Credit Policy

This Credit Reporting Policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage credit-related information and applies if you or an entity with which you are associated apply for or are extended credit with us.

This policy is made pursuant to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and is in addition to our general privacy policy that deals with how Russell Kennedy collects, holds, uses and disposes of personal information in compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Collection

For the purpose of this credit reporting policy, “credit-related information” means credit information, CP-derived information and/or credit eligibility information as those terms are defined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Where we provide you with credit (in the form of us providing you with services and allowing a time in excess of seven days for you to pay us for those services) or where we are considering an application to provide you with credit, we may collect and hold various information related to your financial position and we are bound by the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) that apply to credit-related personal information which we hold, use and disclose. We may do this by collecting and holding “credit information”, “credit eligibility information” and “CP-derived information” (as those terms are defined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)).

“Credit information” includes information used to identify an individual, repayment history, types of credit applied for, default information, payment information, information about new payment arrangements, court proceedings and insolvencies, and publicly available information recorded on the National Personal Insolvency Index.

Credit reporting bodies will provide us with “credit eligibility information”. “CP-derived information” means any personal information derived from information provided to us by a credit reporting body (for example, a credit score).

Please note that this does not apply to any foreign credit information or information provided to us by foreign credit providers. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that information we hold is not available to foreign credit reporting bodies or foreign credit providers.

We may collect such information from you in a number of ways, including through face-to-face meetings, your email communications with us and over the telephone. We may also collect the information from people acting on your behalf.

Additionally, we may collect information about you from a credit reporting body, such as Veda Advantage, Creditor Watch, Credit Works Australia and SAI Global Property Division Pty Ltd.

Purposes of collection, use and disclosure

We collect, hold and use your information to provide services to you. This extends to incidental or ancillary purposes such as including deciding whether to extend you credit as part of those services.

We may disclose your personal information to a credit reporting body for the purpose of obtaining from that body credit reporting information for a purpose related to the provision of credit to you in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

For the purpose of such disclosures, the credit reporting bodies we may disclose your credit-related personal information are as follows: Veda Advantage, SAI Global Property Division Pty Ltd and AMPAC.

The information that we may disclose to credit reporting bodies includes: (a) your identity details; (b) the fact that you have entered into an agreement with us to purchase services from us; and (c) the fact that we are a credit provider to you.

We may collect your credit-related information where you request that we supply services to you. We collect this information directly from you and we may collect this information from third parties. We also collect credit-related information from credit reporting bodies or from other credit providers where permitted by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

We collect and use your credit-related information in order to assess your financial position for our internal management purposes that are directly related to the supply of services to you, and where otherwise required or permitted by law.

We may disclose credit-related information about you to: (a) related bodies corporate, or a person who manages credit, to manage credit or for related internal management purposes directly related to the provision or management of credit; (b) external dispute resolution providers; and (c) other persons where required or authorised by law.

We may disclose repayment history information to the credit reporting bodies with whom we deal in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

In accordance with the relevant provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), we may also disclose to credit reporting bodies information about defaults on credit, except where an exception applies and where overdue payments previously disclosed by us to the relevant credit reporting body have been made.

Access to and correction of your information

As a credit provider, as required by law, we will provide you with access to the credit-related personal information we hold about you and the opportunity to correct such information in accordance with the policy that applies to personal information as set out above.

Where you submit a request to access the information we hold about you, we will usually provide you with access within 30 days of a request but in some circumstances it may take longer.

Please note that we are, in some circumstances permitted by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), deny you access to some or all of your credit eligibility information. Where we deny you access, we will provide you with reasons for such denial (where it is reasonable for us to do so) in writing. If you are not satisfied with our response you may submit a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.

We do not charge you for making an access request but we reserve the right to charge an administration fee for providing access in accordance with your request, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

You may access our policy concerning the management of credit-related personal information by accessing our website from time to time; alternatively, you can contact our Privacy Officer (details set out below) to request a hard copy of our policy from time to time.

If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading you have a statutory right to request that we correct such information. You can make a correction request by contacting us at the details below.

We will endeavour to resolve correction requests within 30 days of your making a request. If we need more time to resolve your request we will notify you as to the delay, the reasons for it and seek your written agreement to a longer period.

If we consider it necessary in order to deal with your request, we may consult with a credit reporting body or another credit provider.

You will not incur any cost in making a correction request or for the correction of your information.

Complaints

If you believe that we have not complied with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) then you have the right to make a complaint. You must specify the nature of the complaint. A complaint can be submitted to us at the details below.

Once we have received the complaint we will investigate the complaint fully and will aim to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible (generally within 30 days).

If we cannot resolve your complaint within 30 days then we will notify you in writing as to the reasons why, specify a date as to when we expect to resolve your complaint and seek your agreement to extend this 30 day period.

Please note that if we consider it necessary or appropriate to consult with a credit reporting body or another credit provider to deal with your complaint, then we reserve the right to do so. If, while the complaint remains unresolved, we disclose information subject to the complaint to a third party, we may advise the third party about the complaint.

Depending on the nature of the complaint, sometimes we may be required to notify a credit reporting body or credit provider of the making of the complaint and our decision.

If you are not satisfied with the manner in we handle your complaint or the manner in which we resolve your complaint, you may submit a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.

Contact Details

Our Privacy Officer may be contacted as follows:

Chief Operating Officer
Russell Kennedy Pty Ltd
Level 18, 500 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: 03 9609 1555
Email: privacy@rk.com.au

Statement of Notifiable Matters under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code

Under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code, there are several ‘notifiable matters’ that we are required to disclose to you at or before the time of collecting personal information that is likely to be disclosed to a credit reporting body. Those matters are:

• the credit reporting body may include the credit information we provide to it in reports, which it then provides to other credit providers to assist those other credit providers to assess your creditworthiness;
• if you commit a serious credit infringement, we may disclose this to a credit reporting body;
• you can request a copy of this Credit Reporting Policy by contacting us, or obtain it directly from our website;
• you can request a copy of the privacy policy of Veda Advantage, SAI Global Property Division Pty Ltd. and AMPAC from their websites (www.veda.com.au, www.saiglobal.com/property/ and www.4ampac.com.au), or by contacting them directly;
• you have the right to access credit information we hold about you, request that we correct the information, and make a complaint as set out in the Credit Reporting Policy;
• you can request a credit reporting body not to use your credit reporting information for the purposes of pre-screening of direct marketing by us; and
• you can request a credit reporting body not to use or disclose your credit reporting information if you believe on reasonable grounds that you have been, or are likely to be, the victim of fraud.