Our Commitment To Protect Your Privacy

We understand how important it is to keep private and to protect your personal information. This Privacy Policy sets out our privacy commitment in respect of personal information that you may provide to us and how we manage your personal information, including credit related information.

We recognise that any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes indicated in our policy. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we collect from you or is received by us will be treated with appropriate respect ensuring protection of your personal information in accordance with applicable law.

In handling your personal information, Greenhouse Capital Pty Ltd (ABN 80 102 740 929, Australian Credit Licence 431955), trading under Greenhouse Mortgages, (“Greenhouse”), is committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988, the National Privacy Principles and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code (“CR Code”).

What is Personal Information?

When we refer to personal information we mean information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable from such information or opinion.

The term “Credit Information” is set out in section 6N of the Privacy Act 1988 and in summary, is personal information that has a bearing on credit that has been, or may be, provided to you or credit services or finance facilities that you have applied for. This includes credit for personal, domestic or household purposes and credit in connection with a business. Credit Information also includes personal information about you as a guarantor of a loan or as an insured party under a credit related insurance policy.

Why we collect your Personal Information?

We collect it so we can:

·     Assess your eligibility for the product or service

·     Assist you to complete applications for credit services or finance facilities including where online applications are not completed

·     Assess whether the borrower will be eligible for a loan if you act as guarantor

·     Provide you with the products and services you request or we recommend, which may include financial and insurance products and services

·     Provide you with information about products and services available to you from Greenhouse and associated businesses

·     Comply with legislative or regulatory requirements

·     Prevent fraud, crime or other activities in relation to our business and to our products and services

How we collect your Personal Information?

We collect personal information from you when you apply for or use our products and services including on-line credit applications, hard-copy credit applications and verbal discussions with us.

We also collect information from you electronically, for instance through Internet browsing, mobile or tablet applications. Each time you visit our website, we collect information about your use of the website.  We use technology called cookies when you visit our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive or in memory. They can record information about your visit to the site, allowing it to remember you the next time you visit and provide a better experience. The cookies we send to your computer cannot read your hard drive, obtain any information from your browser or command your computer to perform any action.

We won’t ask you to supply personal information publicly over Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform that we use. Sometimes we may invite you to send your details to us via private messaging, for example, to answer a question about your account. You may also be invited to share your personal information through secure channels to participate in other activities, such as special offers or competitions.

We sometimes collect information about you from other people or organisations without your direct involvement, including but not limited to publicly available sources, your authorised representatives, your employer and commercial information service providers (such as those that provide fraud prevention reports).

We may collect credit information about you from third parties. This may happen without your direct involvement, including but not limited to:

·     Credit reports from Credit Reporting Bodies or opinions from other lenders about your creditworthiness

·     Publicly available sources of information

·     Your authorised representatives

·     Your employer

·     Other organisations, who, in association with us, provide products or services to you or to whom you have applied for credit services or finance facilities

Throughout the life of your product or service, we may collect and hold additional personal information about you, such as transaction information or making a record of queries or complaints you make.

Where you are applying for and/or receiving credit services or finance facilities with, or via, us, you consent to our collection of your personal information both directly and indirectly as we deem necessary to properly assess your application and to provide such credit services or finance facilities.

What kinds of Personal Information do we collect and hold?

When you apply for our products or services we may ask for:

·     Identification information, which could include your name, address, contact details and date of birth

·     Government related identifiers such as a driver’s licence number or tax file number, if we are authorised to collect it (for instance, to verify your identity) and if you choose to supply it, however we will not adopt, use or disclose a government related identifier unless a lawful exception applies to such adoption, use or disclosure.

·     Certain identification information about you required by the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument

We may also collect information about your financial position for the purpose of assessing an application for credit and to assist in ongoing management of the credit product or guarantee, including but not limited to:

·     Your employment, income, expenses and savings

·     Your past experiences with us and other lenders – such as the kinds of credit products you have had or applied for and how you have managed your obligations

·     If you make a hardship application, other information about your personal circumstances

The Privacy Act restricts the collection of Sensitive Information. This includes information about your religion, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, criminal record and sexual orientation. It also includes health and biometric information. Where Sensitive Information is collected, stored, used or transferred about you, we will only use this information if you have consented, or in the exercise or defence of a legal claim.

Providing Your Personal Information to Other Organisations

In providing products and services to you, it may be necessary for us to provide your personal information to other organisations with whom we conduct business with. This includes:

·     Greenhouse Capital Pty Ltd, ACN 102 740 929

·     Well Nigh Capital Funding No 1. Pty Ltd. ACN 131 937 632, www.wellnigh.com.au

·     Perpetual Trustees Victoria Limited, ABN 47 004 027 258, www.perpetual.com.au

·     Third-party service providers, who are contractually required to comply with the Privacy Act

Other such organisations, include but are not limited to related entities, solicitors and legal advisers, accountants and auditors, printers and mailing services, insurers, collection agents, conveyancers and government agencies which regulate our products and services. Your personal information is only provided to those entities to the extent necessary to enable us to provide our products and services to you.  In some circumstances, we may store or process your information with entities that are based overseas.  If such storage or processing of your personal information occurs overseas, we will endeavour to ensure those entities are bound by relevant and compliant privacy policies in respect of your personal information.

Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:

(a)    The organisation has a commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment; and

(b)    You have consented to us doing so.

Sometimes we are required or authorised by law to disclose your personal information. Circumstances in which we may disclose your personal information would be to a Court or Tribunal in response to a request or in response to a subpoena or to the Australian Taxation Office.

Credit Reporting Bodies and Statement of Notifiable Matters

Credit Reporting Bodies are allowed under the Privacy Act and the CR Code to handle personal information relating to credit. If you apply for any kind of credit or offer to act as guarantor, we may disclose your personal information to, or collect personal information about you from, a Credit Reporting Body. This information is used for the purpose of determining your eligibility for credit, and we may create a rating of your suitability for credit. Credit Reporting Bodies may include your personal information in reports that they provide to credit providers to assist those providers in assessing your credit worthiness.

The Credit Reporting Body we deal with is:

·         Veda Advantage – www.veda.com.au

·         Dun & Bradstreet (Australia) Pty Ltd – dnb.com.au

·         Experian – experian.com.au

The above website provides their contact details, privacy policies (including policies about the management of credit-related personal information) and how these Credit Reporting Bodies manage credit related personal information.

If you fail to meet any payment obligations in relation to consumer credit or if you commit a serious credit infringement, we may be entitled to disclose this to Credit Reporting Bodies.

You also have the right to request Credit Reporting Bodies to not use your credit reporting information for the purposes of pre-screening of direct marketing by credit providers and not use or disclose your credit reporting information, if you believe on reasonable grounds that you have been, or are likely to be the victim of fraud.

Business Without Identifying You

In providing information to us, you may elect to remain anonymous or to use a pseudonym however we will not be able to provide you financial products or credit services or to assist you obtain financial products or credit services if you do not provide the personal information we request.  In most circumstances, it will be necessary for us to identify you in order to successfully do business with you, however, where, it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will offer you the opportunity of doing business with us, without providing us with personal information. Such a situation would be where you make general enquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers.

Updating Your Personal Information

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date.  During the course of our relationship with you, we will ask you to inform us if any of your personal information has changed.  If you wish to make any changes to your personal information, you may contact us.  We will generally rely on you to assist us in informing us if the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete.

Access To Your Personal Information

The Privacy Act gives you rights to access the personal information we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct the information if it is inaccurate.  We will provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you. You may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you at any time. To access personal information that we hold about you, please contact us by phone, email or letter at the contact details provided herein. We may charge a reasonable fee for our costs in retrieving and supplying the information to you.

There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your personal information.  For example, such a situation would be information relating to an existing or anticipated legal proceeding with you, or if your request is vexatious. An explanation will be provided to you, if we deny you access to your personal information we hold.

How Safe And Secure Is Your Personal Information That We Hold?

The information will generally be electronic and stored on secure electronic storages at Greenhouse premises or approved third party electronic secure storages. Any paper information will be stored in secure environments at Greenhouse premises or approved third party secure storages.

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information by storing it in a secure environment, and when the information is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed, it will be destroyed or permanently de-identified.   We will also take reasonable steps to protect any personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including training of our Team.

Marketing Information

We may provide you with information from time to time about new products and services available to you from Greenhouse or other businesses with which we have a relationship, but will not do so if you request us not to do so.

We may offer you products and services by various means, including by mail, telephone, email, SMS or other electronic means, such as through social media or targeted advertising through websites. We may also disclose your personal information to companies outside Greenhouse who assist us to market our products and services to you.  You can opt out of such offers by contacting us or in accordance with applicable law.

Further Information

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal information by writing or emailing us.

Our Contact Details

Phone: 1300 85 66 14

Email: info@greenhouse.net.au

Website: www.greenhouse.net.au

Postal Address: Suite 32, 574 Plummer Street, Port Melbourne, Victoria, 3207

Privacy Concerns and Complaints

If you are concerned about how your personal information is being handled or you believe there has been a breach by us of the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us.

We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as we can after receipt of your complaint and let you know if we need any further information on your complaint. We aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible. We will work to resolve your complaint within five business days, but should they take longer to resolve, a date by which you can reasonably expect a response will be provided.

The Financial Ombudsman Service offers a free service to consumers who are unable to resolve a dispute directly with a financial services provider. Their contact details are:

Phone: 1800 367 287

Email: info@fos.org.au

Website:  www.fos.org.au

Postal Address: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001

Under the Privacy Act you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about the way we handle your personal information. Their contact details are:

Phone: 1300 363 992

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Website: www.oaic.gov.au

Postal Address: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

Change In This Policy

We are regularly reviewing all of our policies and attempt to keep up to date with market expectations.  Technology is constantly changing, as is the law and market place practices. As a consequence, we may change this policy from time to time, with an up-to-date version available on www.greenhouse.net.au.

You may obtain a copy of this Privacy Policy by accessing this website or by writing to us at Suite 32, 574 Plummer Street, Port Melbourne, Victoria, 3207 and requesting a hard-copy of the policy.

This policy was last reviewed on 1 July 2020.