NAB Complaints Guide

Some helpful services

You can also get in touch with these Australian Government services:

• National Relay Service on 13 36 77
• Translating and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50

What If you’re experiencing financial difficulty?

You can get in touch with a Financial Counsellor, who can represent you with NAB and act on your behalf. The service is free, independent, and confidential, and includes if you need help with debts caused by gambling.

You can visit the Financial Counselling Australia website, opens in new window for more information. When you speak with a Financial Counsellor, they’ll run you through the services they provide.

Let us know how we can do better

If you’ve found this process difficult in the past, or you have any feedback for us about how to make our products and services more accessible, please let us know so we can make changes.

6. How we can help if you’re experiencing challenging circumstances 

If you’re dealing with challenging and stressful circumstances, such as financial hardship, a crisis, unemployment, and/or the risk of domestic and family violence, we’re here to help. 

When you make your Complaint, please let us know what you’re going through, so we can give you the support you need while we get to work.

Get in touch for more information 

Just call us, visit one of our branches or visit Supporting Customers Experiencing Vulnerability. 

You can also call our Customer Support Hub for specialist support on +1300 308 175, Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 7:00pm (AEST/AEDT).

7. What happens when you make a complaint?

We’ll let you know when we’ve received your Complaint and give you a Complaint reference.

If you make your Complaint:

• By calling us or in person, we’ll record it and give you a reference verbally
• Online, we’ll email your reference within one business day of us receiving it
• Through social media, we’ll contact you directly and then email your reference within one business day of your Complaint being recorded
• By mail, we’ll send your reference by mail within one business day of your Case Manager receiving it. Keep in mind postage can take time, so there might be a delay in getting it.

Making sure it’s you

When you first make a Complaint and we speak to you about it, we might need to ask you certain questions just to make sure it’s you (and to protect your privacy). We call this Authentication.

If someone else is making a Complaint for you, please go to section 10. Someone else is making a complaint for me.

Providing us with details

Once we’ve Authenticated you, we’ll talk to you about your Complaint. We’ll ask you what happened and what you’d like us to do about it. At this stage, we might need a bit more information. We might also need copies of documents.

We’ll try to move quickly

We’ll try to resolve your Complaint the first time you contact us (hopefully within five days).

What if we can’t resolve it?

If we can’t resolve your Complaint within five business days, or you ask for a response in writing, we’ll send it to a Case Manager in a specialist team.

Below are the usual steps we follow. However, every Complaint is different – so we might manage yours in a different way. Generally, here’s what your Case Manager will do:

1. They’ll get in touch

They’ll try to do this in the way you asked us to, for example by phone, but they might have to contact you a different way.

2. They might need more information

If they do, they’ll be sure to let you know why.

3. They’ll investigate your Complaint

This may take some time, as they might need to gather details from other departments. If you don’t hear from us during this time, please know we’re still working hard on resolving it.

4. They’ll give you updates

Even if they’re still looking into things, you’ll be in the know.

5. They’ll let you know the outcome

You’ll be given a resolution (also called an Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) Response or IDR Response). You’ll receive this in writing, and it will explain what we’ve done to resolve your Complaint. Or, it will explain why we’ve rejected it (either partially or fully). It will also tell you how you can contact AFCA to complain if you’re unhappy with our resolution.

Choosing whether to accept our resolution

If you’re happy with our resolution and accept it, we’ll ask you to:

• Confirm this with us, which might be over the phone or in writing
• Possibly sign a document called a Settlement Agreement or Deed. Your Case Manager will let you know if you need to do this.

If you’re unhappy with the resolution and don’t want to accept it, want to share more information with us, or think we’ve missed something, please get in touch with us so we can keep helping you

An important note

Keep in mind that if you accept our resolution, it might mean you can’t take your Complaint to AFCA. You can find out more about this in section 9. Making a complaint with AFCA if we can't resolve it.

