Privacy Act Reforms

As part of the reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), new kinds of credit-related personal information can be collected about you. This includes whether you have made or missed a consumer credit payment. This new type of information is called ‘repayment history information’ (RHI).

RHI includes information about whether you have made a payment on time or whether you have missed a payment on your consumer credit payment obligations. If you only pay part of the amount owing, you are taken to have missed a payment.

RHI includes the day on which a payment is due, and if you made a payment after that day, the date on which you paid. Therefore, RHI can include both positive and negative information about your credit history. It does not include the amount of any missed payment — only the fact that you have made or missed a payment. You will only need to be 5 days late with a payment for it to be recorded as a missed payment.

RHI can include information about any consumer credit payments that you make, or fail to make, to a credit provider that holds an Australian Credit Licence. This means that RHI will usually reflect made or missed payments on a loan or credit card.

RHI can only relate to payments that you have made or missed from December 2012. Then from March 2014 licenced credit providers can pass your RHI on to credit reporting bodies.

From March 2014, credit reporting bodies can disclose your RHI, along with other credit-related personal information, to licenced credit providers. This means that if you fail to make the full amount of a payment on time from December 2012 it may affect your ability to obtain credit in the future.

For more information, http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacy-fact-sheets/credit-and-finance/privacy-fact-sheet-16-credit-reporting-repayment-history-information