{ "service": "Creditcrest Collections", "what": "Hardship on the statutory clock: what the dates give, and the provision each period comes from.", "version": "1.0.0", "not_advice": "Creditcrest Technologies is not a credit provider, is not a credit assistance provider, and does not hold an Australian credit licence. Its software produces evidence; the licensee makes the decision.", "not_a_decision": "This reports what the provisions say and what the dates give. It does not decide whether hardship assistance should be given, does not rate the borrower, and does not authorise any enforcement step.", "stores": "nothing", "today_is_taken_in": "Australia/Sydney", "endpoints": { "GET /v1/hardship-clock": { "what": "Put a hardship matter on the statutory clock. Any of the query fields below; `notice` is the one without which there is no clock." }, "GET /v1/hardship-clock/provisions": { "what": "Every period this engine knows, with the provision it comes from, for a credit contract and for a consumer lease." } }, "query": { "ref": { "takes": "text", "what": "File reference", "note": "Whatever the provider calls this matter. It is printed on the page and it is in the link — so it should be a reference, not a person’s name." }, "contract": { "takes": [ "credit_contract", "consumer_lease" ], "what": "The contract is a", "note": "A consumer lease has the same periods under different sections, and this quotes whichever set applies." }, "notice": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Hardship notice received", "note": "The day it arrived, not the day somebody filed it. Every period in s 72 runs from this day.", "required": true }, "noticeTo": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "…or by this day, if only the week is known", "note": "Where the file records a range, every period runs from the earliest day in it." }, "channel": { "takes": [ "phone", "in_person", "online_form", "email", "letter", "sms", "other" ], "what": "The notice arrived", "note": "REP 782 para 335(a). A hardship notice may be given orally (s 72(1)), and ASIC found those are the ones most often missed — so whether this channel is an oral one is read off the list rather than guessed from what somebody typed." }, "represented": { "takes": [ "financial_counsellor", "other_representative", "none" ], "what": "Acting for the borrower", "note": "REP 782 para 335(b). A fact about the file. Whether it should change anything the provider does is not this page’s to say, and it does not say it." }, "reason": { "takes": [ "overcommitment", "reduced_income", "unemployment", "medical", "separation", "bereavement", "business_downturn", "parental_leave", "abuse", "natural_disaster", "other" ], "several": "separated by commas", "what": "The borrower said the hardship was", "note": "REP 782 para 335(c). ASIC’s own categories, from Table 15 of that report, separated by commas where more than one applies — ASIC’s note on the figure says a customer could give more than one. A category is not the borrower’s words and does not replace them." }, "identified": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Recognised as a hardship notice on", "note": "The day the provider’s own systems recorded it as one. It starts no clock, and the gap is reported." }, "requested": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Information asked for on", "note": "A notice under s 72(2). The provider may give one, once, within 21 days." }, "stated": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "…the date stated in that notice", "note": "Item 2 of the s 72(5) table runs 28 days from this date, not from the day the notice was sent." }, "received": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Information received on", "note": "Item 3 runs 21 days from this day — but only where the information came inside the time the notice gave for it." }, "decided": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Decision notice given on", "note": "The notice under s 72(4)." }, "outcome": { "takes": [ "agreed", "not_agreed" ], "what": "…and it said", "note": "Section 89A holds enforcement until a notice saying the parties did not agree has been given and 14 days have passed." }, "declineReason": { "takes": "text", "at_most_characters": 600, "what": "…and the reason recorded for not agreeing", "note": "REP 782 para 335(e). Free text, because a decline reason reduced to a dropdown code is the “overly generic” reason ASIC found inadequate at para 275. Up to 600 characters, printed as a quotation of the file and never as this page’s own words. This page does not judge whether it is adequate — and remember that whatever is typed here travels in the link." }, "agreed": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Agreement reached on", "note": "The date of the agreement, which is what the 30 days