Tackling Data Breaches
We encourage Members to use the CreditSmart content in your customer engagement to provide consistency on the credit ban process.
The information stresses the importance of taking a holistic approach to managing the risk of identity theft and fraud. This is critical given much of the media tends to present simplistic single solutions (“change your drivers’ licence number and you will be safe”) which can provide false assurance for consumers.
Financial Hardship Campaign
A full set of CreditSmart collateral is available on the ARCA workgroup website page to support your hardship teams to leverage directly, or via the CreditSmart website. CreditSmart as the educator across customer pain points take the burden from Members’ operation teams to provide the information necessary to explain hardship in the context of the fuller credit reporting & credit health needs.
We have conducted a review of all ARCA Member websites to track the effectiveness of CreditSmart links and their use of CreditSmart FH resources. Currently 60% of Tier 1 & 2 ARCA Members link or refer their customers to the CreditSmart website to learn more about hardship assistance. We expect continued changes and an increased need from consumers to understand the information in the next few months, so it will remain a priority to encourage you to re-share, use or incorporate CreditSmart messaging and collateral into you customer engagement plans.
We encourage Members to review your existing process and if we can assist in providing a review of your website for touchpoints to educate your customers on financial hardship, please let Tersia know.
Cost of living campaign
The lack of awareness around the detail and value of consumers managing their credit report, the increasing pressure around the cost of living, and knowing that consumers are only interested to learn more about credit reporting when it is relevant to them, makes now the opportune time for a short term, high impact campaign to support these vulnerable consumers.
We already know that Australia’s overall rate of financial literacy is low. There is now a risk that the impact of the cost of living crisis may be worsened simply because of this gap in financial literacy.
We will roll out our Cost-of-Living campaign in May, with the aim of reinforcing the importance for consumers to understand their credit health, demonstrating the link between a consumer’s use of credit, control over their credit health, the impact of financial hardship and the long-term impact on their future credit health.
All campaign assets will be shared with Members to re-share with their customers or incorporate into your existing communication campaigns. For ARCA Members, having CreditSmart speak to the already engaged customer is invaluable: it helps reinforce what you are telling your customers, and provides credibility to the message.
2023 Financial Counselling conference (17/18 May)
The aim of our attendance is to drive CreditSmart brand visibility and recognition as the industry credit reporting education/ information partner.
ARCA/CreditSmart is pleased to again be part of the 2023 Financial Counselling Australia conference in May this year. This conference draws 600+ delegates including financial counsellors, financial capability workers, consumer lawyers, representatives from government departments, regulators, external dispute resolution schemes and industry peak bodies. We are not only exhibiting at the conference but Elsa Markula, in partnership with the credit law team at Care, will also run concurrent sessions around ‘What’s new in Consumer and Credit law’.
We will be launching the CreditSmart Consultant Hub at the conference. This hub will provide content and fact sheets specifically designed for use by financial counsellors to improve their understanding of credit reporting overall and support their customers.
If you have questions on any of the above items, or would like to discuss how we can support your credit reporting education efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
