Privacy & Electronic Communications Consent Agreement

This document is issued by the Credit Provider &/or Credit Assistance Provider: Cash Stop Financial Services Pty Ltd (CSFS), Australian Credit Licence 389433 &/or Australian Capital Financial Services Pty Ltd (ACFS), Australian Credit Licence 389471

There are 4 SECTIONS included in this form. By consenting to each section, at the end of this "Privacy & Electronic Communications Consent Agreement" form, you are indicating that you have carefully read, understood & given willing, informed, direct & not implied consent to the contents of each section. We invite you to give your consent to all four sections, but we emphasise - you have the right to refuse to consent to any one or more of the various sections. Please read each section carefully.

SECTION 1 - Privacy Consent Agreement - Also constituting a Statement of Notifiable Matters

By signing or otherwise consenting to this agreement, you consent to CSFS/ACFS & entities collecting (verbally & in writing), holding, using & disclosing personal identification & credit information about you. If you do not provide us with this consent we will be unable to provide you with a loan. This policy contains detailed information concerning the company's management & use of your information & constitutes a Statement of Notifiable Matters, with content in accordance with that prescribed by Clause 4.1 in the Credit Reporting Privacy Code.

As well as reading this document, you are strongly encouraged to read the Credit Information (Privacy) Management Policy on our website &/or provided in hard or electronic copy as you may request, before you provide any personal information. In all our dealings with you, we will assume that you have done so. The Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988, as amended, the Commonwealth Privacy Regulations 2013, & the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2014 empower & regulate CSFS/ACFS in accordance with the following.

Use of your Information - Australian Privacy Principle 6 - In accordance with Sections 21G, 21H, 21J & 21 M of the Privacy Act, CSFS/ACFS collects & holds your personal identification & credit information only for the following purposes: to verify your identity & other information provided; to assess any application you make for a loan; to assess your financial circumstances; to help us process your application for a loan in an efficient manner; to avoid the chance you may default on your payment obligations; to notify you of a default; to facilitate the collection of overdue payments; & to efficiently manage & administer the loan & any services we provide to you.

Sources of information - By signing or otherwise consenting to this agreement, you give CSFS/ACFS permission to collect information from a wide variety of sources. This information can include any information about your credit worthiness, credit standing, credit history, or credit capacity, that you, other credit providers & credit reporting bodies & their authorised agents are allowed to provide to CSFS/ACFS under the Privacy Act &/or Credit Reporting Privacy Code.

It may also include information provided by referees, relatives, your bank, real estate agents, landlord, payroll officer & employers (past & present), that may or may not be listed on your loan application, together with other credit providers, & with government agencies & departments. By agreeing to this Section, you authorise CSFS/ACFS to contact any one or more of these sources, to provide any & all permitted relevant information they may have regarding you, including tenancy or employment history & bank account & other financial details. Generally information collected is for credit related purposes only, being the provision & management of credit in accordance with Sections 21D, 21F & 21G, Schedule 2, Privacy Act.

Documents we may request from you - CSFS/ACFS may ask you for documents, including one or more of the following: 90 days of bank statements, to date of application; driver's licence; Centrelink income statements; employment payslips; bills & invoices, showing current address & payment information; bank cards; passport; birth certificate; proof of age cards; copies of any lease agreements; copies of any credit contracts; & the like. This information is only accessed as required by CSFS/ACFS's employees, representatives, professional advisers, contractors & other service providers, to facilitate the above purposes, to satisfy credit reporting body requirements, requests & requirements under law &, in particular, to satisfy the responsible lending requirements of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act.

CSFS/ACFS reasonably assumes that any referral to third parties that you may nominate, in order that CSFS/ACFS may obtain or verify your personal & other information, will have been with the agreement & knowledge of the third parties involved & that you will have made them aware of the purposes & use of such information, prior to CSFS/ACFS contacting them.

Permission to Obtain a Credit Report About You - Following receipt of your interest in applying for a loan, by signing, or otherwise indicating approval of this agreement, you give permission for us to obtain a credit report about you, or any other identity & credit information about you that is held by Equifax, & to use the contents of this report when making any current or future assessment as to your credit worthiness, in accordance with Sub-paragraph 4.1(a) of the Credit Reporting Privacy Code.

