Privacy Policy -Version 2022 -1
Version 2022 -1
This Privacy Policy is in effect from May 2022
Harmoney Australia Pty Ltd and its related companies (referred to in this Privacy Policy as Harmoney, we, our or us) recognises that your privacy is very important to you and that you have the right to control your personal information.
This Privacy Policy governs the collection, use disclosure, storage and handling of your personal information by us and has been prepared in accordance with our obligations and your rights set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014.
We reserve the right to modify or amend this Privacy Policy at any time. It is recommended that you check our Privacy Policy from time to time.
By accessing and browsing this website you consent to us dealing with personal information about you in accordance with this Privacy Policy (as amended from time to time).
This Privacy Policy explains:
- What kind of personal information we collect (including credit related information) and what we do with that information.
- Where we collect personal information from.
- How we use personal information.
- How we store personal information.
- How you can seek access to and where applicable correct your personal information.
- How you can make a complaint about our handling of your personal information where applicable.
- How long we hold personal information.
- Who you can contact for further information.
What kind of personal information we collect
We collect the personal information you give us, which may include:
- Your personal information such as name, email address, residential and business addresses, and contact telephone numbers.
- Your financial information such as your occupation, employment, income and expenses, accounts, assets and liabilities, tax file number and tax status – at the time that you apply for credit from us and during the term of any credit provided to you by us.
- Information about your transaction history (either with us or relevant third parties such as your bank) such as transactions you may have had in the past or during the term of your relationship with us, your payment history and the way you dealt or will deal with us.
- Other information where relevant such as health and medical information (for example to handle a hardship application), government identifiers, and membership of professional bodies, in so far as it is applicable to verify your identity and other personal details.
Personal information relating to credit
We may collect your credit information which may include, but is not limited to:
- Credit application history - applications you have made to us or other credit providers including the products, the amount of credit and the start and end date of any applicable credit.
- Account identification – information about account numbers and customer identifier numbers.
- Your payment information – a statement that an overdue payment reported to a credit reporting body has been paid by you.
- Repayment History information – information about payments you owe us or any other credit provider that is overdue by 60 days.
- Creditworthiness – information such as your credit scores, credit ratings, and creditworthiness.
- Court proceedings about you – such as information about a judgment made against you in a court of law, relating to credit provided to you or whether you have been declared bankrupt or insolvent. This includes information on the National Insolvency Index, debt arrangements made by you, insolvency agreements entered into by you, and orders, authorities and directions under the Bankruptcy Act 1966 in relation to your property.
- Variation of contract arrangements – such as either a new arrangement you make with us to vary your consumer credit contract as a result of you being overdue in your payments and about which we have notified a credit reporting body, or the provision of new credit.
- Information in the public domain about your activities and creditworthiness in any state or territory in Australia, information in the National Personal Insolvency Index not relating to court proceedings, information that we have been provided about a serious credit infringement you have committed – a credit infringement includes fraudulently obtaining or attempting to obtain consumer credit or fraudulently evading or attempting to evade your consumer credit obligations or not intending to comply with consumer credit obligations and if you have not been contactable for over a period of 6 months.
How the Privacy Policy applies to credit-related information under the Privacy Act
We may collect two types of consumer credit-related information:
- Credit information – this is information relating mainly to your credit related dealings with us which we can disclose to a Credit Reporting body that reports on your creditworthiness (CRBs).
- Credit eligibility information(CEI)– this is information provided to us by CRBs which may include your credit-related dealings with other credit providers. CEI also includes your credit worthiness information we derive from data provided by a CRB, for example, credit scores, credit ratings and evaluations about you and your creditworthiness.
If we hold or collect CEI or credit information this Privacy Policy will also apply to that information.
Where we collect your personal information from
We collect your personal information:
- By you or a co-applicant contacting us and enquiring after information about us and the services we provide.
- Through your use of this website, particularly when you register on this website as a Borrower.
- When you participate in any promotions we may make available, or competitions that we may run, through this website or elsewhere.
- From publicly-available sources.
- Through third parties, as set out below.
Who we may collect your personal information from
- Our agents.
- Your employers, accountants, lawyers, referees, banks, landlords, guarantors, and financial advisors.
- Third parties you may have had dealings with.
- CRBs and credit providers, for credit information.
- CRBs and identification service providers, for identification information.
- Card schemes.
- Insurers.
- Your executors, administrators or persons holding Powers of Attorney on your behalf.
