Financial Difficulty Assistance

If you are worried you can't pay what you owe, won't be able to manage your upcoming repayments, or if you are having difficulty meeting your repayments – we are here to help.

Common causes of financial difficulty include:

• changes to employment
• change in individual or family circumstances
• reduction in income
• injury, illness or the loss of a loved one
• relationship breakdown or family violence
• natural disaster, drought or pandemic
• unexpected event or unforeseen changes
• borrowing beyond your means
• rising cost of living
• Or anything else that is making it difficult to manage your repayments

Reach out to our dedicated Customer Assistance Team as soon as you can on 1800 950 399 (option 2) between 8:30am – 5:00pm AEST, Monday to Friday. When you contact us, our Customer Assistance Team will work with you to find out what options may suit your situation. Depending on your situation, we have a range of options to help you. This may include options such as:

• changing your loan repayments to interest only
• postponing your loan repayments
• extending the term of your loan to reduce your monthly repayment amount
• incorporating any overdue amounts into your loan, then recalculating your repayments to the end of the loan term.

If we identify that you may be experiencing financial difficulty, we may also contact you to discuss your situation and the options available to help you.

Financial Difficulty Assistance is a free service for customers. If applicable, our Customer Assistance team will explain any product fees and charges that may continue to apply during the process.

Other options:

Authorised Representative You can ask us to deal with your financial counsellor or other representative on your behalf:

• If you would like your representative to speak with us as a once-off:
  You can call us with your representative and provide an authority for that person to speak on your behalf for that call.

• If you would like your representative to work with us on an ongoing basis:
  To provide ongoing authority for your authorised representative to speak with us on your behalf or to maintain your personal information or account, we will need:

  • - a completed and signed Representative Authority Form, sent to us via Email or via post to Collections and Financial Assistance, GPO Box 898, Brisbane QLD 4001; or
  • - a completed and signed form from your financial counsellor, who will send it to us directly.

We may be able to accept another document, if it contains enough information for us to verify you and your account details. Contact our Customer Assistance team if the above options aren't available to you.

Joint account holders If you have a joint account, we can consider your request for assistance and if you ask us to, we can do so without involving the other account holder.

Guarantors If you are a guarantor and we have issued you with a letter of demand to service a default, and you would like to request financial difficulty assistance, please contact us to discuss your options.

1. Prepare your application.

Get the following information ready:

• details about all your accounts, loans, credit cards and other debt
• details about your income, expenses and assets
• consider what types of assistance may help you and how long you might need assistance.

It is important for you to be as open and as realistic as you can be about your financial position. This gives us the best opportunity to understand your situation and the ways we can help

2. How to submit your application.

You can submit a request by completing the online request form.

Please allow 5 - 10 minutes to complete the form.

Alternatvely you can call the Customer Assistance Team on 1800 950 399 (option 2)

1. We'll contact you.

Our Customer Assistance Team will review your application and contact you to discuss your options, or to ask you for more information.

We may also ask you to provide supporting documentation (e.g. medical certificate or employment separation certificate).

We assess each financial difficulty request on a case-by-case basis to ensure we provide tailored support. Whether you’re needing a solution for a short, medium or longer-term, we've got solutions that will help you through.

Our Customer Assistance Team will make sure you know exactly how your arrangement will work and any changes this will have to your loan in the long term.

2. We'll provide an outcome.

If we do not require further information from you, our Customer Assistance Team will respond to your application within 21 days.

If we ask you for more information during this time, we might take a further 21 days after receiving the information to make a decision.

If you don’t provide us with the requested information, we’ll make our assessment based on the information we have within 28 days of the date we asked for the information.

Approved application communications will include details of the arrangement offer and any changes to your loan contract.

If you meet the terms of the financial hardship arrangement, your credit report won’t show any missed payments.

Your credit report will show a note (financial hardship information (FHI) indicator) that you have a hardship arrangement in place. The note:

• does not show why you’re having trouble paying or the details of the arrangement
• will not affect your credit score
• cannot be the sole reason for credit denial if applying for future credit, and
• comes off your credit report 12 months after the arrangement ends.

Financial Hardship Information (FHI) includes:

The type of financial hardship arrangement you have entered into 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 repayment history information (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.

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. For future credit applications, your lender might have more questions for you to verify the situation and recovery. See CreditSmart’s financial hardship hub for more details.

For more information on credit reporting please refer to www.boqspecialist.com.au/important-information/privacy-policy/credit-reporting

You are entitled to a free credit report every three (3) months and you can request one through any of the Credit Reporting Bodies:

Credit Reporting Bodies

If you need extra support, there are services that may be able to help:

• Financial counsellors offer free, independent, and confidential help for people who are experiencing financial difficulty. A financial counsellor will work with you to understand your options across all your income and expenses, and help you decide what will work best for you. A financial counsellor will not share your information with any bank without your permission. To speak to a financial counsellor, you can contact the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007. The National Debt Helpline can connect you with a financial counsellor by phone, webchat, or in person.
• BOQ Specialist is proud to partner with Way Forward. Way Forward is a non-profit service that works with people who can make some payments towards their debt but are having trouble managing all their payments together. Way Forward staff are trained professionals who help you come up with a realistic plan, and then organise for you to make one repayment to Way Forward, who will make all the repayments to the different debts on your behalf.
• Moneysmart – provides free guidance and information about making money decisions.
• Australian Banking Association’s Financial Assistance Hub – information and support for individuals and small businesses experiencing financial difficulty.
• AskIzzy - A national service that provides information and contact details for a range of organisations, including counselling, housing, financial support and other services.

You may find the additional websites helpful in providing further information on managing your finances and other support services: Download helpful contacts and services.