Westlawn Finance Credit Reporting Policy
Overview
Westlawn Finance Ltd, ABN 19 096 725 218 (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) collects credit information about you to assess your credit or guarantee application or an application by the company of whom you are a director, and to manage any credit contract that results.
In managing your credit reporting information, we comply with the Credit Reporting Privacy Code and, to the extent relevant, the ARCA Credit Reporting Data Standard and the Data Exchange Administrator’s Principles of Reciprocity & Data Exchange.
This credit reporting policy sets out what credit information we obtain, how it is disclosed, to whom and under what circumstances. It also sets out your rights to access that credit information, have it corrected where necessary and to lodge a complaint if you are dissatisfied with how we manage your credit, or any other, information.
This credit reporting policy is to be read in conjunction with our privacy policy for the handling of personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
Credit information
There are a range of definitions that apply to the information we may hold or disclose about you. They vary depending on how the information is collected, disclosed or used, even if the information is the same.
Credit information is any of the following credit information types:
- Identification details
- Credit liability
- Credit eligibility information
- Repayment history
- Credit Reporting Body enquiries
- Product details – loan/lease details
- Defaults
- Payment information
- Payment arrangements
- Court actions
- Insolvency events
- Publicly available credit information
- Serious credit infringements – credit fraud (attempted or actual) and/or avoidance of loan/lease obligations
We collect as much of this credit information from you where we can. Some credit information is also obtained from a Credit Reporting Body (CRB), credit providers identified in your credit application and other parties, as necessary.
Information we obtain in, or derive from, your credit application and/or from a CRB is defined as credit eligibility information.
We use this information, called derived information, to assist us determine whether you meet our credit criteria. We also use other information to decide whether to accept or decline your application.
All information we hold about you is held in electronic and/or hardcopy form and securely stored.
Credit Reporting Body Disclosures
When we collect credit information from you in the credit application process, we use that credit information in a number of ways to assess your credit application and to manage any credit contract that results. We may:
- Disclose your credit information to Equifax Pty Ltd, a credit reporting body (CRB)
- Use credit information the CRB provides to assist us assess your credit or guarantor application, or the application of a company of which you are director
- Notify the CRB of any overdue payments on consumer credit, provided they are more than 60 days overdue, we have attempted to collect the payment and we have notified you of our intention to do so
- Notify the CRB of a serious credit infringement of your consumer credit if we have reasonable grounds to believe you fraudulently obtained, or attempted to obtain, credit from us or that you have shown an intention to evade your obligations under the contract with us (We will only do this if we have not been able to contact you over a 6-month period)
- Check the CRB for updated contact details if we lose contact with you
- Ask the CRB to assess your eligibility to receive direct marketing material from us
The CRB may include your credit information in reports to other credit providers to assist them in assessing your credit worthiness.
Offshore Disclosures
We do not send your credit information offshore.
Your rights
You have the right to ask:
- us to provide you with the credit and personal information we hold about you
- us to correct the credit information we hold if it is incorrect
If you require that information, please contact our Privacy Officer at the address below or by telephone on 02 6642 0400 or email at
stewartp@westlawn.com.au
If any information is incorrect, out of date or incomplete, you have the right to have that information updated and corrected. If, for any valid reason, we refuse to correct your information, we will explain why. In some cases an administration fee may be charged to cover the cost of providing your credit and personal information.
Complaints
If you are dissatisfied with how we manage your credit, or any other, information, you can lodge a complaint with our Internal Dispute Resolution Scheme.
Name: Stewart Purser
Email: stewartp@westlawn.com.au
Address: PO Box 78 Grafton NSW 2460
Website: https://www.westlawn.com.au
If you lodge a complaint, our Internal Dispute Resolution officer will investigate your complaint. We will commence the investigation within 2 days and provide you with a response within 14 days. We will seek your agreement to a longer time if it is needed. We will keep you informed of the investigation process by phone or email at least once a week and provide you with a written response to your complaint within
30 days.
External Dispute Resolution Scheme
If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, or AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers. You can contact them by:
- Mail at GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
- Phone at 1800 931 678 (free call)
- Website www.afca.org.au
- Email via info@afca.org.au
CRB Access
You can also access the information the CRB, Equifax, holds about you by contacting them for a copy of that information. Equifax’s contact details are:
