Customers have been offered financial education, and the opportunity to close their card and repay the remaining debt at a lower interest rate. We have contacted 9,500 customers as at 30 September 2019.

Earlier this year we contacted John*, a long-term customer who has held a credit card facility with ANZ since 1976. John had a balance of $9,500 (on a $10,000 limit) and the entirety of the balance was on a cash advance interest rate of 21.74% per annum. John had not transacted on the card since 2016 and had been making payments only slightly above the minimum monthly repayment amount.

Continuing his current repayment behaviour, John would have taken more than 9 years to pay off the debt – assuming there was no further spending on the card – accruing at least $12,000 in interest over that time.

After contacting John and explaining his options, John agreed to an instalment plan with an interest rate of 7% per annum. This will enable him to pay off the debt in five years or less, saving more than $10,000 in interest charges.

This program has been welcomed by many customers, including John who said, “I wish this had happened a long time ago … it’s such a relief.”

¹Where for at least the last 12 months a credit card has over 80% of the credit utilised and the customer has been paying 2–3% of the outstanding balance on average each month.
^* Customer name has been changed.