Privacy Policy
Introduction
The privacy of personal information you provide is important to us and we understand the importance of protecting your personal information. The following Privacy Policy governs the collection and use to any personal information that you may provide us.
Our Privacy Policy governs the way we collect and use your personal and your credit information and we understand that any such information will only be used for the purpose of enabling us to assess your suitability for obtaining finance and services we offer. It is important to us that you feel confident when providing personal information and we intend to respect your rights to privacy in accordance with the National Privacy Principles as set out in the Privacy Act 1988.
Why we collect your personal information?
We collect and receive personal information directly from our clients and from other business referrers to assist us in conducting our business, which includes:
• Assessing your eligibility for obtaining finance or other services
• Obtaining approval for a loan
• Communicating information about other services to you
To enable us to maintain a successful business relationship with you, we may disclose your personal information with other organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us. The types of organisations to which we are likely to disclose information about you, include other mortgage intermediaries, lenders, valuers, lenders mortgage insurers, surveyors, accountants, credit reporting agencies and lawyers. We may also disclose your personal information to any other organisation that may have or is considering having an interest in your loan or in our business.
How we collect the information?
In many circumstances, we will collect the above information primarily from you (or from someone who is representing or assisting you). However, there are certain instances in which we will collect information about you from third parties where it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect it directly from you. For example, even where your application is for consumer credit, we may collect information about you from a business which provides information about commercial credit worthiness for the purpose of assessing your application.
Other third parties that we may collect your information from include:
• our agents;
• your co-applicant (if any);
• your employers, accountant, referees, banks, landlords, guarantors, lawyers, financial advisers or others with whom you have previously had dealings;
• in relation to credit information – by contacting relevant CRBs and other credit providers who may have information about you relevant to us;
• in relation to identification information – by contacting relevant CRBs and other identification service providers;
• by accessing information about you that is publicly available (eg. internet sources or a search of white pages);
• insurers (such as insurers who provide insurance in relation to your credit);
• your executor, administrator or attorney;
• professional organisations;
• any person considered necessary in our view to execute your instructions; and
• government authorities.
We train staff who handle your personal information to ensure that your personal information is handled appropriately. Our procedures ensure that your personal information is only made available to staff where necessary.
Personal Information
When we refer to personal information, we mean information from which your identity is apparent. This information may include information or an opinion about you, from which your identity can reasonably be ascertained. We may collect certain personal information about you depending on the circumstances in which the product or service is being provided. This information can include:
• key personal information such as your name, residential and business addresses, telephone numbers, email and other electronic addresses;
• financial and related information, such as your occupation, accounts, assets, expenses, income, dependents, and regarding your employment, financial and business dealings and other relevant events;
• your transaction history (with relevant third parties). This information includes products you may have used in the past, your payment history and the capacity in which you have dealt ;
• other relevant information – depending on the circumstances this may also include health and medical information (eg. if it is relevant to a hardship request), membership of professional bodies, tax file number information (other government identifiers)
Personal information that relates to credit
• In the event that we need to collect information about you in relation to credit matters, this can include:
• information such as account numbers or customer identifier numbers;
• credit application history with us and other credit providers, such as the type of credit you applied for, the amount of credit you have applied for, the start and end date of relevant credit;
• repayment history information such as and whether you owe any payments to us or another credit provider (regardless of the capacity in which that credit was provided) that are overdue by 60 days;
• credit ratings, scores and evaluations about you and your credit worthiness;
• court proceedings information about you. This is information about a judgment of an Australian court that is made against you that relates to credit that was provided to, or applied for by you, such as whether you have been declared bankrupt or have been subject to insolvency;
• whether we have accessed your credit information previously;
• default information about you. This is information about a payment owed by you as a borrower or guarantor in connection with consumer credit that remains overdue for more than 60 days and which we can disclose to a credit reporting body if certain requirements under the Privacy Act are met;
• payment information about you. Payment information is a statement that an overdue payment in relation to which default information was provided to a credit reporting body has been paid;
• new arrangement information about you. This is information about you having entered into certain types of arrangements with us in relation to consumer credit where you have been overdue in making a payment and we have provided default information to a credit reporting body. New arrangement information is either that the terms of conditions of that consumer credit have been varied as a result of you being overdue or that you have been provided with new credit relating to the original amount of credit;
• personal insolvency information about you. This is information recorded in the National Personal Insolvency Index and relating to your bankruptcy, a debt agreement proposal given by you, a debt agreement made by you, a personal insolvency agreement executed by you, a direction given, or an order made, under the Bankruptcy Act that relates to your property or an authority signed under the Bankruptcy Act that relates to your property;
• publicly available information about you;
• that relates to your activities in Australia or the external Territories and your credit worthiness; and
• that is not court proceedings information about you or information about you that is entered or recorded in the National Personal Insolvency Index;
• an opinion we have on reasonable grounds that you have committed a serious credit infringement in relation to consumer credit that we have provided to you. A serious credit infringement includes, in summary:
• that you were fraudulently obtaining (or attempting to obtain) consumer credit; or
• that you are fraudulently evading (or attempting to evade) your consumer credit obligations
To whom will we disclose your personal information?
