Financial difficulty and common causes
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.
How can we assist you?
Reach out to our dedicated Customer Assistance Team as soon as you can on 1800 079 866 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.
If you need accessibility support
Please visit our Contact Us page for accessibility support contact details.
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 Authorised 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.
How to apply for financial assistance
Personal Lending Customers
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.
How to submit your request
You can submit a request by completing the online request form.
Please allow 5 -10 minutes to complete the form.
Alternatively you can:
- call the Customer Assistance Team on 1800 079 866
- visit your local branch or
- download and complete the Personal Application form, and post to Collections and Financial Assistance, GPO Box 898, Brisbane QLD 4001
What is the assessment process?
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.
We will 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 offer of assistance and any changes to your loan contract.
Business Customers
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
- details about any tax liabilities, if any
- 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.
How to submit your request
You can submit a request by completing the online request form.
Please allow 5 to10 minutes to complete the form.
Alternatively you can:
- call the Customer Assistance Team on 1800 079 866
- visit your local branch or
- download and complete the Application form, and post to Collections and Financial Assistance, GPO Box 898, Brisbane QLD 4001
What is the assessment process?
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.
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 offer of assistance and any changes to your loan contract.
Credit Card Customers
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 repayment – we* are here to help. You can request assistance by completing an 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, assets and debts 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 emailing it to us at dms.au@citi.com or posting it to us at PO BOX 3453, Sydney, NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can contact our financial difficulty assistance team on 1800 261 300 Monday to Friday from 9am to 9pm AEST, excluding public holidays.
If you have a BOQ Specialist Credit Card, click here to access the financial difficulty assistance that may be available to you.
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 or, Bank of Queensland, 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 the details above.
Next Steps
- 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’re not required to provide supporting documents at the time you submit your application. We will inform you if we require supporting documents, examples include but are not limited to bank statements, proof of income and/or medical certificates.
We'll provide an outcome
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.
- If we do not require further information from you, one of our representatives 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 offer of assistance and any changes to your account contract.
Other Information
- 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. You can still request financial difficulty assistance even if you have an insurance policy.
- Your card / account may be suspended from the time we receive your application for financial difficulty assistance, and if approved, during the entire period you’re on financial difficulty assistance. Ability to transact post your financial difficulty assistance will be based on your card or account status.
Financial Hardship Information (FHI) includes:
- 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 appear 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. For more information, please refer to creditsmart.org.au
You are entitled to a free credit report every three (3) months and you can request one through any of the Credit Reporting Bodies:
Equifax
- Website: www.equifax.com.au
- Phone: 138 332
- Mailing Address:
Attn: Equifax Public Access
PO Box 964
North Sydney
NSW 2059
Illion
- Website: www.illion.com.au
- Phone: 13 23 33
- Mailing Address:
Attn: Public Access Centre
PO Box 7405
St Kilda Road, Melbourne
VIC 3004
Experian
- Website: www.experian.com.au
- Phone: 1300 783 684
- Mailing Address:
Attn: Consumer Support
GPO Box 1969
North Sydney
NSW 2060
BOQ Credit Card Licensing Information
Bank of Queensland Credit Cards (“Credit Cards”) are issued by National Australia Bank Limited (ABN 12 004 044 937, AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 230686) (“NAB”) and distributed by Bank of Queensland Limited ABN 32 009 656 740 (“BOQ”). NAB has acquired the business relating to the Credit Cards from Citigroup Pty Ltd (ABN 88 004 325 080, AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 238098) ("Citi") and has appointed Citi to assist to administer the Credit Cards.
*Our/us/we means NAB unless the context otherwise requires it.
Financial counselling, resources,
and support services
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 Hotline on 1800 007 007 or https://ndh.org.au/ . The National Debt Helpline can connect you with a financial counsellor by phone, webchat, or in person.
BOQ 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.
You may find the following websites helpful that provide further information on managing your finances and other support services:
- 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.
If you are experiencing domestic and family violence or financial abuse, we can help and also provide information on a range of support services.
What if you are not satisfied?
If we don't meet your expectations and you're not satisfied with our response or handling of your financial difficulty request, you can make a complaint at any time.
FAQs
Contact Us
Call us
Call the Customer Assistance Team on 1800 079 866 between 8:30 am - 5:00 pm AEST, Monday to Friday
Application Form
Download the application form from the "How to apply for financial assistance" section and email or post: Customer Assistance Team, GPO Box 898, Brisbane QLD 4001