Congratulations - You’ve Completed Your Debt Agreement!
Reaching the end of your Debt Agreement is a significant milestone. You have completed the payments required under your agreement and are now at the final stage of the process.
There are a few administrative steps that need to occur before everything is formally finalised. Read below to understand what you can expect.
Processing Your Completion
Once we receive your final payment, we need to complete the administration of your Debt Agreement. This includes:
Step -1
Processing and reconciling your final payment
Step -3
Preparing and making the final distribution to your creditors
Step -2
Completing the required checks on your account
Step -4
Completing the required reporting to the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA)
Once all obligations under your Debt Agreement have been completed, including the final distribution of funds, we will notify AFSA of the completion within 5 business days.
Please allow approximately 7 calendar days from receipt of your final payment for us to complete our internal processing and finalisation requirements.
AFSA Confirmation of Completion
After we notify AFSA, the Official Receiver reviews the completion information and updates the National Personal Insolvency Index (NPII).
Once the completion has been verified, AFSA will formally record your Debt Agreement as completed and issue confirmation of the completion.
You and Debt Fix will be notified once this process has been completed.
As a general guide, AFSA processing may take approximately 7–14 days after notification, although processing times can vary.
What Happens to Your Debts?
Once your Debt Agreement has been completed, you are released from the provable debts that are extinguished by completion of the agreement. This means that, for debts covered by the Debt Agreement:
Creditors cannot continue to recover that remaining balance from you
You do not have to pay the remaining unpaid balance
Creditors should update their records to reflect the completion of the Debt Agreement
If you owed a debt
(which was in joint names),
the coborrower, in almost all cases, continues to be liable for the whole of the debt.
In practical terms, if a creditor received less than the original balance owing through the Debt Agreement, the remaining amount cannot simply be pursued from you after completion where the debt is one from which you have been released.
What if a debt was accidentally left out?
A Debt Agreement generally binds all creditors to whom you owed provable debts at the relevant date, not simply the creditors who happened to be listed or who voted on the proposal.
Accordingly, if you later become aware of an old debt that existed when your Debt Agreement proposal was accepted for processing and that debt was a provable debt, it may also be subject to the Debt Agreement and your subsequent release.
There are exceptions. Certain debts are not released by completion of a Debt Agreement, including some fines, child support or maintenance liabilities, debts arising from fraud and certain other categories of debt.
If you are contacted about an old debt after completing your Debt Agreement, please contact us before making payment so that we can help determine whether the debt was covered.
What Happens with your Creditors?
AFSA records the completion of your Debt Agreement and the completion information becomes available to relevant parties.
Creditors whose debts have been released should no longer pursue you for those debts.
Please allow creditors some time to update their internal systems after completion. If, after a reasonable processing period, you receive collection calls, letters, emails or payment demands relating to a debt that was covered by your completed Debt Agreement, please contact Debt Fix.
We can help you determine whether the contact is appropriate and what steps may need to be taken.
What Happens to Your Credit File?
Completing your Debt Agreement does not cause it to disappear from your credit report immediately.
Your credit reporting information should progressively update to reflect the fact that the Debt Agreement has been completed. The exact description displayed can vary between credit reporting bodies and individual credit providers.
In our experience, credit-file updates commonly take around 4–6 weeks following finalisation, although this can vary.
If your credit report has not been updated after allowing sufficient processing time, you can contact the relevant credit reporting body to request that inaccurate information be corrected.
When Will the Debt Agreement Disappear from My Credit Report?
For a successfully completed Debt Agreement, personal insolvency information will generally remain on your credit report until the later of:
- Five years from the date the Debt Agreement was made; or
- The date the Debt Agreement ends.
For most people who complete their Debt Agreement within its normal term, this means the Debt Agreement will disappear from their credit report approximately five years after it commenced.
For example, if your Debt Agreement commenced in August 2023, you would generally expect the Debt Agreement information to cease appearing on your credit report around August 2028, subject to the individual credit reporting body's processing and the applicable credit-reporting rules.
You do not normally need to apply to have correctly recorded Debt Agreement information removed once the applicable reporting period has expired.
What About the National Personal Insolvency Index?
Your Debt Agreement is also recorded on the National Personal Insolvency Index (NPII).
For a completed Debt Agreement, AFSA advises that the record is removed after the later of:
- five years from the date the Debt Agreement was made; or
- the date your obligations under the Debt Agreement were completed.
The NPII and your consumer credit report are separate records, so their update and removal processes should not be confused.
Applying for Credit in the Future
Completing your Debt Agreement is an important step forward, but it does not guarantee that a lender will approve a future credit application.
Credit providers make their own lending decisions and may consider your credit report, income, expenses, existing commitments and their own internal lending criteria.
It is also important to remember that a creditor who was previously included in your Debt Agreement may retain its own lawful internal records of your previous account and relationship with them, even after information has disappeared from your external credit report.
For this reason, when considering future credit, you may wish to consider lenders who were not previously included in your Debt Agreement. However, you should only apply for credit where it is suitable and affordable for your circumstances.
