Our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy details what personal information we collect about you, why we need it, and how we use, store and share your information.
The policy also lets you know how you can access and correct your personal information or make a complaint about how we have handled your information.
This policy explains how we manage and protect your personal information, including your credit-related information, and applies to our customers and any other person we may deal with as part of our business.
This policy also includes our credit reporting policy, so it describes how we manage your personal information in relation to a credit application or credit facility.
This policy covers Newcastle Greater Mutual Group Ltd (‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’), and our related companies and brands, including:
Sometimes we will update this policy – you can always find the most up-to-date version on our website or request a copy free of charge by visiting any of our branches or by contacting us. Please refer to section 9 for our contact details.
Personal information is information or an opinion about an individual who is identified or who can be reasonably identified (for example, your name and date of birth).
Credit-related information is a type of personal information.
It includes:
Unless stated otherwise, a reference to personal information in this policy is also a reference to credit-related information (referred to as credit information).
Sensitive information is another type of personal information. This is information which is sensitive in nature (for example, your biometric information, racial or ethnic origin, your political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association or union, and health information).
The types of personal information we collect and hold will depend on what business you do with us or the type of product or service you request from us. This personal information may include:
In limited circumstances, we may collect and hold sensitive information about you (for example, recordings of your voice or images of your face for identification and fraud prevention purposes; or information about your health when you make an application for hardship, when you apply for a life insurance product, or when you apply for employment with us). We only collect sensitive information from you if it is necessary in the circumstances and you have consented to that collection (unless we are required or permitted by law to collect that information).
If we collect government related identifiers, such as your TFN, we do not use or disclose this information unless required by law. We will never adopt a government related identifier as our own identifier for you
If we receive your personal information without requesting it, we will decide whether or not we reasonably need this information to provide you with products and services. If so, we will treat the information in the same manner we treat all other personal information gathered about you. If not, we will destroy or de-identify the information.
It is important to us that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. We will generally rely on you to assist us by informing us if the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete.
Wherever possible, we collect your personal information directly from you. For example, we will collect your personal information:
We may also collect your personal information when you use our products and services (for example, when you use your account with us to make transactions or repayments).
In some circumstances, we may need to obtain personal information about you from others or publicly available sources. For example, we may collect information about you from:
We may also collect information about you by creating insights and other information about you when analysing information we already hold.
Where you apply for employment with us, we may collect personal information about you from your application and in the course of our recruitment process. In these circumstances, we may also need to collect information about you from third parties, including current and previous employers, nominated referees, educational institutions and when undertaking background checks.
We collect, hold, use and share your personal information so that we can provide products and services to you, and manage or administer our business and our relationship with you. For example, we may collect, hold, use and share your personal information so we can:
Where you apply for employment with us, we may collect, hold, use and share your personal information so that we can assess your application and determine your suitability for any position. This includes verifying your identity, confirming your employment and income details, qualifications, education, training and professional memberships and health information you may provide and arranging for criminal record checks to be conducted.
If your application is unsuccessful or you do not proceed with any position with us, the personal information you provide to us may be retained for future reference should any suitable roles arise. You can opt out of this at any time by telling us.
We may also use or share your information for other reasons where the law allows or requires us to do so (for example, a court, tribunal or external dispute resolution ruling or rule), or for any other purpose you have consented to.
From time to time, we may use your personal information to tell you about products or services (including those of third parties) that we think you might be interested in. We will do this unless you ask us not to.
We may contact you by mail, email, telephone, SMS, or any other online, digital or electronic means. We might also provide your details to other organisations for marketing purposes.
If you are a customer with Newcastle Permanent or Greater Bank, and you no longer wish to receive marketing information from that brand you can:
If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may be unable to:
We may freeze your access to a particular product or service, and cancel that product or service, if you do not provide us with information that we reasonably request and need to provide you with that product or service.
If you have a question of a general nature for example, where you make general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers, you can choose to do this anonymously or by using a pseudonym – however, we might not always be able to interact with you in this way as there are laws that require us to know who we’re dealing with.
Where permitted under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), we may share your personal information with third parties, such as:
If you have applied for employment with us, we may share your personal details with third parties, including your current or previous employers, nominated referees, organizations that conduct criminal history and background checks, identity verification service providers and third parties involved in, or who assist us with, the recruitment process.
In some circumstances, we may require your consent before being able to share your personal information.
We will take appropriate steps to ensure that organisations we share information with protect your personal information.
Sometimes we need to share your information with overseas organisations which may be located in the countries listed at ngmgroupaustralia.com.au/privacy.
You can also obtain a list by contacting us.
When you apply to us for credit or choose to be a guarantor, we may obtain a credit report about you from a credit reporting body. A credit report tells us about your credit history and other credit-related information collected, which we use to assess your creditworthiness.
When we request a credit report about you, the request is recorded in your credit report, and may be used by a credit reporting body to calculate a credit score, to be disclosed to other lenders and to assess your credit worthiness.
When we request a credit report, this may negatively impact your credit worthiness, rating or score.
We may use your credit report to verify your identity, assess applications for credit, assess the suitability of a proposed guarantor for a credit contract, assist in the avoidance of a credit default and the collection of overdue payments and assist with the internal management of credit and pre-screening.
The law limits what information we can give to credit reporting bodies, what they can give to us, and how we can use credit reports. Under law, we do not need your consent to disclose your personal information to a credit reporting body for the purposes of obtaining your credit report.
When you receive credit from us, we share information with a credit reporting body, on an ongoing basis. This information includes:
Credit reporting bodies include this information in their reports to assist other credit providers to assess your credit worthiness. If you would like more information on how credit reporting works in Australia visit the Credit Smart website www.creditsmart.org.au
We can also ask credit reporting bodies to give us your overall credit score, and may use credit-related information from credit reporting bodies together with other information to arrive at our own scoring of your ability to manage credit.
