Credit Reporting Policy

The kinds of credit related information Equity-One™ collects and holds and how Equity-One™ collects and holds that information

Equity-One™ collects and holds various kinds of credit related information which may include:

• identification information about you including your current and prior names and addresses, any known alias you may have, your date of birth, your current or last known employer and your driver’s licence number and any other relevant government identifier if required in accordance with Australian law;
• details of consumer credit or commercial credit (including the name of each relevant credit provider) that you have applied for, the type and amount of that credit and the fact that a credit provider, mortgage insurer or trade insurer has sought information about you from a credit reporting body in relation to an application;
• consumer credit liability information, being details of consumer credit that you have or had including the credit provider, the type of consumer credit, the day on which it was entered into, terms or conditions that relate to the repayment of the amount of consumer credit, the maximum amount of credit available and the day on which the consumer credit is terminated or otherwise ceases;
• repayment history information (Equity-One Limited™ only), which includes whether in relation to your consumer credit facilities you have made payments when due and, if not, when overdue payments have been made;
• default information, which includes details of payments (over $150) more than 60 days overdue in relation to consumer credit which you, as borrower or guarantor, have failed to make;
• payment information, which includes details of the date on which you have paid overdue amounts that were previously recorded as default information with a credit reporting body;
• whether in our or another credit provider’s opinion you have committed a serious credit infringement;
• new arrangement information which includes a statement that the terms or conditions of your consumer credit (in relation to which default information or a serious credit infringement has been disclosed to a credit reporting body) have been varied or that you have been provided with new consumer credit;
• court proceedings information, which includes information about a judgement against you in proceedings that relate to any credit that has been provided to, or applied for, by you;
• personal insolvency information;
• certain publicly available information;
• scores, ratings, summaries, evaluations and other information relating to your credit worthiness which is derived by us or by credit reporting bodies wholly or partly on the basis of the information above;
• certain administrative information relating to credit, such as account and customer numbers.

Credit related information may be collected by Equity-One™ in a number of ways including:

• by using written forms;
• through contact over the telephone, your mobile or other messaging technology;
• via the internet; and
• in person.

We may collect credit related information:

• directly from you or by persons or organisations acting on your behalf such as your broker/representative;
• from credit reporting bodies and other credit providers;
• from publicly available sources of information; and
• from information derived by us from your conduct.

Should Equity-One™ collect your personal details from someone other than yourself then, we will notify you as soon as practicable and advise you of the collection in accordance with the requirements under Australian law.

Equity-One™, or service providers on our behalf, may hold your credit related information in computer systems, electronic form, digital records, telephone recordings and/or in paper files for a period of 7 years from the date you cease to be a client of Equity-One™.

Equity-One™ take reasonable steps, including physical, electronic and procedural safeguards, to protect your credit related information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure in order uphold confidentiality of such information.

Purposes for which Equity-One™ may collect, hold, use and disclose your credit related information

Equity-One™ may collect, hold, use and disclose your credit related information as reasonably necessary for our business purposes and as permitted by law. These purposes include:

• to assess whether to provide you, or an entity associated with you, with credit or to accept you as a guarantor;
• to derive scores, ratings, summaries and evaluations relating to your credit worthiness which are used in Equity-One™’s decision-making processes and ongoing reviews;
• to manage credit Equity-One™ may provide, including to determine whether you are eligible to receive particular offers and invitations, to deal with mortgage insurers and to develop Equity-One™’ services and maintain and develop Equity-One™’ systems and infrastructure;
• to participate in the credit reporting system and provide information to credit reporting bodies as permitted by Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 v1.2;
• to undertake securitisation activities;
• to assign debts;
• to assist you to avoid defaulting on your consumer credit related obligations;
• to undertake debt recovery and enforcement activities, including in relation to guarantors, and to deal with serious credit infringements;
• to deal with complaints and meet legal and regulatory requirements; and
• to assist other credit providers.

Some credit related information may only be used or disclosed under the Privacy Act 1988 for some of these purposes or in some circumstances.

In the event that credit information is disclosed to a person overseas, we will take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles.

We may use or disclose your personal information for additional purposes related to the purposes listed above. We will not, however, use or disclose your personal information other than for:

• a purpose made known to you;
• a purpose you would reasonably expect;
• a purpose required or permitted by law; or
• a purpose otherwise authorised by you.

