Every figure this surface produces, beside the provision it comes from, quoted rather than paraphrased. A paraphrase of a statute published by a company that holds no credit licence is legal advice with the citation filed off.
National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth), compilation No. 52, compilation date 1 July 2026, includes amendments up to Act No. 57, 2026. National Credit Code (Schedule 1 to the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009), in the same compilation. National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010 (Cth), compilation No. 57, compilation date 5 September 2026.
What makes a contract one of these
Two definitions in two different instruments, and they are not mirror images: only the small amount one has a security limb, and the term ceilings differ.
National Credit Act s 5(1)small amount credit contract: a credit contract is a small amount credit contract if: (a) the contract is not a continuing credit contract or a low cost credit contract; and (b) the credit provider under the contract is not an ADI; and (c) the credit limit of the contract is $2,000 (or such other amount as is prescribed by the regulations) or less; and (d) the term of the contract is at least 16 days but not longer than 1 year (or such other number of years as is prescribed by the regulations); and (e) the debtor’s obligations under the contract are not, and will not be, secured; and (f) the contract meets any other requirements prescribed by the regulations.
National Credit Code s 204(1)medium amount credit contract: a credit contract is a medium amount credit contract if: (a) the contract is not a continuing credit contract or a low cost credit contract; and (b) the credit provider under the contract is not an ADI; and (c) the credit limit of the contract is: (i) at least $2,001 (or such other amount as is prescribed by the regulations); but (ii) not more than $5,000 (or such other amount as is prescribed by the regulations); and (d) the term of the contract is at least 16 days but not longer than 2 years (or such other number of years as is prescribed by the regulations); and (e) the contract meets any other requirements prescribed by the regulations.
National Credit Code s 204(1)continuing credit contract means a credit contract under which: (a) multiple advances of credit are contemplated; and (b) the amount of available credit ordinarily increases as the amount of credit is reduced.
What may be charged, and what may not
A small amount credit contract may not impose an interest charge at all. Its price is an establishment fee of up to 20% of the adjusted credit amount and a monthly fee of up to 4% of it, and nothing else but default fees and government charges.
National Credit Code s 23A(1)A small amount credit contract must not impose a monetary liability on the debtor: (a) in respect of an interest charge (including a default rate of interest) under the contract; or (b) in respect of a fee or charge prohibited by this Code; or (c) in respect of an amount of a fee or charge exceeding the amount that may be charged consistently with this Code.
National Credit Code s 27AThis Division does not apply to a small amount credit contract.
National Credit Code s 17(4), (5) and (6)In the case of a credit contract other than a small amount credit contract, the contract document must contain: (a) the annual percentage rate or rates under the contract … the method of calculation of the interest charges payable under the contract … the total amount of interest charges payable under the contract, if ascertainable.
National Credit Code s 31A(1)A small amount credit contract must not impose or provide for fees and charges if the fees and charges are not of the following kind: (a) a permitted establishment fee; (b) a fee or charge (a permitted monthly fee) that is payable on a monthly basis starting on the day the contract is entered into; (c) a fee or charge that is payable in the event of a default in payment under the contract; (d) a government fee, charge or duty payable in relation to the contract.
National Credit Code s 31A(2)A permitted establishment fee is a fee or charge the amount of which must not exceed 20% of the adjusted credit amount in relation to the small amount credit contract.
National Credit Code s 31A(3)The amount of a permitted monthly fee that may be imposed or provided for under a small amount credit contract must not exceed 4% of the adjusted credit amount in relation to the contract.
National Credit Code s 204(1) and (3)adjusted credit amount, in relation to a small amount credit contract, means the first amount of credit that is, or is to be, provided under the contract. … In working out the first amount of credit … the following amounts are to be disregarded: (a) if some or all of the amount of a fee or charge (the fee amount) payable in relation to the contract forms, or is to form, part of the first amount of credit … the fee amount.
National Credit Code s 31A(1A)Despite subsection (1), a small amount credit contract must not impose or provide for a permitted establishment fee if any of the amount of credit to be provided under the contract is to refinance any of the amount of credit provided to the debtor under another small amount credit contract.
National Credit Code s 31C(1) and (2)A credit provider must not require or accept payment by the debtor under a small amount credit contract of an unexpired monthly fee. … An unexpired monthly fee in relation to a small amount credit contract is each permitted monthly fee that is in respect of a month that commences after the date on which the contract is paid out.
