This Credit Guide provides important information about us and the services we provide.
This document outlines the type of advice we can give you, how we are remunerated, fees and charges that may be applicable and what you can do should you have a complaint.
We are committed to assisting you find the right finance option based on the information provided by you. We have the essential qualifications, experience and competency required under the relevant legislation to give you the professional service needed in assessing your financial needs. You can be confident that we will deal with you in a fair and ethical manner and take the time to listen to your requirements and objectives. Once we have established your goals, we will investigate and assess a range of options from our extensive lender panel. Ultimately, our primary aim is to provide you with the finance which we believe is in your best interests.
We are authorised to arrange loans under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (National Credit Act). The National Credit Act regulates the activity of lending, leasing and finance broking.
Under the National Credit Act, we are obliged to ensure that any loan or principal increase to a loan we help you to obtain is not unsuitable to your needs and objectives. To decide this, we are required to conduct a Preliminary Assessment to determine if the loan is not unsuitable. The law requires us to:
Credit will be deemed unsuitable if at the time of the assessment, it is likely that at the time the credit is provided:
When we make our assessment, it is important that we utilise information that is accurate, complete and up to date. If we are supplied with incomplete or incorrect information, you may be in breach of your legal obligations to the lender.
If we provide you with credit assistance, you can ask us for a copy of our Preliminary Assessment any time up to 7 years after we provide you with credit assistance. To request a copy please contact us and we will provide you with a copy:
When providing credit assistance, we are obligated to act in your best interests. 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, 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.
If a fee is payable by you, this will be disclosed in a Credit Quote. The Credit Quote will outline any fees payable for providing credit assistance and the time that they are payable. If you do not receive a Credit Quote, this will indicate that no fees are payable.
When a credit application is submitted, other fees and charges may be applicable that are payable to the lender of your choice, such as application fees, valuation fees or other fees. These fees will be disclosed in a Credit Proposal that will be provided to you once we have collaboratively decided on a loan product.
If for any reason your loan does not proceed, you may still be required to pay the lenders application and other fees, valuation fees and government fees as charged by the lender.
We may pay fees to call centre companies, real estate agents, accountants, or lawyers and others for referring you to us. These referral fees are generally small amounts in accordance with usual business practice.
These are not fees payable by you. On request you can obtain a reasonable estimate of the amount of the fee and how it is worked out.
From time to time, we may also remunerate other parties through payments, rewards or benefits.
We may receive fees, commissions or other remuneration or rewards from the lenders who fund the finance we arrange for you. These are not fees payable by you.
Remuneration or rewards may include training, professional development, entertainment, gifts, conference attendance, sponsorship or entry into a competition run by a lender or my aggregator. Specific details of any commission to be received will be included in the Credit Proposal that we will provide you with when credit assistance is provided.
We have access to a comprehensive range of lenders to assist you in your finance requirements. The following list represents the panel of lenders that the Licensee and any Authorised Credit Representative nominated in this document are able to access:
ANZ, Bankwest, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, St.George Bank, Westpac
ING, ANZ, Westpac, People's First Bank, CBA, NAB
We are committed to providing you with the best possible service. If at any time we have not met our obligations or you have a complaint about the service that we provide, please inform us so we can work towards a resolution. We will endeavour to deal with your complaint promptly, thoroughly and fairly.
In the first instance, please contact Michael Hughes.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 1 business day. If Michael Hughes is unable to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction within 5 business days, we will escalate the complaint to the Complaints Officer. You can also contact the Complaints Officer directly as detailed below:
There will be situations where the Complaints Officer is also your Broker. This will not have any impact on the capacity to deal with your complaint effectively or appropriately. We may ask for additional information to ensure your complaint is properly investigated.
Within 30 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.
If you do not think we have resolved your complaint to your satisfaction, or you have not heard from us within 30 calendar days, you may refer the matter to an EDR scheme. This EDR process is available to you, at no cost.
As part of our compliance with transparency in broking practices and promotion of appropriate customer outcomes, we keep a register of benefits received from any lenders or aggregators. The register lists any benefits or gifts to the value of $100 or more. You may request a copy of this register to provide you with confidence that we have no lender conflicts.
We have access to a number of lenders that provide tiered servicing processes, enabling our loans to be processed faster. These programs promote preferential service standards to our loan applications, but do not entitle us to additional payments or commissions or to preferential customer discounts.
We do not provide legal, financial or taxation advice unless specified in a separate contract. Accordingly, it is important you ensure you understand your legal obligations under the loan, and the financial consequences. We recommend that you consult your Accountant, Solicitor, Taxation Department, Investment Adviser or any other licensed person in respect to the financial implications of this application for finance before you enter the credit contract.
Under the Financial Services Reform Act 2001, Specialist Finance Group and/or their authorised representative cannot provide any advice or opinion on any deposit accounts and/or insurance products.
We will inform you of any potential conflict of interest or relationship that could reasonably be expected to influence our recommendation.
If you have any questions about this Credit Guide or anything else about our services, just ask at any time. We’re here to assist you.
In handling your personal information, Mortgage Specialists Pty Ltd ABN 48 612 422 178 T/As Specialist Finance Group, Australian Credit Licence 387025, 325 Churchill Ave, Subiaco WA 6008, Australia, 08 9286 6888 and our Authorised Credit Representatives are committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
We collect personal information from you when you apply for or use our products and services. In particular, we collect it so we can provide you with the products and services you require.
Personal information may include any sensitive information (including health information) and may include any information you tell us about any vulnerability you may have.
In providing products and services to you it may be necessary for us to retain your personal information and provide it to other organisations with which we conduct business. We may exchange the information with the following types of entities, some of which may be located overseas:
You may gain access to the personal information that we hold about you by contacting us. You can also contact us to obtain a copy of our privacy policy and the privacy policy of any credit reporting body that may access your personal information. Our privacy policy contains information about how you can access or seek correction of the information we hold about you, how we manage that information and our complaints process.
If you do not provide us with all of the information we request, we may be unable to supply to you the product or service that you require.
You authorise us to act as an access seeker within the meaning of section 6L of the Privacy Act to seek and obtain credit information on your behalf for the purposes of establishing which product is most suitable for your requirements and circumstances.
You consent to us doing so and we may periodically provide you with information about new products and services available from us or from other businesses with whom we have a relationship. Your consent to our providing this information to you will be implied unless you notify us that you do not wish to receive this information.
You consent to us providing you with documents by electronic communication, you confirm that paper documents may no longer be given and electronic communications must be regularly checked for documents. Consent to the giving of documents by electronic communication may be withdrawn at any time.
You consent to us obtaining personal information, financial information and credit information about you by video or audio conferencing for the purpose of arranging credit, providing credit assistance and give your permission for that video or audio conference to be recorded for this purpose.
