Financial hardship FAQs | Help & Support

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Financial difficulty FAQs

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What is financial hardship?

Financial hardship occurs when you're having trouble meeting your payment obligations for loans or other debts. This could be because of an unexpected event or change in your circumstances (such as illness or injury, becoming unemployed or being affected by a natural disaster or cost of living pressures).

You can ask for financial hardship assistance whether you're experiencing long-term or short-term financial hardship. HSBC assesses each hardship assistance application fairly and thoroughly. We have a range of solutions to assist customers with both short-term and long-term financial hardship.

Talk to us as quickly as possible and explain your circumstances. If you're experiencing or have experienced domestic abuse, family violence or elder abuse, we may be able to offer you extra help and support.

How do I apply for financial hardship assistance?

There are several ways you can find out more about financial hardship assistance and apply for help. See our Money Worries page for more detail.

You don't need to provide any documents to request hardship assistance. However, once we begin assessing your application, we will need you to provide income and expenditure details. You can provide these over the phone or you can complete and send us a Statement of Financial Position (SOFP) (PDF) If we need more supporting information to help us assess your financial situation, we will be in touch. This information helps us offer you the most suitable hardship arrangement.

Our Customer Assist Team will call you within 7 to 10 days to discuss your application.

We'll also respond in writing within 21 days from the date of your application, confirming the main details of any arrangement made, or asking for more information to help us come to a decision.

We'll place a hold on our collections activity during the assessment process. During this period we won't start further action to enforce or recover your debt. We won't consider outsourcing your debt to a Debt Collection Agency until we have completed our assessment and advised you of the outcome.

If your hardship assistance application is declined and you're unhappy with the outcome or our handling of your application, you can lodge a complaint with HSBC by:

Giving us a call: Personal Banking customers: 1300 308 188 or +61 2 9005 8181 if calling from overseas
Visiting a HSBC branch: https://www.hsbc.com.au/branch-finder/
Filling in an online form: https://www.hsbc.com.au/forms/feedback-complaint
Writing to us:

Customer Relations Team

HSBC Bank Australia Limited

Tower 1 - International Towers Sydney

100 Barangaroo Avenue, Sydney NSW 200

Sending us an email: customerrelationsaustralia@hsbc.com.au

You may also complain directly to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA is a free and independent ombudsman service that resolves complaints about financial firms from consumers and small businesses.

To find out more, please visit our feedback and complaints page.

How can I pay my debts?

Can I use my super to pay my debts?

You can access your superannuation early in very limited circumstances, including to pay certain expenses on compassionate grounds, and if you're experiencing terminal illness, incapacity or severe financial hardship. You must meet certain criteria to access your super early due to severe financial hardship. You can learn more about these criteria and extreme financial hardship on the Australia Taxation Office (ATO) website. You may also want to discuss this option with a financial counsellor.

When we assess your application for financial hardship assistance, we may ask you to fill in a Statement of Financial Position (SOFP) (PDF) and/or provide information about your income and expenses. If you have significant funds in your savings or redraw account(s), we may expect you to draw on those funds before entering into a hardship arrangement with HSBC. However, if your savings are intended for a particular purpose such as legal costs, real estate fees or hospital bills, let us know and we'll consider this when we assess your application.

When should I approach a financial counsellor?

You don't always need to seek advice from a financial counsellor, but you might want to if you're struggling to make repayments to your creditors and you're feeling overwhelmed with financial problems.

Financial counsellors can help you get your finances back under control. They can do a full assessment of your financial situation, including regular income and expenses, assets and liabilities. Armed with this knowledge, they can then create a workable budget and repayment plan with you.

If you ask us to and it's appropriate, we'll refer you to financial counselling organisations that may be able to help you. We may also recommend on our own initiative that you seek independent advice from a financial counsellor.

You can get free and independent financial counselling help from National Debt Helpline (NDH) or Financial Counselling Australia (FCA).

Financial hardship - frequently asked questions (FAQs)

You might be looking for

What is financial hardship?

Is financial hardship assistance only available for short-term difficulties?

What if I'm experiencing financial hardship because of domestic or family violence or elder abuse?

How do I apply for financial hardship assistance?

What documents do I need to provide to apply for financial hardship assistance?

When will I receive a response to my application for financial hardship assistance?

What happens if my application for financial hardship assistance is declined?

How can I pay my debts?

Can I use my super to pay my debts?

If I have savings or access to funds in a redraw account, do I need to use these funds before I apply for hardship assistance?

When should I approach a financial counsellor?

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