In the event that the collection of personal information has not been solicited by us and does not meet the above requirements, the personal information will be destroyed or de-identified.

We will not use or disclose your information for the purposes of:

• assessing whether you will accept an invitation to apply for, or an offer of credit or insurance in relation to mortgage credit or commercial credit including applying for or an offer to vary such terms;
• targeting or inviting you to apply for or accept an offer of credit or insurance in relation to mortgage credit or commercial credit including applying for varying such terms;
• direct marketing with the except of pre-screening.

Accessing your credit eligibility information

You are generally entitled under the Privacy Act 1988 to access the credit eligibility information Equity-One™ hold about you (in a manner you request, if this is reasonable and practicable).

You can make an access request by contacting us:
Phone: (03) 9602 3477
Email: admin@equity-one.com
Mail: Level 13, 256 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Internet: Equity-One.com

Equity-One™ will need to validate the identity of anyone making an access request, to ensure that it does not provide your information to anyone who does not have the right to that information.

We will usually provide you with access within 30 days of a request but in some circumstances it may take longer. Under the Privacy Act we are able to deny access to some or all of your credit eligibility information in the following specified circumstances including:

• It is an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals;
• It is a serious threat to life or health of individuals;
• the request is frivolous or vexatious;
• it is prejudicial to certain operations in relation to an enforcement agency;
• the information relates to legal proceedings between Equity-One™ and you;
• the information would reveal our commercially-sensitive decision-making process; or
• we are prevented by law from disclosing the information or providing access.

Equity-One™ will provide reasons (where it is reasonable to do so) for any refusal in writing. If you are not satisfied with our response you may refer the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (see their contact details below) or make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

There is no charge for making an access request but an administration charge may apply for providing access in accordance with your request.

In order to ensure you have the most up to date information we recommend you also request from credit reporting bodies access to the credit reporting information they hold about you.

Upon validation of your request we will endeavour to present you with the information requested in clear and accessible form providing reasonable explanations and summaries of the information to assist you to understand the impact of your credit worthiness. The information will be provided to you while preserving the confidentiality of the methodology, data analysis methods, computer programs and other information used to produce the information

Correction of your credit related information

If you believe that any credit related information held by us about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading you have the right under the Privacy Act 1988 to request that we correct that credit related information.

You can make a correction request by contacting us:
Phone: (03) 9602 3477
Email: admin@equity-one.com
Mail: Level 13, 256 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Internet: Equity-One.com

Equity-One™ will normally resolve correction requests within 30 days of your making a request.

If we need more time to resolve your request we will notify you as to the delay, the reasons for it and seek your written agreement to a longer period. You may refer the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority if you wish to complain about the delay. If Equity-One™ considers it necessary in order to deal with your request, it may consult with a credit reporting body or another credit provider.

If Equity-One™ make a correction it will give you, any third party it consulted with and, where practicable and required by law, certain other people it provided the pre –correction information to (e.g. credit reporting bodies) a written notice of the correction. The notice to you will be given within 5 days from when the decision is made and will contain any information required to be given under the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 v1.2.

Once the information is corrected, reasonable steps will be made to ensure any future information is based on the corrected information and reasonable steps will be made to ensure that uncorrected information is not disclosed or used for the purpose of assessing credit worthiness.

Corrected information that is no longer correct, will be corrected with credit provider or credit reporting body information using the corrected information of which notification will be given within 7 days of when a decision is made.

If we do not correct the information we will give you a written notice setting out why we have not made the correction.

If we do not make a correction to the information due to not holding the relevant credit provider or credit reporting body information, we will give you a written notice:

• explaining that Equity One™  does not hold the relevant information, nor participate in the credit reporting system and so the correction has not been made;
• informing you of an organisation that does hold the relevant information to which the correction request relates and providing the contact details of the organisation.

If you are not satisfied with our response you may refer the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (see their contact details below) or make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

There is no cost involved for you to make a correction request or for the correction of your information.

Complaints Handling

If you believe that we have not complied with our obligations under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 v1.2 you have a right to complain. Equity-One™ is required to have adequate complaints handling procedures either as a condition of our licence or under other regulations such as relevant Industry Codes. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have a complaint. You must specify the nature of the complaint.

