This credit guide provides information about Fync that you need to know to make an informed and confident choice when using Fync concerning home loans. It summarises how our comparison service works, how we are paid, and what to do if you would like to make a complaint to us. In this credit guide, "Fync", "we", "us" and "our" references Fync and our employees.
The Fync Group Pty Ltd (ABN 50 151 787 585, ACN 151 787 585) holds Australian Credit Licence number 407713 and is authorised to provide credit assistance under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. We trade as Fync. In this credit guide, "Fync", "we", "us" and "our" refer to The Fync Group and its employees.
We help Australians find suitable home loans from both major and non-bank lenders. Our service is tailored to your needs and provides impartial guidance. We work with a broad range of leading finance and insurance providers to help you make informed decisions.
At Fync, acting in your best interests is a legal duty we take seriously under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. We place your interests first, ahead of our own and those of any lender.
We are committed to transparency, integrity and clear communication. We will be upfront with you about the options available, the product we recommend and why, and any fees, charges or potential conflicts of interest.
We aim to ensure the product we recommend best fits your needs and objectives and is in your best interests. We will always communicate in plain language to keep the process simple and clear.
This Credit Guide contains important information about us and the credit assistance we provide. It also explains:
We must give you this document as soon as practicable after it becomes apparent that we are likely to provide credit assistance to you. We provide credit assistance when we:
Before we provide credit assistance, we must assess that the loan is "not unsuitable" for you. A loan is unsuitable if, based on the information you give us, you could not repay it without substantial hardship, or it does not meet your requirements and objectives.
We document this in a Preliminary Assessment, which records your requirements and objectives, your financial situation, and your ability to make the repayments. We also take reasonable steps to verify the information you give us.
You can ask us for a copy of your Preliminary Assessment, free of charge, at any time within 7 years of the date of our credit assistance quote. We will provide it:
We do not usually charge you a fee for our credit assistance. A fee may apply in limited circumstances, for example if you cancel after we have started work on your application, or if you repay your loan early within a set period. Any such fee, and how it is worked out, will be set out in your Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal before it becomes payable.
Other fees and charges, such as application or valuation fees, may be payable to the lender or other parties. These are set out in your loan contract documents.
We receive a commission from lenders through our aggregator for loan contracts, such as home and investment property loans. This commission is not payable by you.
The commission comprises an upfront commission that lenders pay for settled (drawn-down) loans. This commission is calculated as a percentage of the loan amount and is usually paid after settlement. Additionally, trail commission is payable by lenders concerning settled loans, which are calculated monthly on the outstanding loan balance and paid in arrears.
Details of the commission to be received will be included in the Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal document that we will provide you with when credit assistance is provided.
We may also receive non-commission benefits, such as training, professional development, entertainment, gifts, conference attendance, sponsorship, or entry into a competition run by a lender or our aggregator. These benefits do not incur an extra cost to you. If any such benefit relates to assistance we provide you, we will disclose it.
We access credit providers and their lending products through our aggregator, Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd ABN 77 161 731 111, Credit Representative 437202, authorised under Australian Credit Licence 389328. The aggregator charges us a fee depending on our contract arrangements, consisting of:
We have access to a panel of lenders through Connective. Commissions paid by Connective's lender panel are transparent and do not influence broker or consumer choice. Connective is committed to quality consumer outcomes in all circumstances.
We obtain referrals from a range of sources, including accountants, financial planners, real estate agents and others. If you were introduced or referred to us, we may pay that referrer a commission or fee. Details of any commission or fee paid to a referrer will be included in the Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal.
We are committed to providing you with the best possible service. If at any time you are not satisfied, please tell us verbally or in writing with the details of your complaint, so we can work towards a prompt and fair resolution. We will handle any complaint fairly, respectfully and promptly, in accordance with ASIC's Internal Dispute Resolution requirements.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 02 8000 5444
We hope you are satisfied with how we deal with your complaint. If your concerns remain unresolved, or you have not heard from us within 30 days, you may contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), a free and independent dispute resolution scheme for financial services complaints.
Online: www.afca.org.au
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1800 931 678 (free call)
Mail: Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
Our EDR Membership No. 28172
It is important to act promptly, as time limits may apply. You can check the AFCA website for any time limit relevant to your circumstances and when it expires.
We do not provide legal or financial planning advice. You are responsible for understanding your legal obligations and the financial consequences of any loan. If you have any doubts, you should obtain independent legal and financial planning advice before entering a loan contract.
We are authorised to engage in credit activities and therefore assist to obtain loans for you from a panel of 36 lenders. Below is a list of lenders we work with.
