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Financial Hardship

Need help with your bill? We’re here for you.

We are committed to helping customers facing financial hardship, to find a sustainable solution while maintaining telecommunications access.

Definition of Financial Hardship

The Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code (TCP) defines financial hardship as a situation where:

  1. a Customer is unable to discharge the financial obligations owed by the Customer under their Customer Contract or otherwise discharge the financial obligations owed by the Customer to a Supplier, due to illness, unemployment or other reasonable cause; and
  2. the Customer believes that they are able to discharge those obligations if the relevant payment arrangements or other arrangements relating to the supply of Telecommunications Products by the Supplier to the Customer are changed.

Financial Counseling

A list of financial counseling services are available at www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au

TelcoEdge Assistance

Financial hardship is a real and ongoing inability to pay bills, rather than an unwillingness to pay them.

Where you believe you have a genuine need and have contacted us about this, TelcoEdge will ask you to provide documentation supporting your financial situation and the circumstances that have led to this, and we will then evaluate your situation.

Depending on your circumstances, we may offer:

  • other options to keep you connected, including spend controls, service restrictions and temporary plan downgrades (at no cost)
  • other financial arrangements including temporarily postponing or deferring payments (outside of payment plans), waiving of debt or late payment fees or agreeing on an alternative arrangement, plan or contract.

TelcoEdge may ask you to provide further information such as your income, financial resources, expenses and budget to assist with confirmation of a situation.

An assessment will be made within 7 working days of receipt of all requested information and a repayment plan may be put forward to you.

Our assessment will be based on your individual circumstances.

Information on how we handle disputes is provided lower down this page under our Dispute Resolution Policy.

TelcoEdge provides tools to limit use of your services such as maximum number of calls, faxes, SMS, or maximum amount of spend, and these tools may be used to help you with financial management.

How to Contact

Open Monday to Friday 9:00am – 4:00pm ACDT and ACST
Phone: 1300 20 88 20, ask for accounts and specify you wish to discuss Financial Hardship.
Fax: 1300 60 88 60, addressed to Hardship Enquiries, TelcoEdge.
Postal: Hardship Enquiries, TelcoEdge, PO Box 434, Fullarton, SA 5063.and describe your financial hardship.
Email: [email protected] and describe your financial hardship