Financial Hardship

Financial hardship may occur where you are unable to discharge financial obligations in relation to our services due to a reasonable temporary or ongoing cause but where you expect to be able to do so over time if payment arrangements are changed.

Our Financial Hardship Statement

We are here to help. We understand that these situations can occur in life that may impact your ability to pay your bills on time. These situations may include loss of income, family breakdown, sudden illness or injury, a death in the family, being impacted by domestic or family violence, natural disasters. We are committed to helping customers facing financial hardship maintain telecommunications access and working with you to find a sustainable solution. Financial hardship can happen to anyone, so if you find yourself in a genuine financial hardship situation, whether it be long or short term, please let us know. 

Our staff & financial counselling

In times of genuine financial hardship, amaysim can provide you or your financial counsellor with easy access to empathetic and skilled staff who can promptly address your individual circumstances and concerns. We have a number of trained staff to handle financial hardship requests, these staff members will work with you or your financial counsellor to reach a mutually reasonable financial arrangement. To speak to a financial counsellor contact the National Debt Hotline on 1800 007 007. This free hotline is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday. There are also more tools and resources available online at http://www.ndh.org.au/.

The financial hardship assessment process

In order to adequately assess your application for financial hardship, we will require information about your account details with amaysim, your income, your total expenses, as well as the nature and expected duration of your financial hardship. You may need to complete a Financial Hardship Application Form. We may also request that you send us additional information or documentation. You should be aware that, where the requested information or documentation is not provided to us, we may not be able to make an assessment of your financial hardship application. In this instance we will discuss with you other options for payment of your account. 

We will assess your request for Financial Hardship assistance on a case by case basis within 5 working days after receipt of the final information and documents requested by us. In assessing your application, we will rely on the information which you provide to us as well as any other relevant information available to us. The basic principle of an agreed financial arrangement is that the repayment should be sufficient to cover expected future use of the service (as adjusted to ensure your financial position does not worsen over a reasonable period of time) as well as providing continued reduction of debt (i.e. you should not be going into further debt under the arrangement). The provision of false or incomplete information may result in us cancelling any financial hardship arrangement we have made.

There is no charge for making an application or for administration of any agreed financial arrangement. We will let you know the outcome of our assessment and the details of any financial arrangement in writing. Any such arrangement will not come into operation unless and until it is agreed with you. Upon approval of your financial hardship arrangement, we will suspend further credit management of the account whilst the agreed arrangement is in place.

Should you not meet the agreed obligations of your financial hardship arrangement, or not contact us to discuss a new arrangement, or agree that the current arrangement is unable to be completed, we will make reasonable attempts to contact you before recommencing credit management on your account.

Options to keep you connected may include:

• Restriction of service, in respect of overall or specific services 
• Transferring you to a Pre-Paid Service 
• Transferring you to a contract which includes hard caps

Options for suitable financial arrangements may include:

• Agreeing on an alternative arrangement, plan, or contract, including discussing Pre-Paid Services 
• Waiving late payment fees 
• Incentives for making payments, for example payment matching.

If you wish to enquire about or make a financial hardship application you should contact our Credit Services Team via credit@amaysim.com.au or call 07 3063 4574. Our Credit Services Team hours of Operation are Business days, Monday – Friday, 9am to 5pm Sydney time.

Complaints process

At amaysim we recognise the rights of our customers and former customers to make complaints and to have any proposed resolution of their complaints accepted by them before amaysim implements that resolution. If you are not happy with our products or services, we would like to know. To make a complaint, call us on 1300 808 300 or submit in writing online at amaysim.com.au/help/contact/complaints. If you wish to obtain a hard copy of the amaysim Complaints Handling Policy, please contact our friendly customer service team and let us know your preferred postal address and we will be happy to send you a copy in the mail.