AMP, ANZ, Auswide Bank, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of Queensland, Bankwest, Bluebay Home Loans, Bluestone, CommBank (CBA), Connective Home Loans, Firefighters Mutual Bank, Firstmac, Health Professionals Bank, Heartland Finance, Heritage Bank, IMB Bank, ING, La Trobe Financial, Liberty Finance, ME Bank, MoneyPlace, Moola Finance, NAB, Newcastle Permanent, P&N Bank, Pepper Money, Resimac, St George, Suncorp Bank, Teachers Mutual Bank, Thinktank Finance, UBank, UniBank, Virgin Money, Westpac, Wisr Finance.
In handling your personal information, The Fync Group and its employees ("we, us, our") are committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. The Fync Group holds Australian Credit Licence 407713. References to "we, us, our" include our aggregator, Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd and its related companies ("Connective").
We collect information about you for the purposes you agree to in this Privacy Disclosure Statement and Consent ("Consent"). When you ask us to assist, you agree we can, consistent with Australia's privacy and credit reporting laws, collect, use and exchange consumer and/or commercial credit and personal information ("information") about you for those purposes.
We collect information about you, as applicable, to source for you, or a company of which you are a director:
As your broker, we require the information we collect to assess your credit or guarantor application, or the credit application of a company of which you are a director, to source a suitable credit provider and any required insurance, and to manage the application process. If you do not provide the information sought, we may be unable to process your application or the company's application, or we may be limited in the other services we can offer you or the company.
The personal information we collect may include a broad range of information, from your name, address and contact details to information about your qualifications, employment history and financial situation.
"Personal information" may include sensitive information (including health information) and may include anything you tell us about a vulnerability you may have. We may use that information to assess your application and, where appropriate, to source a suitable credit provider or lessor and/or insurance provider. We may, as applicable:
Some recipients to whom we disclose your personal information may be based overseas. It is not practicable to list every country where such recipients are located, but such countries will likely include the Philippines, India and Nepal.
We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. All Connective staff are required by the terms of their employment to maintain the confidentiality of customer information. Access to your information is restricted to those employees whose job requires it. Access to our premises and computer systems is restricted through locks, password protection, internet firewalls and routers.
We will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information when it is no longer required for our business functions.
As part of providing our services to you, we may undertake tasks for a credit provider that are reasonably necessary to manage the application process. When doing so, we act as the credit provider's agent, with the same privacy law requirements applying to both of us.
We may submit your application to one or more credit providers. A complete list of the lenders (credit providers) we can access can be provided on request. A credit provider we apply to may disclose and collect information about you from one or more CRS.
The website of each credit provider contains details of each CRS with which it deals, and other details about information held about you, including whether that information may be stored or disclosed overseas and, if so, in which countries. The websites also describe your key rights. These details may be presented on the credit providers' websites as "notifiable matters", "privacy policy", "credit reporting policy" or "privacy disclosure statement and consent".
For each Consumer CRS a credit provider uses, the website details will include the following:
This detail will also be included by the credit provider who approves your application, in the privacy disclosure statement and consent document it provides to you. Each credit provider's website includes information on how to contact it and obtain a copy of its privacy documents in a form that suits you (for example, hardcopy or email).
You have the right to ask:
You can access the information we hold about you by contacting our Privacy Officer at Fync, Suite 115, Level 12, 121 Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW 2000.
In some cases, an administration fee may be charged to cover the cost of providing the information. Our Privacy Policy also deals with our complaints process and is available on our website, or we will give you a copy if you ask.
Schedule 1 at the end of this document sets out the contact details for each CRS.
Your agreement and consent to the disclosures and consents in this document will be effective for 12 months, but only in relation to commercial credit. Your agreement ceases when you either withdraw it by contacting us using our details above, or 12 months after the date you receive this document, whichever occurs first. This allows us to continue providing our services without asking you to sign a new privacy statement and consent each time you require commercial credit within 12 months. The extended effectiveness does not apply to consumer credit.
Where the applicant or guarantor is a company of which you are a director, you consent to the disclosure and use of your information, in addition to the company's information, in each of the ways specified in this document.
By asking us to assist, you consent to the collection and use of the information you provided for the purposes described above. For more information on your privacy rights, please visit www.oaic.gov.au.
Equifax: www.equifax.com.au 13 83 32
Experian: www.experian.com.au 1300 783 684
Illion: www.illion.com.au 13 23 33
If you have any questions regarding this Credit Guide or would like a copy emailed to you, please contact us. Our Fync Team is here to help.