Privacy Policy and Collection Statement

This policy sets out how Austrata Finance (we/us/our) collect, use and disclose the personal information we hold about you.

Our commitment to protect your privacy

We recognise that any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes we have collected it for or as allowed under the law. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we hold about you will be treated in a way which ensures protection of your personal information.

We are committed to protecting your personal information by abiding by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and any other relevant law.

Personal information

When we refer to personal information, we mean information from which your identity is reasonably apparent, which may include information or an opinion about you. The personal information we hold about you may also include credit-related information. The kinds of personal information we may collect about you include your lot holders’ name, date of birth, address, account details, occupation, financial information and any other information we made need to identify you or a lot holder.  When you use our website or mobile applications, we may collect information about your location or activity, including IP address, telephone number and whether you have accessed third party sites, the date and time of visits, the pages that are viewed, information about the device used, and other user location information. We collect some of this information using cookies.

Notification of the collection of personal information

In line with the Australian Privacy Principles, we want to ensure you are aware of the following matters.

Who we are

A reference to we/us/our is a reference to, collectively, Austrata Finance Pty Ltd ACN 646 360 796, Australian Credit Licence 528856, Austrata Lending Services Pty Ltd ACN 650 628 363 and our related businesses.

How to contact us

You can contact our Privacy Officer by:

• telephoning 1300 936 560
• e-mailing info@austratafinance.com.au
• writing to Austrata Finance, Level 29 Chifley Tower, 2 Chifley Place, Sydney 2000

How, when and from where we collect your personal information

We collect most personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect it in many ways, including:

• through your access and use of our websites, Apps and applications;
• during conversations between you and our representatives; or
• when you complete an application.

We may collect information about you that is publicly available, such as from public registers or social media, or made available by third parties.

You may be able to suspend and save online applications, so you can complete the applications at a later time. If you suspend or save your application, the information that you have entered will be retained in our systems so that you may recover the information when you resume your application. Online applications that have been suspended or saved may be viewed by us. In particular, if you start but do not submit an online application, we can contact you using any of the contact details you have supplied to offer help completing it.

Collection of personal information from third parties

We may also collect personal information from third parties, including:
your representatives;

• co-applicants and co-borrowers;
• credit providers and credit reporting agencies;
• law enforcement agencies and other government agencies;
• financial institutions;
• our third party service providers; and
• publicly available sources of information.

We will not ask you to supply personal information publicly over Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform that we use.

Whether the collection is authorised by law

We are required or authorised to collect:

• certain identification information about you by anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws;
• certain information about your financial position under consumer credit laws; and
• certain identification information under property laws in some states and territories if you give us a mortgage security.

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

We collect personal information about you so that we can perform our activities and functions and to provide the best possible quality of customer service. We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide and market products and services to you and to send communications requested by you;
• to answer enquiries, and provide information or advice about existing and new products or services;
• to provide you with access to protected areas of our website;
• to assess the performance of the website and to improve the operation of the website and application;
• to conduct our business, including processing functions, and to manage our business relationship with you and others, including our investors and credit providers;
• for the administrative, planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of ours, our contractors or service providers;
• where we are required or authorised to do so under applicable laws;
• to provide your personal information to our contractors or service providers;
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
• to process and respond to any feedback or complaint made by you;
• to assess your application for credit from us or to invite you to apply for another product;
• to verify your identity;
• to disclose to a credit reporting body any failure by you to meet your payment obligations in relation to consumer credit or any serious credit infringements including the name of the credit provider, the type of consumer credit, the day in which the consumer credit is entered into and terminated, the maximum amount of available credit, and the terms and conditions of the consumer credit relating to repayment amount prescribed by the Privacy Act;
• to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country.

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, then:

• we may not be able to provide the requested products or services to you, either to the same standard or at all;
• we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want; and/or
• we may be unable to tailor the content of our website to your preferences and your experience of our website may not be as enjoyable or useful.

Who we disclose your information to?

