Do Not Claim "Hardship" for Credit Cards

Litcrowd on 03/11/2017 - 11:11
Last edited 03/11/2017 - 11:12

WARNING: Do not claim "Hardship" for credit card debt.

I had a small credit card debt of $140.

I recently lost my job and wanted to claim "Hardship" with my Coles Mastercard (LATITUDE FINANCIAL SERVICES - crap company; you shouldn't apply for any of their cards, btw) not knowing what it really means.

The lady said "The moment we process a Hardship claim, you immediately lose access to your credit card. And you will probably not get it back, ever - a new Credit Analyst will into your claim for a new card and will decide to give you one - or not."

My intention was to pay $20 a week AND STILL have access to the credit card facility.

IMHO, it's much better to not claim Hardship but merely pay off what you can.

Anything less than $150 they write-off anyway, and won't affect your credit rating.

And you you will still have access to credit, for emergencies!

ITCrowd

Financial

Comments

  • farmap on 08/11/2017 - 16:31
    +1

    I think your statement is a bit of an overgeneralisation. In your case, it didn't make sense, given how little you owed. However, in some circumstances, claiming hardship can help significantly.

    This is what various financial institutions have offered me with a hardship variation:

    • 28 Degrees: Reduced monthly payment and 0% interest for the life of the remaining debt
    • Bankwest: Three months at half-interest, then another three months at half-interest after an internal complaint, then Bankwest had to reduce the balance by close to $10,000 after I complained to FOS that they didn't give me enough hardship variations (I was unemployed at the time when they were asking me to make the minimum repayments)
    • Citibank: 24 months of no repayments at all, followed by a reduced monthly payment. Also, 0% interest for the life of the remaining debt. After a while, I offered to pay the debt off as a lump sum and they waived 50% off my debt (about $10,000).
    • icejester on 15/11/2017 - 01:06
      +1

      That is actually incredible
      I've never seen banks so generous…

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