8. How long we’ll take to resolve your complaint

When you make a Complaint, this is the timeline you can generally expect:

1. When we first speak with you or within one business day

We’ll let you we’ve received your Complaint and give you a reference. This might take a little longer if you got in touch by mail.

2. We’ll try to resolve it as soon as we can 

If we can, we’ll start working on a resolution right away.

3. We’ll pass it on if we can’t resolve it within five days 

We’ll send it along to a specialist team and you’ll be assigned a Case Manager.

4. We’ll then try to resolve it within 30 days 

We’ll do our best to respond within 30 days, or 21 days depending on what your Complaint is about. 

5. And if we can’t respond within 30 days? 

If your Complaint is Complex or there are Circumstances outside of our control, we might not be able to respond to your complaint within 30 days, or within 21 days depending on what it’s about. In this case, we’ll write to you to explain why (also called an ‘Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) delay notification’). We’ll tell you: 

• The reasons for the delay
• Your right to complain to AFCA if you’re dissatisfied 
• The contact details for AFCA.

9. Making a complaint with AFCA if we can’t resolve it 

If you’re not satisfied with our response to your Complaint, or if we haven’t resolved it within the required timeframe, you can make a complaint to AFCA. Keep in mind there might be a time limit for contacting them, so it’s best to get in touch with them quickly or check their website for more info. 

You can contact AFCA: 

• On their website, opens in new window 
• By email: info@afca.org.au
• By phone: 1800 931 678 (free call) 
• In writing: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC 3001.

10. Someone else is making a complaint for me

You might ask someone to make a Complaint for you. We’ll call this person Your Representative. Before we speak to them about your Complaint, keep in mind we might need a bit more information and/or documentation.

If they don’t have an official document saying they can act for you, for example a Power of Attorney, or ‘POA’, we generally won’t be able to talk to them about your Complaint, unless we’ve spoken with you first. This is to protect your privacy.

Your Representative could be:

• Someone who has Power of Attorney (POA)
• A trusted friend or family member
• A Financial Counsellor
• A paid representative (someone you’re paying to make and/or manage your Complaint for you). It’s important to know that our process (and other banks’), is a free service. Paid representatives are generally required to hold an Australian Credit Licence (ACL) or be an Australian Credit Representative (ACR). If they don’t have an ACL/ACR, we may not be able to deal with them.

Your Representative needs to:

• Represent you, which means acting for you with your best interests in mind
• Give you all the information you need to make sure you’re satisfied with how we resolve your Complaint
• Understand all the details about your situation
• Communicate with us regularly and quickly when we need them to
• Give you regular updates about how we’re managing your Complaint
• Let you know of all the options and solutions we suggest to resolve your Complaint – so you can think about them
• Tell us your response to our options and solutions, so we can keep trying to resolve your Complaint.

11. What you can expect of us

We’ll do our best to:

• Get it right first time or fix it
• Make banking as accessible and easy for you as we can
• Be respectful and polite when we talk to you
• Understand what you need from us, and how we can help you
• Speak honestly and be supportive, especially about any concerns that you have with us
• Do what we say we’ll do
• Do everything we can help you

12. What we ask of you

We ask that you:

• Be polite and cooperate with the person at NAB who is helping you
• Ask us questions and tell us what you think about what has happened or what you need
• Tell us if there’s anything you need to make it easier for you to do your banking
• Let us know what you would like us to do, or how you would like us to put things right
• Be honest with us
• Don’t threaten, abuse, harass or intimidate our employees or any other NAB customers when you’re speaking with us

13. How we define some important words 

You might also call it a glossary, definitions, or a list of important words and phrases. Either way, this section can help you make sense of any part of this document that feels a little unfamiliar.

14. Helpful links 

• ASIC Regulatory Guide 271 Internal dispute resolution (RG 271), opens in new window
• Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), opens in new window
  
• Banking Code of Practice
• Financial Counselling Australia, opens in new window
  
• The Accessibility and Inclusion section on our website.
• The Supporting customers experiencing vulnerability section on our website.