What is your repayment history?

Information about your repayment history (sometimes called ‘repayment history information’ or RHI) is information about whether you have met your consumer credit payment obligations in a particular month.

RHI includes information about whether you have made a payment on time, or whether you have missed a payment.

RHI is different to a ‘default’, which is information about a payment of $150 or more that has been overdue for at least 60 days. A credit provider must give you specific notices before information about a default can be included in your consumer credit report.

Why is your credit report permitted to include information about your repayment history?

Information about your repayment history is primarily intended to help a credit provider make sure that it does not give you credit that is unsuitable – such as a loan that you can’t repay without suffering substantial hardship, or a contract that doesn’t meet your requirements and objectives.

When are you considered to have missed a payment?

You will be considered to have missed a consumer credit payment if you make the payment more than 14 days after the day it was due to be paid.

What if you pay some, but not all, the payments that are due in a month?

If you miss even one consumer credit payment that is due to be paid in a particular month, you will be recorded as having not met your consumer credit obligations for that month.

For example, if you enter into a loan contract that requires you to make two repayments each month, and you only make one payment in a particular month, your consumer credit report will show that you did not make your monthly repayments for that month. It does not matter that you made one of the two payments.

What if you only pay part of the amount owing?

If you only pay part of the amount owing, you are taken to have missed a payment.

However, in relation to credit cards, you are only taken to have missed a payment if you fail to make the ‘minimum payment due’ (as indicated on your credit card bill).

Can your credit report include the amount of a missed payment?

Information about your repayment history does not include the amount of any missed payment — only the fact that you have made or missed a payment.

What types of missed credit payments can be included in your credit report as part of your repayment history?

Your consumer credit report can only include information about consumer credit payments that you make, or do not make, to a credit provider that holds an Australian Credit Licence.

Common types of credit provided by a credit provider that holds an Australian Credit Licence include:

• home loans
• personal loans, and
• credit cards.

What types of payments cannot be included in your credit report as part of your repayment history?

Your consumer credit report will not include information about whether you have made or missed a payment in relation to:

• your electricity, water or gas bill
• telecommunications contracts (including your mobile phone and internet bill)
• public transport or toll road bills, and
• bills for other goods and services provided to you on credit.

Who can handle information about your repayment history?

Only credit providers that hold an Australian Credit Licence can access information about your repayment history. This includes:

• banks
• building societies
• credit unions
• credit card companies, and
• some small amounts lenders (payday lenders) that provide contracts for credit of up to $2000 for a term of between 16 days and one year

Who cannot handle information about your repayment history?

The following credit providers will not be able to see information about your repayment history:

• electricity, gas and water utilities
• telecommunications carriers
• toll road and public transport operators, and
• retail companies that permit you to defer payment for goods or services.

Can information about your repayment history affect your ability to obtain credit?

Credit providers use the personal information contained in your consumer credit report to assist them in deciding whether to grant your application for credit.

If a credit provider holds an Australian Credit Licence they may be able to see information about your repayment history.

Importantly, this means that if you consistently make your consumer credit payments on time a credit provider will be able to see this in your credit report.

However, this also means that if you do not make payments on time it may affect your ability to obtain certain types of credit in the future (such as a home loan, a personal loan or a credit card) .

How will you know if information about your repayment history will be included in your credit report?

At or before the time a credit provider collects information about your repayment history it must inform you if it intends to disclose that information to a credit reporting body (CRB). A credit provider will usually inform you of this when you enter into a credit contract (such as a mortgage contract) with that provider.

This means that a credit provider cannot disclose information about your repayment history that pre-dates that notice.

How far back will your RHI go?

Information about any particular payment cannot be held by a CRB (and included in your consumer credit report) for more than two years.

How will RHI appear in your credit report?

If you make all your consumer credit payments that are due to be paid in a particular month on time, a ‘0’ will appear on your consumer credit report next to that month.

Information about any payments that you have missed will appear in your consumer credit report as a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, X next to the month in which the payment was due. A higher number (or ‘X’) will indicate that the payment has been overdue for longer.

A CRB or a credit provider that provides you with a copy of your consumer credit report should also provide you with a summary and explanation of the information contained on that report (including in relation to your RHI).

If you need to check what is on your credit file today, MyCRA Lawyers (Tel: 1300-667-218) can help you get a copy (with no trace of MyCRA Lawyers) of your Equifax (Formerly Veda Advantage) Credit file (with your credit score) and a copy of your Dun & Bradstreet credit file from within one business hour…

To get a copy of your Equifax (Formerly Veda Advantage) and your Dun & Bradstreet credit reports, call MyCRA Lawyers on 1300 667 218 now.

If you are worried that Repayment History Information might be stopping you getting your finance, Call MyCRA Lawyers have been successful in removing Bad Credit Listing from credit files.

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Originally published here