstract sculpture was unveiled in front of a bank located in a plaza of a small town. After a few weeks, local residents began calling the imposing sculpture, "The Banker's Heart". In reality, unfortunately, the hearts of the Australian banks are starting to go black, brought about by the accumulating bad debts. Cameron Clyne, National Australia Bank chief executive, recently announced that banks will also be affected by the rise of unemployment and other corporate credit impairments. The result is a downturn, caused by the failing debt repayments.

The Treasury pegged the unemployment rate at 5.7 percent and it will reach a little over 8 percent by June of next year. Financial forecasters observed that the marked increase in unemployment would also cause the rise in mortgage and personal loan defaults. Clyne added that domestic savings and the fixed-income debt market should also be looked into.

In this regard, more and more people are turning to non-traditional means to get loans, instead of relying on banks. Most Australians now go online to get cash loans fast. There are many financial service companies with websites that offer online applications. These application forms can be processed immediately, some for less than an hour, while others take 24 hours. With a few clicks, clients can see how much they could loan, including the interest rates, because most of these websites have a loan calculator. This will compute the amount a client is planning to borrow, plus the interest, and then a breakdown is shown in the application form. Would-be clients are cautioned to borrow only what they could comfortably repay. There are even multi-loan calculators that could show the savings and cost of regular loans and even refinancing loans.

In addition to online money, microlending is fast becoming a popular choice, since banks are becoming stricter with their lending processes. The concept behind this is groups of people pool together their resources and lend each other money, even for as little as $25. Some people use this unique service to fund their small businesses, since banks or other traditional firms are more likely to turn their applications down.

Using different forms of credit, both traditional or non-traditional means, for payments and other cash emergencies, should be done both cautiously and carefully. There are loan deals that appear too good to be true—and they usually are.