- Our service providers like debt collection agencies, introducers, professional advisers, direct debit companies, and private investigators.
- Professional organisations.
- Public and subscribed databases
- Any persons considered necessary to carry out your instructions.
- Regulators, government authorities, courts or the Police, including fines information.
- Anyone else you agree.
Purposes for which we may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information
Personal information we collect about you will only be held used and disclosed for our business purposes and as required or permitted by the law. We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- Responding to queries.
- Providing you with information about us.
- Making a decision to provide you with our services, including evaluating your creditworthiness or whether to accept you as a guarantor.
- Providing you with information about the services we provide.
- Verifying your identity, and carrying out credit and other checks, for the purpose of registering you as a Borrower or as an Investor.
- Managing the products and services we provide.
- Managing your scheduled repayments and one-off repayments with direct debit companies.
- Preventing and defending instances of fraud, unlawful conduct and other risks to you and our products and services.
- Internal and external complaint resolution and assisting other credit providers with the same.
- Enforcing our rights including debt collection and where necessary instituting legal proceedings.
- Undertaking securitisation activities and other activities relating to funding and capital requirements.
- Providing your personal information when requested by our funders and investors.
- Enabling our associated entities and selected other entities to promote their products and services.
- Meeting legal and regulatory requirements imposed on us, and any codes of conduct with which we agree to comply.
- Marketing products and services provided by us and our related entities, including inviting you to apply for new or further credit from us.
- Compiling statistical data e.g credit scoring information.
- Participating in credit reporting systems and providing information to CRBs as permitted under the Privacy Act and Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code.
- Dealing with serious credit infringement and assisting other credit providers to do the same.
- Complying with specific Australian laws that make it mandatory for us to collect your personal information, and other laws which make it necessary in order for us to comply with our obligations. These laws currently include:-
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- National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009.
- Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006.
- Personal Property Securities Act 2009 and State and Territory real property and security interests laws.
- Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001.
- Corporations Act 2001 and other regulatory legislation.
- Tax Administration Act 1953, Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 and other taxation laws.
Disclosing your information to third parties including overseas
Where permitted under the Privacy Act, we may disclose information about you (including your identity) to a third party including:
- Any party assisting us with carrying out credit and identity checks.
- Co-borrowers - If you have registered as a Borrower and you have asked someone else to register as a co-borrower, each of you acknowledge, agree and consent to us providing your personal information to the other. We will be entitled to accept instructions from either of you in respect of our access to, use of, and amendment to, your personal information.
- Law enforcement agencies.
- Any party assisting us with conducting legal proceedings or other investigations.
- Funders and investors – This includes providing your personal information to enable investors, prospective investors, and the trustee who uses investor funds to make loans to you, to comply with their customer due diligence and other obligations under any applicable legislation.
- Our related entities in Australia and overseas.
- Entities providing services to us such as legal and financial services, market research and data providers, and mailing houses, call centre operators, and technology service providers.
- Suppliers of goods and services that are financed with the credit we provide.
- Retailers where the payments or credit services provided by us involves payments to the retailers for goods and services provided by them.
- Assignees or potential assignees or where we act as an agent or on behalf of another person.
- Financial institutions such as banks and credit providers.
- Direct Debit companies who manage your scheduled and one-off-repayments.
- Insurers, assessors, underwriters, brokers and other distributors.
- Government and regulatory bodies in Australia and overseas.
- Originators involved in debt assignment or securitisation arrangements.
- Debt collectors and other enforcement bodies.
- Entities involved in our business or who acquire an interest in our business.
- Third parties who are authorised to act on your behalf such as accountants, lawyers, referees, and attornies under a Power of Attorney or Guardianship arrangements.
Some of these entities may be located overseas and may not have an Australian link. . For example, we may employ service providers in New Zealand, India, Fiji, Vietnam or the Philippines. If you ask us to make a payment to an overseas bank or financial institution, we will provide information to that bank or financial institution. However, you acknowledge that they are not our service providers and we do not control how they handle your information.
Disclosing your Credit Information to third parties including CRBs
By accessing and using this website, and providing your personal information to us, you acknowledge and agree that you understand that if we disclose your personal information to CRBs for the purpose of us providing services to you, the CRBs may hold your information on their credit reporting database and use it for providing credit reporting services, including assessing your creditworthiness and for any other lawful purpose and that the CRB may disclose your information to their subscribers for the purpose of credit checking or debt collection or for any other lawful purpose.
