The Law Handbook 2024

454 Section 5: Managing your money Note that information can only remain on a credit report for a specific period of time. Permitted disclosures Part IIIA of the PA 1988 permits credit-reporting bodies to disclose credit-reporting information to credit providers, mortgage insurers and trade insurers – but only for certain permitted purposes. Information that is permitted to be disclosed in a credit report includes: • loan repayment information (for details, see ‘Repayment history’, below); • financial hardship information (for details, see ‘Financial hardship’, below) • transfer of the credit provider’s rights : the PA 1988 recognises that the repayment rights of a credit provider in relation to credit may be transferred; the PA 1988 treats the acquirer as a credit reporter for the purposes of credit; • credit application information : this includes details of loans a person has applied for, and anything the person has bought or attempted to buy on credit; the credit report shows whether or not a loan or purchase was approved; • default information (for details, see ‘Default listings’, below); • court judgments : a person’s credit report should only show if a court has made a judgment against the person in relation to any unpaid loans or credit; this information stays on a credit report for five years from the date of the judgment; • bankruptcy information : a person’s credit report indicates whether or not they are or have been bankrupt or entered into a debt agreement; this information stays on a credit report for at least five years; • serious credit infringement information : a serious credit infringement is: a an act done by an individual that involves fraudulently obtaining consumer credit or attempting to fraudulently obtain consumer credit; or b an act done by an individual that involves fraudulently evading the individual’s obligations in relation to consumer credit, or attempting to fraudulently evade those obligations; or c an act by an individual where: i a reasonable person would consider the act to indicate the individual’s intention to no longer comply with their obligations in relation to consumer credit provided by a credit provider, ii the credit reporter has – after taking steps that are reasonable in the circumstances – been unable to contact the individual about the act; and iii at least six months have passed since the credit provider last had contact with the individual. A serious credit infringement stays on a credit report for seven years. Recent changes to permitted disclosures by credit-reporting bodies Recent legislative changes – the NCCP Act 2021 and NCCP Regulations 2021 – prevent credit- reporting bodies from disclosing financial hardship information in certain situations. Credit-reporting bodies are now prohibited from: • disclosing to credit providers that overdue pay- ments have been collected from an individual; • disclosing to credit providers the contents of an assessment of an individual’s suitability as a guarantor in relation to an application for credit made by another person; • disclosing financial hardship information to mortgage insurers for the purposes of assessing the risk of an individual defaulting on mortgage credit for which the mortgage insurer has provided insurance to a credit provider. Repayment history Ordinarily, a credit report can contain information about the repayments a person has already made for credit contracts (e.g. repayments for credit cards, home loans, and personal loans). Repayment history information can only be accessed by certain credit providers (e.g. banks). These credit providers can see a 24-month history of loan repayments. Phone, gas and electricity providers are generally not able to access repayment information or to provide this information to a credit-reporting body. However, utilities providers can report a payment that is at least 60 days late. A credit provider must take reasonable steps to ensure that: