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Read MoreGROW FINANCE LIMITED ACN 613 082 698 (“Grow Finance”, “we”, “ours” or “us”) is committed to providing quality services to you. We recognise the importance of your privacy and understand your concerns regarding the security of the personal information which you provide to us. This policy outlines Grow Finance's ongoing obligations to you in respect of how Grow Finance manages your personal information. We also describe the measures we take to safeguard your personal information and tell you how to contact us regarding our privacy practices.
Our Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose and store your personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Privacy(Credit Reporting) Code 2014 (CR Code).
This Privacy Policy applies:
(a) when you sign up, access, or use our website (https://www.grow.com.au);
(b) when you apply for finance or otherwise purchase our products or services; and
(c) in relation to any personal information we collect from you during the course of our business or which we otherwise receive about you.
In this Privacy Policy, "You” and "Your" means the individual, entity or group that is interacting with Grow Finance.
A copy of the APPs may be obtained from www.oaic.gov.au.
By using our website, purchasing or applying for our products or services, or otherwise providing personal information to us, you consent to Grow Finance collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Personal information is any information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who can be reasonably identified from the information or opinion. Information or an opinion may be personal information regardless of whether it is true. Your personal information may also include credit reporting information (as defined in the CR Code) and any further information derived from such information.
We may also collect sensitive information from you. We will only collect sensitive information from you with your consent. Sensitive information may include information about your health, ethnic origin or criminal record.
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information from you or about you where it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our business functions and activities and as necessary to provide our services to you or to respond to and action any requests made by you. We also collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for related purposes that you would reasonably expect, such as our administrative and accounting functions.
Specifically, Grow Finance may collect, hold and use your personal information so that Grow Finance can:
If you do not consent to us collecting, using and/or disclosing your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy, or if we cannot verify your personal information, Grow Finance may not be able to provide you with Grow Finance's products and services, communicate with you or respond to your enquiries.
In addition, we use information collected online through the use of cookies, and other automated means. This information is used to:
We use such information to assist us in providing an effective service (for example, to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for identified, aggregated use.
We also collect information about your online activitiesautomatically when you are using the website, usually from the use of cookies.
If we receive unsolicited personal information that we have not requested or which we do not require to provide our services to you then we will destroy or de-identify the information if it is lawful and reasonable to do so.
Grow Finance implement and maintain processes and security measures to protect personal information which Grow Finance hold from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These processes and systems include:
Grow Finance will also take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information once Grow Finance no longer require it for the purposes for which it was collected or for any secondary purpose permitted under the Privacy Act or the CR Code. The security of your personal information is important to us. As any submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure, we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, but we will use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.
We will disclose personal information to third parties if it is necessary for the primary purpose for which we collected the information, or for a related secondary purpose, if the disclosure could be reasonably expected.
Your personal information may be made available to suppliers, contractors or other third parties in order for them to perform services on our behalf, or to resolve issues or disputes that arise in connection with your use of our services.
For example, we may share your personal information to:
Grow Finance may also transfer or disclose your personal information to its related companies and affiliates.
Where required by law, we will require that the third party undertake to treat the personal information in accordance with the APPs and any other applicable privacy laws.
Where we wish to use or disclose your personal information for other purposes which you may not reasonably expect, we will seek your prior consent to such disclosure.
Otherwise, we will only disclose your personal information to third parties without your consent if the disclosure is:
If the ownership or control of all or part of Grow Finance's business changes, Grow Finance may transfer your personal information to the new owner.
Grow Finance may disclose your personal information to recipients which are located outside Australia. Those recipients are likely to be located in the United States of America, Canada and New Zealand. If Grow Finance discloses your personal information to a recipient which is located outside Australia, Grow Finance will:
We do not disclose your credit information overseas.
The law requires us to advise you of ‘notifiable matters’ in relation to how we may use your credit information. We provide your credit information to the credit reporting body and to other credit providers as permitted by law.
We use the credit information that we exchange with the credit reporting body to assess your creditworthiness, assess your application for finance, manage your finance, and administer your debt or personal insolvency agreement.
If you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to any finance that we have provided or arranged for you or if you have committed a serious credit infringement, we may disclose this information to a credit reporting body. The credit reporting body may disclose the credit information that we provide to other credit providers to assess your creditworthiness.
You have the right to request access to the credit information that we hold about you and make a request for us to correct that credit information if needed. Please see section 12 of this Privacy Policy for further information.
Sometimes your credit information will be used by credit reporting bodies for the purposes of ‘pre-screening’ credit offers on the request of other credit providers. You can contact the credit reporting body at any time to request that your credit information is not used in this way. You may also contact the credit reporting body to advise them that you believe that you may have been a victim of fraud. For a period of 21 days after the credit reporting body receives your notification, the credit reporting body must not use or disclose that credit information.
The credit reporting body that we use is Equifax. You can contact the mat www.equifax.com.au/contact at any time, 13 83 32 between 9am to 5pm AEST. A copy of Equifax’s policy setting out how it manages credit-related personal information can be found at www.equifax.com.au/privacy.
