Creditcrest Small Amount

A small or medium amount credit contract costed the way the Code prices one: what is paid, when, and the protected earnings amount tested period by period.

What the borrower pays

$1,440.00 on $1,000.00 of credit

On $1,000 of credit over 6 months, the fees come to $440, which is 44% of the amount borrowed. That is a share of the amount borrowed over the whole term and it is not an annual rate: the Code prices these contracts with two capped fees rather than with a rate, and annualising a short-term advance produces a figure that answers a different question.

National Credit Code s 31A(2) and (3). A small amount credit contract may not impose an interest charge at all — s 23A(1)(a) — so there is no rate on this page and no comparison rate: s 17(4) to (6) excuse the contract document from stating one.

Where the $440.00 of fees comes from

Charge	Amount	The rule
Establishment fee	$200.00	20% of $1,000.00, capped at $200.00 — s 31A(2)
Monthly fee × 6	$240.00	$40.00 a month, capped at $40.00 — s 31A(1)(b) and (3)
Total fees	$440.00	Plus $1,000.00 of credit repaid

If the contract falls into default, s 39B(1) caps what may be recovered at twice the adjusted credit amount — $2,000.00 — with enforcement expenses outside that ceiling under s 39B(3).

At least one fee was not supplied and has been costed at the cap. That is the most the contract could charge rather than what it does charge.

When it is paid

#	Due	Repayment
1	1 November 2026	$240.00
2	1 December 2026	$240.00
3	1 January 2027	$240.00
4	1 February 2027	$240.00
5	1 March 2027	$240.00
6	1 April 2027	$240.00

The protected earnings amount

Every repayment is at or under 10% of the available income expected in its own repayment period. The tightest is period 5, at 8.15% with $54.58 of headroom. Amounts payable under other small amount credit contracts were not supplied, so this is understated.

The protected earnings amount is 10% of the consumer’s available income — income less PAYG withholding — and it applies to every consumer. Until the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022 commenced it was 20% of gross income and applied only where at least half the consumer’s income was a social security payment. A figure taken from an account of the old regime commits MORE than twice as much of a household’s income as the law now allows — twice over, once on the percentage and again on the move from gross income to net.

Every repayment period, because the tightest one decides the contract and an average of them decides nothing.

#	Period	Income expected	10% cap	Payable	Share
1	1 October 2026 to 1 November 2026 32 days	$3,366.58	$336.66	$240.00	7.13%	met
2	2 November 2026 to 1 December 2026 30 days	$3,156.16	$315.62	$240.00	7.60%	met
3	2 December 2026 to 1 January 2027 31 days	$3,261.37	$326.14	$240.00	7.36%	met
4	2 January 2027 to 1 February 2027 31 days	$3,261.37	$326.14	$240.00	7.36%	met
5	2 February 2027 to 1 March 2027 28 days	$2,945.75	$294.58	$240.00	8.15%	met
6	2 March 2027 to 1 April 2027 31 days	$3,261.37	$326.14	$240.00	7.36%	met

The tightest period, worked out:

28 days from 2 February 2027 to 1 March 2027. Available income $3,200 a month × 12 ÷ 365 × 28 days = $2,945.75. Ten per cent of that is $294.58. The repayment is $240, which is $240 — $54.58 under the cap.

National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010, reg 28LCA(2) and (3)The requirement for a repayment that would be required during a repayment period under such a contract with a consumer is that the sum of: (a) the amount of the repayment; and (b) any other amounts the consumer is required to pay under any other small amount credit contracts during the repayment period; would be equal to or less than 10% of the available income the consumer is reasonably expected to receive during the repayment period. … available income, for a consumer, means the consumer’s income less any amount required to be withheld under Part 2-5 in Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Pay as you go (PAYG) withholding). … repayment period: each of the following is a repayment period …: (a) the period: (i) starting on the day the contract is entered into; and (ii) ending on the first repayment date …; (b) a period: (i) starting on the day after a repayment date …; and (ii) ending on the subsequent repayment date …

Equal repayments

met National Credit Act s 133CD(1)(a) and (2)
Every repayment is $240.
met National Credit Act s 133CD(1)(b) and (4)
The intervals run 28 and 30 and 31 days, which is what a monthly repayment on a fixed day of the month does. Section 133CD(4) deems those equal.
met National Credit Act s 133CD(1)(c)
Credit is first provided on 1 October 2026 and the first repayment falls 31 days later. The interval between the first and second repayments is 30 days, so the limit is 60 days.

