Comprehensive Credit Reporting.

A credit report is a record of your credit history. It includes:

• personal information to identify you
• loans and other credit you’ve opened or applied for
• a month-by-month repayment history.

You can request a free copy of your credit report every 3 months from any of the credit reporting bodies.

Find out more about credit reporting.

Only lenders (including ME) that have an Australian credit licence, such as banks and credit unions, can report if their customer has entered a financial hardship arrangement. Telecommunications, water, and energy companies are not allowed to report repayment history or financial hardship information for their customers.

This means that a credit report will not show whether an individual has paid their utility, water, or telecommunications bills or if they have entered hardship, with these suppliers.

From July 2022, a new type of information can be reported in a credit report – financial hardship information. From then, if a financial hardship arrangement is put in place, this can be shown in a credit report and the customer’s repayment history will show whether they are meeting the requirements of the hardship arrangement.

Missed repayments will be reported if they are 15 days or more overdue. And if your hardship application is approved, financial hardship information but not the reason why you went into hardship or details of the arrangement must also be reported.

Taking action and contacting us to discuss your situation as soon as possible may help to reduce any negative impacts on your credit score, noting that financial hardship information cannot be used in calculating your credit score.

No, financial hardship arrangements entered with ME before 30 September 2022 will not be reflected in your credit report. ME reports your account but not the repayment history information during a financial hardship arrangement. This means for those periods, the repayments are not reported as overdue, nor are they reported as up to date.
 
Alternatively, prior to 1 July 2022, some lenders may report the same situation as:

1. payments up to date
2. missed payments
3. or, like ME, cease reporting repayment history information during a financial hardship arrangement.

Neither of these approaches tells the full story about your credit history.

Visit CreditSmart, an information website developed by credit experts to help you understand how credit reporting works in Australia. CreditSmart is owned by the Australian Retail Credit Association (ARCA), the peak body for organisations involved in the disclosure, exchange and application of credit reporting data in Australia.

You can contact any of the credit reporting bodies (Equifax, illion and Experian) to ask for a copy of your report – you can get one free copy every 3 months. Each of these bodies is contactable via their website, email or phone – you will be asked to provide personal information in order to confirm your ID. Keep in mind that not every credit reporting body will have information on you and not everybody will have the same information about you.
 
If you’ve ever applied for a loan, a phone or utility plan, or had a loan or credit card, there will be a report on you with a credit reporting body. ME uses credit reports to help assess your ability to repay credit. A credit report is basically a summary of your credit history and includes things like your 24-month repayment history for credit cards, home loans and personal loans, whether or not you are making payments by the due date, as well as payment defaults (where you are overdue by 60 days or more in making a payment), bankruptcies and court judgements.

Only businesses who are participating in Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) – of which ME is one – will be able to access your comprehensive credit report and, even then, only for a limited range of purposes such as when you apply for a loan or if you’re in collections.
 

ME’s Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy outlines how we collect, use, share and protect your credit information.

To get access to the credit information ME holds on you, call 13 15 63 or send us a message using internet banking.

There are three main Australian credit reporting bodies: Equifax, illion and Experian. (Their details are at the end of these FAQs if you want to check them out.)

If you missed a payment on your credit card, personal loan or home loan, it may be recorded as ‘missed’ on your credit report – depending on how late you were. To find out if your payment was late, have a look at your account statement or internet banking to see when your payment was due and when the payment you made was received by ME (sometimes shown on your statement as the day the payment was ‘credited’) – this is the date that counts. If the payment was received by ME on or before the due date or within 14 days after the due date, then the payment will be shown on your credit report as being paid on time. 

For a credit card specifically, you need to make the ‘minimum monthly payment’ (not the full balance of the account) to ensure your repayment history information shows that you’ve paid on time. 

Missed repayments will be reported if they are 15 days or more overdue.

If you’ve only missed one payment, don’t worry too much. The good thing about your repayment history information being recorded is that your credit report will show every time that you made a repayment on time over the previous 24 months.

If you’re struggling to keep up with your credit card, personal loan or home loan repayments because of something unexpected – a medical condition, bereavement, unemployment or a natural disaster – you can make a request for hardship assistance. Hardship assistance is worked out on a case-by-case basis – if you’re in need of it, give us a call on 13 15 63 and we’ll try to work out the best way to get you back on your feet. Taking action and contacting us to discuss your situation as soon as possible may help to reduce any negative impacts on your credit score. Please visit our Financial Hardship Assistance webpage for more details.

Doing the following things may help. Setting up direct debits can help you pay loans, credit cards and bills on time. Redirect your mail, including bills, when you move – so you don’t miss anything important. Close accounts you don’t need and be careful when you are shopping around for credit – making numerous applications in a short period of time can give lenders the wrong impression. Choose a lender, then apply.

There are three main credit reporting bodies who have tips on how to improve your credit score: check out the Equifax, illion and Experian advice.

It’s also a good idea to check your credit report regularly, to make sure there aren’t any mistakes that could be affecting your credit score. And, if you do find a mistake, make sure you ask the relevant credit reporting body to check it.

If the details on your credit report are inaccurate or out of date, you can ask to get them changed at no cost. If you think a mistake has been made about a product that you have with ME, contact us at 13 15 63.

If you think a mistake has been made by another financial institution, you can contact them (which might be easiest) or ask ME to help you fix the mistake by contacting us at 13 15 63. 

Any credit reporting body or credit provider must investigate all correction requests – refer to the relevant credit reporting body in the section “Credit reporting bodies” or to make a complaint with ME refer to section “How do I make a complaint?” to find out how to request a correction.

If you’ve been the victim of fraud or identity theft, you can ask credit reporting bodies not to use the information they hold on you by getting in touch with them directly. (The three main Australian reporting bodies are Equifax, illion and Experian.)

The short answer is no, as long as your credit report is correct. If there is something in your credit report that is incorrect, you can change it yourself at no cost – refer to the question above ‘What if I find a mistake on my credit report?’  A default stays on your record for five years, while a court judgement or bankruptcy stays on your record for up to seven years. There is nothing a credit repair company can do about either of these things, but you may be able to improve your credit score over time by making timely repayments on any outstanding debts. Refer to the question above ‘Is there anything I can do to improve my credit score?’

If there’s an issue with how your credit information has been handled by ME, get in touch with us 13 15 63 or send us a message using internet banking.