Privacy Policy

Who are we?

In this policy, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refers to Centra Money Pty Ltd ABN 96 167 497 305 (Centra Money), Credit Representative 452523 of BLSSA Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 391237. Centra Money is part of the Centra Wealth Group.

This privacy policy relates to our management of personal information about borrowers, guarantors and other consumers, including personal information collected in connection with a credit application or a credit facility.

Our commitment to protect your privacy

We understand how important it is to protect your personal information. This policy sets out how we collect and manage personal information we hold about you and what we do with that information.

We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and any other applicable law.

What is personal information?

In this policy, ‘personal information’ has the meaning given in the Privacy Act. In general terms, it is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and occupation.

How do we collect your personal information?

We generally collect personal information directly from you, in person, by phone or electronically, including through our website, online application tools and social media channels.

We may also collect your personal information:

  • from your joint applicants, co-applicants, guarantors or proposed guarantors;
  • from the loan applicant, if you are a guarantor or proposed guarantor;
  • from your employer, real estate agent or other referees;
  • from your representatives, such as solicitors, accountants, conveyancers, builders and agents;
  • from third parties such as lenders, our aggregator, related companies, credit reporting bodies, identity verification service providers, government agencies, law enforcement agencies, social media platforms and marketing websites;
  • through the software platforms we use to assess, prepare and lodge loan and lease applications (see ‘Use of artificial intelligence and automated tools’ below); and
  • where we are required by law to do so.

With your express written consent, and as part of providing you with credit assistance, we may collect credit reporting information about you from credit reporting bodies and credit eligibility information about you from credit providers.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

We may collect:

  • your name, date of birth and other information and documents used to verify your identity;
  • your contact details, such as your address, email address and telephone number;
  • financial and credit information, including your tax file number, bank account, superannuation and insurance information, credit reports, income and expenses, assets and liabilities, and credit and repayment history including any defaults;
  • other information relevant to an application for finance, such as the number and ages of your dependants, your household, your length of time at your current address, your employment details and evidence of earnings and expenses;
  • information about loans and finance products that relate to you, including transactional information, and any audits, investigations, complaints or enquiries relating to them;
  • information you provide through our website or online presence, or through surveys and our contact channels.

We do not seek to collect sensitive information (such as health information or criminal record information). If you choose to provide it to us, for example health information in support of a hardship request, we will only collect it with your consent and where it is reasonably necessary for us to assist you.

Why do we collect your personal information?

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information to:

  • carry on our business and provide our services, including credit assistance;
  • manage our relationship with you and communicate with you;
  • give you information about loan and lease products and related services;
  • assess whether you are eligible for, and which products may be suitable for, a loan or lease product or related service you have requested;
  • help you prepare and lodge an application;
  • carry out business processing and administrative functions;
  • meet our obligations to third parties involved in your loan, such as lenders and financiers, so they can assess your application and manage their relationship with you;
  • refer you to providers of insurance and other services (such as utility connections);
  • manage our risks (such as fraud prevention and investigation) and meet our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • where permitted by law, for direct marketing of other products and services; and
  • comply with any law, regulation, or lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator or government authority.

If you do not provide the personal information we request, we may not be able to provide our services to you, to the same standard or at all; lenders may not be able to process your application; and we may not be able to tell you about products, services or promotions that may interest you.

Who do we disclose your personal information to?

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • our aggregator, through whom we submit applications to lenders on its panel;
  • BLSSA Pty Ltd, the Australian Credit Licence holder that authorises us to engage in credit activities;
  • prospective or actual lenders, mortgage insurers and other intermediaries involved in your finance;
  • valuers, industry bodies, your employers and referees, identity verification services and credit reporting bodies;
  • service providers, contractors and advisers who help us run our business, including our offshore administrative support staff, and the providers of the software, cloud and artificial intelligence services described in this policy;
  • other Centra Wealth Group businesses (Centra Wealth Pty Ltd and Centra Financial Pty Ltd, trading as Centra Private Wealth, Centra Wealth Management and Centra Wealth Academy) where you have asked to be referred or have consented, or for direct marketing where the law permits and subject to your right to opt out;
  • anyone who represents you, such as a finance broker, real estate agent, conveyancer, lawyer or accountant;
  • your guarantors or prospective guarantors;
  • auditors, law enforcement agencies and regulators;
  • a prospective purchaser or assignee of our business or our loan book, subject to confidentiality obligations;
  • anyone else, where you have consented; and
  • anyone we are required or authorised by law to disclose it to, including under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth).

Do we disclose your personal information outside Australia?