Your identity & other information verification - CSFS/ACFS may verify your identity by attempting to match information you have provided with that held by a verification company &/or a credit reporting body. This task may involve the disclosure of your name, date of birth & address, to verify whether or not the personal identity information you have provided to CSFS/ACFS matches information held by that third party.

If we are unable to verify your identity by the above means, CSFS/ACFS will inform you, so that you might contact the verification company or credit reporting body to update your information they hold, or you may ask CSFS/ACFS to attempt to verify your identity by alternate means. Under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act we must take reasonable steps to verify information you have provided to us verbally &/or in documents. As an example, this will involve actions such as comparing your bank statement content with what you have told us when applying for your loan. If this verification action results in the discovery of, what appears to be, inconsistent, untruthful, fraudulent &/or contradictory information, we are legally required to make further inquiries & we are obliged to reject your application if a satisfactory explanation is not available following such further inquiries. Any information collected may be used for verification purposes in the future, as well as for any current credit application purpose

In accordance with Section 21D of the Privacy Act, CSFS/ACFS have chosen to continue with the lawful negative credit reporting (privacy) regime. By consenting to this agreement, you specifically agree that the company may provide information to Equifax, the credit reporting body which CSFS/ACFS use. This disclosure will be for the following document issuing company purposes only: to obtain identity verification information; to obtain a consumer credit report about you, &/or to allow the credit reporting body to create or maintain a credit information file, containing information about you.

Obtaining credit reports about you & credit reporting body policies - We choose to use Equifax as our credit reporting body. When seeking a credit report about you, CSFS/ACFS will disclose information you have provided to the credit reporting body. This may include, but not necessarily be limited to: your name, sex, address (& previous two addresses), date of birth, name of employer & driver's licence number; the type of credit you want; the amount; the role involved; a reference number; a relevant date; & that your application for a loan has been made with CSFS/ACFS in accordance with Equifax policy.

Also in accordance with Equifax policy, the fact that we have obtained a credit report about you will create an "inquiry" listing on your credit file, which will be included in any future reporting by Equifax of your credit file to us, or to another Credit Provider. This disclosed information & this listing could adversely impact on your future applications for credit, if the relevant future Credit Provider's application approval policies include consideration of the number of past inquiries and types of loan, whether or not used to calculate a credit score, as being indicative of something adverse or negative about you as a borrower. All the credit information about you stays on the record for a statutory period of 5 years.

Neither the information types requested by Equifax, nor the listing of "inquiries", has anything to do with our policies. By signing or consenting to this agreement you agree to contact Equifax direct if you have any complaint about these policies. You accept that we will not take any action if you seek our attention to remove information created by, or included as a result of, these Equifax policies on your credit file & we similarly will not take any action if a request is made on your behalf by a credit "repair" company, financial counsellor, lawyer or other adviser. You & your advisers must contact Equifax direct.

By signing or otherwise indicating approval of this agreement, you accept that this agreement takes precedence over any later authorisation you may provide to any person or organisation wishing to represent you & seek our facilitation of the removal of any accurate defect or inquiry listing with Equifax that may appear on your credit report. That means you agree that we can ignore or reject such a request, if the relevant inquiry did occur.
Equifax privacy & other policies & procedures are posted on that company's website.

Information disclosed to & used by credit reporting bodies - In our dealings with Equifax we may also disclose information about the history of your borrowing from CSFS/ACFS, including: identity particulars - your name, sex, address (& previous two addresses), date of birth, name of employer & driver's licence number; your application for a loan; the fact that CSFS/ACFS may provide, or has provided you with a loan; the fact that your loan has incurred overdue account status; the fact that your loan has incurred default status; information that, in the reasonable opinion of CSFS/ACFS you have committed a serious credit infringement (i.e. you have been fraudulent, or indicated an unwillingness to make your loan payments); & information concerning loan payment defaults, plus associated fees & interest in the aggregate before, during & after the issuing of the Privacy Act's Section 6Q & 21D Notices.

All of this information is summarised on your Equifax file & may also be summarised in any credit report about you that is created & issued by that company, which Credit Providers may use to assess your credit worthiness when you apply for a loan in the future, & they have obtained a credit report about you.

