Financial Support Hardship Assistance

Your safety comes first

Your priority should be staying safe and dealing with the immediate effects of the cyclone. Financial concerns can wait—but when you're ready, help is available.

This guide provides information on what options could be available to help manage your finances.

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Hardship assistance

Having trouble making loan repayments or worried about managing your repayments in the future? It’s important to contact us early so that we can understand your situation and discuss your options.

You can contact us on 1800 185 914 or send us a message.

In addition to contacting us, you may want to contact external support services to assist with your financial situation. Financial counsellors provide a free and confidential service offered by not-for-profit organisations.

There are many reasons you may need help with repayments now or are worried about managing your repayments in the future, including:

Illness or injury
Natural disasters (e.g. bushfires, floods)
Losing a loved one
A relationship breakdown
Family and domestic violence
Unemployment or changes in income
Business downturn
Rising cost of living
Other unexpected events

If you can’t afford the minimum repayment on your loan, please contact us immediately so we can discuss what options might be available to assist. The sooner you contact us the sooner we can try to help you.

We may be able to provide help over the phone, otherwise, we may need to complete a more detailed assessment of your personal and financial circumstances to understand your situation and discuss what assistance options suit your needs.

Financial hardship assistance is available to you whether you are an individual, a joint borrower on a loan, a guarantor or small business customer. If you have a joint loan and need help with repayments, we can assist you individually if you request it.

We can help, so it is important to contact us as soon as possible on 1800 185 914 or send us a message.

Contact Us
External Support Services
Frequently Asked Questions
Statement of Financial Position
Comprehensive Credit Reporting

Contact us

If you are currently having difficulty making payments on your Pepper Money loans, please complete and submit this form and one of our team will be in contact or you can call us.

Call 1800 185 914

Online contact us form

First name *

Please enter first name

Last name *

Date of birth *

Phone number

Email *

Loan number (if known)

Please let us know how you have been impacted

Accounts you require help with Mortgage Asset Finance Personal Loan

Is there someone acting on your behalf? Yes No

If you choose Yes and we do not already have a Third Party Authorisation form, we will need to contact you first and confirm with you before we can discuss your personal information with your nominated person.

First name

Please enter first name

Last name

Phone number

Organisation (if applicable)

What is your preferred method of contact? Call Email

If your next loan repayment is due within the next 5 working days and you are having difficulties making the repayment, please call us on 1800 185 914.

Some information you need to know:

We will not automatically pause your repayments as a result of you submitting this form.
We will contact you to understand your current situation.
We will discuss options available to you. Please be aware that some options, like pausing repayments, can mean you end up paying more interest over the loan term.

External support services

In addition to speaking to us, there are government and community services you may find helpful if you need financial support.

You can speak to us to discuss your financial situation for free. You may also want to speak to an independent financial counsellor who provides free and confidential services.

Call 1800 185 914

Who are financial counsellors and what do they do?

According to MoneySmart, financial counsellors are skilled professionals who provide advice and support to people struggling with bills and debt. A financial counsellor can:

assess your financial situation
provide advice about what to do if you're struggling to pay bills and fines
help you negotiate with government agencies, your landlord, utilities, telcos, and other creditors
assist you if you're being harassed by debt collectors
refer you to other services you might need, such as legal, accommodation, health and crisis services

How do I get in touch with a financial counsellor?

Australian Capital Territory: Care Financial Counselling Service
1800 007 007
www.carefcs.org
New South Wales: Financial Counsellors Association of NSW
1300 914 408
www.fcan.com.au
Northern Territory: Anglicare Northern Territory Financial Counselling Service
08 8985 0000
www.anglicare-nt.org.au
Queensland: Financial Counselling Association of Queensland
1800 007 007
www.fcaq.com.au
South Australia: Uniting SA
08 8440 2200
www.unitingsa.com.au
Tasmania: Anglicare Financial Counselling Service
1800 243 232
www.anglicare-tas.org.au
Victoria: Anglicare Financial Counselling Service
1800 809 722
www.anglicarevic.org.au
Western Australia: Financial Counsellor’s Association of Western Australia
1800 007 007
www.financialcounsellors.org

National: ASIC’s Money Smart website
1300 300 630
www.moneysmart.gov.au

Providing you with tools to help you manage your money, plan, invest or pay off debt.
National Debt Hotline: 1800 00 007

Offers independent free and confidential services from professional financial counsellors to help you with your financial situation.
Domestic and family violence: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Confidential telephone and online counselling for people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence.
Mental health: Lifeline 13 11 14

Finance, Debt and Legal issues

National Debt helpline: 1800 007 007
https://ndh.org.au/

Provides free and independent financial counsellors around Australia.
Small Business Debt Helpline: 1800 413 828
https://sbdh.org.au/