Default information – subject to complying with the requirements of the Privacy Act, we can disclose to a CRB information about payments owed by you to third parties (including a borrower or guarantor) under a consumer credit contract, that has remained overdue for more than 60 days.
CRBs to whom we may disclose your information include:
- illion
Website: www.checkyourcredit.com.au
Phone: 1300 734 806
Address: Attention Illion Public Access Centre
PO Box 7405, St Kilda, VIC 3004 - Equifax
Website: www.equifax.com
Phone: 1300 762 207
Address: Attention Equifax Public Access – P O Box 964, North Sydney, NSW 2059 - Experian Australia Credit Services Pty Ltd
Website: www.experian.com.au
Phone: 1300 783 684
Address: Experian Australia Credit Services Pty Ltd
Attention: Consumer Support Team
GPO Box 1969, North Sydney NSW 2060
Your rights in relation to CRBs
You are entitled under the Privacy Act to opt out of direct marketing pre screenings where CRBs use your credit information for the purposes of marketing their products and services. In addition if you believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud you can request the CRB not to disclose your credit information subject to time limits prescribed by the Privacy Act during this banning period.
Marketing communications
By accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy and providing us with your personal information, you agree to us using that personal information for the purpose of informing you about our products and services or providing your information to our related entities to market our products and services to you.
Consequences of you not providing the personal information we require
If you do not provide us with all of the personal information we have requested from you, we may not be able to complete your registration as a Borrower, and we may be unable to approve your application for a loan, or to provide you with any other services or information that you are seeking from us.
How we store personal information
We store personal information electronically on our systems and in paper-based form. The personal information is kept safe and secure using generally accepted standards of security. Where our service providers hold your information we require them to adhere to our standards of security and confidentiality.
A data breach has occurred if personal information that we hold is subject to unauthorised access or disclosure or is lost. In the event of a data breach, we will assess and respond to the data breach in accordance with our applicable policies and procedures. Our policies and procedures have been developed in accordance with guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on handling data breaches and the requirements under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act. If a data breach may cause you loss or harm – financial or otherwise – we will promptly notify you of the data breach so that you can manage the loss or harm.
How you can access or correct your personal information (including credit information)
You have rights under the Privacy Act to request access to or correction of the personal information we hold about you and to make a privacy complaint, provided this is reasonable and practicable. This is also subject to the exceptions under the Privacy Act. You may also request that the personal information we hold about you be corrected if it is misleading, inaccurate, incomplete or irrelevant. We take every step where reasonably practicable to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.
To access your personal information, or to request that we correct your personal information (by way of correction, deletion, or addition), please contact our Privacy Officer on 1300 042 766 or email us at privacy@harmoney.com.au.
As some of the information we hold about you may be of a sensitive nature, we will need to verify the identity of anyone requesting access to your personal information. Any request for information must be as specific as possible so we can accommodate your request. Where access is granted, it will be provided within 30 days of your request.
We can refuse access to your information if:
- Access would be unlawful.
- Denying access is required or authorised under Australian law or an order of a court or tribunal.
- Access would prejudice enforcement action or appropriate action relating to unlawful activity or serious misconduct.
If we do not agree to your request, we will notify you of our reason, and advise what further steps you may take.
Privacy complaints
The Privacy Act gives you rights to make a complaint if you reasonably believe that we have not complied with our privacy obligations, including obligations relating to consumer credit information under Part 111 of the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code. If you believe this is the case please contact our Privacy Officer on 1300 042 766 or by emailing privacy@harmoney.com.au.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 7 days and we will endeavour to investigate and resolve complaints within 30 days of receipt of the complaint. If we need more time we will notify you of the reasons why and seek your agreement to extend the 30 day period. If you do not agree we may not be able to resolve your complaint. We may consult with a CRB or other third parties to investigate and resolve complaints about credit-related information.
If you reasonably believe that your complaint has not been handled satisfactorily, you may refer the matter to our external disputes resolution scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), by going to www.afca.org.au, calling 1800 931 678, or emailing info@afca.org.au.
How long we hold personal information
We will keep your personal information only for as long as necessary to achieve the purpose we collected it for and in all cases for such periods as we are required to in order to comply with any relevant legislation and regulations.
Who you can contact for further information
If you have any queries about this Privacy Policy or personal information we have collected please contact us at privacy@harmoney.com.au or:
- by calling the Harmoney Contact Centre on 1300 042 766
- by writing to Harmoney at the address listed on www.harmoney.com.au