By signing or otherwise indicating approval of this agreement, you agree that access by credit providers to the information listed in this agreement & any listing of inquiries revealing the number of loans for which you have applied is essential for them to fulfil their National Consumer Credit Protection Act obligations. These obligations are to undertake a responsible lending approach to the assessment of credit applications & the management of loans. You further agree that a reasonable person would not consider this access would cause serious harm to you, or constitute a data breach, even if the information &/or list of inquiries leads to a rejection of your credit application.

You are informed that it is an offence under the Privacy Act for Equifax to remove information about you from their credit file that is factual & true.

By signing or otherwise indicating approval of this agreement you agree that you will not ask us to apply to Equifax for the removal of information on your Equifax credit file, &/or included in your credit reports, that is factual & true. This is regardless of any alleged or actual technical or arguable legal deficiency (i.e. not decided by a court to be so) in the processes that led to the information being provided to Equifax. This information includes defaults in your borrowing with us that have been reported to Equifax (i.e. consistent failure to repay an amount owed to us on time, in accordance with your credit contract terms, not having been repaired by payment in full, or for which you have not agreed to an adjusted repayment plan, or you have not honoured an adjusted repayment plan.

By signing or otherwise indicating approval of this agreement you agree that you will never authorise a credit "repair" company, financial counsellor, lawyer, or other adviser or representative to attempt to make a similar request of us &, if you do, you agree that this clause takes precedence over the later authorisation that you provided to that person or organisation. That means you agree that we can ignore or reject such a request.

The credit reporting body & your information - Consequently, you should assume that all the credit information we collect from you, or about your financial history & status, can be used in Equifax reports about your financial circumstances & made available to credit providers that use Equifax credit report services.

This could include a credit provider with whom you are applying for a loan, who may consider the number of loan applications you have made in the past, when undertaking an assessment of your suitability to be issued a loan, including calculating a credit score. The number of applications & the types of loan for which you have previously applied may influence that credit provider's application assessment policy. Details may be listed by Equifax under the subheading "Inquiries" &/or elsewhere in the documents they present to credit providers as a credit report.

This could also include a credit provider, with whom you are applying for a loan in the future, learning about any of your defaults in payments with our company, which may discourage that credit provider from approving a loan to you.

By signing, or otherwise indicating approval of this agreement, you agree that CSFS/ACFS is not responsible for Equifax's policies & has no control over that company, & that any concern or complaint you have regarding the information held by Equifax, or included in an Equifax credit report about you, must be taken up directly with Equifax.

Information disclosure to other entities - Under Part 111A of the Privacy Act, CSFS/ACFS may also disclose your personal information to: other credit providers; lessors; our external service providers & their agents who provide business services &/or compliance & legal advice to us, on a confidential basis, only for the purpose of our business; the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), to which a complaint relating to a particular service we provide to you can be referred. Telephone - 1800 931 678, email - info@afca.org.au, postal address - GPO Box 3, Melbourne, Vic 3001, website - www.afca.org.au; & any court or tribunal as may be required by law.

CSFS/ACFS may provide limited permitted information to real estate agents, employers, referees, government departments & authorities, & other third party entities that you may have listed in your loan application/assessment form, for identity &/or credit information verification purposes.

The names & contact details of the other credit providers &/or lessors with whom we have shared information, if any, will be provided on request, as they vary from time to time & for the particular consumer.

Referred information - The information we may provide to another credit provider, if acting as a referrer, will be limited to the following: your name; your contact details; & the purpose of your proposed loan and amount applied for.

Period to which this understanding applies - The information may be collected or disclosed by us before, during, or after the term of the provision of the loan.

Information disclosure in the event of a default of your payment obligations - In the event of the creation of an overdue account &/or default of the repayment conditions entered into in with CSFS/ACFS, any information you have provided may be made available to personnel employed by solicitors &/or debt collection agencies authorised by CSFS/ACFS to assist in the process of recovery of the overdue payments, plus all associated fees & charges (if any) & all relevant legal & reasonable administrative costs incurred.

In addition, in the event of a default in payment or a series of non-payments before, during or after the issuing of the Privacy Act's Section 6Q & 21D Notices, or a serious credit infringement, CSFS/ACFS may inform Equifax of the situation & that information will be held on file by Equifax & appear in your credit reports. This could adversely affect your opportunity to successfully apply for loans in the future.

