Contacting a Debtor | Debt Collection Help

Communications with the debtor must always be for a reasonable purpose, and should only occur to the extent necessary. It may be necessary and reasonable for you to contact a debtor to:

• give information about the debtor’s account
• convey a demand for payment
• accurately explain the consequences of non-payment, including any legal remedies available to the collector/creditor, and any service restrictions that may apply in the case of utilities (for example, electricity)
• make arrangements for repayment of a debt
• put a settlement proposal or alternative payment arrangement to the debtor
• review existing arrangements after an agreed period
• ascertain why earlier attempts to contact the debtor have not been responded to within a reasonable period, if this is the case
• ascertain why an agreed repayment arrangement has not been complied with, if this is the case
• investigate whether the debtor has changed their residential location without informing you, when there are grounds for believing this has occurred
• sight, inspect or recover a security interest

or for other similar purposes.

You may also contact a debtor at the debtor’s request.

However, it is not reasonable or acceptable to contact a debtor to:

• frighten or intimidate the debtor
• demoralise, or exhaust the debtor
• embarrass the debtor in front of other people

or for other similar purposes.