Apply for assistance due to financial difficulty

If you're struggling to meet your existing ANZ repayment obligations (including obligations for loans, credit cards and overdraft facilities), applying for financial assistance could be the right step. It’s extra support to help manage financial difficulty when you need it most.

How assistance could help you

When you apply for assistance, our Customer Connect team will assess your situation and look at options that may be available to you – whether that’s giving you a hand in the short term, or setting you up for the long term.

In some cases, a financial challenge is temporary and you might just need some time to get back on your feet. While in others, the challenge is more permanent. In those cases, you may need extra help to review and restructure your financial arrangements, such as loans and their repayment.

What are some causes of hardship?

Loss of income: such as the loss of a job, a reduction in pay or a downturn in a business.
Natural disasters: such as bushfire, flooding, fire, cyclone or drought.
Family matters: such as separation, divorce, loss, domestic violence or carer obligations.

Medical reasons: such as an illness or a permanent disability.
Financial reasons: such as a large, unexpected expense becoming due.
A unique situation: another reason that has contributed to your hardship.

Check your insurance coverage

External support services

Deceased estates

Frequently asked questions

Are you potentially seeking long term hardship assistance regarding your existing unsecured lending facilities (such as credit cards, personal loans and overdraft facilities) with ANZ and other creditors?

At ANZ, we are committed to assisting you through your difficulty. Please contact us on 1800 351 548 option 1 between 9am to 7pm (AEST) Monday to Friday or simply apply online and we will be in touch to discuss your options, including whether Way Forward Debt Solutions might be of assistance to you. Way Forward Debt Solutions is a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity that offers free services to help manage your repayments and speak with your creditors to work out payment plans. Click here for more details.

How long does the form take and what does it look like?

The online form will require approximately 30-45 minutes of your time. To complete it, you will need to provide:

your personal details
details about the products you have with ANZ and other financial institutions
details about your current financial situation
your reasons for applying for assistance.

Before you begin, you should review the above checklist to ensure you have everything you need.

You should also preview the example of the form (PDF 1MB) before you start your application so that you know what information to have on hand.

Remember, you'll need to complete the form in a single session. You won’t have an opportunity to save your progress and come back to it. Closing or reloading a browser will also clear the page and any information you may have entered.

What documents may I be asked to provide when applying for hardship assistance on my personal lending facilities, such as home loans, personal loans, credit cards and overdrafts?

As part of the hardship assessment, we will review your statement of financial position. Based on your individual situation, we may request further information or documents from you to assess your application, such as:

an employment confirmation letter
income statements, such as payslips or Centrelink / Services Australia documents
medical certificates
real estate agreements

If we request further material from you, you will be given 21 days to provide that material. If we do not receive the material within 21 days, then this may lead to us closing your application due to insufficient information being available to complete our assessment.

What documents may I be asked to provide when applying for hardship assistance on my business lending facilities, such as business loans, business credit cards and business overdrafts?

As part of the hardship assessment, we will review your statement of financial position. Based on your individual situation, we may require further information or documents from you to assess your application, such as:

profit and loss statements
balance sheets
interim financials
tax returns (if sole trader or partnership)
medical certificates
real estate agreements

Are there alternative ways to apply for financial assistance?

If you can, please apply for assistance using the online form, as this will help us gather the information we need to begin looking into your situation as soon as possible.

If you don’t have access to a computer or a mobile, you can complete the PDF form as an alternative and send it back to us. The address is on the form.

You can also apply for assistance over the phone by calling ANZ Customer Connect on 1800 252 845, Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 7.00pm (AEST).

Please note there may be a wait time to connect you with an available member of our team, as well an additional 40-60 minutes to answer questions over the phone.

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time before you begin, and remember to review our checklist above so that you're well prepared.

I am not in Australia. Can I apply for financial assistance?

If you're overseas and hold an ANZ Australia lending account, you can call us on 1800 252 845, Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm (AEST).

