As part of reforms to the national Privacy Act 1988, new kinds of personal information can be collected about you. 

Information such as whether you have made, missed or are late with payments can now be passed on to banks, non-banks and other Credit Licensed organisations.

These changes could affect your ability to borrow money or even possibly impact your existing debt obligations.

The reforms take effect from 1 March 2014. During the implementation period of these new reforms, it is possible banks will be conservative in their lending practices until they understand how these changes impact them, their legal obligations and their customers.

Once these changes are in place, lenders will have access to your Repayment History Information (RHI). Currently, they only have access to credit defaults, bankruptcies and other major credit-related blemishes.

By having access to this additional information, lenders will need to assess whether your late payments for credit cards, loans or any other debt obligations are indicators of your credit worthiness. Subsequently, this information may be used to determine if your debt situation is approved or reassessed by financial institutions.

Even though the information will be available to lenders from March, the information collected goes as far back as December 2012. Furthermore, the information stays on your credit report for two years.

If you may need credit this year, consider doing it before March to increase your chances of arranging the loan because there will be uncertainty and unpredictability for many builders from March onwards.

If you need further advice or information on this issue, please contact our Financial Services Team on 1300 137 539.