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Privacy Policy

How Compare The Loan collects, uses and protects your personal information.

We want you to have confidence that when we handle your personal information, we treat it with an appropriate level of privacy, consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Introduction

Compare The Loan Pty Ltd and its associated entities ("Compare The Loan", "we", "us", "our") aim to provide our customers with the best possible finance comparison service. To do this, we need to make efficient use of the personal information we collect from our customers.

We also want our customers to have confidence that in handling personal information, we afford that information an appropriate level of privacy, consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Who are we?

Compare The Loan Pty Ltd
ACN: 651 820 398
ABN: 50 651 820 398
Registered office: Ormiston QLD 4160

Compare The Loan is a Brisbane-based car, asset and personal loan brokerage. We operate as an Authorised Credit Representative (Credit Representative Number 522740) of Ausloans Finance Group Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 383999, and we are a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), member number 88987.

Because we operate under Ausloans Finance Group's credit licence, some of the personal information you give us is also handled by Ausloans Finance Group Pty Ltd as our credit licensee, and by the lenders on our panel, as explained below.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information about an individual that identifies them, or by which their identity can reasonably be ascertained.

Why do we collect personal information?

We collect the personal information we need to provide the finance broking and loan comparison services we offer — car loans, car refinance, personal loans, equipment finance, motorcycle loans, caravan loans, and boat & jet ski loans.

We also collect personal information about our customers so that we can assess loan applications, compare your circumstances against our panel of 70+ lenders, complete business transactions, administer accounts, provide customer support, respond to enquiries and requests for information, and meet our regulatory obligations under credit and financial services law.

If we are unable to collect personal information from or about an individual, we may not be able to compare loan options for that individual or complete a finance application on their behalf.

How do we collect your personal information?

Where possible, we collect personal information directly from the individual it relates to. This usually happens when you complete an enquiry or application form on our website, or when you speak with us over the phone.

We also collect personal information during the course of our relationship with you — for example, where a loan application is varied, or new information is supplied and verified.

Sometimes we collect personal information from a source other than the individual it relates to. Examples include:

  • Where we obtain a credit report about you from a credit reporting body in the course of assessing a loan enquiry or application.
  • From an accountant, where we approach the accountant in the course of assessing a loan application.
  • Where an individual is an officer of a company that has applied for finance with us, we may obtain information about that officer from public records or from other officers of the company arranging the application.

Regardless of who provides personal information to us, it will always be handled in accordance with this privacy policy.

Credit checks and credit reporting

As part of comparing your options against our panel of lenders, we typically start with a soft credit check. A soft credit check lets us assess likely loan options for you without it appearing on your credit file or affecting your credit score. If you decide to proceed with a formal application, a full application may involve a further credit check by the relevant lender, which the lender will explain to you at that stage.

We obtain credit reports from credit reporting bodies (such as [CONFIRM CREDIT REPORTING BODY — E.G. EQUIFAX]) to help assess your application. We handle any credit information and credit eligibility information we collect in accordance with Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 and the registered Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code.

You can ask us how to access or correct credit information we hold about you, or how to make a complaint about our handling of credit information — see "Accessing and correcting your personal information" and "How to make a complaint" below.

Who do we disclose your personal information to?

In providing you with your chosen product or service, we may need to disclose your personal information to others, including:

  • Ausloans Finance Group Pty Ltd, as the Australian Credit Licence holder we operate under, for compliance oversight and to help assess and process your application.
  • The lender(s) on our panel of 70+ lenders that you choose to proceed with, or that we identify as a potential match for your circumstances.
  • Credit reporting bodies, in the course of assessing a loan enquiry or application.
  • Parties contracted to us to provide a particular service on our behalf (for example, IT and hosting providers, mailing houses, or printers), who are bound by the same privacy obligations we follow and are not authorised to use your personal information for any other purpose.
  • If your finance package includes optional insurance or warranty products, the relevant insurer or warranty provider you choose to proceed with.
  • AFCA, courts, tribunals, or government agencies (such as the Australian Taxation Office), where the law requires or authorises us to do so.