National Credit Code s 39B(1) and (3)If there is a default in payment under a small amount credit contract, the credit provider in relation to the contract must not (whether by repayments under the contract or otherwise) recover more than twice the adjusted credit amount in relation to the contract. … This section does not apply to enforcement expenses.
National Credit Code s 78(3)In determining whether an establishment fee or charge is unconscionable, the court is to have regard to whether the amount of the fee or charge is equal to the credit provider’s reasonable costs of determining an application for credit and the initial administrative costs of providing the credit or is equal to the credit provider’s average reasonable costs of those things in respect of that class of contract.
The 48% cap, which applies to a medium amount credit contract and not to a small one
Section 32A(4)(b) puts small amount credit contracts outside the annual cost rate cap entirely, which is the clearest thing the Code says about how these two products are meant to be priced.
National Credit Code s 32A(1) and (4)A credit provider must not enter into a credit contract if the annual cost rate of the contract exceeds 48%. … This section does not apply if: (a) the credit provider is an ADI; or (b) the credit contract is a low cost credit contract, small amount credit contract or bridging finance contract.
National Credit Code s 32B(1) and (2)The annual cost rate of a credit contract must be calculated as a nominal rate per annum, together with the compounding frequency, using the formula: n × r × 100%. … The equation for the purposes of the definition of r … is: the sum from j = 0 to t of Aj ÷ (1 + r)^j equals the sum from j = 0 to t of (Rj + Cj) ÷ (1 + r)^j minus F. … F is: (a) if the credit contract is a medium amount credit contract—$400 (or such other amount as is prescribed by the regulations) … (c) otherwise—$0.
Ninety days of account statements
The obligation this product line exists to discharge. It is to obtain AND consider, and only the first half of that is a thing software can show.
National Credit Act s 130(1A)If: (a) the credit contract is a small amount credit contract; and (b) the consumer holds (whether alone or jointly with another person) an account with an ADI into which income payable to the consumer is credited; the licensee must, in verifying the consumer’s financial situation for the purposes of paragraph 128(d), obtain and consider information about each transaction on the account, and the balances of the account, during at least the immediately preceding period of 90 days.
National Credit Act s 117(1A)If: (a) the credit contract is a small amount credit contract; and (b) the consumer holds (whether alone or jointly with another person) an account with an ADI into which income payable to the consumer is credited; the licensee must, in verifying the consumer’s financial situation for the purposes of paragraph 115(1)(d), obtain and consider information about each transaction on the account, and the balances of the account, during at least the immediately preceding period of 90 days.
National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010, reg 28HB(6) and (7)The licensee must ascertain whether the consumer is receiving a payment (a social security payment) under the Social Security Act 1991. … If the licensee ascertains … that the consumer is receiving a social security payment, then the licensee must obtain, and consider, the information contained in the following documents to verify the consumer’s financial situation: (a) an income statement for the consumer issued by Services Australia during the period of 21 days ending on the day on which the licensee considers the information contained in the income statement; (b) a deduction statement for the consumer issued by Services Australia during the period of 21 days ending on the day on which the licensee considers the information contained in the deduction statement.
The protected earnings amount
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.
National Credit Act s 133CC(1)A licensee must not enter into, or offer to enter into, a small amount credit contract with a consumer who will be the debtor under the contract if the repayments that would be required under the contract would not meet the requirements prescribed by the regulations.
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 …
National Credit Act s 133CC(3)If a licensee enters into a small amount credit contract in contravention of subsection (1), then: (a) the consumer is not liable (and is taken never to have been liable) to pay a fee or charge of a kind mentioned in paragraph 31A(1)(a), (b), (c) or (d) of the National Credit Code under that small amount credit contract … and (b) the consumer may recover as a debt due to the consumer any amounts paid by the consumer that … the consumer is not liable to pay.
Equal repayments
National Credit Act s 133CD(1) to (4)A licensee must not enter into, or offer to enter into, a small amount credit contract with a consumer who will be the debtor under the contract if any of the following applies: (a) repayments that would be required under the contract are not equal; (b) the intervals between repayment dates would not be equal; (c) the interval between the date on which credit would be first provided under the contract and the first repayment date would be longer than twice the interval between the first repayment date and the second repayment date. … repayments … are taken to be equal if: (a) each repayment is of the same amount; or (b) both of the following apply: (i) each repayment (other than the last repayment) is the same amount; (ii) the last repayment is up to 5% less than each other repayment … if a small amount credit contract provides that: (a) repayments … are to be made on or by a fixed day of each week, fortnight or month; and (b) if that fixed day falls on a day that is not a business day—the repayment would be required to be made on or by the immediately preceding or succeeding business day; the intervals between repayment dates are taken to be equal.