in s 73(1) run from. It is asked for separately because it need not be the day the decision was posted." }, "deferral": { "takes": "a number", "what": "…deferring obligations for, in days", "note": "Sections 72(4A) and 73(1A) remove both notices where a change defers or reduces obligations for not more than 90 days. Every lender ASIC reviewed gave them anyway." }, "assistance": { "takes": [ "deferral", "payment_arrangement", "interest_only", "term_extension", "capitalisation_of_arrears", "arrears_payment_arrangement", "serviceability_period", "interest_rate_reduction", "supported_sale", "other" ], "several": "separated by commas", "what": "…and the assistance given was", "note": "REP 782 para 335(f). ASIC’s own kinds, from Tables 8 to 10 of that report, separated by commas — ASIC saw them offered in combination as often as singly." }, "changed": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Particulars of the change given on", "note": "The written notice under s 73(1)." }, "withdrawn": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Notice withdrawn on", "note": "Recorded, and not treated as closing anything: ASIC counts a withdrawal as dropping out of the process rather than as an outcome." }, "complaint": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Complaint received on", "note": "RG 271.93 puts a hardship complaint on a 21 calendar day maximum of its own." }, "answered": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "…answered in writing on" }, "defaulted": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Default notice given on", "note": "A notice under s 88." }, "remedyBy": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "…the day it states for remedying the default", "note": "Section 88(1)(b) requires at least 30 days from the date of the notice." }, "postponed": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Postponement request received on", "note": "A request under s 94(1). It creates a second, independent hold on enforcement." }, "postponedAnswered": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "…answered in writing on" }, "earlier": { "takes": "days, YYYY-MM-DD, separated by commas", "what": "Earlier hardship notices", "note": "Days, separated by commas. One inside the four months before this notice is what s 89A(1)(c) turns on." }, "amend": { "takes": "text", "at_most_characters": 300, "what": "Amendments to a due date", "note": "One per line, each written as which date | the day it moves to | the day the amendment was made | why. The day it was made may be left empty; the reason may not. Every line is kept and shown, including one that moves nothing." }, "balance": { "takes": "a number", "what": "Balance owing", "note": "Dollars." }, "rate": { "takes": "a number", "what": "Contract rate", "note": "Per cent a year. 6.5 means 6.5%." }, "repayment": { "takes": "a number", "what": "Contractual repayment", "note": "Dollars a month, under the contract as it stands." }, "plan": { "takes": [ "deferral", "reduced_payment" ], "what": "The arrangement is a" }, "months": { "takes": "a number", "what": "For", "note": "Whole months." }, "pay": { "takes": "a number", "what": "…paying, each month", "note": "Dollars. Used only for a reduced payment." }, "asAt": { "takes": "a day, YYYY-MM-DD", "what": "Read the clock as at", "note": "Defaults to today in Australian Eastern time. Set it and the link answers the same way whenever it is opened." } }, "the_six_asic_could_not_get": { "what": "ASIC asked ten large home lenders for their hardship data and named six fields none of them could reliably supply, because the facts sat in free-text notes or nowhere. Every matter on this clock reports all six as recorded or as not recorded.", "source": { "cite": "ASIC Report 782 (May 2024), paras 335–337", "quote": "Some examples of the data or data fields that lenders were unable to provide included: (a) the channel through which the hardship notice was received; (b) whether the customer was represented by a third party (e.g. a financial counsellor); (c) the customer’s reason for giving a hardship notice; (d) whether information requests had been made and if so, the dates on which those information requests had been and the date of the customer’s response; (e) the reason for declining the customer’s hardship notice; and (f) the specific type of assistance provided. … The most common reasons for lenders not being able to provide this information was that it was not captured in a structured way in the lender’s system. In some cases, this information was captured in free-text notes that lenders could extract with some effort and caveats but in other cases it could not be produced at all. … We are concerned that some of the information that lenders were unable to produce was relevant to allowing the lender to monitor whether