We will only disclose your personal information to other organisations that provide products and services that we use in the ordinary operation of our business. Where possible, we will inform you, at or before the time of collecting your personal information, the types of organisations that we intend to disclose your personal information to. Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:
(a) the organisation has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment; and
(b) you have consented to us doing so.
Where the Privacy Act permits it, we may disclose your personal information for the purposes above to third parties. Other third parties that we may disclose your personal information to include:
• your co-applicant (if any)
• entities providing other services to us, referrers that referred your business to us, including legal services, financial services
• other financial institutions or entities such as banks and credit providers;
• insurers, assessors ,valuers, underwriters, brokers and other distributors;
• government regulatory bodies in Australia;
• third parties you authorize to act on your behalf or that are otherwise connected with you (such as your accountant, legal representative, real-estate agents or referee)
•We may store information about you in cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage. As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries via an internet connection, it’s not always practicable to know in which country information about you may be held.
• Law enforcement agencies.
Circumstances in which we may disclose your personal information would be to a Court or Tribunal in response to a request or in response to a subpoena or to the Australian Taxation Office.
Access to your personal information
You may ask us for the personal information that we hold about you at any time or you may ask us to correct it if you feel that the information is inaccurate or incomplete. We will destroy all your personal information when it is no longer required for our business operation.
Denied access to personal information
There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information. For example, such a situation would be information relating to an existing or anticipated legal proceeding with you, or if your request is vexatious. An explanation will be provided to you if we deny you access to your personal information we hold.
Safety of your personal information
We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information by storing it electronically with restricted access to staff only. All paper files are stored in a vault when not in immediate use. All personal information is protected by password access and if no longer needed we de-identify or destroy the information.
Privacy complaints and disputes
The Privacy Act gives you the right make a complaint if you believe that we have not complied with its obligations under the Privacy Act, including obligations relating to consumer credit information under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act and the Credit Reporting Code. If you believe this to be the case, please contact our offices by telephoning 1300 555 888 or by writing to us at Suit 5 32-36 Metro Parade, Mawson Lakes S.A. 5095.
We will endeavour to contact you within 7 days of you making your complaint acknowledging receipt of your complaint. It is our policy to investigate and resolve all complaints (where practicable) within 30 days of receiving the complaint. Where it is a legal requirement to do so, then in the event we need more time to investigate and resolve your complaint, we will notify you as to the reasons why and seek your agreement to extend this 30 day period (if you do not agree, we may then not be able to resolve your complaint).
Please note, that where your complaint relates to your credit information, we may consult with a credit reporting body or other credit provider in order to investigate and resolve your complaint. Depending on the type of complaint, it may also be necessary for us to consult with other third parties.
In the event your complaint is not handled satisfactorily by us, you can contact the below mentioned External Dispute Resolution Schemes (“EDR Scheme”) as set out below:-
Credit Ombudsman Service Limited (COSL)
Website: www.cosl.com.au
Phone: 1800 138 422
Business without identifying you
In most circumstances it will be necessary for us to identify you in order to successfully do business with you, however, where, it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will offer you the opportunity of doing business with us without providing us with personal information. Such a situation would be where you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers.
Where sensitive information is collected, stored, used or transferred about you, we will only use this information if you have consented or in the exercise or defence of a legal claim. Sensitive information is information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political persuasion, memberships in trade or professional association or trade unions, sexual preferences, criminal record, or health.
Direct Marketing
From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with current information about mortgage loans, special offers you may find of interest, changes to our organisation, or new products or services being offered by us or any company we are associated with. If you do not wish to receive marketing information, you may at any time decline to receive such information by contacting our offices by telephoning 1300 555 888 or by writing to us at PO Box 229 Salisbury SA 5108.
We will not charge you for giving effect to your request and will take all reasonable steps to meet your request at the earliest possible opportunity.
Cookies
When you visit our website, details may be recorded about your visit such as time and date, your server address, pages accessed, time spent and type of browser. We may use cookies to identify your browser so that next time you visit our website we remember your log in details. A cookie is a small file which remains on your computer and contains information enabling our website to recognise your browser. If you do not wish to use cookies, you can adjust the settings on your browser to reject cookies or notify you when they are being used.
Further information
You may make a request relating to your personal information by contacting:
AAA Mortgage Solutions
The Privacy Officer
Phone: 1300 555 888
Fax: 1300 555 881
Email: customerservice@aaams.com.au
Changes in our privacy policy
We may change our privacy policy from time to time to keep up with changes in law and in reviewing our code of practice. This policy was last reviewed on 01/03/2014.
