This document provides you with information relating to our activities. It contains information about
various fees and charges that may be payable by you to us, as well as about certain commissions
we may receive, or we pay to certain third parties. It also contains information about what you should
do if you have a complaint or dispute in connection with our services.
WHAT IS CREDIT ASSISTANCE?
We give you credit assistance when:
THE ASSESSMENT WE NEED TO DO BEFORE GIVING YOU CREDIT ASSISTANCE
Before we provide credit assistance to you, we assess whether the particular loan is suitable for you.
To do this, we need to make reasonable inquiries and verify that:
We won’t be able to give you credit assistance if our assessment shows that:
GETTING A COPY OF OUR ASSESSMENT
If we provide you with credit assistance, you can ask us for a copy of our assessment any time up to
7 years after we provide you with a credit assistance quote. To request a copy please contact us.
We will provide you with a copy:
INFORMATION ABOUT THE LICENSEE
We are authorised to engage in credit activities including providing credit assistance.
Subject to meeting credit criteria, we are able to assist you to obtain loans for you from a broad range
of lenders through our broker group.
The following are the lenders or lessors with whom we generally conduct the most business:
FEES AND CHARGES
FEES PAYABLE FOR THE PROVISION OF CREDIT ASSISTANCE
We sometimes charge a fee for providing credit assistance. More detail about any such fee will be
set out in a quote we will give to you before we provide you with credit assistance.
OTHER FEES AND CHARGES
You may have to pay other fees and charges (such as an application fees, valuation fees and other
fees) to the lender, or other parties. You should review the disclosure documents and your loan
contract for further details of any such fees and charges.
COMMISSIONS
COMMISSIONS WE RECEIVE FROM OUR LICENSEE
We have appointed our broker group as our agent to receive commissions from lenders and to pay
us commission in relation to loan contracts for which we provide credit assistance. The total amount
of commission we may receive in relation to your loan may vary depending on the lender, the term,
the features, the amount of the loan you ultimately choose and the amount and timing of the
repayments that you make.
Loan Contracts such as Home Loans, Investment Property Loans and Personal Loans
Upfront commission payable by lenders in relation to loans is calculated as a percentage of the loan
amount and is generally in the range of 0.40 % and 1.76 % of the loan amount. It is usually paid
after settlement of the loan.
Trail commission payable by lenders in relation to loans is generally calculated regularly (monthly,
bi-monthly, quarterly, or annually) on the outstanding loan balance and is paid in arrears. The trail
commission payable by lenders is generally in the range of 0.11 % per annum and 1.10 % per annum
of the outstanding loan amount.
Further details of the commission earned by us will be included in the credit proposal disclosure
document we will provide to you at the same time as we provide you with credit assistance.
You can request information from us about the fees that we are likely to receive, how those fees are
calculated, and our reasonable estimate of the fees or commissions that will be payable.
VOLUME BONUS ARRANGEMENTS
Our broker group has volume bonus arrangements in place with the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia, the Westpac Banking Corporation and the Australia and New Zealand Bank Group Limited.
From time to time we or our broker group may receive a benefit, directly by way of cash bonus or
additional commissions or indirectly by way of training, professional development days or
sponsorship, if we or our broker group write a particular volume of loans offered by those lenders.
COMMISSIONS PAYABLE BY US
If a third party has introduced you to us or referred you to us, we may pay them a commission or a
fee.
We obtain referrals from a range of sources, including real estate agents, accountants, financial
planners or other people.
Further information about referral commissions, including our reasonable estimate of the amount of
any commission payable and how it is calculated is available from us on request and will be included
in the credit proposal disclosure we will supply to you when we provide you with our credit assistance.
DISPUTES OR COMPLAINTS
WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A DISPUTE OR COMPLAINT?
We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible service. If at any time we have
not met our obligations – or you have a complaint about any of our services – please inform us so
we can work towards a resolution. We will endeavour to deal with your complaint promptly,
thoroughly and fairly.
HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT AND THE COMPLAINTS PROCESS?
If you have a complaint, we request you follow these steps:
Complaints can be lodged by contacting Mark Davies, the Complaints Officer by:
We adopt the definition of ‘complaint’ as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction made to an
organisation, related to its products or services, or the complaints handling process itself,
where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected’. This means we will
treat informal complaints seriously and refer them to IDR unless they are resolved by the
end of the next business day.
Any complaint which is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction by the end of the next
business day (starting from when the complaint was received) will not require the full IDR
process to be applied. There is no need to capture and record the complaint or respond
as set out below.
Investigating complaints
The Complaints Officer will review the complaint carefully and promptly, taking such steps
and reviewing such documents as a reasonable person would do.
Responding to complaints within appropriate time limits and referring unresolved
complaints to an External Dispute Resolution (EDR) scheme
The Complaints Officer will provide a written ‘final response’ to the complainant within
45 days (21 days where the complaint relates to default), which states:
The NCC allows credit providers 21 days to consider hardship and postponement
applications. At the end of that period, if there is no agreement, there will be no further
time to handle the dispute at IDR, and the complainant must be referred to EDR.
When deciding about hardship or postponement applications, the Complaints Officer will
give EDR contact details when:
The complainant can go direct to EDR regarding disputes involving hardship or
postponement which also involve issues with default notices.
Legal proceedings
Unless the statute of limitations is about to expire, legal proceedings will not be
commenced or continued nor will any other enforcement action be taken during the IDR
period and for at least 14 days from giving a final response.
If the complaint discloses a systemic issue, we will take immediate steps to ensure the
issue is addressed.
The types of remedies available for resolving complaints or disputes
If a complaint is justified, the Complaints Officer will recommend a solution comprising
one or more of the following:
Internal structures and reporting requirements.
We will do our best to consider complaints fairly and equally. If we are unable to do so
we will consider seeking outside assistance to resolve the dispute. We will review these
procedures at least annually.
Guiding Principles
THIRD PARTY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES
If your complaint relates to a product or service acquired through a third party (for example, a lender)
we may ask you to contract the relevant third party. They will deal with your complaint under their
complaints resolution process.
If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint by the third party under their complaints
resolution process, you are entitled to have your dispute considered by their External Dispute
Resolution Scheme. Please contact the third party for further details.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED
We will, as set out above, keep you informed of the progress of the investigation of any complaint.
STILL NOT SATISFIED?
If you do not think we have resolved your complaint to your satisfaction, you may take the matter –
free of charge – to the relevant External Disputes Resolution Scheme (provided it is within the
scheme’s terms of reference) as detailed below. You may also refer the matter to the relevant
External Disputes Resolution Scheme at any time, but if our internal process is still in progress, they
may request that our internal processes be complete before considering the matter further.
Our external dispute resolution service provider is the Credit and Investments Ombudsman, which
can be contacted via: