1 Battling to pay your telco bill?
If you’re a financial hardship customer, you have a right to apply for short-term financial hardship assistance (up to three billing cycles) or long-term assistance (more than three billing cycles). Assistance is free of charge.
2 What counts as financial hardship?
Financial hardship is when you can’t pay what you owe us because of things like:
- personal or household illness;
- unemployment;
- low or insufficient income, including reduced access to income;
- being a victim survivor of domestic or family violence;
- a death in the family;
- a change in personal or family circumstances;
- a natural disaster;
- unexpected events or unforeseen changes that have impacted your income or expenditure; or
- other reasonable causes,
but you think you could pay if we had an agreed arrangement for one or more of the financial hardship assistance options we offer.
3 What assistance options do we offer?
If you’re a financial hardship customer, we may agree to:
- allow you more time to pay a bill
- accept a payment plan tailored to your ability to pay
- discount a bill
- apply a credit to your account
- give you credit in exchange for payments you make
- transfer you to a different plan that better suits your circumstances
- offer you a free non-automatic payment method.
4 How to apply for assistance
- Apply by filling out an application form, available for download at ipstarbroadband.com.au/legal_articles/, by completing an online application available at https://zfrmz.com/V8cYXkohIlEofonMKduI or by calling our help desk on 1300 464 778 or emailing us at [email protected].
- If you need help with an application, just call our help desk.
5 You can complain about financial hardship matters
-
- You can complain to us – see our Complaint Handling Process here.
- If you’re still not happy, you can complain to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO):
- TIO website: tio.com.au
- phone 1800 062 058
- email [email protected]
- fax 1800 630 614
- post PO Box 276, Collins Street West, VIC 8007
6 Other places to get help
You can also get information and advice from:
- TIO – details above; and
- financial counselling services. To find and contact a suitable financial counselling service, visit the Australian Government information page at moneysmart.gov.au/managing-debt/financial-counselling