Unsuitability: one presumption, one prescribed circumstance, and two repeals
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 wordsFor the purposes of paragraph (2)(a), it is presumed that, if the consumer could only comply with the consumer’s financial obligations under the contract by selling the consumer’s principal place of residence, the consumer could only comply with those obligations with substantial hardship, unless the contrary is proved.
National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010, reg 28LCF(2)A credit contract is unsuitable for a consumer if: (a) the consumer’s requirements and objectives are to receive an identified amount of credit; and (b) the credit contract is part of an arrangement by which the identified amount of credit is provided, or to be provided, by: (i) 2 or more small amount credit contracts; or (ii) 2 or more medium amount credit contracts; or (iii) a combination of low cost credit contracts, small amount credit contracts or medium amount credit contracts, being a combination that includes contracts of at least 2 of those kinds; and (c) the amount that is payable under the combination of credit contracts (in circumstances in which there is no default by the debtor) is higher than the maximum amount that could be charged under a single credit contract under section 32A of the Code.
National Credit Act s 131(3A), repealed by the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022 Sch 4 Pt 1 item 8If the contract is a small amount credit contract (the relevant contract) and either of the following apply: (a) at the time of the assessment: (i) the consumer is a debtor under another small amount credit contract; and (ii) the consumer is in default in payment of an amount under that other contract; (b) in the 90-day period before the time of the assessment, the consumer has been a debtor under 2 or more other small amount credit contracts; then, for the purposes of paragraph (2)(a), it is presumed that the consumer could only comply with the consumer’s financial obligations under the relevant contract with substantial hardship, unless the contrary is proved.
Sections 118(3A), 123(3A), 131(3A) and 133(3A) were repealed by Schedule 4, Part 1, items 4, 5, 8 and 9 of the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022 (Act No. 87, 2022). The application provision inserted by item 78 of that Schedule is headed "Amendments of the National Credit Act—repeal of rebuttable presumptions" and applies the repeals to proceedings commenced on or after the commencement of that Part.
Around the edges
Two further obligations this engine does not model, recorded because a lender in this market has to meet them and because leaving them out would suggest the list above is the whole regime.
National Credit Act s 323A(2)Each of the following is an avoidance purpose: (a) to prevent a contract from being a small amount credit contract, a low cost credit contract or a consumer lease; (b) to cause a contract to cease to be a small amount credit contract, a low cost credit contract or a consumer lease; (c) to avoid the application of a provision of this Act to a small amount credit contract, a low cost credit contract or a consumer lease …
National Credit Act s 133CB(1) and (2), and s 124B in the same words for credit assistanceIf a licensee represents that the licensee enters into, or is able to enter into, small amount credit contracts with consumers under which the licensee would be the credit provider, the licensee must: (a) display information; and (b) give information to consumers; in accordance with any determination made by ASIC under subsection (2). … ASIC may, by legislative instrument, determine one or more of the following matters …
What could not be established
Two things on this page are gaps rather than findings, and they are printed here because a list of provisions that quietly omitted them would read as complete.
What “consider” means in ss 117(1A) and 130(1A). The subsections require a licensee to obtain and consider ninety days of transactions and balances. No judgment construing the word “consider” in either subsection was found. ASIC v The Cash Store Pty Ltd (in liq) [2014] FCA 926 is the leading responsible-lending decision, and it was decided on conduct predating these subsections. So this software reports what was obtained and says, every time, that whether it was considered is a question about a person’s reasoning.
Whether ASIC has made the determination ss 124B(2) and 133CB(2) contemplate. Since the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022, the warning statement a small amount credit lender must display and give is whatever ASIC determines by legislative instrument, and the Schedules of the Credit Regulations that used to prescribe it — Schedules 7, 8 and 9 — were repealed by F2023L00540. No current determination was found on the Federal Register of Legislation or in ASIC’s own index of legislative instruments. That is a search that came back empty and not a finding that none exists, and a lender should check rather than rely on this sentence.