they were complying with legislative timeframes (e.g. dates of information requests), and in monitoring customer experience and outcomes (e.g. reasons for declines)." }, "fields": [ { "id": "channel", "what": "How the hardship notice arrived", "asic": "the channel through which the hardship notice was received", "para": "para 335(a)" }, { "id": "represented", "what": "Whether somebody was acting for the borrower", "asic": "whether the customer was represented by a third party (e.g. a financial counsellor)", "para": "para 335(b)" }, { "id": "reason", "what": "What the borrower said the hardship was", "asic": "the customer’s reason for giving a hardship notice", "para": "para 335(c)" }, { "id": "information", "what": "Whether information was asked for, when, and when it was answered", "asic": "whether information requests had been made and if so, the dates on which those information requests had been and the date of the customer’s response", "para": "para 335(d)" }, { "id": "declineReason", "what": "The reason recorded for not agreeing", "asic": "the reason for declining the customer’s hardship notice", "para": "para 335(e)" }, { "id": "assistance", "what": "The kind of assistance given", "asic": "the specific type of assistance provided", "para": "para 335(f)" } ] }, "the_notice_ledger": { "what": "Every notice the provisions require for the events on a matter, each one recorded with its date or reported as not produced, with the days of each period that have run. Sealed through record.js so that a changed entry is detectable.", "why": "ASIC v Westpac [2026] FCA 651: at least 1,013 applications from 1,003 customers were never processed and 277 people received no written decision at all. A reconciliation report existed and its exceptions were never escalated.", "states": { "recorded": "Recorded", "not_produced": "Not produced", "not_required": "Not required on these events", "cannot_tell": "Cannot be told" }, "notices": [ { "id": "information_request", "notice": "A notice requiring the borrower to give specified information", "required_when": "never — the Code says the provider may give one, not that it must" }, { "id": "decision_notice", "notice": "The notice of the decision", "required_when": "on every hardship notice, unless the change agreed defers or reduces obligations for not more than 90 days" }, { "id": "change_notice", "notice": "Written particulars of the change", "required_when": "where the provider and the borrower agreed to change the contract" }, { "id": "idr_response", "notice": "A written response to the complaint", "required_when": "where a complaint involving the hardship notice is recorded" }, { "id": "postponement_notice", "notice": "The written answer to the postponement request", "required_when": "where a request to negotiate a postponement of enforcement is recorded" }, { "id": "default_notice", "notice": "The default notice", "required_when": "before enforcement proceedings begin" } ], "not_a_finding": "This is a list of what this file records and what it does not. It is not a finding that any obligation was contravened, and no entry on it is a judgement about the provider or about the borrower." }, "amendable_due_dates": { "what": "The due dates on a matter that belong to the provider rather than to the Code, and may therefore be moved. Every change carries a reason, the trail is append-only, and an amendment naming a day the Code sets is kept on the trail and reported as having moved nothing.", "why": "ASIC REP 782 records a lender whose home loan hardship system would not allow a decision due date to be altered once set, so customers were declined before the deadline for supplying the information they had been asked for had expired.", "write_each_as": "which date | the day it moves to | the day the amendment was made | why. One per line, or one `amend` parameter each.", "dates": { "borrower-information-due": { "what": "The day the borrower is being given to supply the information", "whose": "the provider", "may_move": "later only", "because": "The provider may give the borrower longer than its notice first gave. It may not give less: s 72(2) provides for the information within 21 days of the date stated in the notice.", "does_not_move": { "what": "The decision period", "why": "Item 2 of the table in s 72(5) runs from the date stated in the s 72(2) notice and not from the day the borrower is given, so extending the borrower’s day leaves the day the decision notice is due exactly where it was." } }, "decision-working-due": { "what": "The day the provider is working to for its own decision", "whose": "the provider", "may_move": "either way, up to the statutory day", "because": "This is the provider’s own date and not the Code’s. It may be earlier than the statutory day — a provider may hold itself to less time than the law allows — and it may not be later than it.", "does_not_move": { "what": "The statutory day", "why": "The day the table in s 72(5) gives is printed beside this one and is not touched by anything done here, so a working date and a statutory date can never be mistaken for one another." } } } }, "statuses": { "met": "Done", "met_late": "Done, late", "due": "Due", "overdue": "Overdue", "not_applicable": "Does not apply", "cannot_tell": "Cannot be told" }, "examples": [ { "title": "A decision that never came", "what": "A notice given by phone on 1 August, information asked for on the 5th, nothing received, and no decision. Item 2 of the s 72(5) table gives 28 days from the stated date — so the period ended on 2 September.