Finding it hard to pay bills can happen to anyone at any time. It may be because you are or have been:
- unwell
- unemployed
- experiencing domestic or family violence
- affected by change in personal or family circumstances, including death of a family member
- on a low or reduced income
- affected by unexpected events or changes to your income or expenses
- affected by a natural disaster
- unable to pay your bill for other reasons.
Payment difficulties can be short term or long term.
If you are experiencing financial difficulties for any of these reasons, you may be considered a financial hardship customer. Your telco must tell you about their payment assistance policy and discuss options to help you. They must try to keep you connected.
What your telco must help you with
Ask your telco for help. Your telco must give you information and advice to:
- help manage your payments
- keep your service connected.
Telcos must:
- have a clear and easy to understand payment assistance policy on their website and app
- offer you options to help – see below
- focus on keeping you connected
- tell you the outcome of a financial hardship application within 2 business days.
Managing payments and keeping you connected
Your telco’s payment assistance policy sets out the options they can give you to help.
Accessing assistance
Ask your telco for help.
You are eligible for assistance from your telco if you are in financial hardship and you want to use one of your telco's options for assistance.
You can find information about your telco’s payment assistance policy on your telco’s website, or by contacting them.
Your options
Your telco must offer at least 6 different options for assistance. They must take your circumstances into account, including your ability to pay, and offer you options that are realistic.
Your telco must offer:
- to postpone, extend or defer the due date for your bill
- a payment plan tailored to meet your ability to pay.
They may also provide options to:
- waive all or part of your bill
- discount your bill
- offer you a free non-automatic payment method
- transfer you to a different product that better suits your needs and budget
- put spend controls on your plan.
It does not matter if you have short-term or long-term difficulties, your telco must offer to help you.
Complaining to your telco
If you make a complaint to your telco, they must treat it as urgent if:
- you have applied for help under their payment assistance policy
- what your complaint is about contributes to your financial difficulties
- disconnection is about to happen
- you are a priority assistance customer using a priority assistance service.
Your telco must resolve your urgent complaint before they can take action on any disputed amounts.
Resources
Our financial hardship fact sheet has information on how to help people who are struggling to pay their telco bills.
We also have resources for consumer groups to raise awareness about how people struggling to pay their bills can get help.
More information
Your telco must follow the rules on financial hardship in the:
- Telecommunications Financial Hardship Standard
- Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018
If you need free financial counselling or urgent help, see the MoneySmart website.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman also has some tips on its website.