A line of credit for importers: one facility for every container

Why does a line of credit suit importing?

Import cash doesn’t move in a straight line. It goes out in lumps — deposit, balance, freight, border costs — and comes back in a trickle as stock sells. Then, often before the last trickle arrives, the next deposit is due. A one-off loan for each order means repeated applications, overlapping repayments and money sitting idle between payments.

A line of credit handles that rhythm naturally. You have an approved limit. You draw what the current stage needs, repay as sales land, and the available balance rebuilds for the next order.

How does it work across one order?

Stage	What you do with the facility
Order confirmed	Draw for the supplier deposit
Production finished	Draw for the balance before shipment
Goods shipped	Draw for freight and cargo insurance if they’re yours to pay
Container arrives	Draw for duty, import GST, broker and port charges
Stock selling	Repay from sales receipts as they come in
BAS lodged	Repay the import GST portion when the credit comes back
Next order	Draw again for the next deposit

The last-but-one line is easy to overlook. GST paid at the border usually comes back as a credit on your BAS, so a revolving facility lets you use that refund to pay down the balance straight away.

How do I size the limit?

This is the most important decision. Too small and you’re back to scrambling; too large and you may be paying for capacity you never use.

1. Map your year. List each order with its deposit date, balance date, arrival and sell-through period. The import cash timeline planner helps with the dates.
2. Find the peak. The highest point is usually when one container is still selling while the next balance falls due.
3. Add border costs and a buffer. Freight rates, exchange rates and duty can all surprise. A buffer stops one surprise turning into a crisis.
4. Subtract your own comfortable contribution. What’s left is the limit to talk about.

Our landed cost and funding gap calculator gives you the cash-out figure for any single order to feed into this.

What limit ranges are realistic?

For trading businesses without property security, unsecured and line-of-credit options typically run from $5,000 to $500,000. The limit is sized on turnover and bank statements — lenders want to see money moving through the account consistently. Past credit issues and ATO debt are considered case by case.

If your import volumes are larger, or you’d like a bigger limit than turnover alone supports, property-secured finance using residential or commercial property ranges from $20,000 to $5,000,000.

Wondering which side of that line you sit on? A 60-second enquiry gets a real person looking at it, with no credit check to ask.

What habits make a line of credit work well?

• Treat it as working capital, not a buffer for losses. Drawn for stock, repaid from stock. If it never comes back down, something in the cycle needs attention.
• Repay the GST portion promptly. When the BAS credit arrives, apply it to the facility.
• Watch the overlap. If you’re regularly at the limit, either your orders are growing (good — talk about a bigger limit) or sell-through is slowing (look at ranging and pricing).
• Keep one eye on the exchange rate. A large movement makes each order dearer; plan draws with a margin for it. See exchange-rate timing.
• Consider deferred GST. If you’re eligible, the ATO’s deferred GST scheme moves import GST onto your monthly BAS and takes a lump out of every clearance.

Illustrative example

Illustrative only. A beauty-products importer lands six containers a year from two suppliers. Each order has a deposit, a balance and a border bill, and the sell-through overlaps with the next order about half the time. Mapping the year shows a peak of roughly $210,000 tied up in late winter, ahead of the spring and Christmas season, and a low of under $60,000 in autumn. A facility sized around the peak lets the owner draw and repay in step with each order instead of arranging finance six times a year.

What will a lender ask about an import line of credit?

Expect the conversation to focus on the rhythm of the business rather than a single shipment. Useful things to have in mind:

• how many orders you place a year, and their typical size
• supplier payment terms — deposit share, balance timing
• how long stock takes to sell, and whether customers pay at sale or on account
• recent business bank statements showing sales coming in
• any existing facilities, and your ATO position (ATO debt is considered case by case)
• whether you own residential or commercial property, in case a larger limit makes sense

A clear picture of your year — even a rough spreadsheet of past orders — makes it much easier to size the limit properly first time.

When is a line of credit the wrong tool?

It’s not the best fit for a one-off large purchase you’ll repay over years — a warehouse fit-out, say, or a big machinery import you’ll use for a decade. A term loan or secured facility usually suits those better. It’s also not a fix for stock that isn’t selling; borrowing more to hold slow stock only postpones the problem. Our guide to pricing imported products and the importer’s cash cycle cover the underlying levers.

See what limit could work for you

If you import regularly and you’re tired of arranging money one container at a time, ask about a revolving facility. The enquiry is quick and credit-check free. It goes to a real person — not a queue of lenders — who will call to talk through your order pattern and peak. Please be accurate with your turnover, typical order size and any property you own, so the first conversation gets you somewhere useful.