Financial Hardship Policy

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Introduction

Rivertel Pty Ltd (Trading as MyFibre. Rivertel in this document) understands that financial hardship may be experienced by our customers at some point in their account life cycle. It is our intention to assist where we can and look after you to the best of our ability.

Financial Hardship

You may be experiencing Financial Hardship when you are unable to meet the financial obligations of your agreement with Rivertel for reasonable causes over a limited or long period of time.

Reasonable causes of financial hardship may include:

• Loss of employment
• Family breakdown or death in the family
• Illness, including physical incapacity, hospitalisation, or mental illness of the customer or family member
• Natural disasters

If you are experiencing financial hardship you may need assistance from us to change your payment and/or service arrangements so that your obligations to us can be met.
 

Customer Eligibility

If you are a residential customer or a small business customer and are experiencing financial hardship, this policy may apply to you.
Rivertel will assess your claim for eligibility and will consider your individual circumstances as part of the assessment.
Please note that if you are simply experiencing temporary payment difficulty, this policy would not apply to you. Please call us to discuss your situation.

How Rivertel can assist you

We will listen to you, assess your claim, discuss your payment and service options with you and aim to reach a reasonable outcome.

In addition to contacting us, Rivertel urges you to engage the assistance of a financial counsellor. We are aware that there are sometimes waiting lists to see financial counsellors so in the interim you may be asked for documents to substantiate your claim.
 

Managing your claim
We may ask you to submit evidence to us to support your claim. Please refer to the section in this policy that lists types of evidence that we may ask from you.
We will take into account your circumstance and financial position to reach a financial arrangement that is suitable to both parties.
Payment arrangements will be made with the view to cover any future use and reduce your debt.
We may suggest that some or all of your services be restricted to prevent you falling further in debt whilst the arrangement is in place. We will attempt to contact you if this action becomes necessary and has not been discussed with you.
We will send you written confirmation of the agreed arrangement if you request us to do so.
We will attempt to contact you both by telephone and letter should the arrangement not be kept by you prior to taking further credit management action.
If you require us to review your arrangement due to a change in your circumstance we will do so.
Whilst your payment arrangement remains in place we will not report your debt to a Credit Reporting Agency.

Your responsibilities

You must make the agreed payments on the agreed dates.
You must show a willingness to reduce usage to a minimum during the term of the financial arrangement
You will contact us within 48 hours prior to an agreed payment date if you are unable to keep your commitment.
You will contact us to advise us if your circumstance has changed favourably or unfavourably during the term of the arrangement.
You will act promptly and honestly at all times throughout the course of this arrangement.

Termination of the arrangement

In the event the arrangement is not adhered to and we have not been contacted by you, we will take reasonable steps to contact you or your authorised representative before taking further action.
The arrangement will be considered terminated after this time and full credit management action will resume.
In the event that you choose to cancel your account with Rivertel, the arrangement will no longer be valid and normal credit management action will apply.
Failure to make the agreed payments on a regular basis may be viewed negatively and result in termination of the arrangement.

Required documentation to support your claim

Rivertel may ask for any of the below types of evidence to support your claim of financial hardship:

• Statement of financial position
• Evidence that you have engaged a financial counsellor or evidence of a pending appointment to see a financial counsellor.
• Statutory Declaration from a person that is familiar with your situation. (Family Doctor, Clergy, Bank Officer, etc.)
• Medical certificates from treating specialist or other medical professionals.

 Financial Counsellors

The contacts below may be of assistance to you for your state or territory:
ACT
Salvation Army Money Care – 02 6247 3635
New South Wales
Financial Counsellors' Association of New South Wales – 1300 914 408
Northern Territory
Anglicare Financial Counselling Service - 08 8948 2700
Queensland
Financial counsellors' Association of Queensland - 07 3321 3192
South Australia
Uniting Care Wesley Adelaide - 08 8202 5180
Tasmania
Anglicare Financial Counselling Service - 1800 243 232
Victoria
MoneyHelp – 1800 149 689
Western Australia
Financial Counsellors' Association of WA – 1800 889 364