Debt Relief Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy

This privacy and credit reporting policy (also referred to as our Privacy Policy) sets out how we and our related businesses collect, use and disclose the personal information (including credit-related information) we hold about you.

1. Who are we?

‘We’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refers to;

FSA Group Ltd – ACN 093 855 791;
FSA Australia Pty Ltd – ACN 094 671 002;
Fox Symes & Associates Pty Ltd – ACN 091 225 357 – Australian Credit Licence Number 393280;
Fox Symes Debt Relief Services Pty Ltd – ACN 091 721 845;
Fox Symes Business Services Pty Ltd – ACN 114 933 890;
Fox Symes Easy Bill Pay Pty Ltd – ACN 167 062 526;
Aravanis Insolvency Pty Ltd – ACN 115 415 453;
Azora Finance Group Pty Ltd – ACN 118 229 771;
Azora Finance (Services) Pty Ltd – ACN 122 544 781 – Australian Credit Licence Number 390864;
Azora Finance (Management) Pty Ltd – ACN 122 544 236 Australian Financial Services Licence Number 321822;
Azora Personal Loans Pty Ltd – ACN 147 803 576 – Australian Credit Licence Number 403724;
Azora Direct Pty Ltd – ACN 095 463 353 – Australian Credit Licence Number 392019;
Azora Asset Finance Pty Ltd – ACN 087 826 159; and
our related businesses.

2. Our commitment to protect your privacy

We understand how important it is to protect your personal information. This document sets out our privacy and credit reporting policy commitment in respect of personal information we hold about you and what we do with that information.

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.

Our commitment in respect of personal information is to abide by the Australian Privacy Principles(APPs), the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 (Credit Reporting Code) 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 is 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; information about the type of finance that you are applying for; repayment history information, 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.

We use your credit-related information to assess your eligibility to be provided with finance. Usually, credit-related information is exchanged between credit and finance providers and credit reporting bodies.

The kinds of personal information we may collect about you include your name, date of birth, address (including postcode), account details, why you are applying for a particular product, details of superannuation policies, details about your motor vehicles, occupation, details about your assets and liabilities and any other information we made need to identify you. When you use our website or mobile applications (collectively, website), we may automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the website, we may collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to our website, and information about how you interact with our website

If you are applying for finance or providing a guarantee we may also collect the ages and number of your dependants and cohabitants, the length of time at your current address, your employment details and proof of your earnings and expenses. If you apply for any insurance product through us we may also 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.

3. Why we collect your personal information

We collect personal information for the following purposes:

arranging an application for finance or other product;
assessing your application for finance and managing that finance or other product;
assessing your financial situation;
establishing your identity;
complying with our legal obligations including those under the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth); the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth);
providing services in relation to debt administration, debt agreements, bankruptcy and personal solvency agreements;
managing our risk;
contacting you; and
managing our relationship with you.

We may also collect your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing and managing our relationship with you. Improvements in technology also enable organisations 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. To enable us to maintain a successful business relationship with you, we may disclose your personal information to 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 to include other mortgage intermediaries, lenders, valuers, lenders mortgage insurers, surveyors, accountants, credit reporting bodies, recoveries firms, debt collectors and lawyers. We may also disclose your personal information to any other organisation that may have or is considering having an interest in your finance, or in our business.

4. How do we collect your personal information?

Where reasonable and practical, we will collect your personal information directly from you. We may collect information about you that is publicly available, such as from public registers or social media, or made available by third parties We may also collect your personal information from credit reporting bodies, mortgage and finance brokers, employers and other people such as accountants and lawyers, your creditors, the various state Land Titles Offices and Road Traffic Authorities, and other government agencies including or as provided for under Australian law.

5. 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 organisations that are involved in managing or administering your finance such as third party suppliers, printing and postal services, call centres, 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 or external service providers to outsource certain functions, for example, statement production, debt recovery and information technology support;
to anybody who represents you, such as finance brokers, lawyers, mortgage brokers, guardians, persons holding power of attorney and accountants;
to anyone where you have provided us consent;
to other guarantors or borrowers (if more than one);
to borrowers or prospective borrowers, including in relation to any credit you guarantee or propose to guarantee;
to our auditors, insurers, re-insurers and health care providers;
to claims related providers, such as assessors and investigators who help us with claims;
where we are required to do so by law, such as under the Anti-Money or Laundering and Courter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), or by government and law enforcement agencies or regulators;
to investors, agents or advisers, 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;
organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us;
to external dispute resolution schemes, courts and tribunals;
to government agencies including the Australian Financial Security Authority, State Trustees, Centrelink or child support agencies;
to your employer, referees or identity verification services; or
anyone that you provide your consent for us to disclose your personal information to.

Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another person or organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:

(a) the person or organisation has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment,

(b) you have consented to us making the disclosure; or

We may use cloud storage to store the personal information we hold about you. The cloud storage and the IT servers will generally be located in Australia.

We may disclose your personal information to overseas entities that provide support functions to us, including India. You may obtain more information about these entities by contacting us.

