Credit Card FAQs

How does BOQ Credit Cards manage financial crime and sanctions obligations?

We're committed to protecting our customers by meeting our legal and regulatory requirements in the areas of financial crime and creating a hostile environment for criminal activity.

This includes:

• Implementation of an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) program.
• Education to help our customers understand and protect themselves from the risk of fraud.
• Compliance with international anti-bribery and corruption rules and regulations, including making our Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy available.
• Implementation of our Sanctions Program.

You can learn more about how we manage our financial crime and sanctions obligations here.

Customer Due Diligence

If you have received communication from us relating to Customer Due Diligence, it is important that you contact us.

1300 841 761

+61 3 9322 6631 (from overseas)

Mon – Fri 8am to 6pm and Sat 9am to 2pm (AEST/AEDT)

How can I change my contact details?

If your contact details change, it is important to notify BOQ as soon as possible. To change any personal details including address, email or phone number:

• Call BOQ Customer Connect (operating hours are 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturday) on 1300 55 72 72
• Send a request via Internet Banking secure mail
• Visit your nearest BOQ branch

How do I close my account?

You can request to close your Credit Card account by:

• Call our customer contact centre on 1300 55 72 72 (operating hours are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 5pm on Saturday). Select option 1 for Credit Cards and a team member will be able to guide you; or
• Visiting your nearest BOQ branch

How do I decrease my credit limit?

Existing customers are able to request a decrease on their credit limit through:

1. BOQ Internet Banking, or
2. Contacting us on 1300 55 72 72

To request a credit limit decrease through BOQ Internet Banking, simply log on and on the left-hand side; Manage my Credit Card’ menu, click on Credit Limit Decrease and follow the prompts.

If you have not used BOQ Internet Banking before, you will need to register first. It is important to note that your credit limit can’t be lower than your product minimum and should you wish to reinstate your previous credit limit after it is decreased, your application to increase your limit will be subject to our lending criteria at the that time.

Why can’t I perform a cash advance when I have available funds?

Your cash advance limit is the same as your credit limit and these are different to your available balance. When your available balance is less than your credit limit, the maximum cash advance is determined by the lower of these, less any cash advances.

Over-payments are excluded and do not qualify for a cash advance. If you over-pay your Credit Card, the additional funds over your credit limit will not qualify for a cash advance.

Paying off your Closing Balance

The best way to reduce the amount of credit card interest you pay, is to pay off your Closing Balance or Interest Free Days Payment, if you have an Instalment Plan or Balance Transfer, by the Payment Due Date displayed on your statement.

The Closing Balance is the total amount outstanding on your credit card account at the end of the Statement Period.

The Interest Free Days Payment amount is displayed on your statement if you have a Balance Transfer or Instalment Plan.

If you want to pay off your entire credit card debt as at the end of the Statement Period, you’ll need to pay the Closing Balance. If you pay this amount by the Payment Due Date, you won't be charged interest on your purchases because purchases have an interest free period.

Pay more than your Minimum Payment Due

Firstly, pay any Overdue amount immediately.

If you can't pay the Closing Balance in full each month, consider paying a little more than your Minimum Payment Due instead.

By paying a little more than your Minimum Payment Due each month, you can pay off your credit card debt faster and pay less interest. Check out the ASIC Repayment Calculator to see how much you can save by making higher repayments.

The thought of paying that little bit extra can be daunting. A budget might help you stay on top of your expenses and even help you work towards paying off your credit card balance in full.

Take advantage of your interest-free period

We offer up to 44 or 55 days, interest free for retail purchase transactions. This does not mean you get 44 interest-free days for every retail purchase transaction. If you’re not already paying retail interest, the ‘up to’ 44 days begins when you make a transaction and ends on your Payment Due Date on the statement the transaction appears on. This is what we mean by 'up to'.

If you have a balance transfer or instalment plan, you'll need to pay the Interest Free Days Payment shown on your statement by the due date each month, to keep the benefit of an interest free period you may have, or to start an interest free period on any retail purchases.

If you don’t pay the full Closing Balance, or the Interest Free Day Payment amount if you have a Balance Transfer or Instalment Plan, by your Payment Due Date, you’ll be charged interest from the day after the Payment Due Date. This interest is charged against everything you’ve purchased during the Statement Period, minus any payments you’ve made.

Avoid cash advances, if possible

A standard cash advance is withdrawing cash from your credit card account. Since this isn't considered a purchase, interest-free days don’t apply. This means interest starts to add up from the date you make the withdrawal.

Cash advances should be a last resort or in case of an emergency. If you need cash, it’s a way to get it if you’re stuck. But remember, the interest charged for cash is higher than the interest charged on purchases, so try to pay it back as soon as possible.

Other cash advance examples include:

• cash out from your credit card account at an ATM, or over the counter
• bills paid with your credit card over the counter at another bank or at a post office (online bill payments are usually okay, but you should check with your biller first)
• traveller’s cheques or gift cards
• any remaining transferred balance after a Balance Transfer has expired

Get in touch if you're facing financial difficulty

You can visit our Extra Care hub or contact us if you need assistance.

What is a ‘regular payment arrangement’?

Regular payment arrangements can be either a recurring payment or an instalment payment. A regular payment arrangement is an agreement between you (the cardholder) and a merchant in which you authorise the merchant to bill your credit card account at regular intervals (e.g. monthly or quarterly) or at intervals as agreed by you. The amount may differ or be the same for each transaction.

An Instalment Payment represents an agreement between you (the credit cardholder) and a merchant in which you preauthorise the merchant to bill your credit card account with a fixed amount at predetermined intervals for a predetermined time.

