Financial Hardship Policy Summary

We are here to help. We will work with you to help you respond to financial difficulty, whether temporary or long-term. We are committed to helping customers facing financial hardship maintain telecommunications access and working with you to find a sustainable solution. Any help we can give will depend on your individual circumstances and we provide help on a case-by- case basis.

The goal of our Financial Hardship Policy is to prioritise keeping customers experiencing financial hardship connected. Disconnection will only be used as a measure of last resort.

The services described in the Financial Hardship Policy are free of charge for customers to use.

Under this policy “Financial Hardship” means a circumstance where:

(i) You are unable to discharge the financial obligations owed by you under your Customer Contract or otherwise discharge the financial obligations owed by you to a Supplier, due to illness, unemployment or other reasonable cause; and

(ii) You believe that you will be able to discharge those obligations if the relevant payment arrangements or other arrangements relating to the supply of Telecommunications Products by the Supplier to you are changed.

Customers have a right to apply for short term assistance and long term assistance.

The options for assistance include:

(i) Placing spend controls on your service;

(ii) Limiting your access to certain call or usage types (for example premium services) or to the service generally;

(iii) Implementing low cost interim options until you can continue with original payments;

(iv) Temporarily postponing or deferring payments (for a longer period than would typically be offered to Customers requesting an extension of Financial Hardship arrangements);

(v) Transferring you from a ‘post-paid’ service to a ‘pre-paid’ service;

(vi) Waiving late payment fees;

(vii) Waiving cancellation fees;

(viii) Disconnection of Service (last resort measure).

How to Get Help

When you are facing Financial Hardship you should:

(i) Make contact with us by telephone, post or email – see below for contact details; and/or

(ii) Seek professional assistance from a qualified financial counselling service such as Financial Counselling Australia (www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au or 1800 007 007).

How to apply for Assistance

There are different methods to apply for assistance:

(i) By Phone

Financial Hardship Enquiries: 1300 835 324 – Option 1

 Hours of Operation: Monday to Friday: 9.00am to 6.00pm (AEST)

(ii) By Chat

Visit TeleChoice.com.au and click on the ‘Chat with us’ box, located bottom right-hand side of the page

(iii) By Mail

TeleChoice Financial Hardship Support Team

PO BOX 5161

South Melbourne, Victoria, 3205

(iv) By email

billing@telechoice.com.au

To make a complaint, please refer to our complaints policy here:

https://www.telechoice.com.au/complaints-policy or ask us for a copy.

Also, you can raise a Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) complaint for external dispute resolution. Find out more information on the TIO website tio.com.au/complaints or call the TIO on 1800 062 058 (Monday – Friday, 8.00am – 8.00pm AEST).

View our full Financial Hardship Policy here