Fync Credit Guide

This credit guide provides information about Fync that you need to know to make an informed and confident choice when using Fync concerning home loans. It summarises how our comparison service works, how we are paid, and what to do if you would like to make a complaint to us.

In this credit guide, 'Fync', 'we', 'us' and 'our' references Fync and our employees.

1. About us

Fync (ABN 29 631 423 624 and ACN 631 423 624) is an authorised credit provider under the Australian National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. Fync operates under Australian Credit Licence Number 407713, which is owned by The Fync Group, a related entity under the Fync group of companies.

We help Australians find suitable home loans from both major and non-bank lenders. Our system is tailored to your unique needs and provides impartial search guidance. We work with a broad range of leading finance and insurance providers to empower you to make informed decisions.

2. Acting in your best interests

At Fync, our top priority is you - our valued customer. We always place your financial needs first and foremost, above those of anyone else.

As a responsible and trustworthy financial service provider, we hold ourselves to the highest transparency, integrity, and clear communication standards. That's why we're committed to being upfront with you about our products, your options, and any applicable fees, charges, or potential conflicts of interest.

We aim to ensure that the product you select best fits your unique needs and requirements and is in your best interests when obtaining finance. We'll always communicate with you in plain language, making the process as simple and stress-free as possible.

3. Credit guide

This Credit Guide contains important information about us, the services we provide and the activities of the credit representative operating under our credit licence. It also contains:

• information about fees and charges that may be payable by you to us;

• commissions, that we may receive when we are acting as a credit representative;

• commissions that we may pay to third parties for introduction of business, and information about what you should do if you have a complaint or dispute regarding our services and activities.

We are required to provide this document to you as soon as practicable after it becomes apparent that we are likely to provide credit assistance to you. We provide “credit assistance” when we:

• suggest or assist you in applying for a particular loan with a particular lender;

• suggest or assist you in applying for an increase to an existing loan with a particular lender; or

• recommend that you remain in an existing loan contract.

4. Preliminary assessment

Before providing credit assistance to you, we must assess whether the particular loan is “unsuitable”. A loan will be “unsuitable” based on the information you provide to us if:

• You will be unable to repay the proposed loan or will only be able to repay the proposed loan with substantial hardship, or

• The proposed loan does not meet your requirements and objectives.

We are required to document our findings that the proposed loan is not unsuitable by way of completing a Preliminary Assessment. The Preliminary Assessment will set out your:

• requirements and objectives;

• financial and relevant personal situation; and

• ability to repay the proposed loan repayments.

We are also required to take reasonable steps to verify information provided by you to us. This verification may include:

• requesting you for copies of documents that demonstrate your financial situation - in some cases we may also need to sight original documents; and

• contacting third parties to assist in verifying the information that you provide.

Obtaining a copy of the Preliminary Assessment

If we provide you with credit assistance, you may request a copy of our Preliminary Assessment anytime for up to 7 years and we must provide you with a copy of the assessment within the following timeframes.

*The Credit Day is the date the credit contract (i.e. the loan) is settled or the loan amount is increased. There is no charge for requesting or receiving a copy of the Preliminary Assessment.

5. Fees that are payable by you in relation to our credit assistance

We may charge a fee for credit assistance, which will be outlined in a Loan Proposal before your application. Our goal is transparency and helping you make informed financial decisions.

Other fees and charges

Other fees and charges, such as application fees and valuation costs, may be applicable and payable to the lender or other parties. We recommend reviewing your loan contract documentation for further details on these fees and charges.

6. How we get paid

We receive a commission from lenders through our aggregator for loan contracts, such as home and investment property loans. This commission is not payable by you.

The commission comprises an upfront commission that lenders pay for settled (drawn-down) loans. This commission is calculated as a percentage of the loan amount and is usually paid after settlement. Additionally, trail commission is payable by lenders concerning settled loans, which are calculated monthly on the outstanding loan balance and paid in arrears.

Details of the commission to be received will be included in the Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal document that we will provide you with when credit assistance is provided.

We may also receive non-commission benefits, such as training, professional development, entertainment, gifts, conference attendance, sponsorship, or entry into a competition run by a lender or our aggregator. These benefits do not incur an extra cost to you. If any such arrangements are apparent due to us assisting you with credit assistance, we will disclose this to you.

7. Other people we deal with

Our aggregator

We have approval to utilise credit providers and their lending products through the services of our aggregator ‘Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd ABN 77 161 731 111, Credit Representative 437202 authorised under Australian Credit Licence 389328’. The aggregator charges us a fee depending on our contract arrangements, consisting of:

• a share of commission that is paid by the particular credit provider;

• a membership fee for our business;

• a monthly fee for each of our accredited loan writers.

We have access to a panel of lenders through Connective. MacquariCommissions paid by Connective’s lender panel are transparent and do not influence the broker or consumer choice. Connective is committed to quality consumer outcomes in all circumstances.

