Amendments to Australia's Privacy Act passed in Parliament yesterday will come into effect from March 2014.The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill 2012 makes major changes to Australia's credit reporting laws, moving it to comprehensive credit reporting.The changes will give banks, other credit providers and some mortgage insurers much more information about their clients' credit history. That should allow better credit risk decisions, according to industry participants such as Veda CEO Nerida Caesar.The changes create new categories of credit information for credit reporting system participants. The most significant of these are "repayment history information" - such as which bills an individual paid on time - and "consumer credit liability information" covering credit accounts opened by an individual.Australian Bankers' Association CEO Steven Münchenberg welcomed the passing of the bill, saying it would bring Australia into line with other G20 countries which already had comprehensive credit reporting in place.But Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has warned consumers to prepare for the changes to credit reporting laws."If a person misses making a payment from as early as December 2012, it will be able to be recorded on their credit record and may affect their ability to access credit in the future," he said in a statement.