When you enter a Hardship Care arrangement with us, a spending block is placed on all of your Latitude credit cards. Your financial wellbeing is important to us. This block can let you focus on your Hardship Care arrangement without potentially ending up in a worse financial position.
We let you know about spending blocks as part of our Hardship Care program terms before you enter an arrangement with us.
Spending again with Latitude
When your Hardship Care arrangement has ended, we want to be confident that you’re no longer in a period of financial hardship and that you’re back on track. For that reason, we don’t automatically reactivate your ability to spend again on your credit card(s) when your arrangement ends.
Instead, we look at a range of factors before we lift the spending block(s) – these include:
- Talking with you about your circumstances and what’s changed since you were first approved for Hardship Care
- Ensuring all of your Latitude accounts are up to date and that you don’t have any other active Hardship Care arrangements in place
- Seeing that you’ve made at least three (3) consecutive minimum monthly payments by your due date, for each of your accounts with us, after your Hardship Care arrangement has ended
Only the primary card holder can apply to have the spending block lifted – authorised representatives or secondary card holders can’t apply on your behalf.
There are some circumstances where we will need additional information/documentation from you about your income and expenses now that your Hardship Care arrangement has ended. There are also some other circumstances where your card(s)/account(s) will remain permanently blocked from further spending. Whatever the case may be, we’ll always let you know before you enter a Hardship Care arrangement with us, and again after the arrangement has ended if needed.
Once you’ve made three (3) consecutive minimum monthly payments on time on your account, give us a call on 1800 220 718 to discuss whether you’re eligible to spend again. If you are, we’ll lift the spending block(s) and you’re good to go! If not, we’ll let you know why.
Want to know more? Click here to view our other articles about Hardship Care.
Need more advice?
If you’re worried about your finances, consider getting in touch with the National Debt Helpline. They’re a not-for-profit service offering online and over-the-phone support to help with managing money and/or debt, or they can put you in touch with a local Financial Counsellor in your state or territory for face-to-face help. Visit their website or call 1800 007 007.
