How it works
Five steps, and you can stop at any of them
The thing most people want to know before they start is what they're setting in motion. So here it is in order, including the exact point at which anything touches your credit file, which is later than most people assume.
You answer nine questions
About two minutes. Where you're up to with your agreement, what you need, how you're paid. No documents, no account to create, and you can stop halfway and come back. Your answers stay on your device.
No credit check runs at this point. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Someone reads them properly
Your enquiry goes to Simple Loans. A person there who works with debt agreements every week reads what you have told us and works out which lenders on their panel are actually open to your situation. Not a form-matching algorithm.
Still no credit check.
One call, from one person
Usually the same business day. They'll confirm a few things, tell you what's realistic, and answer questions. If the honest answer is 'not yet', you'll get that instead of being kept warm.
You can end it here. Nothing has happened to your file.
You decide whether to go ahead
Only if you say yes does a formal application go to a specific lender, and only then does a credit enquiry appear on your file. You'll know what you're applying for and roughly what it costs before that point.
This is the first and only point at which your credit file is touched.
If it is approved, Simple Loans handles the paperwork
Including the section 269 disclosure if you're still in your agreement and borrowing above the threshold. That's a normal part of the process here, not an awkward extra.
What your stress is saying
“Once I start, I'll get hounded.”
What's actually true
One business, one caller, and a stop word that works.
What the call will actually cover
So there are no surprises. These are the things worth having a rough answer to. If a couple of them are a 'not sure', that is fine.
Where you're up to with the agreement, and roughly when it started.
Whether payments are up to date, and whether anything new has gone wrong since.
How you're paid, and roughly what you earn.
What you need the vehicle for, and what repayment would be comfortable.
And whether waiting until the agreement finishes would actually cost you anything.
Sometimes it wouldn't, and that's a legitimate outcome of the call.
No one is going to ask you these on a call to catch you out. They're here because the answers are yours, and they're the same ones a broker needs before they can tell you anything useful.
The rule most people find out too late
Above $7,457, you must tell the lender you're in a debt agreement
Under section 269 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966, while you are in a debt agreement you must disclose that fact before obtaining credit above $7,457. This is not a lender policy or a preference. Failing to do it is a criminal offence and serious penalties apply.
In practice it is paperwork rather than an obstacle. A lender who writes in this space expects it and it does not, by itself, cause a decline. The risk is not the disclosure. It is going to a lender who never asks, never records it, and leaves you exposed. We raise it as a matter of course.
Figures current at 17 August 2026. AFSA reindexes 20 March and 20 September. Source: AFSA indexed amounts.
During, just after, or well after: three different answers
Where you sit relative to your agreement changes the lender panel more than anything else about you. Whatever your occupation, this is the shape of it:
- Still in the agreementThe smallest panel. A handful of specialist lenders write here, and they want agreement payments up to date, no new defaults since it started, and stable income. The s269 disclosure applies above $7,457.
- Recently completedA noticeably wider panel, and the moment most worth checking. It is common for someone declined a year earlier to be approved shortly after completion with nothing else in their life having changed. Make sure the completion is formally recorded before applying.
- Completed more than 12 months agoWider again, with better pricing available. The agreement may still appear on your credit file. AFSA's guidance is up to five years, and longer in some cases. A year of clean conduct behind you changes how it is read.
What this site does, and what nobody here can do
This site can
- Explain how lenders read a debt agreement
- Pass your enquiry to Simple Loans, who arrange the finance
- Tell you plainly when the answer is “not yet”
Nobody here can
- Provide credit, or credit assistance, from this website
- Advise you to enter, change or end an agreement
- Negotiate with your creditors or administrator
- Remove or dispute anything on your credit file
This website provides information only. Advising on an agreement, negotiating with creditors and fixing credit files are debt management services, which require a credit licence authorisation Simple Loans does not hold. For help with the agreement itself, speak to your registered administrator, or the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 which is free, independent, and not selling anything. There is also a plain-English explainer here.
Start at step one
Two minutes, no credit check, and you can stop whenever you want.