Our Commitment to Protect Your Privacy
Mortgage Simple Pty Ltd ACN: 112877282, Australian Credit Licence Number: 392871 and its related businesses (collectively known as “Mortgage Simple”) helps customers with their applications for credit.
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 that you may provide to us.
We recognise that any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes indicated in our policy, where we have your consent to do so, or as otherwise required or authorised by law. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we collect from you or is received by us will be treated with appropriate respect ensuring protection of your personal information. Our commitment in respect of personal information is to abide by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any other relevant law.
Who Is Mortgage Simple?
Mortgage Simple holds an Australian Credit Licence and is a credit assistance provider. We assist customers to apply for finance and also qualify applicants for our related businesses and or subsidiaries. We may also market other products.
Personal Information
When we refer to personal information, we mean information or an opinion about you, from which you are, or may reasonably be, identified. This information may include your name, date of birth, driver’s licence number, marital status, number and age of your dependants, phone number, email address, address, nationality and employment history. The personal information we collect about you may also include credit information about you. Credit information is information which is used to assess your eligibility for a loan and may include information about your income, assets, liabilities and repayment history information.
Some of the information we collect may be sensitive information, for example, if you seek assistance to vary a loan on the grounds of hardship, we may also collect health information about you. It is not common practice for us to collect sensitive information about you (such as information about your religion, trade union membership, political opinion, sexual preference or criminal record), unless such information is required in order to process an application for a loan. We will only collect and or share sensitive information about you with our related parties and with your consent.
Why We Collect Your Personal Information
We collect and receive personal information about you in order to conduct our business and to provide our services, including assisting with your application for a home loan, managing loans and the direct marketing of our (or our subsidiaries) products and services.
How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
Personal information may be collected by us in a number of circumstances, including when you:
- apply to be a borrower or guarantor for a loan we qualify for you;
- attend an event hosted by us; or
- apply for employment with us;
- apply for accreditation as an introducer of our products and services.
Where reasonable and practical we will collect your personal information only directly from you. However, we will also collect information about you from third parties, such as a partner or spouse who contacts us on your behalf, from our contractors who supply services to us, through our brokers and introducers), from advisers such as accountants or lawyers or other organisations authorised by you.
If you do not provide the information requested by us, we may not be able to provide you with our services.
If you provide personal information to us about someone else, you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose that information to us and that, without us taking any further steps required by privacy laws, we may collect, use and disclose such information for the purposes described in this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy. For example, you should take reasonable steps to ensure the individual concerned is aware of the various matters detailed in this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy.
The individual must also provide the consents set out in this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy in respect of how we will deal with their personal information.
We may also collect credit-related personal information about you as a result of credit checks that you authorise us to carry out.
The kinds of credit -related personal information we may collect about you includes:
- information about your identity;
- information about consumer credit loans that you currently have applied for including:
- repayment history information,
- the type and amount of credit sought in each application;
- default and payment information,
- information about any court proceedings; and
- information about your personal insolvency.
How Do We Use Your Personal Information?
We use your personal information for the purpose for which it has been provided, for reasonably related secondary purposes, any other purpose you have consented to and any other purpose permitted under the Privacy Act. This may include using your personal information for the following purposes:
- to introduce you to credit providers to assist your application(s) for products or services you requested;
- to verify your identity;
- to prepare, process and create an application for you as a borrower or guarantor, including to verify your details and assess your risk;
- to assess, process and manage your application for employment;
- for complaints handling or data analytics purposes; or
- to assess, process and manage your application for accreditation as an introducer of loans.
In particular, when assessing an application to be a borrower or guarantor, we may use your credit-related personal information for the purposes of assessing the application including your creditworthiness.
To Whom Will We Disclose Your Personal Information?
We may disclose your personal information to:
- organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us, including credit providers, mortgage intermediaries (such as mortgage originators and mortgage managers), funders, lenders, valuers, trustee companies, financial institutions and securitisers, mortgage insurers, title insurers, surveyors, credit reporting agencies, rating agencies and debt collectors;
- your employer/s or referees, your guarantors, your professional advisors, your bank and any other organisation that may have or is considering having an interest in your loan, or in our business;
- companies and contractors who we retain to provide services for us, such as IT contractors, call centres, stationery printing houses, mail houses, storage facilities, lawyers, accountants and auditors, who will need to have access to your personal information to provide those services;
- people considering acquiring an interest in our business or assets; and
- other individuals or companies authorised by you.
By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us disclosing your information to such entities without obtaining your consent on a case-by-case basis.
Sometimes we are required or authorised by law to disclose your personal information. Circumstances in which we may disclose your personal information would be to a Court, Tribunal or law enforcement agency in response to a request or in response to a subpoena or to the Australian Taxation Office.
Some of our third-party service providers, including our information technology service providers are located in countries outside of Australia. For example, we may use cloud storage to store the personal information we hold about you. Although our contracts with these parties generally include an obligation for them to comply with Australian privacy law and our Privacy Policy, some of these countries do not have laws that provide the same level of protection as the laws of Australia.
Direct Marketing
From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with current information about mortgage loans, special offers you may find of interest, changes to our organisation, or new products or services being offered by us or any company we are associated with. By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us using your information to contact you on an ongoing basis for this purpose, including by mail, email, SMS, social media and telephone.
If you do not wish to receive marketing information, you may at any time decline to receive such information by contacting our Privacy Officer on the contact details below. 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 our relationship that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. During the course of our relationship with you we will ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed.
If you wish to make any changes to your personal information (including your credit related personal information) that we hold about you is incorrect, you should contact us to have it updated. We will generally rely on you to assist us in informing us if the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete.
Accessing Your Personal Information
We will provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you, subject to limited exceptions in the Privacy Act as outlined below. You may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you, including any credit-related personal information we hold about you, at any time.
To access personal information that we hold about you, use the contact details specified below. We may charge a fee for our reasonable costs in retrieving and supplying the information to you.
Denied Access to Personal Information
There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information. For example, such a situation would be information relating to an existing or anticipated legal proceeding with you, or if your request is vexatious.
An explanation will be provided to you if we deny you access to your personal information we hold.
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. Such a situation would be where you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers.
How Safe and Secure is Your Personal Information That We Hold?
We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information, including your credit-related personal information by storing it in a secure environment, and when the information is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed, it will be destroyed or permanently de-identified.
We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Keeping your information safe is vital – which is why we get you to verify your identity before you can access or change the personal details we have for you.
Further Information and Complaints
You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information or lodge a complaint by contacting our Privacy Officer(s) in writing to Mortgage Simple Pty Ltd, 179 High Street, Northcote VIC 3070 or via email at info@mortgagesimple.com.au.
We will deal with the complaint by investigating the complaint and providing a response to the complainant within 15 business days, provided that we have all necessary information and have completed any investigation required. In cases where further information, assessment or investigation is required, we will seek to agree alternative time frames with you.
Alternative Forms of Our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy
If you would prefer to receive a copy of our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy, including the ‘Notifiable Matters’ in an alternative form (such as in hard copy or via email) please contact us on the phone number or email address provided under the section titled ‘Contact Details’ above.
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 marketplace practices.
As a consequence, we may change this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy from time to time or as the need arises.
This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy was last updated in March 2022.