You can lodge a complaint with us:
Phone: (03) 9602 3477
Email: admin@equity-one.com
Mail: Level 13, 256 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Internet: Equity-One.com

You will receive an acknowledgment of your complaint within 7 days after we receive it. We will investigate all complaints and aim to resolve them within 30 days. If we cannot resolve your complaint within this period we will notify you as to the reasons why, specify a date when we expect a resolution and seek your agreement to extend this 30 day period. You may refer the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (contact details below) if you wish to complain about the delay.

If we consider it necessary in order to deal with your complaint, we may consult with a credit reporting body or another credit provider. If, while the complaint remains unresolved, we are disclosing information subject to the complaint to a third party, we may advise the third party about the complaint.

If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, or AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.

Website: www.afca.org.au
Email: info@afca.org.au
Telephone: 1800 931 678 (free call)
In writing to: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001

You may also complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Depending on the nature of the complaint, sometimes we will be required to notify a credit reporting body or credit provider of the making of the complaint and our decision.

Disclosure of credit information to credit reporting bodies

We may disclose your credit information to credit reporting bodies where the Privacy Act 1988 permits us to do so.

For example, if you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to consumer credit provided by us or if you commit a serious credit infringement we may be entitled to disclose this to a credit reporting body.

Credit reporting bodies may include credit related information provided by us in reports provided to other credit providers to assist them to assess your credit worthiness.

We currently disclose credit information to Veda Advantage Ltd. Their contact details are: Veda Advantage Veda – Customer Resolutions
PO Box 964
North Sydney NSW 2059
Phone: 1300 762 207
Email: corrections@veda.com.au

For Veda Advantage’s most up-to-date contact details please visit their website at www.mycreditfile.com.au.

You may obtain a copy of Veda Advantage’s policy about their management of credit reporting information. To do so, please contact them or visit their website.

Disclosure of credit related information to other recipients

We may, as permitted by law, disclose your credit related information to third parties, including:

• other credit providers;
• our related companies;
• organisations that perform credit processing functions, management and debt collection activities on our behalf;
• current or prospective guarantors or security providers in relation to credit we are providing to you;
• mortgage insurers;
• organisations involved in debt assignment or securitisation arrangements.

Some of your rights in relation to credit reporting bodies

Opting out of direct marketing pre-screenings

A credit reporting body may use your credit reporting information to assist a credit provider to market to you by pre-screening you for direct marketing by the credit provider. This process is known as a “pre-screening”. If you do not want a credit reporting body to use your information for the purpose of pre-screening, you have the right under the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 v1.2 to contact them and request that they, at no cost to you, exclude you.

If you are a victim of fraud (including identity fraud)

You are entitled under the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 v1.2 to request that a credit reporting body not use or disclose credit reporting information they hold about you in circumstances where you reasonably believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud, including identity fraud. The period while this applies is called a “ban period”. The credit reporting body will explain to you in more detail the effect and duration of a ban period when you contact them.

Use of our web site

We will collect some information from you when you apply online through the Equity-One™ website. Your use of the facilities and services available through the website will determine the amount and type of information that we will collect about you. We may utilise cookies to identify your browser while you are using our site which does not identify you, but allows us to track usage patterns to measure the level of interest in various areas of our site. All browsers allow you to be notified when you receive a cookie and elect to either accept it or not which if required, your Internet Service Provider can assist you to manage your preferences.

The only personal information which we collect about you when you use the website is what you tell us about yourself; for example, by completing an online form such as an application form or by asking for a disclosure document for our products or by sending us an email. We will record your email address if you send us an email.

Other company websites

Our website and e-mail messages may contain links to websites operated by other companies. You should be aware that the collection, retention and use of any data you provide on these websites will be governed by the privacy policy of the company providing the website and not by this policy.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

Where practicable, Equity-One™ will allow you to deal with us on an anonymous or pseudonymous basis. If this is practicable, we will only seek information in this way. However, where it is not practicable for the purposes for which information is collected, we will seek further information as identified in this credit reporting policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Equity-One™ may make changes to this Credit Reporting Policy from time to time for any reason and will make concerted efforts to update the website in a timely manner.

Contacting us

If you have any queries regarding the Equity-One™ Credit Reporting Policy please contact us on:
Phone: (03) 9602 3477
Email: admin@equity-one.com
Mail: Level 13, 256 Queen Street Melbourne VIC 3000