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Privacy And Policy
Privacy & Compliance
At Because Finance, we prioritize your privacy and adhere to strict compliance standards to protect your data. Our policies ensure transparency and safeguard your information at every step.
Who are we?
‘We,’ ‘us,’ and ‘our’ refer to Because Finance Pty Ltd ACN 667 683 203 Australian Credit Licence 549743 and our related businesses.
Our Commitment to Protect Your Privacy.
only be used for the purposes we have collected it 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 that ensures protection of your personal information.
Our commitment in respect of personal information is to abide by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and Part IIIA of the Privacy Act, the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 and any other relevant law.
Personal information.
When we refer to personal information, we mean information from which your identity is reasonably apparent. This information may include information or an opinion about you. The personal information we hold about you may also include credit-related information.
Credit-related information means:
- Credit information, which includes your identity: the type, terms and maximum amount of credit provided to you, including when that credit was provided and when it was repaid; repayment history information; financial hardship information (including information that any repayments are affected by a financial hardship arrangement); default information (including overdue payments); payment information; new arrangement information; details of any serious credit infringements; court proceedings information; personal insolvency information and publicly available information; and;
- Credit eligibility information, which is credit reporting information supplied to us by a credit reporting body, and any information that we derive from it.
Additional Information for Financial and Insurance Applications.
If you are applying for finance or provide a guarantee we may also collect the number and ages of your dependents and cohabitants, the length of time at your current address, your employment details and proof of earnings and expenses. If you apply for any insurance product through us, we may collect information about what is being insured, the beneficiaries and your health information including medical and lifestyle information from you or your health professionals. We will only collect health information from you with your consent.
Why we collect your personal information.
We collect personal information for the purposes of assessing your application for finance and managing that finance, establishing your identity, contacting you, managing our risk and to comply with our legal obligations. [We may also collect your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing and managing our relationship with you. Improvements in technology also enable organizations like ours to collect and use information to get a more integrated view of our customers. From time to time we may offer you other products and services.
Do we disclose your personal information?
We may disclose your personal information:
- to prospective funders or other intermediaries in relation to your finance requirements
- to other organizations that are involved in managing or administering your finance such as third-party suppliers, printing and postal services, call centers, lenders mortgage insurers, trade insurers and credit reporting bodies
- to associated businesses that may want to market products to you
- to companies that provide information and infrastructure systems to us
- to our agents, contractors, external service providers to outsource certain functions, for example, statement production, debt recovery and information technology support
- to any person or entity who represents you, including finance brokers, lawyers, mortgage brokers, guardians, persons holding power of attorney and accountants
- to any person or entity, where you have provided us consent
- other guarantors or borrowers (if more than one) or prospective borrowers including in relation to any credit you guarantee or propose to guarantee
- to our auditors, insurers, reinsurers and health care providers
- to claims related providers, such as assessors and investigators who help us with claims
- where we are authorized to do so by law, such as under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), government and law enforcement agencies or regulators
- to investors, agents or advisers, trustees, rating agencies or any entity that has an interest in your finance or our business
- to other financial institutions, for example, to process a claim for mistaken payment
- organizations that provide products or services used or marketed by us or
- to your employer, former employer, referees or identity verification services.
Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another person or organization, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:
- the person or organization has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment, or
- you have consented to us making the disclosure.
Credit related information.
We exchange credit-related information for the purposes of assessing your application for finance and managing that finance. If you propose to be a guarantor, one of our checks may involve obtaining a credit report about you.
This credit-related information may be held by us in electronic form on our secure servers and may also be held in paper form. We may use cloud storage to store the credit-related information we hold about you. The cloud storage and the IT servers may be located outside Australia. [
When we obtain credit eligibility information from a credit reporting body about you, we may also seek publicly available information and information about any serious credit infringement that you may have committed.
We may disclose your credit-related information to overseas entities that provide support functions to us. You may obtain more information about these entities by contacting us. If we disclose your credit-related information to entities that are located overseas, we ensure that appropriate data handling and security arrangements are in place
Direct marketing.
From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with current information about finance, offers you may find of interest, changes to our organization, or new products or services being offered by us or any company with whom we are associated.
If you do not wish to receive marketing information, you may at any time decline to receive such information by telephoning us at 0408 575 117 or by writing to us at laura@becausefinance.com]. If the direct marketing is 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 the information we hold about you is accurate or complete.
You must notify us of any changes to your personal information that are required by any contracts you have with us
Access and correction to your personal and credit 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 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 will usually respond 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 or credit-related 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.
