The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) can consider a complaint you have about a credit, finance or loan product you have with your financial firm.
This page outlines the types of complaints AFCA can consider about credit, loans and finance products, and what to do next if you want to make a complaint to us.
There are some things we can’t consider; for example – if your complaint concerns the level of an overdrawn fee or interest rate increase. However, we may be able to consider a complaint about a fee or charge if it has been incorrectly calculated or applied to your account. There are also some specific exclusions that relate to credit complaints.
Detailed information about these different types of credit, loan and finance products is available to help you decide if you want to complain to us.
Case Studies
Small business?
If you are a small business, there is specific information about business credit and loans on the Information for Small Businesses page.
Overview
Credit and finance include:
- credit cards, overdrafts and lines of credit
- an organisation that provides credit in connection with the sale of goods, or the supply of services – payment for which is deferred for at least seven days
- short-term finance such as payday lending.
Loans include:
- home loans, including reverse mortgages
- personal loans such as car, holiday loans and debt consolidation loans
- investment and small business loans.
We also consider complaints about guarantees.
Detailed information about these different types of credit, loan and finance products is following to help you decide if you want to complain to us.
Your financial firm is required to suspend any collection or recovery action once your complaint has been registered with us. If you receive any debt collection letters or phone calls from your financial firm, report this to your financial firm’s internal dispute resolution team. If you keep receiving debt collection correspondence contact us.
You should make whatever payments you can while your complaint is with us. This is because interest and fees will usually continue to be charged to your account while the complaint is open. If you do not make repayments, your arrears will increase which is likely to place you in a worse position.
Issues and problems you can complain about
More information about these issues is available to help you decide if you want to complain to us.
- Fees or charges that were incorrectly applied or calculated (but not if your only concern is that you believe the fee or charge was too high).
- Information that you weren’t given about the product or that you were given and you believe was misleading or incorrect, including fees or costs.
- If you’re in financial difficulty and can’t make repayments.
- Decisions that your financial firm has made, including a decision to pursue an unpaid debt and whether a decision to lend was made responsibly.
- If you gave instructions and they weren’t followed.
- Privacy and confidentiality breaches.
- Transactions that were incorrect or unauthorised, or mistaken payments.
More information about these issues is following to help you decide if you want to complain to us.
What to do next
You can make a complaint to AFCA online, by letter, email or by phoning us.
If you don’t want to complain to us directly, you can go back to your financial firm and ask to make a complaint to their internal dispute resolution team.
Your financial firm should be able to provide you with information about how to make a complaint to them.
We also have some tips available to help you make an internal complaint.