Access to your personal information- You may request the opportunity to inspect the credit information CSFS/ACFS hold about you & to ask for correction of any matter you reasonably deem & justify to be incorrect, outdated, irrelevant, incomplete or misleading.

You can apply to CSFS/ACFS to obtain access to your personal information by contacting the Privacy Compliance Manager by email at CSFS: compliance@cashstop.com.au or post to PO Box 584, Campbelltown NSW 2560 or ACFS: compliance@australiancapital.com.au or post to Unit 2/4 Gerves Drive, Werribee VIC 3030. You can also apply to access the personal information Equifax holds about you. They may be contacted on telephone no. 13 8332, or through their website at www.equifax.com.au.

Direct marketing - By signing or otherwise consenting to this agreement, you consent to CSFS/ACFS & related, connected & associated companies, sending you direct marketing promotional information concerning CSFS/ACFS & related, connected & associated companies' products &/or credit activities.

Should you not wish to receive this direct marketing material, you may notify the Credit Provider at any time using the link provided at the bottom of any email message or the Opt Out facility provided in any SMS we send to you

Concerns & complaints - If you have any privacy management concerns or complaints during the application process & term of the loan or thereafter, please contact CSFS or ACFS's Privacy Compliance Manager (see above for details).

You also have a right to ask the relevant credit reporting body not to use your information for pre-screening credit offers &/or not to use your information if you believe that you have been a victim of fraud (see the Equifax website for contact details).

Commercial credit Information - In order to assess an application for a loan, CSFS/ACFS may obtain a report containing information about your commercial credit activities &/or credit worthiness from a credit reporting body. To the extent that any of this information could be regarded as personal, the provisions outlined in this section, in regard to personal information, apply.

SECTION 2 - Information Disclosure & Communications Under the SPAM Act 2003

You are informed that Section 16 of the Spam Act provides that CSFS/ACFS cannot communicate with you via a "commercial electronic message" (email, fax, SMS) without your consent. As you would expect, for speed & convenience, where possible & with your permission, CSFS/ACFS would prefer to communicate with you using such electronic means. Without your permission, written communications will have to be conveyed by Australia Post.

SECTION 3 - The Electronic Transactions Act 1999

You are informed that the Electronic Transactions Act requires that, before CSFS/ACFS can communicate with you electronically (email, fax, SMS), you also have to give permission under that Act for CSFS/ACFS to communicate with you in that way. We seek your permission to: electronically format & send you the information that we are obliged to provide under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 & associated Regulations; & send you electronic messages, rather than providing paper copies. You are informed that, in giving this permission, you are agreeing to: a) use the relevant computer programs & have sufficient internet capacity to interact with CSFS/ACFS's system; b) regularly check your email Inbox &/or fax machine &/or SMS Inbox; c) not blame CSFS/ACFS if any properly sent electronic message does not reach you; & d) notify CSFS/ACFS of any changes to your electronic addresses, & absolve CSFS/ACFS from any liability if you fail to do so. We remind you that you can withdraw your permission for the above at any time, provided you give CSFS/ACFS 24 hours' notice, confirming your current address & contact details.

SECTION 4 - Information Disclosure Under the Commonwealth Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing Legislation

You are informed that, under the Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act), there are provisions for the use of credit reporting information to assist in identity verification. By consenting to this section, you attest that CSFS/ACFS has informed you of the following statutory provisions.

Under Section 35A(1), this can include the electronic provision of your name &/or address &/or date of birth, as you may have provided to us, to a credit reporting body. This information can & frequently has to be provided to credit reporting bodies by CSFS/ACFS for a matching process entailing comparison with personal information about you they already have on their files. If there is no satisfactory match found &/or the level of verification which we must seek, as part of both our AML/CTF responsibilities & our mandatory credit unsuitability/suitability assessment process under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 & associated Regulations, is not achieved, we must give you the opportunity to verify your identity by alternative means. In these circumstances, if you choose not to attempt to verify your identity by contacting the credit reporting body yourself, or by alternative means, or your contact with the credit reporting body is unsuccessful, or we determine that the alternative has failed to provide adequate identity verification, we cannot provide you with a loan. To do so would threaten CSFS/ACFS's Australian Credit Licence. Please note that we have to keep a record for 7 years regarding which credit reporting body we contacted, the personal information we provided & the assessment with which we were supplied.