We may disclose your personal information to:

• your representatives, such as finance brokers, financial advisers and accountants, or referees or strata managers;
• our employees, contractors or service providers for the purposes of operation of our website or our functions, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide information, products and services to you, including printers, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, marketing agencies, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
• to our servicers including our sub-servicer Verofi Pty Ltd;
• to companies that provide information and infrastructure systems to us;
• our related bodies corporate;
• law enforcement, government agencies or officials, or other third parties for the following reasons:
• pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process or requirement applicable to us;
• when we need to do so to comply with law or credit card rules;
• when we believe, in our sole discretion, that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss; or
• to report suspected illegal activity or to investigate suspected violations of your agreement with us;
• where we are authorised to do so by law, such as under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), or by government and law enforcement agencies or regulators;
• our financial institution partners, with whom we work to create and offer a product;
• our affiliates and related companies including companies that we plan to merge with or be acquired by or who may invest in us;
• to associated businesses that may want to market products to you;
• to our auditors or insurers;
• suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships or who are involved in managing or administering your loan, for business, customer service, fraud prevention, identity verification, related purposes, claims related providers, such as assessors and investigators who help us with claims;
• to investors, agents or advisers, trustees, rating agencies or any entity that has an interest in your finance or our business; and
• any person or organisation for any authorised purpose with your consent or direction.
• Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another person or organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:
• the person or organisation has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment; or
• you have consented to us making the disclosure.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone overseas?

We do not disclose your personal information to third party suppliers and service providers located overseas.

Direct Marketing

We may use your personal information from time to time to provide you with current information about finance, offers you may find of interest, changes to our organisation, or new products or services being offered by us or any company with which we are associated.

You may at any time opt out of receiving marketing information by contacting us using the details above.  If we are sending you direct marketing by email, you may also use the unsubscribe function.  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.

Updating your personal information

It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date.  During the course of our relationship with you, we may ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed.

If you wish to make any changes to your personal information, you may contact us.  We will generally rely on you to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate or complete.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

We will provide you with access to the personal and credit-related information we hold about you.  You may request access to any of the personal and credit-related information we hold about you at any time.  We may charge a fee for our costs of retrieving and supplying the information to you.

Depending on the type of request that you make, we may respond to your request immediately.  Otherwise, we usually respond to you within seven days of receiving your request.  We may need to contact other entities to properly investigate your request.

There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information, for example, if the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, if your request is vexatious, or if the information is commercially sensitive.

If we deny you access to the personal information we hold about you, we will explain why.

If any of the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate or out-of-date, you may request that we correct the information by contact us using the details above.

If appropriate, we will correct the personal information at the time of your request.  Otherwise, we will provide an initial response to you within seven days of receiving your request.  Where reasonable, and after our investigation, we will provide you with details about whether we have corrected your personal information within 30 days.

We may need to consult with other finance providers or credit reporting bodies or entities as part of our investigation.

If we refuse to correct personal information, we will provide you with our reasons for not correcting the information.

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 (for example, if you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers).

Sensitive information

We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent.  Sensitive information is personal information that includes information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political persuasion, memberships in trade or professional associations or trade unions, sexual preferences, criminal record, or health.

Safety and security of your personal information

We will take a range of measures and reasonable steps to protect your personal information.  Your personal information will always be stored in a secure environment.  We may store your personal information in paper and electronic form.  We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how we have dealt with your personal information, or you have a complaint about our compliance with the Privacy Act and the Credit Reporting Code, you may contact our complaints officer on 1300 936 560.

We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days and aim to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible.  We will provide you with a decision on your complaint within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied  with the response of our complaints officer, you may make a complaint to the AFCA scheme, which can be contacted by phone on 1800 931 678, by email at info@afca.org.au, or in writing to GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001, or the Privacy Commissioner which can be contacted at either www.oaic.gov.au or by phone on 1300 363 992.

Further information

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information by contacting us using the details in the table above.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this policy from time to time or as the need arises. We will post any changes to this policy on our website.

You may request this policy in an alternative form by contact us using the details in the table above.
This policy was last updated on 30 September 2021