Referrers and referral fees

We obtain referrals from a range of sources, including accountants, financial planners, real estate agents and other people. If you were introduced or referred to us, we may pay the referrer a commission or a fee.

Details of any commission or fees being paid to the referrer will be included in the Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal document.

8. Dispute resolution and complaints

Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR)

We are committed to providing you with the best possible service, however we understand there may be times where you are not satisfied. If this occurs, please inform us verbally or in writing with the exact details of your complaint, so we can work towards a prompt and fair resolution.

We are committed to treating consumers fairly and with respect during the complaints handling process. Any dissatisfaction will be handled in an efficient, timely and effective manner in accordance with ASIC regulations of Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR).

Email: connect@fync.com.au

Phone: 1300 333 110

External Dispute Resolution (EDR)

We hope that you will be satisfied with how we deal with your complaint. However, if your concerns remain unresolved, or you have not heard from us within 45 days, you may contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which is an independent dispute resolution scheme for financial services complaints.

Online: www.afca.org.au

Email: info@afca.org.au

Phone: 1800 931 678 (free call)

Mail: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001

Our EDR Membership No. 28172

It is important to act promptly in making a complaint to AFCA as time limits may apply. You can consult the AFCA website to determine if there is a time limit relevant to your circumstances and when it expires.

9. Things you should know

We don’t provide legal or financial planning advice. You must understand your legal obligations under the loan and the financial consequences. If you have any doubts, you should obtain independent legal and financial planning advice before you enter any loan contract.

10. Our lender panel

We are authorised to engage in credit activities and therefore assist to obtain loans for you from a panel of 36 lenders. Below is a list of lenders we work with.

1. AMP

2. ANZ

3. Auswide Bank

4. Bank of Melbourne

5. Bank of Queensland

6. Bankwest

7. Bluebay Home Loans

8. Bluestone

9. CommBank (CBA)

10. Connective Home Loans

11. Firefighters Mutual Bank

12. Firstmac

13. Health Professionals Bank

14. Heartland Finance

15. Heritage Bank

16. IMB Bank

17. ING

18. La Trobe Financial

19. Liberty Finance

20. ME Bank

21. MoneyPlace

22. Moola Finance

23. NAB

24. Newcastle Permanent

25. P&N Bank

26. Pepper Money

27. Resimac

28. St George

29. Suncorp Bank

30. Teachers mutual

31. Thinktank Finance

32. UBank

33. UniBank

34. Virgin Money

35. Westpac

36. Wisr Finance

11. Privacy disclosure statement

Overview

In handling your personal information, Fync and its representatives (“the Broker”) is committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles.

The Brokers are authorised credit representatives of Australian Credit Licence 407713 (“we, us, our”). Any reference to “we, us, our” are to the Broker and will include reference to our aggregator, Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd and any of its related companies (“Connective”).

We collect information about you for the purposes you agree to in this Privacy Disclosure Statement and Consent (“Consent”). When you ask us to assist, you agree we can, consistent with Australia’s privacy and credit reporting laws, collect, use and exchange consumer and/or commercial credit and personal information (“information”) about you for those purposes.

We are collecting information about you, as applicable:

• To source for you or a company of which you are a director:

  • Consumer credit for personal, household, domestic or residential investment purposes; or

  • Commercial credit for business purposes; or

  • Other services stated in this Consent; or

• To support a guarantor application.

As your broker, we require the information we collect from you to assess your credit or guarantor application or the credit application of a company of which you are a director, to source a suitable credit provider and any required insurance and to manage the application process, where required. Suppose you do not provide the information sought. In that case, we may be unable to process your application, or the company’s application, or we may be limited in the other services we can offer you or the company.

Your information – Collection and Disclosure

The personal information we collect may include a broad range of information from your name, address, and contact details to other information about your qualifications, employment history and financial information.

“Personal information” may include any sensitive information (including health information) and may consist of any information you tell us about any vulnerability you may have. We may use that information to assess your application and, where appropriate, source a suitable credit provider or lessor and / or insurance provider. We may, as applicable:

• Disclose your identification information to a consumer credit reporting service (“Consumer CRS”) and/or a commercial credit reporting service (“Commercial CRS”), where we hold your consent (refer to Schedule 1).

• Use any information a CRS provides in its report to assist us to preliminarily assess your credit or guarantor application (references to a “CRS” could be to either a Consumer CRS or a Commercial CRS).

• Disclose your information to an insurer or insurers to source any insurances you wish to obtain; and

• Disclose your information to our advisers, aggregators, licensees and other financial intermediaries, credit providers or credit providers to apply for finance on your behalf.

Some recipients to whom we disclose your personal information may be based overseas. It is not practicable to list every country where such recipients are located, but such countries will likely include the Philippines, India and Nepal.

