Australians can 'rest easy' over credit rating

Australians who have been granted a deferral on their loan repayments will not have their credit rating impacted, so long as they were up to date with repayments prior to COVID-19.

Many have been granted deferrals on loans such as mortgages and credit cards in light of the volume of people who have lost their jobs in recent weeks.

The Australian Banking Association (ABA) said it had ensured credit reporting was carried out consistently and banks would report customers had not missed repayments during the period.

ABA chief executive, Anna Bligh, said: “If a customer is granted a deferral on their mortgage and other credit products because of COVID-19, banks will report customers as not having missed a repayment, provided they were all up to date when granted relief.

VIEW ALL

View all

“Customers in these circumstances should not have to worry about their credit rating as well.”

For those people who had missed previous repayments, banks would leave the repayment history blank until the COVID-19 deferral period was over. Once this had happened, banks would then determine how to report the repayment history.

“There may be other factors which can affect a customer’s credit rating, but customers accepting a COVID-19 loan repayment deferral can rest easy that the deferral will not be one of them,” Bligh said.