Findings a licensee has to deal with

Each of these is a fact about the file or about the law, and none of them is a decision. Whether a contract is unsuitable turns in part on the consumer’s requirements and objectives, which is a question about a person and not about a figure.

National Credit Act s 131(3A), repealed by the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022 Sch 4 Pt 1 item 8 — does not apply

Two rebuttable presumptions of unsuitability used to apply to small amount credit contracts — that the consumer is in default under another one, and that the consumer has been a debtor under two or more of them in the preceding 90 days. Reading the compiled Act, Schedule 4 Part 1 of the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022 repealed all four subsections that raised them: ss 118(3A), 123(3A), 131(3A) and 133(3A). That reading was reproduced on 26 September 2026 from compilation No. 52 of the Act on the Federal Register: none of the four sections has a subsection (3A) any more. Either fact is still worth putting in front of an assessor, and a lender’s own policy may make either one a referral.
National Credit Act s 131(3), and s 133(3) in the same words — cannot be told from this file

The file does not say whether the consumer could comply with this contract only by selling their principal place of residence. That is the one rebuttable presumption of unsuitability the Act still raises, and whether it is raised here has not been established.

The presumption is rebuttable — the subsection ends "unless the contrary is proved" — and what rebuts it is evidence that the consumer could comply without selling their principal place of residence. That is the licensee’s to establish and to record.
National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010, reg 28LCF(2) — cannot be told from this file

The file does not say whether this contract is part of an arrangement splitting an identified amount of credit across several contracts. Where it is, and the combination costs more than a single contract could under s 32A, reg 28LCF(2) makes it unsuitable and nothing rebuts that.
National Credit Act s 130(1A) — cannot be told from this file

No statement reading was supplied, so nothing here says whether the ninety days ss 117(1A) and 130(1A) require were obtained. The obligation is to obtain AND consider; obtaining is checkable from the file and considering is not, which is why this reports the days and stops.
National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010, reg 28HB(6) and (7) — cannot be told from this file

Reg 28HB(6) requires the licensee to ascertain whether the consumer receives a payment under the Social Security Act 1991, and the file does not record the answer. Where the answer is yes, reg 28HB(7) requires two Services Australia statements as well as the ninety days.

What kind of contract this is

Every limb of the definition in s 5(1) of the National Credit Act is met, so this is a small amount credit contract and the fee caps in s 31A of the Code apply to it.

Small amount credit contract — National Credit Act s 5(1)

met not a continuing credit contract, and not a low cost credit contract — National Credit Act s 5(1), paragraph (a)
Nothing on the file makes this a continuing credit contract or a low cost credit contract.
met the credit provider is not an ADI — National Credit Act s 5(1), paragraph (b)
The credit provider is not recorded as an authorised deposit-taking institution.
met the credit limit is $2,000 or less — National Credit Act s 5(1), paragraph (c)
The credit limit is $1,000.
met the term is at least 16 days and not longer than 1 year — National Credit Act s 5(1), paragraph (d)
The term runs 182 days, from the day credit is first provided to the last repayment date.
met the debtor’s obligations are not, and will not be, secured — National Credit Act s 5(1), paragraph (e)
The file records that the debtor’s obligations are not secured.

Medium amount credit contract — National Credit Code s 204(1)

met not a continuing credit contract, and not a low cost credit contract — National Credit Code s 204(1), paragraph (a)
Nothing on the file makes this a continuing credit contract or a low cost credit contract.
met the credit provider is not an ADI — National Credit Code s 204(1), paragraph (b)
The credit provider is not recorded as an authorised deposit-taking institution.
not met the credit limit is at least $2,001 and not more than $5,000 — National Credit Code s 204(1), paragraph (c)
The credit limit is $1,000.
met the term is at least 16 days and not longer than 2 years — National Credit Code s 204(1), paragraph (d)
The term runs 182 days, from the day credit is first provided to the last repayment date.

What this page could not settle

No establishment fee was supplied, so this is costed at the cap — 20% of the adjusted credit amount, which is $200. A lender charging less than the cap should say what it charges.
No monthly fee was supplied, so this is costed at the cap — 4% of the adjusted credit amount a month, which is $40.
The last repayment falls on 1 April 2027, which is exactly a monthly anniversary of the day the contract was entered into. A month therefore commences on the day the contract is paid out. Section 31C voids a fee for a month commencing AFTER payout, so on the literal words one further monthly fee would be permitted; 6 have been counted, which is the lower reading.
No amounts payable under the consumer’s other small amount credit contracts were supplied, so nothing has been added under reg 28LCA(2)(b) and every figure below is understated. The statement reading raised no small amount credit signal, which is not evidence that no such contracts exist: a contract repaid from another account does not appear on this one.

