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FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY ASSISTANCE

We're here to help if you are struggling to meet your financial commitments.

Request for financial assistance

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 701 997 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:

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 difficulty assistance

Home Loans

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:

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 cards

How can we assist?

We understand that life doesn’t always go to plan and you may experience financial difficulties caused by unemployment, injury, illness, a natural disaster, or other unexpected impacts on your income and expenses. We are here to support you during these tough times.​

The type of assistance that we provide will depend upon your individual circumstances, however some of the types of assistance we provide include:​

• Reduced payment arrangement – if you can’t make the full or minimum monthly repayments, it’s best to keep making smaller payments if you can. We may discuss a reduced payment arrangement with you.​
• Temporary payment break – If you can’t make payments we may discuss a temporary payment break for you. We will also discuss with you a plan for you to be able to resume repayments, following the payment break.​

Please note that amounts in arrears, and interest that you incur, will continue to increase whilst you have one of the above arrangements in place, so these options may not be suitable. You will also not be able to use your card for the duration of these arrangements.​

If you are experiencing financial hardship due to factors such as unemployment, injury, illness, a natural disaster, temporarily reduced income, relationship breakdown, family violence or just need some temporary support we have a Financial Hardship program available to you. ​

You can request assistance by: ​

Calling us on 1800 255 304 Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm or Saturday 9am to 1pm (AEST/AEDT).​

Downloading an Application for Financial Hardship Assistance and emailing the completed form to customer.care@cards.virginmoney.com.au.​

Before you apply for financial hardship assistance, you should read the important information below.

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.​

We may also request that you provide us with supporting documents or information.​

You are not required to provide supporting documents at the time you submit your application. If we do require supporting documents we will let you know.

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 after your financial difficulty assistance will be based on your card or account status.

Extra support when you need it

We understand that during hard times you may need more than financial support. You may need help taking care of the other things going on in your life that are causing money troubles. ​

It takes courage to talk about your circumstances, however help is available. We’ll work with you to find the best possible support.​

We have trusted partners that we can connect you with for more support if you’re experiencing unemployment, domestic and family violence, financial abuse, elder abuse or mental health issues. In some cases, we may provide funding to our partners to ensure you get the support you need.​​

Our specialised support services​
If you’re experiencing a vulnerability that impacts your ability to generally use your credit card or make repayments, including domestic or family violence, elder or financial abuse, or you need an interpreter, contact our dedicated team on 1300 318 057.​

We have a dedicated Indigenous Customer Service line to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers, particularly those living in remote locations. Call 1800 875 442, or if you prefer to speak in an Indigenous language, we have an interpreter service that may speak your preferred language. Ask us about this service during your phone call.

Virgin Money Australia Credit Card Licensing Information

Virgin Money Australia, a division of Bank of Queensland Limited ABN 32 009 656 740, Australian Credit Licence 244616 (“BOQ”), promotes and distributes the Virgin Money Credit Cards ("Credit Cards"). National Australia Bank Limited ABN 12 004 044 937 Australian Credit Licence 230686 (“NAB”) is the credit provider and issuer of the Credit Cards. ​

Our/us/we/The Virgin Money Credit Cards Team means NAB unless the context otherwise requires it. BOQ does not and will not guarantee or otherwise support NAB’s obligations under the contracts or agreements connected with the Credit Cards.

How your credit report is affected by a financial hardship arrangement

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 https://virginmoney.com.au/help/privacy-and-security/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

Equifax

Attn: Equifax Public Access
PO Box 964
North Sydney
NSW 2059

Illion

Attn: Public Access Centre
PO Box 7405
St Kilda Road, Melbourne
VIC 3004

Experian

Attn: Consumer Support
GPO Box 1969
North Sydney
NSW 2060

Need more help?

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. 

Virgin Money Australia 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. 

Other helpful contacts and services PDF

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.

Visit the feedback and complaints page

FAQs