Treasurer Scott Morrison has hinted that Australians with a strong credit history could pay less for their home loans, electricity and credit card bills.
Mr Morrison is quoted as saying that credit agencies will have until the middle of next year to hand over detailed credit information to their customers which he says would put them in a better position to negotiate for lower prices.
He says it means that people "who pay back their loans and do the right thing won't have to be paying for those who don't."
“The great thing about letting people have greater access to their own data and their own performance on how they pay back their loans means they should be able to ask for and get a better deal because they’ve got the runs on the board to prove it,” Mr Morrison said.
“They’ll have no choice but to because competition will deliver that and as we’re opening up the banking system and offering other smaller entrants to come in, they will offer those deals.
“By increasing competition at the same time as putting the customer right at the top of the pile, that’s the way you make sure people get a better deal at the end of the day.”
Gerard Brodie from the Consumer Action Law Centre has told the ABC there are a number of problems with the reform.
"Some lenders are likely to use this information to charge customers more for credit . We may actually see an influx of expensive 'priced for risk' type products - like credit cards charging up to 60 per cent per annum for those that are considered not good payers. Those sort of toxic products do exist in other countries that have this reform like America and the UK."