A free, independent and confidential service that provides help for small business owners and sole traders in financial difficulty.
Victims Support ACT: 1800 822 272

Provides information support and referrals for victims of crime who may be eligible for financial support.
Child Support: 131 272

Provides information about , and applications for, child support.
Centrelink Social Worker: 132 850

Help with applying for a crisis payment and other benefits, as well as short-term counselling and referrals.
Legal Aid: Find a Legal Aid Commission at https://nationallegalaid.org.au/.
Community Legal Centres (CLC): Find a local CLC at https://clcs.org.au/.
Good Shepherd: https://goodshep.org.au/
Way Forward: https://wayforward.org.au/
Financial Rights Legal Centre: https://financialrights.org.au/factsheet/financial-hardship/

Advice and Support

Domestic and family violence: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Confidential telephone and online counselling for people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence.
Lifeline: 131114

Lifeline provides 24 hour telephone crisis support, mental health support and suicide prevention services.
1800 ELDERHelp: 1800 353 374

A national free call phone number that automatically redirects callers seeking information and advice on elder abuse with local phone line services.
Elder Abuse Action Australia (EAAA) knowledge hub Compass: www.compass.info

Information and resources available for older Australians and the broader community.
The National Legal Aid Family Violence Law Help website: www.familyviolencelaw.gov.au

Provides advice on domestic and family violence and the law in Australia.
Dementia Australia: www.dementia.org.au

Provides information to support people with concerns about memory and thinking to understand dementia.
National Dementia Helpline: 1800 100 500

Learn about support services and education programs.

Financial assistance FAQs

There are many reasons you may need help with repayments now or are worried about managing your repayments in the future, including:

Illness or injury
Natural disasters (e.g. bushfires, floods)
Losing a loved one
A relationship breakdown
Family and domestic violence
Unemployment or changes in income
Business downturn
Rising cost of living
Other unexpected events

If you are having trouble making repayments and can’t pay on time, you might miss payments which can hurt your credit report and lower your credit score.

A hardship arrangement is a way to make it easier to manage your payments. For example, you can ask us to change how often or how much you need to pay.

This can help you to avoid missing payments affecting your credit report and stop your credit score going down.

We can help, so it is important to contact us as soon as possible on 1800 185 914 or send us a message.

Depending on your situation, this could include:

Deferring or reducing loan payments for a defined period of time
Extending the loan term
Capitalising loan arrears
Interest only period
Pausing fees and charges

We can help, so it is important to contact us as soon as possible on 1800 185 914 or on send us a message.

If you are struggling to make repayments, it’s important to let us know as soon as possible. Even if you’ve already missed a payment (or multiple payments) on your loan, please give our Customer Assist team a call on 1800 185 914 between 8am to 6pm (AEST/AEDT) Monday to Friday so options can be explored.

Under the law, financial hardship information cannot be used by a credit reporting body to calculate a credit score. For information on your credit score, these guides may help: Comprehensive Credit Reporting

When you speak to us, we’ll discuss your options which may include pausing direct debit repayments depending on your situation. If you complete our online contact us form, direct debits won’t be automatically cancelled.

Pepper Money won’t charge default or arrears fees during your period of hardship assistance.

Financial hardship information – for both temporary or variation arrangements – only stays on your credit report for 12 months. After that time, it is no longer possible to tell from the credit report that a financial hardship arrangement was in place.

A financial hardship arrangement won’t stop you from applying for credit later on. A lender might ask for additional information about your finances to check that you can repay a new loan or new credit.

Yes, if you miss payments, it will show on your credit report. This means your credit score will go down, which can make it harder to get credit in the future.

A financial hardship arrangement will change how often or how much you need to pay. If you keep to the financial hardship arrangement, your credit report will show your payments as up-to-date, which will stop your credit score going down.

Statement of financial position

If we’ve asked you to provide more information on your financial position, you can download the ‘Statement of Financial Position’ form below and email to assist@pepper.com.au with any supporting documents.

Download form

Comprehensive Credit Reporting Guides

What is Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR)? CCR gives lenders like us at Pepper Money a complete view of your credit history, including both positive and negative data. This helps us make more informed decisions about lending money.

Why does it matter? It could affect your ability to get credit. Your credit history includes your repayment behaviour, which can affect your ability to get loans. It shows not just defaults and bankruptcies, but also whether you have made your payments on time or not.

These Credit Smart guides are here to help you understand your credit report and the factors that can affect your credit history.

Late or missed payments will show up in your credit report, so it is important to make repayments on time. If you are having trouble making repayments, contact us straight away to discuss options.

This guide applies if your lender has agreed to waive your debt. This is usually because you are unlikely to be able to repay the debt due to an unforseen hardship.

View Guide

View our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy >>