Money on Your Mind: Financial Counselling and Mental Health

This report sets out the findings of the 2019 survey of financial counsellors about the hardship practices of the big four banks and non major banks. The survey also assesses the hardship practices of debt collection companies, Buy Now Pay Later providers and consumer lease companies. There are also questions about bank consumer advocates.

In this report, researchers from Curtain University have calculated the actual costs of the most popular BNPL products for smaller purchases of up to $2,000 and compared them with the costs typically incurred with the use of a traditional credit card. This research shows that if you don’t pay on time, the charges and fees on small amounts of BNPL purchases can be just as expensive or more expensive than credit cards