Unless you have opted out of marketing communications Grow Finance may use your personal information to offer you products and services Grow Finance believes may interest you.
Where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent before sending you any marketing communications from Grow Finance. You may withdraw your consent to the use of your data for marketing purposes at anytime by following the instructions provided in the communication or contacting us on our contact details in section 12 of this Privacy Policy.
Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:
A. Access to information
You may request (i) information as to whether your personal or credit information is held by us; and (ii) access to your personal or credit information.
There is no charge for requesting access to your personal or credit information but Grow Finance may require you to meet its reasonable costs in providing you with access (for example, photocopying costs or costs for time spent on collating large amounts of material).
There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal or credit information. If we refuse to give you access to the information you have requested, we will give you written notice within 30 days of your request setting out our reasons for the refusal(unless it is unreasonable to do so), the mechanisms available to you to complain about our decision, and other information as required by law.
B. Correction
You may request rectification, erasure, removal or restriction of your personal or credit information, for example, because (i) it is in complete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) you have withdrawn your consent.
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information Grow Finance hold about you remains accurate, up to date and complete.
Where we are satisfied that credit-related personal information is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, we will take reasonable steps to correct the information within 30days.
If you wish to contact us in relation to any of the rights outlined in this section, you can do so by contacting us using our contact details in section 12 of this Privacy Policy.
If you are dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your personal information, or you have a complaint about our compliance with this Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act or the CR Code, you may contact us as set out in section 12 of this Privacy Policy. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days. We will provide you with a formal response to your complaint within a reasonable time, which will usually be within 30 days.
If you remain unsatisfied with the way in which Grow Finance have handled a privacy issue, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au) for guidance on alternative courses of action which may be available.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, about this Privacy Policy or any requests concerning your personal information, please contact Grow Finance at:
Name: Andrew McVeigh
Email: andrewm@growfinance.com.au
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes to Grow Finance's Privacy Policy will be published on its website.
Your continued use of this website after any change to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
You may request further information about the way we manage your personal or credit information by contacting us.
This Privacy Policy was last updated in November 2021
In March 2014 new laws enabled more information to be included on credit reports. This is known as Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR). Previously there was only negative information like credit enquiries and defaults; now positive information like whether you make repayments on time can be included. It gives a fairer and more accurate picture of your credit worthiness and supports responsible lending.
Some lenders are now supplying CCR information to Equifax and this is being reflected on credit reports.
The lenders which are providing CCR information can be found in the Consumer Credit Information section of your credit report in the Consumer Credit Liability Information table.
Sample from Your Credit and Identity:
Sample from My Credit File :
There will be new information added to the summary of the report, as well as under the heading of “Consumer Credit Liability Information”. This may include repayment history information when it has been provided by a lender.
Sample from Your Credit and Identity:
In the Credit Overview section of your report you will see overdue accounts (defaults) as well as ‘missed payments’ which is repayment history information.
You will notice a change to the information included in the Consumer Credit Liability Information section of your credit report. This will include Current Repayment Status when it has been provided by a lender.
Sample from My Credit File:
You will notice a change to the information included in the Consumer Credit Liability Information section of your credit report under Financial Account. This will include Repayment History Information when it has been provided by a lender.
The Consumer Credit Liability Information section indicates that you have existing credit with a lender. If you have multiple accounts with the lender (credit card, personal loan, mortgage, etc.) and they provide CCR data on each account, a separate Consumer Credit Liability Information table will appear for each account.
a) Consumer Credit Liability Information as part of Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR)
Additional information can be included on credit reports as part of CCR. You will see a Consumer Credit Liability Information table for each lender that is supplying CCR data to Equifax. The data that will be included in this table includes:
b) Consumer Credit Liability Information for existing credit accounts
For some individuals, another Consumer Credit Liability Information section may also appear. This indicates that you have a current account with a lender and they may be monitoring your credit report for changes. The data that appears when a lender monitors your account is:
Sample from Your Credit and Identity:
Sample from My Credit File:
A late payment is where the minimum repayment on a credit account, like a credit card, personal loan or mortgage has not been made on time, in accordance with the credit contract payment schedule (or within a 14 day grace period). Only licensed credit providers can share and receive repayment history information. This doesn’t include telco and utility companies. Repayment history information is recorded monthly and can be held on your credit report for two years. This is displayed as a number indicating how many days in arrears an account was in a specific month.
A default (or overdue account) is the reporting of a debt incurred as part of a credit contract where the lender has followed their obligations in trying to collect the overdue funds and has notified the customer of this action. A default can only be recorded on your report if you miss a payment which is more than $150 and is more than 60 days overdue. Before listing a default the credit provider must have taken steps to collect the whole or part of the outstanding debt. This means they have sent you a written notice seeking payment (setting out the amount overdue) and a separate written notice advising you that the debt may be reported to a credit reporting body. The default is listed with Equifax to show that the debt is outstanding. This may or may not mean the account is active. A default remains on your credit report for five years.