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-9001¬ice=2026-08-01&channel=phone&identified=2026-08-06&requested=2026-08-05&stated=2026-08-05&asAt=2026-09-19" }, { "title": "Information that arrived too late to be item 3", "what": "The same file, with the information arriving on 1 October. Read from the day it arrived the period would end on 22 October; read from the provision it ended on 2 September, seven weeks earlier.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-9001¬ice=2026-08-01&channel=phone&requested=2026-08-05&stated=2026-08-05&received=2026-10-01&asAt=2026-10-15" }, { "title": "An arrangement that does not repay the debt", "what": "A $420,000 balance at 6.2%, a $2,580 contractual repayment, and $600 a month for twelve months. The payment is less than the interest, so the balance grows every month of it.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-4412¬ice=2026-09-01&requested=2026-09-03&stated=2026-09-03&received=2026-09-15&balance=420000&rate=6.2&repayment=2580&plan=reduced_payment&months=12&pay=600&asAt=2026-09-19" }, { "title": "A file that cannot answer four of ASIC’s six questions", "what": "A decline, on dates that are all present and correct. How the notice arrived, whether anybody was acting for the borrower, what the borrower said the hardship was and why the provider did not agree are none of them recorded, and the page says so rather than showing four blanks.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-5520¬ice=2026-07-06&requested=2026-07-10&stated=2026-07-10&received=2026-07-20&decided=2026-08-07&outcome=not_agreed&asAt=2026-09-19" }, { "title": "The same file, with all six recorded", "what": "Every deadline is identical. What changed is that the file can now be counted — and the decline reason is printed as a quotation of the file, which this page does not judge.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-5520¬ice=2026-07-06&channel=phone&represented=financial_counsellor&reason=medical,reduced_income&requested=2026-07-10&stated=2026-07-10&received=2026-07-20&decided=2026-08-07&outcome=not_agreed&declineReason=The+reduced+income+is+permanent+rather+than+temporary%2C+and+on+the+figures+supplied+on+20+July+the+household+cannot+meet+the+contractual+repayment+at+the+end+of+any+deferral+we+could+offer.&asAt=2026-09-19" }, { "title": "A notice that does not exist, on a file where every date is present", "what": "The 1 August file again. The ledger lists every notice the provisions require on these events, says that no notice is recorded under s 72(4), and prints how many days of the 28 have run beside it — 45, of the 28 the period allows.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-9001¬ice=2026-08-01&channel=phone&requested=2026-08-05&stated=2026-08-05&asAt=2026-09-19" }, { "title": "A due date that moved, and one that could not", "what": "The same file with two amendments. The borrower’s own day moves from 26 August to 9 September with the reason recorded; the day s 72(5) sets for the decision notice does not move, and the attempt to move it stays in the trail rather than disappearing. Extending the borrower’s day does not extend the provider’s, and the ledger says so with both dates on it.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-9001¬ice=2026-08-01&channel=phone&requested=2026-08-05&stated=2026-08-05&asAt=2026-09-19&amend=borrower-information-due%7C2026-09-09%7C2026-08-20%7CThe%20borrower's%20financial%20counsellor%20asked%20for%20a%20fortnight%20more%20to%20get%20payslips%20from%20a%20former%20employer.%0Adecision-notice%7C2026-10-01%7C2026-08-21%7CWe%20would%20like%20longer%20to%20decide%20this%20one." }, { "title": "A four-month lookback that lands on a month boundary", "what": "A notice on 30 November with an earlier one on 30 July. That is 123 days, so a four-month window counted as 122 days would miss it — and enforcement would read as clear on a matter s 89A may well still hold.", "url": "/hardship-clock?ref=ACC-7781¬ice=2026-11-30&earlier=2026-07-30&defaulted=2026-12-02&remedyBy=2027-01-05&decided=2026-12-10&outcome=not_agreed&asAt=2027-01-02" } ] }