Financial Hardship can occur when your life circumstances unexpectedly change and this impacts your ability to service your current financial commitments. Financial Hardship assistance is provided to help you bridge the time it takes to get back on track. Examples of these changes include, but are not limited to, unemployment or reduction in income, a medical condition, natural disaster, family separation or family violence.
We recognise that each person and situation is unique. The type of assistance that we provide will therefore depend upon your individual circumstances.
Some of the types of assistance we may be able to provide you through our Financial Hardship program include:
• reducing or deferring payments for a period of time
• reducing your interest rate
• restructuring your debt
• waiving certain fees
We will contact you once your application is received.
If your financial circumstances have changed and you are unable to pay your account(s), you can request assistance by completing our online application form. Please ensure you have access to the mobile number you have registered on your credit card account. A code will be sent to authenticate your identity before you can proceed with the application.
Please also have information about your income, expenses and assets on hand before you commence the application. Once you start filling in your details, you will need to complete the application as you will be unable to save and return to the form at a later stage.
If you are unable to access the online application form, you can apply by downloading a copy of the PDF Application Form and logging on to Internet Banking and clicking ‘Go to Credit Card Services’. Select the ‘Card Services’ menu, then ‘Document Upload’ and follow the prompts.
Alternatively, you can email your application to us at dms.au@citi.com or you can contact us on 1800 268 077 Monday to Friday from 9am to 9pm AEST, excluding public holidays.
• If you hold a NAB branded product and require financial hardship assistance on that product, please contact NAB Customer Care on 1800 701 599 (8:00am-8:00pm Monday-Friday and 9:00am-1:00pm Saturday AEST).
• If you hold a credit card or personal loan which was formerly issued by Citigroup Pty Ltd (and which is now issued by NAB) which is branded Citi, Card Services, Coles Financials Services, Suncorp Clear Options, Qantas Money, Kogan Money, Virgin Money, Bank of Queensland or; Spot. Buy Now Pay Later issued by Diners Club Pty Ltd (now part of NAB), this hardship application will also be applied to any or all of those accounts as well. If you do not require hardship assistance on all of your accounts, please do not submit an online form and contact our hardship team on 1800 268 077.
• Once we have received your completed application form, one of our representatives will contact you to discuss your situation and solutions that may be available to assist you.
• You are not required to provide supporting documents at the time you submit your application. If we do require supporting documents, we will let you know.
• If you have been or are still paying for insurance on your Credit Card account(s) you may be eligible to make a claim with the insurer. Your account statement will indicate the name of the insurer you need to contact. An insurance policy wouldn't preclude you from applying for financial hardship assistance if you still require it.
• Your card / account may be suspended from the time we receive your application for hardship assistance, and if approved, during the entire period you are on financial hardship. Ability to transact post your Financial Hardship assistance will be based on your card or account status.
In July 2022, amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 introduced Financial Hardship Information (FHI) as a new category of information, which will be displayed on consumer credit reports alongside Repayment History Information (RHI). The Financial Hardship Information will indicate if you have entered into a temporary or permanent hardship arrangement, but will not include the reasons for the arrangement you have entered into.
•The type of financial hardship arrangement you have entered into which will depend on whether the changes to the terms of your loan or obligations are permanent or temporary.
• Variation Financial Hardship Arrangement (V) – indicates that a permanent variation to the terms of the consumer credit contract have been made and will be reported once in the month that the contractual variation took effect. Once the FHI has been reported with a Variation (V), the future RHI will be updated to indicate if the new monthly repayments are being paid on time or not.
• Temporary relief or deferral Financial Hardship Arrangement (A) - providing temporary relief from or deferral of the individual’s obligations in relation to consumer credit, reported each month that the arrangement is in place. During the period that any temporary relief or deferral Financial Hardship Arrangement is in place, the RHI will be concurrently reported to indicate whether you are meeting the obligations of your temporary financial hardship arrangement where payments were agreed to be made.
This information will be stored on your credit file for 1 year. Only your financial hardship information from licensed credit providers who hold an Australian Credit Licence can be recorded. Telecommunication and utility companies are not licensed credit providers, so your financial hardship information will not include these providers and they will not be able to see financial hardship information details either.
These changes will also allow licensed credit providers to access and use this comprehensive information in order to make more informed lending decisions. However, this information cannot be used by licensed credit providers to calculate your credit score.
Equifax
• Web - https://www.equifax.com.au/
• Phone - 1300762207
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Accessibility Support contact details can be found here: Website Accessibility | Suncorp
• The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) is an interpreting service for people who may have difficulty speaking English.
Please visit Translating and Interpreting Service contact details on the Contact Us page
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