Credit Guide and Privacy Statement

What is a credit representative?

A ‘credit representative’ is a person who has been authorised by a credit licensee to engage in specified credit activities on behalf of the licensee. The particulars of our licensee are noted in the table above.

What is credit assistance?

We give you credit assistance when:

• we assist you to apply for a particular loan or lease;
• we suggest you apply for a particular loan or lease (or suggest you apply for an increase to an existing loan); or
• we suggest you remain in your current loan or lease.

The assessment we need to do before giving you credit assistance

Before we provide credit assistance to you, we assess whether the particular loan or lease is suitable for you. To do this, we need to make reasonable inquiries and verify that:

• the loan or lease or increase will meet your requirements and objectives; and
• you can meet the proposed repayments.

We won’t be able to give you credit assistance if our assessment shows that:

• you won’t be able to meet the proposed repayments without substantial hardship; or
• the loan or lease won’t meet your requirements or objectives.

Getting a copy of our assessment

If we provide you with credit assistance, you can ask us for a copy of our assessment any time up to 7 years after we provide you with a credit assistance quote. To request a copy please contact us. We will provide you with a copy:

• within 7 business days after the day we receive your request – provided you make the request within 2 years of the date of our credit assistance quote; or
• otherwise, within 21 business days after the day we receive your request.

Information about the licensee and its credit representatives

We act as a credit representative of the licensee. The particulars of our licensee are noted in the table above. We are authorised to engage in credit activities including providing credit assistance and acting as an intermediary on its behalf.

Subject to meeting credit criteria, we are able to assist you to obtain loans and leases for you from a broad range of lenders and lessors through our Broker Group.

Top 6 residential lenders (83% of business written in the previous financial year)

Lender Accreditations

The following is a list of all the lenders with which Jarrad has accreditation:

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

In order 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 Interests

Best Interests Duty

When providing credit assistance, we are obliged to act in your best interests (Best Interests Duty). This means that any products we recommend to you must be in your best interests, and the reasons for these recommendations will be documented, recorded, and explained and provided to you. In order to ensure your best interests have been met, we will assess what product(s) and what credit assistance will be in your best interests.

This recommendation will include information about why this is in your best interests 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 about this by asking us.

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 are not payable by you. We will disclose the nature and amount of these and you can obtain additional information about these commissions by asking us.

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 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 any loan.

We don’t make any promises about the value of any property you finance with us or its future prospects. You should always rely on your own enquiries.

What to do if you have a dispute or complaint?

We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible service. If at any time we have not met our obligations – or you have a complaint about any of our services – please inform us so we can work towards a resolution. We will endeavour to deal with your complaint promptly, thoroughly and fairly.

How to make a complaint and the complaints process

If you have a complaint, we request you follow these steps:

1. In the first instance, please contact your credit assistance provider.
2. If your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within 5 business days, please contact our Complaints Area as detailed below:

3. We may ask for additional information and request you to put your complaint in writing to ensure your issue is properly investigated.
4. In cases where your complaint will take longer to resolve, we will update your progressively.

Third party products or services

If your complaint relates to a product or service acquired through a third party (for example, a lender) we may ask you to contact the relevant third party. They will deal with your complaint under their complaints resolution process.

If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint by the third party under their complaints resolution process, you are entitled to have your dispute considered by their External Dispute Resolution Scheme. Please contact the third party for further details.

Keeping you informed

Our Complaints Area will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within five business days. If unable to resolve the complaint/dispute to your satisfaction within five business days, they will write to you advising the procedures we will follow in investigating and handling your complaint.

Within 45 calendar days from the date you lodged the complaint with us, we will write to you advising you the outcome of the investigation and the reason/s for our decision, or if required, we will inform you if more time is needed to complete the investigation.

Still not satisfied?

If you do not think we have resolved your complaint to your satisfaction, you may take the matter – free of charge – to the relevant External Disputes Resolution Scheme (provided it is within the scheme’s terms of reference) as detailed below. You may also refer the matter to the relevant External Disputes Resolution Scheme at any time, but if our internal process is still in progress, they may request that our internal processes be complete before considering the matter further.

Our external dispute resolution service provider is the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which can be contacted via:

Our licensee’s external dispute resolution service provider is the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which can be contacted via:

Other Disclosures

Broker Benefits Disclosures

In line with industry reforms, I am required to keep a register of benefits received from any lenders or aggregators to the value of $100 or more which is kept current (over a rolling 12 month period and housed for 3 years). In the interest of transparency and good customer outcomes, an applicant may request a copy of this register to ensure there are no lender conflicts.

Tiered Servicing Disclosures

We have access to service programs available from some residential home loan providers. We access these services based on a number of measures. These programs promote preferential services to a customer and do not entitle us to additional payments or commissions or to preferential customer discounts.