A new national campaign is urging 10,000 Australians to ask a simple question: Does your provider for everyday accounts make it clear their products are no place for financial abuse?
To do this, social entrepreneur Catherine Fitzpatrick has launched a new online tool, ‘Check the Fine Print’, to support people in searching their bank, energy provider, telco or insurer to see if they’ve made a public commitment to ban financial abuse in its terms and conditions.
One of the most common tactics of coercive control, financial abuse occurs when money is used to control, manipulate, track or trap another person. It often happens through the misuse of everyday products and services, such as bank accounts, insurance policies, utilities, phones and online platforms.
“Love shouldn’t cost your freedom. And neither should your bills, your bank account or your phone plan” said Fitzpatrick, the CEO and Founder of Flequity Ventures.
“Ninety-six per cent of Australians want businesses to protect them against financial abuse. Now we’re giving 10,000 people the chance to look up their provider and send an unmistakable signal to every boardroom: your customers are watching, and they care.”
The statistic comes from the 2025 Respect & Protect Index, which also shows three in four Australians want financial abuse protections from companies they deal with, and nearly a quarter (23 per cent) are prepared to switch companies based on their actions to address this hidden and pervasive form of domestic and family violence.
Online tool
The new online tool, ‘Check the Fine Print’, allows people to easily check the fine printo of the companies they deal with, and let them message ‘thanks’ to those that already mention financial abuse, or give a nudge to those that still need to update their policies.
There’s a live count on the website as well, which allows people to see how their voice is contributing to collective action for change.
The movement has gained momentum following Fitzpatrick’s 2022 Designed to Disrupt report, which recommended this new form of consumer protection. In December 2025, a national Parliamentary inquiry into financial abuse recommended all financial services adopt the approach.
Seventy-five Australian brands have already updated their customer terms to explicitly ban the misuse of their products for financial abuse. This includes some of Australia’s biggest companies across banking, insurance, energy, water, telecommunications and technology, who cover more than 20 million customers.
Fitzpatrick has called this adoption from the 75 brands “an incredible world first”.
“The next wave will depend on consumer demand. We could see this become a standard across every business if enough people check the fine print and pass it on. Because once customers start looking, companies listen.”
Catherine Fitzpatrick will appear in ‘Money Matters’ at the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House on 8 March.