We may also disclose your personal information where you consent to us doing so. That consent may be written, verbal, or implied from your conduct.

Will my information be sent overseas?

[TO CONFIRM WITH COMPLIANCE: state here whether any of the systems or service providers used to deliver this service (e.g. CRM, application-processing, or hosting platforms) store or process personal information outside Australia, and if so, list the likely countries. Do not publish a blanket "we do not disclose personal information overseas" statement unless this has been verified against our actual technology stack and the relevant Ausloans compliance sign-off has been obtained.]

Direct marketing

From time to time, we may use your personal information to let you know about our products and services, including special offers. We may also send you material relating to joint promotions with dealers and other business associates of Compare The Loan.

If you do not wish to receive this information, you can let us know by contacting us at [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT EMAIL] or [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT PHONE NUMBER]. Once you let us know, we will stop sending this information. You can change your mind at any time by contacting us the same way.

If the law requires us to provide you with information about our products or services, we will provide that information even if you have opted out of receiving marketing generally.

Keeping your personal information up to date

We rely on the personal information we hold to run our business, so it's important that it stays accurate, complete and up to date. We take reasonable steps to check this whenever we collect or use your information, and we may from time to time ask you to confirm there have been no changes. If you find that information we hold about you is incorrect, please contact us and we will correct it.

How we protect your personal information

The security of your information matters to us, and we take reasonable precautions to protect it from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Some of the ways we do this include:

  • Restricting access to personal information to staff who need it to do their jobs.
  • Maintaining technology safeguards to prevent unauthorised computer access, including identifiers and passwords.
  • Maintaining physical security over any paper records.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

You can access most of the personal information we hold about you. If you ask us to correct personal information we hold about you, we will take reasonable steps to correct it so that, having regard to the purpose for which it is held, the information is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading.

You can request access to your information, or ask us to correct it, by contacting us at [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT EMAIL] or [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT PHONE NUMBER].

Depending on the amount of information requested, we may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving and supplying it.

We may refuse or restrict access in some circumstances — for example, where the information relates to anticipated legal proceedings, or the request is frivolous or vexatious. If we deny or restrict your access, we will explain why.

Information we collect through our website

When you visit our website, we may record your server address, domain name, the date and time of your visit, and the pages you viewed. This information may be collected using cookies (small pieces of data sent to your browser that generally help our site interact more efficiently with your device). If you disable cookies, your experience of our site may be affected. Information collected about your visit is retained for statistical and website-development purposes and is not held in a form that identifies you personally.

You will not be asked to provide personal information simply by visiting our site, unless you request information about a Compare The Loan product or service. In that case, we will ask you for contact details and any other information needed to respond to your request. That information may also be retained for product planning purposes and, unless you ask us not to, for marketing purposes.

Although we take steps to protect information sent by email, email is not a fully secure method of communication. If you are concerned about sending personal information to us this way, you may prefer to contact us by phone instead.

How to make a complaint

If you believe the privacy of your personal information has been compromised, you're entitled to complain. You can do this by contacting the person or department you were dealing with, or by contacting us at [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT EMAIL] or [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT PHONE NUMBER] and asking for our Dispute Resolution Officer. We will respond to complaints as soon as possible.

  • If your complaint is about the privacy of your personal information and you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) — visit www.oaic.gov.au, call 1300 363 992, or email enquiries@oaic.gov.au.
  • If your complaint relates to our credit or finance broking services and you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) — visit www.afca.org.au, call 1800 931 678, or email info@afca.org.au. Compare The Loan is an AFCA member (member number 88987).

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The most current version will always be available on our website. This policy was last updated on [INSERT DATE].

More information

If you'd like more information about how Compare The Loan handles your personal information, contact us at [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT EMAIL] or [INSERT COMPARE THE LOAN CONTACT PHONE NUMBER].