The Australian Financial Counselling and Credit Reform Association (AFCCRA) is the peak body for financial counsellors in Australia.
A free financial counsellor in your state
Financial counsellors provide information to consumers in financial difficulty. A thorough assessment of an individual or family's situation is followed by identifying what can be done to address the financial problems, and the possibile advantages and disadvantages of those choices. Financial Counsellors are based in community agencies and are funded largely by State or the Federal Governments.
Counsellors are required to act in the paramount interests of consumers, free of any conflict of interest and free of any commercial benefit.
They provide a FREE, INDEPENDENT &CONFIDENTIAL service
The AFCCRA Council and Representatives
Formed in the early 1980s, AFCCRA is a Federation of member organisations with member groups in each State and Territory. Member groups elect a representative to AFCCRA Council.
Each State and Territory elect one member annually to AFCCRA Council. These positions are voluntary.
AFCCRA Council meets bi-monthly by telephone link-up. It aims to meet annually once a year.
| Current membership of Council is as follows: | ||
| Chair | Jan Pentland | (Victoria) |
| Deputy Chair | Russell Franks | (NSW) |
| Secretary | Carmel Franklin | (ACT) |
| Treasurer | Phil Powell | (Tasmania) |
| Council Members | David Lawson | (Queensland) |
| Gerry Phillips | (South Australia) | |
| Tricia Ross | (Northern Territory) | |
| Marianne Mayer | (Western Australia) | |
| Current representatives are as follows: | ||
| Telstra Consumer Consultative Council | Tricia Ross | |
| ITSA Bankruptcy Reform Consultative Forum | Jan Pentland | |
| ACCC Consumer Consultative Council | Jan Pentland | |
| ASIC Consumer Advisory Panel | Tricia Ross | |
| Optus Consumer Liaison Forum | Anne-Marie Poulsen | |
| National Indigenous Money Management Agenda | Jan Pentland | |
Government funded financial counselling services are FREE and CONFIDENTIAL – they are different to fee for service debt counsellors.
If at any stage of your contact with a ‘financial counsellor’ or ‘debt counsellor’ they ask you to sign an agreement which includes paying any costs or fees, check this out carefully and get advice from a free Government funded financial counsellor.
There are a growing number of services advertising on television, radio and in local newspapers that they can help you solve your debt problems.
Many of them are costly and don’t set out the full range of choices you may have. They may focus on one solution such as a Part IX Debt Agreement.
These “solutions” often provide greater financial benefit to the company offering them, than they will to you.