Our Complaints Process

Tell us about your concern and allow our Customer Service Officers the opportunity to assist you in resolving any concerns you may have. Please provide as much detail as you can to help us to assist you.

If you’re not satisfied with the response provided, you can refer your complaint to our Customer Relations Unit.

If you remain unhappy with the outcome you can then contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) for an external review. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.

Website: www.afca.org.au
Email: info@afca.org.au
Phone: 1800 931 678 (free call)
Mail: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC, 3001

We will:

• Acknowledge your complaint and make sure we understand your concerns.
• Treat you with respect and do everything we can to fix your concern.
• Where possible, ensure you only deal with one person throughout the complaint resolution process.
• Keep you informed and up to date about the progress of your complaint.
• Record all details of your interaction with us.

We will try to resolve your complaint quickly and fairly, however some complaints do take more time than others. If we anticipate that your complaint will take longer than 21 days to resolve, we will contact you within this time to provide you with an update on our progress.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint within 30 days (or within 21 days if it involves a hardship notice, default notice or request to postpone enforcement), we will:

For complaints involving hardship notice, default notice or request to postpone enforcement, exceptions apply to the 21 day timeframe if we do not have sufficient information to make a decision or we reach an agreement with you. If we require further information from you, then we will request it within 21 days of receiving the complaint.

• Provide as much detail as you can regarding your complaint including dates, times and key events.
• If you're dealing with challenging and stressful circumstances, please let us know when you make your complaint, so we can best support you while the complaints process is underway.
• Be specific and provide relevant supporting documentation.
• Tell us what you believe to be a fair resolution to the concerns you raise.

In making a decision on a complaint we will consider the following:

• What is fair and reasonable;
• Banking Code of Practice;
• National Consumer Credit Protection Act (NCCP);
• Other applicable legislation; and
• Relevant industry guidelines.

We understand that, from time to time, some customers may experience financial difficulties caused by unemployment, injury, illness, a natural disaster, or other unexpected impact on your household income and/or expenses. Visit our Financial Hardship page to find out how we can support customer during these times.

Respecting and protecting our customers privacy is a key part of our commitment to with you. We endeavour to be transparent with you and make sure that you have access to information we hold about you. For more information on complaints relating to your privacy or credit reporting, please visit the Citi Privacy Policy and NAB Privacy Policy.

In the event that you are not happy with the handling of your privacy complaint you can seek external assistance through the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. An independent Office that has responsibilities under the Federal Privacy Act 1998.

Should our complaints process described above not resolve a complaint that you, as an individual Australian Consumer Bank customer, have against us, and you file a civil claim against us in an Australian court, we and anyone representing us will apply the following approach:

We will deal with your claim promptly, and not cause any unnecessary delay in its progress through the courts; and

We will attempt to limit the scope of litigation and to keep the costs to a minimum by:

• participating in good faith in appropriate alternative dispute resolution processes that the parties agree to explore;
• not requiring you to prove matters that we know to be true;
• not taking advantage of a situation where you lack resources or you are self-represented;
• not disputing our liability where we know that the dispute is only about the amount of the claim; and
• not undertaking an appeal of a decision made by a court unless there are prospects for success.

We take complaints seriously. We record the necessary details of your complaint and develop a report for senior leaders who sponsor initiatives to address complaint trends and origins, it also helps us identify recurring issues or breakpoints in our processes. Of course, your privacy is respected and the specific details of your complaint will remain confidential. The report provides the following information:

• A description of your complaint;
• The products and or services you raise as a concern;
• How long it takes us to resolve your complaint; and
• Actions taken to resolve your complaint

If you're dealing with challenging and stressful circumstances, such as illness, financial abuse or domestic and family violence, we're here to help.

When you make your Complaint, please let us know your situation, so we can best support you while the complaints process is underway.

Visit Supporting You for more information.