An explanation will be provided to you if we deny you access to the personal or credit-related information we hold about you.
If any of the personal or credit-related information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate or out of date you may request that we correct the information by telephoning us on 0408 575 117 or by writing to us 29 Vale St, St Kilda, VIC 3182.
If appropriate we will correct the personal information at the time of the 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 the personal or credit-related 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 or credit-related 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 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.
How safe and secure is your personal information that we hold?
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 unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.
Complaints If you are dissatisfied 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 [0408 575 117
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 dissatisfied with the response of our complaints officer, you may make a complaint to our External Dispute Resolution Scheme, Australian Financial Complaints Authority who can be contacted by phone on 1800 931 678 or by email at info@afca.org.au; or the Office of the Australian Commissioner who can be contacted at oaic.gov.au or by phone on 1300 363 992.
Further information.
You may request further information about the way we manage your personal or credit-related information by contacting us.
We are constantly reviewing all of our policies and attempt to keep up to date with market expectations. Technology is constantly changing, as is the law and market practice.
As a consequence, 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 telephoning us on 0408575117 or by writing to us at 245 St Kilda Road, St Kilda VIC 3182
This privacy and credit reporting policy came into existence on 7/2/2024.
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This website is designed to provide you with factual information only. This information contained within does not take into account your needs, objectives of financial situation. To understand whether a credit product is right for you, speak to one of our licensed Finance Brokers. Terms, conditions fee’s charges and minimum loan amounts apply. Credit is subject to approval by the credit provider under their responsible lending policy. Rates of interest are determined by the credit provider and are based upon your unique credit profile.
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Privacy Policy and Collection of Personal Information.
National Finance Connections Pty Ltd (“NFC”) (ABN 16 661 296 457) as an Aggregator & Broker is firmly committed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal information. We take our obligations to handle your personal information in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 seriously. This Privacy Policy sets out details about how we manage your personal information. Collection and use of personal information We collect personal information to enable us to provide our services to you and otherwise as set out in this privacy policy. In addition, if we are required to comply with certain legislation to provide you with the products and services you choose, the collection of certain personal information will be mandatory. If you don’t want to or are unwilling to provide us with the information we need, we may be unable to provide services to you. Personal information obtained & held We only collect and hold personal information about you, which is reasonably necessary for our functions and ac8vi8es, which includes (but is not limited to) the following purposes: providing you quality products &/or services and to improve how we operate and provide those services assessing an application for finance to ensure no financial hardship will occur because of providing a specific loan.
- maintaining your contact details.
- arranging the finance and any related insurance.
- fulfilling our legal obligations under applicable laws and rules, such as those relating to An8 Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing.
Examples of Personal Information Collected for Financial Services and Loan Applications.
Examples of personal information collected & held relating to our customers or loan applicants:
- name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address or other contact details. • information that we require to identify customers or loan applicants, including as required under the An8-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, which may include details or copies of passports, birth certificates, driver’s license, utility bills or other documentary evidence of applicants identities.
- information relevant to the financial services that we provide or have been requested to provide, including information about customers’ or applicant’s financial position, such as: • details of assets and liabilities, including investments and any existing debts. • details of income, including employment status, occupation and the name of our clients’ employer.
- proof of financial position, including for example pay slips or tax statements. • other details relevant to a finance application that we require in order to assess that application, such as family details or the number of dependants.
- credit information, including credit information contained in credit reports from Credit Reporting Bodies (CRB).
- records of our interactions with you, including by telephone, email and online • your enquiries or complaints
Examples of Personal Information Collected for Financial Services and Loan Applications.
Examples of personal information collected & held relating to our customers or loan applicants:
- name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address or other contact details. • information that we require to identify customers or loan applicants, including as required under the An8-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, which may include details or copies of passports, birth certificates, driver’s license, utility bills or other documentary evidence of applicants identities.
- information relevant to the financial services that we provide or have been requested to provide, including information about customers’ or applicant’s financial position, such as: • details of assets and liabilities, including investments and any existing debts. • details of income, including employment status, occupation and the name of our clients’ employer.
- proof of financial position, including for example pay slips or tax statements. • other details relevant to a finance application that we require in order to assess that application, such as family details or the number of dependants.
- credit information, including credit information contained in credit reports from Credit Reporting Bodies (CRB).
- records of our interactions with you, including by telephone, email and online • your enquiries or complaints
Examples of Personal Information Collected for Financial Services and Loan Applications.