If you have an ANZ New Zealand lending account and need financial assistance, head over to the ANZ New Zealand website to apply.

Does my insurance cover financial hardship?

An insurance policy may cover the situation that is contributing to your financial difficulty.

Before you apply for assistance, you may want to review the polices of any relevant insurance you may hold, such as:

Income protection
Mortgage protection
Loan protection
Car insurance
Home insurance and contents insurance
Life insurance or funeral insurance

If you or a family member have relevant insurance, be sure to look into whether your situation is covered under the policy.

It may also be worth looking into your Superannuation to see if you have insurance cover as part of your product or membership.

To learn more about insurance, see our guides to insurance.

If you’re insured with ANZ including through your credit card, it’s best to check with our insurance team to see if you’re eligible to make a claim before applying for assistance. This will of course depend on the type of insurance you have and your reason for experiencing financial difficulty.

Can I use my credit card if my application is approved?

If you apply for financial assistance and your application is approved, any active credit cards may be restricted to ensure you’re not placed into further financial difficulty. This measure also applies to commercial credit cards. We can only make an informed decision on whether your credit card will be restricted once we’ve reviewed your application.

Should I redeem my Rewards points before my credit card is restricted?

If you have a Rewards card, you should visit ANZ Rewards or speak with the Rewards team on 1300 367 763 to redeem your points before applying for financial assistance. Once your card is restricted you will unfortunately lose your Rewards points, which is why we recommend that you Redeem them first.

If I make a Hardship application, will this be displayed on my credit report?

Your credit report will only reflect a hardship arrangement if your application has been approved.

If my Hardship application is approved, will it be displayed on my credit report?

Yes. If your Financial Hardship Application is approved there are two types of hardship arrangements which may be offered, depending on your individual circumstances, each one appears slightly differently on your report.

A Temporary Hardship Arrangement is a short-term period of assistance which allows you to recover your financial position and return to meeting the existing terms of your contract.

If a temporary hardship arrangement is approved, for each month of the arrangement we will report Financial Hardship Information (FHI) to confirm you are on a hardship arrangement. We will also report Repayment History Information (RHI) which shows if you have met your payments due under this arrangement. We report this instead of whether you’ve met your normal contractual payments. Once your Hardship Arrangement ends, we will resume sharing your normal repayment history information with the credit reporting bodies – that means whether you made the normal required payments under your loan contract.

A Permanent Hardship Variation is a change to the existing terms of your account contract that allows you to recover your financial position.

If a permanent variation to your contract is approved, we will report Financial Hardship Information (FHI) when the contract change occurs. From then on, your Repayment History Information (RHI) will be reported to show if you make the required payments under your updated contract. Your RHI before the change will still show if you made the required payments under your original loan contract.

FHI will remain on your report for up to 12 months.

Please note: The above applies to accounts that have entered, re set or extended a hardship arrangement from 1 July 2022. For arrangements set before this date, we do not send any FHI or RHI to credit reporting bodies for the duration of the hardship assistance. This temporary absence of this information is visible on your credit report for 24 months and lenders may enquire about this if you apply for credit during this time.

If my application for financial hardship assistance is approved, will it affect my credit score?

Financial Hardship Information (FHI) will display on your credit report for 12 months but will not be used to calculate your credit score. Repayment History Information (RHI) does affect your credit score, this means if you miss any required payments during a temporary hardship arrangement, your score may be negatively affected. RHI is displayed on your credit report for 24 months.

If you were to apply for credit within 12 months of receiving hardship assistance, credit providers will be able to see the FHI on your report. They may request further information from you to understand this better and determine how your position has recovered.

Please note: The above applies to accounts that have entered, re set or extended a hardship arrangement from 1 July 2022. For arrangements set before this date, we do not send any FHI or Repayment History Information (RHI) to credit reporting bodies for the duration of the hardship assistance. This temporary absence of this information is visible on your credit report for 24 months and lenders may enquire about this if you apply for credit during this time.

