BE WARNED: Changes to Credit Reporting

The Australian Government has proposed a change that mandates Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) from 1 July 2018.

Also known as positive credit reporting, the proposed CCR legislation mandates the reporting of positive, as well as negative, credit history – from Australia’s largest financial institutions.

What this means for you?
Today your credit history includes credit enquiries (applications for consumer credit and credit contracts) and negative information (significantly overdue accounts including defaults and serious credit infringements, and public record information).

The proposed change means that additional information, including account open dates, credit limits and up to 24 months of repayment history, will be supplied by your financial institutions to the appropriate credit reporting bodies for all open consumer credit accounts.

Protecting your credit history
It’s important to know that from April 2018, financial institutions will record your comprehensive credit information to comply with the changed legislation and report this to the credit reporting bodies from 1 July 2018.
This means it’s now as important as ever to pay your bills on time, and if you do, this will appear favourably on your credit report.
Setting up automatic payments can take the hassle out of remembering to pay your bills on time and help you to keep your payments on track.

You can find out more about CCR at the Australian Retail Credit Association (ARCA) by visiting the CreditSmart website.

Source: Westpac Banking Australia