Credit information is personal information that relates to credit that a person has applied for or has been provided. The credit information that we will collect from you may include your records of credit that you have applied for (including the name of the credit provider, the type of credit and the amount of credit), default information or any other information that has a bearing on your credit worthiness used to determine your eligibility for credit. Credit information also includes credit reporting information supplied to us by a credit reporting body and any information that we derive from it.
We will collect, hold, disclose, and use your personal and credit information to: • assess and verify your identity and financial situation.
- assess your credit application, or your suitability as a guarantor to a credit application.
- provide such information to a guarantor or related applicant.
- exchange your information with a credit reporting body.
- disclose your information to credit providers as set out in our ‘Credit Provider Schedule’ to arrange credit.
- disclose your information to our aggregation partners as set out in the Aggregation Partners sec8on of this document.
- disclose your information to an insurer to arrange insurance you wish to obtain. • obtain from, and disclose to, third par8es such as your employer, landlord, real estate agent, lending ins8tu8on and guarantor who are deemed as reasonably necessary to arrange finance and/or insurance; and
- refer you to other organizations, service providers or business partners or obtain referrals from them to you.
- We may not be able to proceed with credit assistance without the ability to collect, hold, disclose and use your personal and credit informa8on.
- Information that may be required about other third par8es (e.g., your spouse, a co borrower or dependents. If so, you confirm that you have obtained the necessary consents from that third party to disclose such information to NFC and have informed the third party of the purpose for disclosure. We may also collect and hold sensitive information about you, including information relating to:
- your citizenship or country of birth
- criminal records
- information where you are a politically exposed person under the An8-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 We may collect and hold Health Information if we are assisting customers with an insurance product. We do not use or share that information for any purpose other than acquiring the product on behalf of the customer. The purposes for which NFC collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information NFC collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information about customers or applicants in order to:
- assess a customer’s suitability for a loan or financial product
- if approved, to provide finance to customers through its network of lenders • to send customers market8ng about other products and services that we think may be of interest to them.
- to respond to inquiries and complaints.
- NFC also collects, holds, uses, and discloses personal information about: • our customers seeking finance for any worthwhile asset finance product for business or personal use or unsecured personal loans.
- individuals or brokers who NFC provides aggregation services to or brokers operating under the NFC license to manage its relationship with those persons, including to determine remuneration payable to such par8es. How personal information is collected, used, and disclosed If you are a customer seeking a loan or insurance, we will collect personal information about you directly from you or our Credit Representatives. We may also collect personal information about you from other persons, organizations and public sources as set out below.
Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal and Credit Information
Credit information is personal information that relates to credit that a person has applied for or has been provided. The credit information that we will collect from you may include your records of credit that you have applied for (including the name of the credit provider, the type of credit and the amount of credit), default information or any other information that has a bearing on your credit worthiness used to determine your eligibility for credit. Credit information also includes credit reporting information supplied to us by a credit reporting body and any information that we derive from it.
We will collect, hold, disclose, and use your personal and credit information to: • assess and verify your identity and financial situation.
- assess your credit application, or your suitability as a guarantor to a credit application.
- provide such information to a guarantor or related applicant.
- exchange your information with a credit reporting body.
- disclose your information to credit providers as set out in our ‘Credit Provider Schedule’ to arrange credit.
- disclose your information to our aggregation partners as set out in the Aggregation Partners sec8on of this document.
- disclose your information to an insurer to arrange insurance you wish to obtain. • obtain from, and disclose to, third par8es such as your employer, landlord, real estate agent, lending ins8tu8on and guarantor who are deemed as reasonably necessary to arrange finance and/or insurance; and
- refer you to other organizations, service providers or business partners or obtain referrals from them to you.
- We may not be able to proceed with credit assistance without the ability to collect, hold, disclose and use your personal and credit informa8on.
- Information that may be required about other third par8es (e.g., your spouse, a co borrower or dependents. If so, you confirm that you have obtained the necessary consents from that third party to disclose such information to NFC and have informed the third party of the purpose for disclosure. We may also collect and hold sensitive information about you, including information relating to:
- your citizenship or country of birth
- criminal records
- information where you are a politically exposed person under the An8-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 We may collect and hold Health Information if we are assisting customers with an insurance product. We do not use or share that information for any purpose other than acquiring the product on behalf of the customer. The purposes for which NFC collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information NFC collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information about customers or applicants in order to:
- assess a customer’s suitability for a loan or financial product
- if approved, to provide finance to customers through its network of lenders • to send customers market8ng about other products and services that we think may be of interest to them.