6. Credit-related information

We exchange credit-related information for the purposes of assessing your application for finance, managing that finance, discharging our functions under the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) or administering your debt agreement. 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 will generally be located in Australia.

When we obtain credit-related 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 do not disclose your credit-related information overseas.

7. Notifiable matters

The law requires us to advise you of ‘notifiable matters’ in relation to how we may use your credit-related information. You may request to have these notifiable matters (and this privacy and credit reporting policy) provided to you in an alternative form.

We exchange your credit-related information with credit reporting bodies. We use the credit-related information that we exchange with the credit reporting body to confirm your identity, assess your creditworthiness, assess your application for finance or your capacity to be a guarantor, manage your finance, and administer your debt or personal insolvency agreement.

If you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to any finance that we have provided or arranged or you have committed a serious credit infringement then we may disclose this information to a credit reporting body.

The information we may exchange with credit reporting bodies includes:

your identification details (such as your name and address);
the type of credit you have, the terms and conditions of that credit, the credit limit and when the credit is closed (if relevant);
repayment history information including if you have made all your repayments if you miss repayments on your credit; and
payment information including where you make a payment after the due date;
default information including if you default on your obligations, commit fraud or another serious credit infringement (such as fraud).

If you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to any finance that we have provided or arranged or if you have committed a serious credit infringement, we may disclose this information to a credit reporting body.

You have the right to request access to the credit-related information that we hold about you and make a request for us to correct that credit-related information if needed. Please see the heading “Access and correction to your personal and credit-related information”, below for further information.

Sometimes your credit-related information will be used by credit reporting bodies for the purposes of ‘pre-screening’ credit offers on the request of other credit providers. You can contact the credit reporting body at any time to request that your credit-related information is not used in this way.

You may contact the credit reporting body to advise them that you believe that you may have been a victim of fraud. Credit reporting bodies must not use or disclose your credit-related information for a period of 21 days after you notify them that you may have been a victim of fraud . You can contact any of the following credit reporting bodies for more information:

Equifax Pty Limited – www.equifax.com.au;
Illion (Australia) Pty Limited – www.illion.com.au;
Experian Australia Credit Services Pty Limited – www.experian.com.au.

8. 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 organisation, 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 on 1300 660 032 or by writing to us at Locked Bag 29, Australia Square, NSW 1215 or privacyofficer@foxsymes.com.au. 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.

9. 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.

10. Access and correction to your personal and credit-related 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 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 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. 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.

11. Using government identifiers

If we collect government identifiers, such as your tax file number, Centrelink customer reference number, passport number or driver’s license details, we do not use or disclose this information other than required by law. We will never use a government identifier in order to identify you.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. How safe and secure is your personal information that we hold?

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information by storing it 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.

15. Information from third parties

Our website may contain links to the websites of third party providers of goods and services (Third Party websites). If you have accessed Third Party websites through our website, and if those third parties collect information about you, we may also collect or have access to that information as part of our arrangements with those third parties.

Where you access a Third Party website from our website, cookie information, information about your preferences or other information you have provided about yourself may be shared between us and the third party.

16. Advertising and tracking

When you view our advertisements on a Third Party website, the advertising company may use ‘cookies’ and in some cases ‘web beacons’ to collect information such as:

the server your computer is logged onto;
your browser type;
the date and time of your visit; and
the performance of their marketing efforts.

When you access our website after viewing one of our advertisements on a Third Party website, the advertising company collects information on how you utilise our website (eg which pages you view) and whether you have made a purchase through our website.

17. Cookies

We use 'cookies' to provide you with better and more customised service and with a more effective website.

A 'cookie' is a small text file placed on your computer by our web page server. A cookie can later be retrieved by our webpage servers. Cookies are frequently used on websites and you can choose if and how a cookie will be accepted by configuring your preferences and options in your internet browser.

We use cookies for different purposes such as:

to allocate a unique number to your internet browsers;
to customise our website for you;
for statistical purposes;
to identify if you have accessed a Third Party website; and
for security purposes.

18. IP addresses

Your IP address is the identifier for your computer when you are using the internet.

It may be necessary for us to collect your IP address for your interaction with various parts of our website.

19. 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 1300 660 032 or by writing to us at Locked Bag 29, Australia Square NSW 1215 or complaints@foxsymes.com.au.

We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days. 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, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority which can be contacted by phone on 1800 931 678, by email at info@afca.org.au, or in writing to or GPO Box 3, Melbourne, Victoria 3001;
the Privacy Commissioner which can be contacted at either www.oaic.gov.au or by phone on 1300 363 992; and/ or
the Australian Financial Security Authority on 1300 364 785 or www.afsa.gov.au.

20. Further information

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal or credit-related information by phoning us on 1300 660 032 or writing to us at Locked Bag 29, Australia Square, NSW 1215 or privacyofficer@foxsymes.com.au.

21. Change in our privacy and credit reporting policy

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 place practices.

As a consequence we may change this privacy and credit reporting 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 privacy and credit reporting policy in an alternative form by phoning us on 1300 660 032 or writing to us at Locked Bag 29, Australia Square, NSW 1215 or privacyofficer@foxsymes.com.au.

This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy came into existence on 29 September 2021.