Cost another one

The contract

File reference

Whatever the licensee calls this application. It is printed on the page and it is in the link, so it should be a reference and not a person’s name.

Amount of credit

Dollars. The first amount of credit to be provided under the contract. Under $2,000 and unsecured it may be a small amount credit contract; from $2,001 to $5,000 it may be a medium amount one.

…of which is a fee added to the loan

Dollars. Section 204(3)(a) disregards a fee amount that forms part of the first amount of credit when working out the adjusted credit amount, so capitalising a fee does not raise the cap on the fee.

Credit first provided on

The day the contract is entered into. The monthly fee runs from this day under s 31A(1)(b), and the first repayment period under reg 28LCA(3)(a) starts on it.

First repayment due on

Number of repayments

Repaid

Section 133CD(4) deems the intervals equal where repayments fall on a fixed day of each week, fortnight or month, which is why an ordinary monthly contract does not breach s 133CD(1)(b) on a 31-day month.

The debtor’s obligations are

Paragraph (e) of the s 5(1) definition. A secured contract is not a small amount credit contract however small it is, and the definition is what decides which fee cap applies — so this is not defaulted.

Continuing credit

Paragraph (a) of both definitions. A contract under which multiple advances are contemplated and available credit rises as credit is repaid is a continuing credit contract and is outside both.

What it charges

Leave a fee blank and the contract is costed at the cap, which is the most it could charge. The page says where it did that.

Establishment fee

Dollars. Left empty, the contract is costed at the cap — which is the most it could charge, and is marked as assumed.

Monthly fee

Dollars a month. Left empty, costed at the cap.

Annual percentage rate

Per cent a year; 48 means 48%. For a medium amount credit contract only. A small amount credit contract may not impose an interest charge at all (s 23A(1)(a)), and a rate entered against one is reported as a contravention rather than costed.

Refinances another small amount credit contract

Section 31A(1A) permits no establishment fee at all where any of the credit refinances another small amount credit contract.

The consumer

The income figure on this page was typed in. Sections 117(1A) and 130(1A) require a licensee assessing a small amount credit contract to obtain and consider each transaction and the balances on the consumer’s income account for at least the preceding 90 days, and a number in a form is not that. Creditcrest Statement reads those ninety days; the figure it verifies is what belongs here.

Available income

Dollars a month, AFTER tax. Reg 28LCA(3) measures available income as income less PAYG withholding, which is what lands in a bank account. A gross figure here would allow half as much again to be committed as the law permits.

Payable under other small amount credit contracts

Dollars per repayment period. Reg 28LCA(2)(b) counts these towards the same 10%. Left empty, the test below is reported as understated rather than as passed.

Could only comply by selling their home

The one rebuttable presumption of unsuitability the Act still raises, in ss 131(3) and 133(3). It is rebuttable — “unless the contrary is proved” — and what rebuts it is the licensee’s to record.

Part of an arrangement split across several contracts

Reg 28LCF(2). Not a presumption: where the limbs are met the contract is unsuitable and there is nothing to rebut.

Receives a social security payment

Reg 28HB(6) requires the licensee to ascertain this. Where the answer is yes, reg 28HB(7) requires a Services Australia income statement and deduction statement, each issued within the preceding 21 days.

Days of account statements obtained

Sections 117(1A) and 130(1A) require at least 90. This reports what was obtained; whether it was considered is a question about a person’s reasoning and this page does not answer it.

Worked examples

A $1,000 small amount credit contract at the caps
Six monthly repayments. The establishment fee is 20% of $1,000 and the monthly fee is 4% of it, so $440 of fees on $1,000 of credit, repaid as six instalments of $240.
The same contract, with another lender already taking $60 a period
It passes in every month but February, where 28 days of income makes the 10% cap $294.58 against $300 of repayments. Section 133CC(1) does not permit entering into it.
A $3,000 medium amount credit contract at the 48% ceiling
Twelve monthly repayments at 48% a year with a $400 establishment fee. The annual cost rate under s 32B comes out at the cap, because the $400 sits outside it under the F term.
A $1,500 contract secured over a car
Paragraph (e) of s 5(1) is not met, so it is not a small amount credit contract; nor is it a medium amount one, because $1,500 is below the floor. Neither fee cap applies and neither does the protected earnings amount.

The provisions, with the words of each one — and Creditcrest Statement, which is where the ninety days ss 117(1A) and 130(1A) require actually get read.