How we protect your information

We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or exposure. All Connective staff are required by the terms of their employment to maintain the confidentiality of customer information. The terms require all Connective staff Access to your information is restricted to those employees whose job requires that information. Access to our premises and computer systems is restricted through locks, password protection, internet firewalls and routers.

We will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information when your personal information is no longer required for our business functions.

Credit Providers

As part of providing our services to you, we may undertake tasks for a credit provider which are reasonably necessary to manage the application process. When doing so, we act as the credit provider's agent, with the same privacy law requirements applying to both of us.

We may submit your application to one or more credit providers. A complete list of the lenders (credit providers) we can access can be provided upon request.

A credit provider we apply to may disclose and collect information about you from one or more CRS.

The website of each credit provider contains details of each CRS with which it deals and other details about information held about you, including whether that information may be stored or disclosed overseas and, if so, in which countries. The websites also describe your key rights. These details may be represented on the credit providers’ websites as ‘notifiable matters’, ‘privacy policy’, ‘credit reporting policy’ or ‘privacy disclosure statement and consent’.

For each Consumer CRS, a credit provider uses, the website details will include the following specific information.

• The CRS may include information the credit provider discloses about you to other credit providers to assess your creditworthiness.

• , if you become overdue in making consumer credit payments or commit a serious credit infringement, the credit provider may disclose that information to the CRS.

• How you can obtain the credit provider’s and/or the CRS’s policies about managing your information.

• Your right to access and/or correct information held about you and to complain about conduct that may breach the privacy and credit reporting laws.

• Your right to request a CRS not to undertake pre-screening for direct marketing by a credit provider.

• Your right to request a CRS not to release information about you if you believe you are a victim of fraud.

This detail will also be included by the credit provider who approves your application in the privacy disclosure statement and consent document it will provide to you. Each credit provider website includes information on how to contact it and obtain a copy of its privacy documents in a form that suits you (e.g. hardcopy or email).

You agree we may:

• Use your information:

  • To assess your consumer or commercial credit and/or guarantee application and/or to assess a credit application by a company of which you are a director.

  • To source any finances you require.

  • To source any insurances you require.

  • As the law authorises or requires.

• Disclose to, and obtain from, any prospective credit provider or insurer, information about you that is reasonably necessary to get the finance and insurance you require.

• Obtain from, and disclose to, any third party information about you, the applicant(s) or guarantor(s) that is reasonably necessary to assist you in obtaining the finance and insurance required.

• Provide your information, including your credit report(s), to one or more credit providers so they can assess your application, the application of a company of which you are a director, or your suitability as a guarantor.

• Provide information about you to a guarantor or prospective guarantor.

• Disclose your information to the extent permitted by law to other organisations that provide us with services, such as contractors, agents, printers, mail houses, lawyers, document custodians, securitisers and computer systems consultants or providers so that they can perform those services for us. Some of which may be located overseas.

• Disclose your information to any other organisation that may wish to acquire, or has acquired, an interest in our business or any rights under your contract with us or the contract with us of a company of which you are a director.

Your rights

You have the right to ask:

• Us to provide you with all the information we hold about you.

• Us to correct the information we hold if it is incorrect.

• Us for copies of our privacy policy and this document, in a form that suits you (e.g. hardcopy or email).

• A Consumer CRS not to use your information for direct marketing assessment purposes, including pre-screening.

• A CRS to provide you with a copy of any information it holds about you.

You can access the information we hold about you by contacting our Privacy Officer at the address: PO Box 556, Mosman NSW 2088.

In some cases, an administration fee may be charged to cover the cost of providing the information. Our Privacy Policy also deals with our complaints process and is available on our website, or we will give you a copy if you ask us.

Schedule 1 at the end of this document sets out the contact details for each CRS.

Extended Effectiveness for Commercial Credit

Your agreement and consent to the disclosures and consents in this document will be effective for 12 months but only in relation to commercial credit. Your agreement to this ceases when you either withdraw it by contacting us using our details above or 12 months after the date you receive this document, whichever first occurs. This will allow us to continue to provide our services to you without asking you to sign a new privacy statement and consent each time you require commercial credit within 12 months. The extended effectiveness does not apply to consumer credit.

Where the applicant, or guarantor, is a company of which you are a director, you consent to the disclosure and use of your information, in addition to the company’s information, in each of the ways specified in this document.

Your consent to collect and disclose

By asking us to assist, you consent to collecting and using the information you provided for the above mentioned purposes.

For more information on your privacy rights, please visit www.privacy.gov.au.

Schedule 1 | Credit Reporting Services

Equifax: www.equifax.com.au 13 83 32

Experian: www.experian.com.au 1300 783 684

Illion: www.illion.com.au 13 23 33

If you have any questions regarding this Credit Guide or would like a copy emailed to you, please don't hesitate to contact us. Our Fync Team is here to help.