A “grace period” is the time following the due date of an account in which the lender cannot report the account as a late payment as part of the Repayment History Information. The grace period is 14 days. Lenders who provide CCR data have taken into account the grace period as part of their calculation for late payments.
Sample from Your Credit and Identity:
Repayment history information
Late payments can be found in the Consumer Credit Liability Information section of your report while default information is found in the Overdue Accounts section.
Default
Sample from My Credit File:
Repayment History Information
Default
When a mortgage broker is working with lenders on your behalf, they can obtain a copy of your credit report from Equifax. As each lender may assess you on a different set of criteria, your broker will be privy to all the information on your report, including the comprehensive and negative scores. A mortgage broker (also known as an “Access Seeker”) credit report shows your broker scores as well as all the underlying data so the broker can match your profile to the best fit lender.
The Access Seeker method of report access leaves a “file access note” instead of an enquiry in the Consumer Credit Information section on the report and therefore does not impact your credit score. This is not visible to lenders and other credit providers.
Equifax has an obligation to make a written note of any disclosure it makes of credit information. One of the ways Equifax does this is via the File Access notation, known as Other Access on a My Credit File report. Equifax also uses File Access notations to record when it has accessed an individual’s credit report. In addition, if Equifax amends an individual’s credit report by removing or amending information (e.g. an enquiry, default or judgement), a file access notation will be added as a record of the original disclosure.
File Access information can only be seen by the individual and Equifax and is not seen or disclosed to lenders. It does not form part of any decision made by a credit provider with respect to an application for credit.
No. A File Access or Other Access note is recorded when Equifax discloses consumer credit information, commercial credit information or publicly available information that is not recorded elsewhere. This is generally when Equifax accesses your credit information to generate your credit report or as part of investigating a dispute. It can also be where you have appointed a third party, such as a mortgage broker, to act on your behalf and obtain a copy of credit information Equifax holds on you. Please note that this information can only be seen by yourself and Equifax. Lenders who access your information do not see this information.
Sample from Your Credit and Identity:
Sample from My Credit File:
You can find out more about what the symbols mean in the glossary attached to your report.
In Your Credit and Identity this is found below the repayment history table in the Consumer Credit Liability Information section of the report by expanding the ‘Legend’.
Sample from My Credit File :
For My Credit File the explanation of the symbols is found in the Glossary section at the end of the report under Consumer Credit Information – Consumer Credit Liability Information.
Sample from Your Credit and Identity:
For example if an account was opened in October repayment history information would be displayed starting in October.
Months marked as “Account Closed” means the account was not yet open in that period.
“Payment Not Reported” means that the lender has not yet reported the repayment information to Equifax.
“Outside Reporting Window” means prior to lender notification of disclosure. Lenders are not allowed to report data prior to customer notification.
For example if an account was opened in October repayment history information would be displayed starting in October. Previous months are marked as “C” which means the account was not yet opened in that period.
“Payment Not Reported” means that the lender has not yet reported the repayment information to Equifax.
“Outside Reporting Window” means prior to lender notification of disclosure. Lenders are not allowed to report data prior to customer notification.
CCR data cannot be reported unless customers are notified. It can only be reported from the date specified in the customer notification onwards.
If you believe that your personal identity details are being used, or could be used, fraudulently you can request Equifax to place a ban on your file. During the ban period, Equifax will not disclose your file to any lender, however, they will keep updating the file as new or amended data is available such as late payments, defaults, and bankruptcies.
The initial period of ban is 21 days, and you can request an extension for an additional three months.
A correction is where you, or your authorised representative, contacts Equifax or the lender to dispute the accuracy of information on your credit file and requests a correction.
A complaint is the process of an individual, or their authorised representative, who does not agree with the processes and procedures that Equifax practices as a Credit Reporting Body. You can make a complaint via phone, mail, fax or an email.
Once monthly repayment history information is included in your credit report it will update regularly and will mean that your credit score may change from month-to-month. CCR scores for individuals are not yet available.
If you pay your credit card or loan repayments more than 14 days past the due date, this can be recorded on your credit report as a late payment. It is unlikely one late payment, depending upon how late the payment was, followed by making your repayments on time, will significantly impact your credit score, however, a number of late payments could be an indication you are in financial stress and may negatively impact your credit score.
A default will negatively impact your credit score. If you have a default on your credit report you can lessen the impact of the default on your score by making repayments on time. This more recent good behaviour can help improve your score.
When CCR scores for individuals become available, the score will be derived in a similar way to lender’s scores.
Currently your alerts are not impacted by CCR – this includes both My Credit Alert and Your Credit and Identity alert services.
CCR enabled alerts services are not currently available.
Product Links
For more information about My Credit File credit reports and alerts including how to request corrections, go to www.mycreditfile.com.au
For more information about Your Credit and Identity credit scores, credit reports, and alerts including how to request corrections, go to http://www.equifax.com.au/personal/products/my-credit-file
