Your rights as a debtor in Australia

If a debt has caught up with you, the situation feels worse than it is. Australian consumer law gives debtors meaningful protections — and several free escalation routes if a collector oversteps.

What collectors must do

Under the ACCC/ASIC Debt Collection Guideline, anyone collecting a debt from you in Australia must:

  • Accurately identify the original creditor, amount, and basis of the debt.
  • Limit contact to reasonable hours (7:30am–9pm weekdays).
  • Respect a reasonable contact-frequency cap (no more than 3 phone calls per week).
  • Genuinely consider any hardship request you make.
  • Provide written confirmation of the debt on request.

What collectors must not do

  • Threaten action they aren't actually entitled to take.
  • Use abusive, humiliating, or shaming language.
  • Discuss your debt with third parties (employer, family) without consent, except in tightly limited circumstances.
  • Penalise you for raising a dispute or hardship request.
  • Continue collection activity while a hardship review is genuinely in progress.

Hardship — your strongest lever

If you genuinely can't pay right now, submit a hardship application. Recovery activity must pause while the review happens. Hardship outcomes can include:

  • Reduced repayment amount over a longer period.
  • A complete payment pause for 30–90 days.
  • Waiver of fees or interest accrued during a hardship period.
  • In rare cases, partial debt forgiveness.

There's a fuller hardship application guide here.

How to escalate

If you think you're being treated unfairly:

  1. Internal complaint to the collector's resolutions team.
  2. AFCA — free, independent, binding for the financial firm. See when to use AFCA.
  3. ASIC for systemic conduct issues.
  4. State consumer body — NSW Fair Trading, CAV, Office of Fair Trading QLD, etc.