When is my repayment history reported to credit reporting bodies?

For consumer credit card products, we report to the credit reporting bodies just after your payment due date (this will vary based on your credit card cycle). We will report based on the account status at that date.

For all other consumer credit product types, we report repayments made up to the last day of each month. We send this information to the credit reporting bodies shortly after. We will report based on the account status at that date.

Already applied but need help?

If you've already applied for assistance but want to change or update your application, please wait for us to contact you first.

Once we get in touch, you can then ask to make a change to your application. Please don't complete another application online, as this may affect our response times.

If you've already applied but not heard from us after 5-10 business days, or have another question about your application, please get in touch.

Applying is a three-step process

Prepare your application

Review the checklist below and preview the example of the online form before you get under way so that you know what information to have on hand.

Example form - personal products (PDF 1MB)

Example form - business products (PDF)

Complete the assistance form

Give yourself enough time to complete the form. The details you provide here will help us understand your unique situation.

Approx. time: 30-45 minutes

Start your application

We'll be in touch

Our Customer Connect team will assess your situation before calling to discuss what options may be available, or to request more information from you.

Approx. time: 5-10 business days

What to expect:

As part of the hardship assessment process, we will review your completed statement of financial position and will be in touch with you as soon as we can. If your request is urgent, please get call us on 1800 351 548, Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm AEST.
In certain instances, we may ask for further information or documents to complete our assessment, such as confirmation of non-ANZ liabilities, recent income statements, and medical certificates.
If you are applying for hardship assistance in respect of business lending facilities, we may ask for documents such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets or interim financials to support your application.
In certain instances, we may require consent from all borrowers before putting into place any hardship arrangements.
Whilst we assess your application, you will continue to be charged interest and fees in line with your credit contract.
Please continue to make your standard repayments whilst your application is under assessment.

Application checklist

Preview the example of the online form before you get under way so that you know what information to have handy.
Give yourself around 30-45 minutes to complete the online form.
Have your ANZ customer information, such as account details, handy.
Have information about accounts with other financial institutions handy.
Be ready to provide a detailed breakdown of your income and expenses.
Be prepared to provide a written explanation of your reason for applying for assistance.

If you’re a business owner, make sure you have your business ACN or ABN, current net profit, income and expenses handy.
If you’re a co-borrower, please complete one online form, while making sure you have information handy for each co-borrower. We will contact all co-borrowers before processing the application.
If it’s a credit card or personal loan debt that you’re struggling to pay, please check out our frequently asked questions before applying.

Let's get started

One last thing before you start

You will need to complete the form in a single session, as you won’t have an opportunity to save your progress and come back to it. Closing or reloading a browser will also clear the page and any information you may have entered.

Preview example form

If you haven’t already previewed the example of the online form, we highly recommend that you do so before getting under way so that you know what information to have on hand.

Example form - personal products (PDF 1MB)

Example form - business products (PDF)

Start the application process

If you're ready to begin, you'll be asked a few short questions before heading to the online form. If you're looking for more information, see our FAQs below.

Apply now

Coming off financial assistance

If you’ve successfully applied for assistance and you’re starting to get back on your feet, this section contains articles and tools to help you start making your repayments again.

Manage your loan

Everything you need to manage your loan, including restarting your repayments.

Keep reading

Fine tuning your home loan

No prep, no paperwork. An ANZ Home Loan Check-In 15-minute chat could help you find ways to fine-tune your home loan.

Take a look

Not ready to re-start your full repayments?

If you’re concerned about your ability to meet your full repayments once your assistance ends, it’s really important that you contact the ANZ Customer Connect team as soon as possible. We’ll work with you, and may refer you to external support for more ways to get back on top of your debt long-term.

Call 1800 252 845

Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm AEST

Need more help?

Get in touch

Call ANZ Customer Connect if you need help with your application.

1800 252 845

Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm (AEST)

Important information

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