Yes. We may from time to time use administrative support staff who reside in the Philippines, and who access our systems remotely to help us process and manage your file. Some of the software, cloud and artificial intelligence providers we use store or process information in the United States of America.

Personal information stored in cloud services can be accessed remotely, and it is not always practicable to know in which country it is held or accessed. We take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your personal information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through contractual confidentiality and privacy obligations, access controls and staff training.

Use of artificial intelligence and automated tools

We use technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help us provide our services efficiently and accurately. This includes:

  • our customer relationship management and loan lodgement platform, provided through our aggregator, which we use to record your details, compare lenders and products, and prepare and lodge applications;
  • serviceability and borrowing capacity software, and lenders’ own calculators, which estimate how much you may be able to borrow from different lenders based on the information you give us;
  • generative AI assistants, which help us draft correspondence, file notes and credit assistance documents, summarise and organise information, and extract information from documents you provide, such as payslips, bank statements and tax returns.

Personal information used

These tools may use your identity and contact details; income, expenses, assets and liabilities; employment details; credit information; details of your household and dependants; your loan requirements and objectives; and the content of documents and communications you provide to us.

Decisions made using computer programs

We do not make any decision about you solely by the operation of a computer program.

We use computer programs to do things that are substantially and directly related to decisions about whether we can assist you, which lenders and products may be available or suitable for you, and which products we recommend. These include estimating your borrowing capacity, filtering and ranking products against your requirements and lenders’ eligibility criteria, and preparing draft documents and summaries. A credit representative reviews the output of these tools and makes each decision.

Lenders’ decisions

Lenders and mortgage insurers to whom we submit your application may use their own automated systems to assess it. How they do so is governed by their own privacy policies.

How we protect your information when using AI

We select AI tools with strong security and privacy protections and, where practicable, remove or limit information that identifies you before using them. In addition:

  • We use generative AI tools only under business or enterprise terms under which the provider does not use our data to train its models.
  • We do not enter your personal information into free or personal-account AI tools.
  • Access to AI tools is limited to our staff, and we give them only the information needed for the task.
  • We do not use AI to make decisions without human review.

Direct marketing

From time to time we may use your personal information to send you information about finance, offers that may interest you, changes to our business, or new products and services offered by us or other Centra Wealth Group businesses.

You can opt out of direct marketing at any time by sending us a request in writing to privacy@centramoney.com.au or by using the unsubscribe function in any marketing email. We will not charge you for this and will action your request as soon as reasonably possible.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

We rely on you to help keep the information we hold about you accurate and up to date, and may ask you to confirm whether it has changed. You can contact us at any time using the details below.

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you. We will not charge you for making the request or for correcting your information. We may respond immediately; otherwise we will usually respond within 30 days. In some circumstances we are not required to give access, for example where the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings or the request is vexatious. If we refuse access, we will explain why.

If you believe information we hold is incorrect, inaccurate or out of date, you can ask us to correct it. We will give you an initial response within seven days and, where reasonable and after investigating, tell you within 30 days whether we have corrected it. We may need to consult other entities as part of this. If we refuse to correct it, we will give you our reasons and, at your request, take reasonable steps to note that you disagree with the information.

Government identifiers

If we collect government identifiers, such as your tax file number, we do not use or disclose them except as required or permitted by law, and we do not adopt them as our own identifier for you.

Dealing with us without identifying yourself

In most cases we need to identify you to assist you. Where it is lawful and practicable, you can deal with us anonymously or using a pseudonym, for example when making general enquiries about interest rates or promotions.

How do we keep your personal information secure?

We store personal information in paper and electronic form and take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Because the internet is not completely secure, we cannot guarantee the security of information you send to us online.

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by law.

Complaints

In the unlikely event that you are dissatisfied with how we have handled your personal information, or you have a complaint about our compliance with the Privacy Act, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We ask that privacy complaints be made in writing so we can be clear about the details.

We will usually acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours (or one business day) and give you a decision within 30 days. If we need more time, we will tell you why before the 30 days ends.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) at www.afca.org.au, by email to info@afca.org.au, on 1800 931 678 (free call), or by mail to GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001. You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

Contact us

By Mail:

Privacy Officer

Centra Money Pty Ltd

Level 12, 431 King William Street, Adelaide SA 5000

By Email: privacy@centramoney.com.au

By Phone: (08) 8211 7180

Changes to this policy

We may revise this policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our technology or our practices. Changes will be reflected on this page. To the extent permitted by law, a revised policy applies to personal information we already hold and to personal information collected after the change. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

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