When things don't go to plan.

Life happens, and sometimes that means things get in the way of us being able to manage our finances as we'd like.

What is financial hardship?

Financial hardship can cover a range of circumstances. If you find yourself in a situation where you are struggling to make ends meet, unable to pay bills on time or missing repayments, you may be in financial hardship.

If your financial circumstances have changed due to unemployment or reduction in income, a medical condition, natural disaster, family separation or violence, we are here to support you during these times.

What to do if you're experiencing financial hardship.

If your financial circumstances have changed and you are unable to meet your repayments for your Spot. Buy Now, Pay Later account, you can request assistance by calling us on 1800 290 786 between 9am - 9pm (AEST) Monday to Friday.

Alternatively, you can request for assistance by downloading a copy of the Hardship Application Form, completing it and sending it to us at spot.hardship@citi.com

Once we receive your financial hardship assistance request, we will be in touch to discuss your situation and explore suitable options which are available to you. While we assess your request, we will pause your direct debits.

If we require any further information to help review your request, we will let you know what information we need. Once we have finalised our review, we will inform you in writing of the outcome of your request.

Important Information before you apply for Financial Hardship Assistance

Spot. Buy Now, Pay Later is issued by Spot Ventures, a division of Diners Club Pty Ltd (ABN 35 004 343 051), part of the NAB group of companies. National Australia Bank Limited (ABN 12 004 044 937) (“NAB”) has acquired Diners Club Pty Ltd from the Citigroup group of companies and NAB administers the product. Whilst some of the features or services include the “Citi” name, such as the Citi Mobile® App, the service is provided by NAB. Spot. Buy Now, Pay Later and associated marks used herein are trademarks of Diners Club Pty Ltd. “Citi”, “Citibank”, “Citigroup”, the Arc design and all similar trademarks and derivations thereof are used temporarily under licence by NAB from Citigroup Inc. and related group entities.

• If you hold a NAB branded product and require financial hardship assistance on that product, please contact NAB Customer Care on 1800 701 599 (8:00am-8:00pm Monday-Friday and 9:00am-1:00pm Saturday AEST).
• If you hold a credit card or personal loan which was formerly issued by Citigroup Pty Ltd (and which is now issued by NAB) which is branded Citi, Card Services, Coles Financials Services, Suncorp Clear Options, Qantas Money, Kogan Money, Virgin Money, Bank of Queensland or; Spot. Buy Now Pay Later issued by Diners Club Pty Ltd (now part of NAB), this hardship application will also be applied to any or all of those accounts as well. If you do not require hardship assistance on all of your accounts, please do not submit an online form and contact our hardship team on 1800 290 786.
• Your account will be suspended from the time we receive your application for hardship assistance, and if approved, during the entire period you’re on financial hardship. Ability to transact post your Financial Hardship Assistance will be based on your account status.

Financial Hardship Assistance and Credit Reporting

In July 2022, amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 introduce Financial Hardship Information (FHI) as a new category of information, which will be displayed on consumer credit reports alongside Repayment History Information (RHI). The Financial Hardship Information will indicate if you have entered into a temporary or permanent hardship arrangement but will not include the reasons for the arrangement you have entered into.
Financial Hardship Information (FHI) includes: 

• The type of financial hardship arrangement you have entered into which will depend on whether the changes to the terms of your loan or obligations are permanent or temporary.
  • Variation Financial Hardship Arrangement (V) – indicates that a permanent variation to the terms of the consumer credit contract have been made and will be reported once in the month that the contractual variation took effect. Once the FHI has been reported with a Variation (V), the future RHI will be updated to indicate if the new monthly repayments are being paid on time or not.
  • Temporary relief or deferral Financial Hardship Arrangement (A) - providing temporary relief from or deferral of the individual’s obligations in relation to consumer credit, reported each month that the arrangement is in place.  During the period that any temporary relief or deferral Financial Hardship Arrangement is in place, the RHI will be concurrently reported to indicate whether you are meeting the obligations of your temporary financial hardship arrangement where payments were agreed to be made.

This information will be stored on your credit file for 1 year. Only your financial hardship information from licensed credit providers who hold an Australian Credit Licence can be recorded. Telecommunication and utility companies are not licensed credit providers, so your financial hardship information will not include these providers and they will not be able to see financial hardship information details either. 

These changes will also allow licensed credit providers to access and use this comprehensive information in order to make more informed lending decisions. However, this information cannot be used by licensed credit providers to calculate your credit score. 
You are entitled to a free credit report every three (3) months and you can request one through any of the Credit Reporting Bodies: 

Equifax

• Web - https://www.equifax.com.au/
• Phone - 1300762207

Illion

• Web - www.illion.com.au
• Phone – 13 23 33

Experian

• Web - https://www.experian.com.au
• Phone – 1300783684