This credit guide provides you with the key information you need to know to make an informed and confident choice when engaging our services. We are licensed to arrange loans and leases under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (NCCP Act). The NCCP Act regulates the activity of lending, leasing, and finance broking.
Key Information
We will help you choose a loan or lease which we believe is in your best interest. We will provide you with information on a broad range of lenders and make a recommendation based upon what you tell us is most important to you. Once you have chosen a loan or lease that is suitable for you, we will help you obtain an approval. We source finance from a panel of financiers. Our current panel comprises the financiers listed below:
This section provides details of the 6 most frequently used lenders by the licensee over the last financial year. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, as there are other lenders on the current panel that may be utilised.
The information above is generated based on a full financial year, so in some circumstances a full year’s data may not be available. In these instances, the field will be blank or there will be limited information, however you can request further details from your broker.
Our responsible lending obligations:
Under the NCCP Act, we are obliged to ensure that any loan or principal increase to a loan we make and any lease we enter with you is suitable to your needs and objectives. To decide this, we will need to ask you some questions in order to assess whether the loan or lease meets these requirements. The law requires us to:
- Make reasonable enquiries about your requirements and objectives.
- Make reasonable enquiries about your financial situation.
- Take reasonable steps to verify that financial situation.
- For us to discharge our obligation in assessing your application for credit assistance, it is important that we have all available, accurate, current and relevant information.
- If you are unable for whatever reason to provide the information required to assess your personal and financial circumstances, we may not be in a position to make a recommendation to you.
Credit will be unsuitable if at the time of the assessment, it is likely that at the time the credit is provided:
- You could not pay or only pay with substantial hardship.
- The credit will not meet your requirements and objectives.
For example, if you can only repay by selling your principal place of residence, it is presumed that the loan will cause substantial hardship unless the contrary is proved. For this reason, we must ask you to provide a significant amount of information. It is therefore very important that the information you provide us is accurate.
We must provide you with a copy of our preliminary credit assessment of your application if you ask within 7 years of when we assist you. We are only required to give you a copy of the credit assessment if we give you credit assistance.
If we arrange a loan for you to purchase or refinance real estate, remember you must make your own enquiries about the value of the real estate and its potential for future growth. Although we may obtain a valuation, that is for our own use, and you should not rely on it.
Acting in your Best Interest (Best Interests Duty)
When providing credit assistance, we are obliged to act in your best interest (Best Interests Duty). This means that any product we recommend to you must be in your best interest, and the reasons for these recommendations will be documented, recorded and explained and provided to you. In order to ensure your best interest have been met, we will assess what product(s) and what credit assistance will be in your best interest. This recommendation will include information about why this is in your best interest and how it is aligned to your needs and objectives.
In the case of actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest, we will disclose these to you and prioritise your interests ahead of our own in all circumstances. This includes giving priority to your interests in situations where we know, or ought to reasonably know there is a conflict between the interests of you and the interest of ourselves or a third party.
Fees payable by you
As the licensee, we do not charge you for our services as we are paid commission by the financier. However, our credit representative may charge a fee and you may need to pay the financier’s application fee, valuation fees, and other fees. We will communicate any fees when providing you with credit assistance.
Commissions received by us
We may receive commissions from the lenders and lessors who provide finance for our customers. These are not fees payable by you. The percentage of the commission varies, however generally ranges between 0.60% and 0.75%. We will provide you with full details on the nature and amount of these commissions and you can obtain additional information on request.
Commissions payable by us:
We source referrals from a broad range of sources. For example, we may pay fees to call centre companies, real estate agents, accountants, or lawyers for referring you to us. These referral fees accord with usual business practice and not payable by you. We will disclose the nature and amount of these and you can obtain additional information about these commissions on request.
Our internal dispute resolution scheme
We hope you are delighted with our services, but if you have any complaints, you should first notify your credit assistance provider. If the complaint can’t be resolved, then please contact our Internal Complaints Officer using the details in the Key Information section above.
You should explain the details of your complaint as clearly as you can. You may do this verbally or in writing. When we receive a complaint, we will attempt to resolve it promptly. In cases where your complaint will take longer than 30 days to resolve, we will notify you in writing.
Our external dispute resolution scheme
If we do not reach an agreement on your complaint, you may refer the complaint to an ASIC Approved External Dispute Resolution (EDR) Scheme. Our external dispute resolution provider is specified above. External dispute resolution is a free service established to provide you with an independent mechanism to resolve specific complaints. You can obtain further details about our dispute resolution procedures and obtain details of our privacy policy on request.
Things you should know
We don’t make any promises about the value of any property you finance with us or its prospects. You should always rely on your own enquiries.
We don’t provide legal or financial advice. It is important you understand your legal obligations under the loan and the financial consequences. If you have any doubts, you should obtain independent legal advice before you enter a loan contract.
Our credit representatives
We have appointed several credit representatives to provide services. Details of the credit representative you are dealing with are set out below.
This section provides details of the 6 most frequently used lenders by your Credit Representative over the last financial year. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, as there are other lenders on the current panel that may be utilised (refer section blow).
The number of lenders used in the last financial year are 13*.
The information above is generated based on a full financial year, so in some circumstances a full year’s data may not be available. In these instances, the field will be blank or there will be limited information, however you can request further details from your broker.
The Buyers Choice Licencing Pty Ltd lenders your Credit Representative is accredited with:
Commission received by us
Your credit representative may receive all or part of the commissions and fees referred to above directly or indirectly from the licensee. You can obtain information from them about a reasonable estimate of those commissions and how the commission is worked out.
Other benefits
Your credit representative must maintain a centralised register recording all forms of gifts, hospitality and other related remuneration. It is available to you upon request.
Tiered Services
Your credit representative may have access to tiered servicing arrangement with certain credit providers. A tiered servicing arrangement provides non-monetary benefits such as providing preferential service which can assist your credit representative in achieving better outcomes for you. Examples include faster reviews by lender credit analysts and/or application turnaround times. The list of any tiered servicing arrangements they have is available on request. Where your credit representative makes a recommendation to a lender with whom they have one of these arrangements, this will be disclosed to you.
Fees payable by you
Your credit representative may charge a fee for their services. More details about the fees payable by you will be set out in a Quote and Proposal document which they will give you before a finance application is lodged. You may obtain from them information about how these fees and charges are worked out and a reasonable estimate of those fees.
Questions
If you have any questions about this credit guide or anything else about our services, you can request our help at any point in time.
National Debt Helpline
If you’re having difficulties managing your debts, you can seek free assistance from the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 or via the website ndh.org.au
