Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003

46 Crediting of payments

• (1) A creditor must credit each payment made under a consumer credit contract to the debtor's account as soon as practicable after receipt of the payment.

  (2) In this section, as soon as practicable means the earliest time that, operating under the normal business conditions applying to the creditor, a reasonable creditor would have the payment available for reinvestment (whether or not on similar terms).

  (3) Despite subsection (1), if the consumer credit contract specifies that payments are to be made in accordance with a specified schedule of payments, the creditor may credit a payment that is accepted in accordance with the schedule if the contract expressly permits the creditor to credit those payments in this manner.

  (4) Subsection (3) applies whether or not—

  • (a) the specified schedule of payments is subject to adjustment in accordance with the contract to accommodate contingencies (for example, the possibility of changes to the interest rate); and

  • (b) the payment is of an amount that is not equal to the amount of the next scheduled payment.

  (5) However, subsection (3) does not apply to a full prepayment.

  Compare: Consumer Credit Code (Appendix to Consumer Credit (Queensland) Act 1994) s 24 (Qld)