- to respond to inquiries and complaints.
- NFC also collects, holds, uses, and discloses personal information about: • our customers seeking finance for any worthwhile asset finance product for business or personal use or unsecured personal loans.
- individuals or brokers who NFC provides aggregation services to or brokers operating under the NFC license to manage its relationship with those persons, including to determine remuneration payable to such par8es. How personal information is collected, used, and disclosed If you are a customer seeking a loan or insurance, we will collect personal information about you directly from you or our Credit Representatives. We may also collect personal information about you from other persons, organizations and public sources as set out below.
Disclosure and Collection of Personal Information from Third Parties.
We may use and disclose your personal information to, and collect personal information about you from:
- any business which provides information about the consumer or commercial creditworthiness of persons.
- a credit report obtained from a Credit Reporting Body. Information about your creditworthiness, credit standing, credit history or credit capacity, the status of your finances and any default by you in accordance with the Privacy Act.
- any sources disclosed in your application for finance such as employers, past and present landlords etc.
- service providers that assist in the processing of applications.
- any joint applicants, co-applicants, guarantor or proposed joint applicants, co-applicants, guarantor of the application for finance.
- referrers, suppliers of goods, insurance product providers.
- NFC’s agents, contractors and external advisers.
- government authorities (e.g., tax authorities in Australia and overseas) in connection with their lawful information requests or to meet legal obligations in any relevant jurisdiction. • NFC ‘s related bodies corporate (together referred to as “the Related Companies”) and may use this personal information for product development and research and to inform you about products and services in the future (see the sec8on on Market8ng below for more information);
- issuers of iden8fica8on document via the use of third-party systems. • intermediaries, including your agent, adviser, a dealer, a broker, a representative ac8ng on your behalf, other Australian Financial Services Licensee or our authorized representatives, advisers and our agents.
- mortgage insurer to assess the risk of providing mortgage insurance or to assess the risk of default.
- accounting or finance specialists.
- external dispute resolution service.
- legal and other professional advisers;
- debt collection agencies, your guarantors, organizations involved in valuing, surveying or registering a security property, or which otherwise have an interest in such property, purchasers of debt portfolios; and
- in connection with funding financial accommodation by means of an arrangement involving securi8sa8on, or any other proposed transfer of or proposed dealing with your loan. We may collect and handle information that is in the public domain, such as from: online forums, websites, Facebook, TwiTer, YouTube, or other social media platforms (for example, if you use social media to make a complaint); or public registers (for example, those kept by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission).
Cookies.
We may use “cookies”. A cookie allows our servers to identify and interact more effectively with you and your device(s). The cookie assists us in maintaining the continuity of your browsing session and remembering your details and preferences when you return. Our systems record a variety of information relating to interactions with our website. This information may include the software versions used, device identifiers (e.g. IP addresses), locat8on data (where available and not disabled by the user), dates, 8mes, file metadata, referring website, data entered and user activity, such as links clicked.
We may automatically collect non-personal information about you such as the site from which you linked to our websites. In some cases, third par8es may use cookies and other technologies such as those described above.
These technologies may be used in connection with ac8vi8es like surveys, online behavioral advertising, website and usage analytics and email campaign management. How we hold personal information We use security procedures and modern technology to protect the personal information that we hold. We store your personal information in several ways, including in physical paper files and electronic systems and devices. Much of the information we hold is stored electronically on servers. that are in company premises or in secure data centers located in Australia. Access to and use of this information within NFC is appropriately limited to protect from misuse or unlawful disclosure of the information. How you can access and seek correction of your information. You can contact us to request access to the personal information that we hold about you. Subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, we will generally give you access to your personal information. However, there may be exclusions that apply that permit us to not provide you with access in some circumstances. If access is denied, we will provide you with the reason why unless, having regard to the grounds for refusal, it would be unreasonable for us to do so. Where we do grant access to your information, we may charge you a fee for accessing your personal information. You can also contact us to request that we correct personal information that we hold about you. If we are satisfied that the personal information is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading then we will take reasonable steps to correct that information. Any request to access or correct personal information should be made to NFC Privacy Officer using the contact details set out below and will be dealt with in accordance with the Privacy Act. Disclosing your information overseas Some of the par8es with which we exchange your personal information, including our service providers and other third par8es, may be located outside Australia including India, Singapore and the United States of America. We may also need to send your information overseas to process transactions you have instructed us to make, such as international money transfers. The countries to which we disclose your information will depend on the transaction details.