The credit reporting bodies we may deal with are:
You can obtain their privacy policies on their websites.
From time to time, we may ask credit reporting bodies to use your credit-related information to pre-screen you for direct marketing purposes (for example, to determine your eligibility for certain credit products). You can ask a credit reporting body not to use or give your credit-related information in this way. To do so just contact the credit reporting body using the contact details noted on their websites above.
If you believe on reasonable grounds that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud (including identity fraud), you can ask a credit reporting body not to use or give your credit-related information to anyone for a 21 day period (unless the use or disclosure is required by law). This is known as the initial ban period. It’s a good idea to make requests to each credit reporting body, as you may have a credit report with more than one credit reporting body.
At least 5 business days before the end of the initial ban period, the credit reporting body will get in touch to inform you that you can extend the ban period and explain what information you need to provide to support your allegation of fraud. If you do not make a request to extend the ban period, or the credit reporting body does not believe on reasonable grounds that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud, the ban period will end at the end of the ban period.
If you make a request to extend the ban period, and the credit reporting body believes on reasonable grounds that you have or are likely to be a victim of fraud, the credit reporting body must extend the ban period by a period that it considers reasonable in the circumstances and provide you with notice of the extension. The same process will apply for each subsequent ban period.
We or third party service providers on our behalf may store your personal information (including if you have applied for employment with us, information collected during the application and recruitment process in accordance with this policy) in hard copy, digital or electronic records. The security of your personal information is important, and we take reasonable steps to ensure that all your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Some of the ways we do this are by:
Any personal information that we transmit through our website and internet banking site is encrypted. However, like all internet communications, we cannot guarantee that information transmitted online is secure. To help protect your privacy, you should ensure that you keep your passwords and personal identification numbers safe, in accordance with the terms and conditions that apply to the account. You must contact us as soon as practicable if your passwords and personal identification numbers are subject to unauthorised access, disclosure or loss.
If we no longer require your personal information (for example, we no longer need your information for business or legal reasons), we will take reasonable steps to ensure that this personal information is permanently de-identified or destroyed.
You have the right to request access to personal information that we hold about you at any time, by contacting us using the details set out further below. We will need to confirm your identity and may ask you to fill out a request form.
We may be able to respond to your request immediately, but for more complex cases, it may take us up to 30 days to respond.
Where you request access to your credit-related information that we have received from credit reporting bodies, we will:
We don’t charge you for asking us for your personal information. However, we may charge you a fee to cover our costs of finding and putting together the material if we give you access – but we’ll let you know how much it is likely to be in advance.
If we refuse to give you access to your personal information, for example because we no longer hold the information, access to the information would unreasonably impact on some else’s privacy, the request is unreasonable or for legal reasons, we will tell you why in writing and provide you with information about how you can complain about the refusal. You can contact our Privacy Officer (see contact details set out below) if you have any further concerns.
If you believe that personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, you have the right to ask us to correct or update the information. You can do this by contacting us using the details set out further below and there is no charge for these requests.
If you’re concerned that we have given incorrect personal information to others, you can ask us to let them know about this correction – we’ll let you know in writing if we are unable to help.
If the incorrect information was given to us by a credit reporting body (or based on that information), we may need to check with the credit reporting body or the credit provider. We’ll aim to help you correct your information within 30 days – however, if we can’t help you within that timeframe, we’ll ask you for extra time and will explain why it’s taking longer.
If we don’t think the personal information we have about you is incorrect, we’ll explain why we think this in writing and provide you with information about how you can complain. We will notify you of the outcome of a request to correct credit-related information within 5 business days of making our decision.
We’re committed to doing the right thing by our customers. If you have any questions or concerns with regard to our handling of your personal information, let us know and we’ll try to fix it.
If you’re concerned with our handling of your personal information (including credit-related information) or believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, Division 3 of Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014, you can make a complaint and we’ll look in to it. You can raise your concerns or complaint through any of the below contact methods.
Greater Bank
By mail | Privacy Office, PO Box 173, Hamilton NSW 2303 |
By phone |
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By email | customervoice@greater.com.au |
Visit our website | greater.com.au |
Newcastle Permanent
By mail | PO Box 5001 HRMC NSW 2310 |
By phone |
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By email | enquiries@newcastlepermanent.com.au |
By Internet Banking | log in and send a secure message |
Visit our website | newcastlepermanent.com.au |
NGM Group aims to resolve complaints on the spot wherever we can. If we can’t provide a resolution on first contact, we’ll acknowledge your complaint has been lodged (generally within 1 business day), and provide you with a reference number and details of how to contact us about your complaint.
If we can’t resolve on the spot, we aim to resolve complaints within 5 business days. If we need more time to resolve your complaint, we may need to refer your complaint to our Customer Relations team for further investigation. During the assessment and investigation of your complaint a Customer Relations Specialist will keep you updated on the progress and work to find a fair solution.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint within 30 days, we will advise you of the reasons for the delay and the expected timeframe for an outcome to your complaint. We will continue to keep you updated on the progress of your complaint and provide you with contact details for the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
If you are not satisfied with our response or how we have handled your complaint, you can contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
AFCA
AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers
Online | www.afca.org.au |
info@afca.org.au | |
Phone | 1800 931 678 |
Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001 |
OAIC
The OAIC acts as an impartial third party when investigating and resolving a complaint in relation to privacy
Online | www.oaic.gov.au |
Phone | 1300 363 992 |
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001 |
Sometimes we need to share your information with overseas organisations which may be located in the following countries:
Note, it may not be reasonably practicable to list every country in which such recipients are located.