Examples:

Recurring Transaction: You may ask your local gymnasium to charge your monthly gym membership fee to your credit card each month.

Instalment Payment: You may have purchased a new television from your local appliance store and are being billed by the merchant for a fixed amount in multiple periods until a defined date.

What are the benefits of regular payment arrangements?

There are many benefits for Credit Card holders who set up regular payments including:

• Timely payments to the merchant
• Saves you time as the payment is processed automatically
• No need to send cheques or worry about postage delays

How do I cancel a regular payment arrangement?

There are a few ways to cancel your Regular Payment Arrangement on your Credit Card:

• Contact the merchant to initiate a cancellation
• Call our customer contact centre on 1300 55 72 72 (operating hours are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 5pm on Saturday). Select option 1 for Credit Cards and a team member will be able to guide you.
• Visit your nearest BOQ branch

The request for cancellation will be processed by National Australia Bank, the credit provider for BOQ’s Credit Cards. Requests are processed promptly, however may not take immediate effect if the third party (eg, gym membership) has already submitted their payment file for processing. For added assurance, it is always good to touch base with the third party provider to ensure your payment arrangement is showing as cancelled within their system.

What if my Credit Card number and/or expiry date changes?

If you have provided a merchant with your Credit Card number for a Regular Payment Arrangement and your Credit Card number and/or expiry date changes, then you must always contact the merchant to advise them of the new Credit Card/expiry details. Failure to advise the merchant of these changes could result in the cancellation of goods and/or services (eg, the cancellation of your car insurance policy).

What is an Instalment Plan?

An Instalment Plan allows you to make your repayments in monthly instalments at a fixed rate over a set term. Please note that Instalment Plans may be subject to fees and charges.

You can use an Instalment Plan in two ways:

1. Statement Instalment – Convert retail purchases from your current statement. A minimum conversion of $500 applies. Excludes fees and charges, Balance Transfers, Cash Advances and existing Instalment Plans.
2. Transaction Instalment – Convert unbilled retail purchases of $50 or more in an Instalment Plan.

To find out more, click here.

I don’t recognise a transaction on my Credit Card statement. What do I do?

There are a few things you can do to confirm if the transaction in question is legitimate to your account:

• Check the transaction with any additional cardholders;
• If you don’t recognise the merchant name appearing on your statement, searching via Google can sometimes help to determine the business trading name or business type;
• Verify if the merchant is located overseas or the transaction occurred overseas as this can alter the amount based on the exchange rate at the time; or
• Contact the merchant directly as this is usually the fastest way to solve a transaction dispute. Many organisations have their own payment dispute process.

How do I dispute a transaction on my Credit Card statement?

You can initiate the dispute process for an unknown transaction on your Credit Card statement, by doing the following:

• Call our customer contact centre on 1300 55 72 72 (operating hours are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 5pm on Saturday). Select option 1 for Credit Cards and a team member will be able to guide you;
• Visit your nearest BOQ branch
• Contact the merchant directly to dispute the transaction

What are the transaction dispute guidelines?

• If your dispute is not about a suspected fraudulent transaction, we strongly suggest you attempt to resolve the dispute with the merchant or service provider.
  For disputes that may arise due to COVID-19, please note that many merchants are proactively offering refunds and reasonable alternatives for future service. If no resolution is agreed, we will act on your behalf in the formal dispute process.
• Visa have a formal dispute process with set timeframes that we must follow. To allow us to help you resolve your dispute you must contact us without delay on 1300 55 72 72 when you identify a transaction you would like to dispute - ideally this should be within 60 days of the transaction date.
• For us to act on your behalf, we will also need you to provide us with all the available information you can, as well as any relevant supporting documentation specific to the transaction in question.
• We will liaise with the merchant’s bank on your behalf. Please note that charges may apply.
• The merchant’s bank will respond with confirmation of reversal of the charge, or a request for more information. We will contact you by email if further information is required – please ensure that you respond within the timeframes as advised on the correspondence to ensure that we can continue your transaction dispute.
• Dispute cases can take up to 120 days depending on the nature of the dispute, and it is important for you to stay in contact with us and assist with the investigation until a resolution is achieved.

What types of transactions can be disputed?

Unauthorised transaction, no knowledge of transaction, duplicate billing, non-receipt of goods or service not rendered, refund/credit not processed, goods returned to merchant or services cancelled but refund not processed, counterfeit merchandise, not as described or defective merchandise, cancelled recurring transactions, paid by other means, incorrect amount charged, incorrect transaction currency, cancelled merchandise/services, ATM discrepancy.

What is Apple Pay?

Apple Pay offers an easy, secure, and private way to pay on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. Just like you do with your BOQ credit card today, simply tap your iPhone or Apple Watch at any contactless terminal.

All BOQ credit cards are eligible for Apple Pay.

To find out more about Apple Pay, click here.

Apple Pay FAQs

To view all Apple Pay FAQs, click here.

What is Samsung Pay?

Samsung Pay lets you use your compatible Samsung device to securely pay using your BOQ Credit Card in store.

Just like you do with your card today, simply tap your phone at a contactless terminal for purchases under $100. For purchases $100 or over, you can still tap your phone, PIN may be required to be entered for additional security.

To find out more about Samsung Pay, click here.

Google Pay is an easy and secure way to pay using your AndroidTM phone or compatible smartwatch. Once you've completed the setup process, you'll be able to use Google Pay where contactless payments are available, or where the Google Pay logo appears online.

For more information visit https://pay.google.com/about/