ASIC's Regulatory Guide 96 (RG 96) — jointly issued with the ACCC — sets out the contact frequency caps and conduct standards that govern debt collection in Australia. Most creditors know the headline numbers. Fewer know the edge cases that produce complaints, fines, and AFCA decisions. This guide covers both.
The core contact frequency caps
RG 96 limits contact with a debtor to three times per week and ten times per month, across all contact attempts — not just successful contacts. A call that rings out, a voicemail, and a text message on the same day count as three contacts, not one.
| Period | Maximum contacts | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Per week | 3 | Includes attempts, voicemails, and texts |
| Per month | 10 | Resets on the first day of each calendar month |
| Reasonable hours | 8am–9pm weekdays, 9am–9pm weekends | Local time at the debtor's location |
| Public holidays | No contact | State and territory holidays apply |
What counts as a 'contact'
The cap applies to any direct communication attempt — phone calls (answered or not), SMS messages, emails, and written letters. Automated messages from an Engage platform count the same as a manual collector call. Many creditors using automated collections software inadvertently breach the cap because their system doesn't have a unified counter across all channels.
Recovia's Engage module tracks a unified contact count per account across all channels. When an account hits the weekly or monthly cap, the scheduler automatically holds further contacts until the window resets — no manual override required.
Reasonable hours — more nuanced than it looks
The 'reasonable hours' rule applies to the debtor's local time, not the creditor's. A creditor based in Perth calling a debtor in Sydney at 8:30am Perth time is making contact at 10:30am Sydney time — within hours. But a Sydney-based creditor calling a Perth debtor at 9:15pm AEST is calling at 7:15pm AWST, which is within hours on the Perth clock.
The practical implication: if you're running an automated Engage campaign from a national platform, you need to schedule sends using the debtor's state timezone, not a single national clock.
Hardship obligations under RG 96
RG 96 requires that when a debtor indicates financial hardship, the creditor must:
- 1Cease recovery contact while the hardship application is being assessed
- 2Assess the application within a reasonable timeframe (ASIC considers 21 days reasonable for most applications)
- 3Communicate the outcome in writing
- 4Offer a repayment arrangement where the debtor can genuinely afford to pay
- 5Not immediately re-escalate if a first arrangement fails — the debtor is entitled to re-apply
This is where many creditors fall down. A hardship application submitted via a web form often disappears into a ticketing system with no SLA. By the time a response is sent, the 21-day window has passed and the debtor has lodged an AFCA complaint.
Third-party contact rules
RG 96 restricts contact with third parties (family members, employers, references) to: locating the debtor when you've lost contact, and no other purpose. You cannot contact a debtor's employer to pressure payment, even if you've been told the debtor works there. This applies to all channels including social media.
The 'undue harassment' standard
Even within the cap, contact can constitute undue harassment if it is: threatening, abusive, or uses language that demeans or intimidates. The frequency cap is a ceiling, not a safe harbour — you can breach RG 96 at three contacts per week if those contacts are conducted improperly.
Common compliance gaps creditors miss
- Using separate systems for phone, SMS and email with no shared contact counter — each system hits three contacts per week without the other knowing
- Scheduling automated emails on a UTC clock, which puts 11pm AEDT sends inside hours on the server but outside hours for the debtor
- Treating a 'hardship form received' notification as the end of the obligation, not the start of a 21-day SLA
- Contacting a reference listed on the original credit application to chase a debtor — permitted only when genuinely trying to locate, not to pressure
- Continuing automated campaigns after a dispute lodgement — RG 96 requires a hold on collection activity during dispute assessment
Practical steps for compliance
- 1Run a single contact counter per account across all channels. If your collections system can't do this natively, deduplicate in a middleware layer before any send
- 2Store debtor timezone at the account level and schedule all outbound contact against that timezone
- 3Set a 21-day SLA flag on every hardship application and assign an owner — AFCA will ask for evidence of the process
- 4Build a dispute hold: when a debtor disputes in writing (including via an email or portal submission), pause all further contact until the dispute is resolved
- 5Document every third-party contact with a reason code — 'locate only' keeps you within the guideline; 'pressure' does not
Recovia enforces RG 96 caps automatically at the account level, holds contact on open hardship applications, and logs every contact with a timestamp and channel. Audit evidence is built into the platform — you don't have to reconstruct it after an AFCA complaint.
What happens when you breach RG 96
The ACCC and ASIC can issue infringement notices, seek enforceable undertakings, or refer matters to court. More commonly, breaches appear first as AFCA complaints, which can result in compensation awards to the debtor and a requirement to cease the conduct. AFCA decisions are published and referenced in subsequent cases — a systemic RG 96 breach in the complaint record is a litigation risk multiplier.
The contact caps and reasonable-hours rules are straightforward to comply with mechanically. The harder obligations are the hardship and dispute processes, because they require a genuine review by a human with authority to offer a different arrangement. The system can flag; a person has to decide.