Credit Reporting and Defaults in Australia: Thresholds and Timeframes

A credit provider in Australia can only list a default on your credit report once the overdue amount is at least $150 and at least 60 days overdue, and only after sending two separate notices, and different types of information then stay on file for different lengths of time, from 1 year up to 7.

When a Credit Provider Can List a Default

Credit reporting in Australia is governed by Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2024, the current registered instrument made under that Part. Together they set out exactly when a credit provider is allowed to list a default against a consumer's credit file, and a provider that skips a step has not validly listed it.

A default listing requires all of the following: the payment is at least 60 days overdue, the overdue amount is $150 or more, a first notice was sent to the debtor's last known address telling them of the overdue amount and requesting payment, and a second notice was sent at least 30 days after the first, warning that the provider intends to disclose the default to a credit reporting body if it remains unpaid. Once the second notice has gone out, the provider must then wait at least 14 days before listing the default, and cannot leave it more than 3 months after the second notice to do so. Notice sent to a debtor's last known address is generally treated as compliant, including by email where that is the usual channel of communication, so a default listed off a notice sent to a genuinely outdated address, through the provider's own error rather than the debtor's failure to update details, may not be validly listed.

How Long Information Stays on Your Credit Report

Different categories of information carry different retention periods, and they run on separate clocks from each other.

The bankruptcy and debt agreement rows are a separate topic in their own right; see Bankruptcy in Australia for how bankruptcy and Part IX and Part X insolvency arrangements work more broadly.

Repayment History Is Not the Same as a Default

Repayment history is shown as a number from 0 to 7, counting months since the oldest missed payment. A payment counts as missed for this purpose if it is made more than 14 days after the due date, and no written notice is required before a missed payment is recorded this way, unlike the formal default process above. This is a materially lower bar than a default listing, and the two are commonly confused. A missed-payment mark on your repayment history is not the same thing as a formal default, and does not by itself mean the $150-and-60-day threshold has been met.

Financial Hardship Protection Against a Default Listing

While a hardship request is being decided, and for 14 days after the provider tells the debtor of a refusal, the provider is generally not allowed to list a default, unless it reasonably believes the request repeats one made on the same basis within the previous 4 months. This protection sits alongside, and is separate from, the hardship-notice mechanics that apply to a formal credit contract more broadly. It means applying for hardship assistance before a default is listed can buy time, though it is a protection against the listing being made, not a guarantee the underlying debt itself is reduced or forgiven.

Paying a Debt After It Has Been Listed

Paying an overdue amount after a default has already been listed does not remove the listing. It updates the entry to show that payment was made, but the listing itself remains on file for the rest of its 5-year retention period. This is a genuinely counter-intuitive point worth stating plainly, since a debtor who pays in full might reasonably expect the default to disappear, and it does not. A debt can also remain collectible, and can still be reported this way, even once it has become statute-barred in the separate sense of a court no longer being able to enforce it; see Statute-Barred Debt in Australia for that different, and separate, deadline.

Disputing an Error on Your Credit Report

If information on your credit report is wrong, the general route is to raise it first with the credit provider or the credit reporting body that listed it. A complaint of this kind is generally acknowledged within 7 days and the provider is expected to make a decision within 30 days. If the outcome is not satisfactory, the next step is an external dispute resolution scheme, such as the Australian Financial Complaints Authority for a dispute involving a financial firm, or a complaint made directly to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, generally within 12 months of becoming aware of the issue. For the broader Australian data privacy framework this dispute route sits inside, see Australia Data Privacy Laws.

Bankruptcy and Your Credit Report

Bankruptcy runs on its own separate credit-report retention rule, later of 5 years from becoming bankrupt or 2 years from no longer being bankrupt, distinct from the ordinary default and consumer-credit retention periods above. See Bankruptcy in Australia for what bankruptcy involves and how it affects existing debts more broadly, and Alternatives to Bankruptcy in Australia for other options before that point. For the broader consumer protection framework credit reporting sits inside, see Australian Consumer Law.