Terms & Conditions: Credit Guide & Complaints

About This Credit Guide

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.

Our Commitment to Service

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.

Services We Provide

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.

Our Responsible Lending Obligations To You

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:

  • make reasonable inquiries about your requirements and objectives;
  • make reasonable inquiries about your financial situation; and
  • take reasonable steps to verify that financial situation.
Credit will be deemed unsuitable if at the time of the assessment, it is likely that at the time the credit is provided:
  • you could not pay or could only pay with substantial hardship; or
  • the credit will not meet your requirements and objectives.

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:

  • within 7 business days after the day we receive your request - provided you make the request within 2 years of the date when we provide you with credit assistance; or
  • otherwise, within 21 business days after the day we receive your request.

Acting in your best interests

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. 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 to us

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.

Fees Payable By you to third parties

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.

Fees Payable By the licensee to third parties

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.

If your Broker is a Credit Representative of the Licensee they may also remunerate third parties in a similar manner.

Payments received by the licensee

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. These types of rewards are not generally permanent and the remuneration received is not readily ascertainable.

If your Broker is a Credit Representative of the Licensee they may receive a whole or part of the commissions received by the Licensee that has been described.

You may obtain from us information about a reasonable estimate of those commissions and how the commission is worked out. 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.

Our lender panel

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:

  • 86 400
  • Adelaide Bank
  • AMP Bank
  • ANZ
  • Auswide Bank
  • Bank Australia
  • Bank of Melbourne
  • Bank of Queensland
  • Bank of Sydney
  • BankSA
  • Bankwest
  • Better Choice Home Loans
  • Better Mortgage Management
  • Beyond Bank Australia
  • Bluebay Home Loans
  • Bluestone Mortgages
  • Citibank
  • Commonwealth Bank
  • emoney
  • Firstmac
  • Firefighters Mutual Bank
  • Health Professionals Bank
  • Heartland Seniors Finance
  • Heritage Bank
  • IMB Bank (VIC only)
  • ING
  • Keystart (WA only)
  • La Trobe Financial
  • Liberty Financial
  • Macquarie Bank
  • ME Bank
  • MKM Capital
  • Mortgage Ezy
  • MOVE Bank
  • MyState
  • NAB
  • Paramount Mortgage Services
  • Pepper Money
  • P&N Bank (WA only)
  • Qudos Bank
  • Resimac
  • St.George Bank
  • Suncorp Bank
  • Teachers Mutual Bank
  • Thinktank
  • UniBank
  • Victorian Mortgage Group
  • Virgin Money
  • Westpac

licensee's top 6 most commonly used lenders

ANZ, Bankwest, CBA, NAB, St George, Westpac

credit representative's top 6 most commonly used lenders

N/A

our internal dispute resolution scheme

We always strive to provide the best possible service and provide you with the finance that suits your needs. However, we appreciate that from time to time, applicants may not be satisfied with the process or the solution. If this occurs, and you have a complaint about the service we provide, we have a resolution process in place to address your concerns.

You can lodge your complaint through a number of channels. You may do this verbally or in writing. If you choose to lodge the complaint by email or mail, please make sure you include as much information as you can. You should explain the details of your complaint as clearly as you can.

Step 1

Please contact Tony Xia in the first instance as many disputes can be resolved relatively quickly. Your Broker will have 5 business days in which to try and resolve the dispute.

Step 2

If you are not satisfied with the outcome or in which the way your complaint has been handled, then you can escalate the complaint to the Internal Complaints Officer who will endeavour to resolve your complaint:

Complaints Officer

Name: Mark Norman
Email: compliance@spfgroup.com.au
Phone Number: 08 9286 6888
Address: 325 Churchill Ave, Subiaco WA 6008, Australia

In some instances your Broker may also be fulfilling the role of the Complaints Officer. This will not affect the capacity to have your complaint dealt with appropriately.

Once the dispute is escalated, we will provide you with a written response in a maximum time of 45 days, however, we hope to resolve all issues in a shorter time frame.

our internal dispute resolution (EDR) scheme

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, then you have the further option of referring the matter to an EDR scheme.

Two EDR schemes may be listed below. This indicates that the Licensee and the Credit Representative are both required to be members (independently) of an ASIC approved EDR scheme. Where a Credit Representative’s EDR is displayed, please contact that EDR scheme in the first instance for complaint escalation.

EDR (LICENSEE) 

Name: Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) 

AFCA Member Number: 42176

Email: info@afca.org.au 

Phone Number: 1800 931 678 

Address: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia

EDR (Credit Representative) 

Name: Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) 

AFCA Member Number: 75968

Email: info@afca.org.au 

Phone Number: 1800 931 678

Address: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia

Broker benefits disclosure

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.

Tiered Servicing Disclosure

We have access to a number of lenders that provide tiered servicing processes, enabling our loans to be processed faster. We are provided these services based on a number of measures. 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.

Things You should know

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.

As a duty of care, we recommend that you seek professional advice in regards to insurance products such as mortgage protection insurance, income protection insurance and life insurance. It is the responsibility of the applicant/s to maintain mortgage repayments and we strongly recommend that you seek insurance advice with regards to risk management and financial planning.

We will inform you of any potential conflict of interest or relationship that could reasonably be expected to influence our recommendation.

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.

Questions?

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.