Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to Essential Appliance Rentals Pty Ltd (ACN 093 580 655 Australian Credit Licence 393256), Essential Appliance Rentals, Essential, or "we" or "our", as relevant.

1. Who we are and what this policy is about

Essential Appliance Rentals specialises in leasing household products to consumers. In the process of providing you with leasing services, Essential Appliance Rentals may collect, receive, deal with and store your Personal Information and Credit Eligibility Information.

Essential Appliance Rentals is committed to safeguarding your Personal Information it collects, receives and discloses and is committed to doing so in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act, 1988 Commonwealth (Privacy Act) as amended from time to time.

This policy describes our commitment in relation to protecting your privacy.

2. What information does this policy apply to?

This policy only applies to:
(a) Personal Information;
(b) Credit Eligible Information; and
(c) Credit Information.

These items are defined in the Privacy Act.

Generally speaking, Personal Information is information (or opinion), in any form, about an individual (not a business, company or trust) whose identity is apparent or can be ascertained from the information held whether the information is true or not.

Credit Eligibility Information means information we collect from a credit reporting entity or that has been derived from information that is about the individual’s consumer and or commercial credit worthiness.

Credit Information means information that includes the following.

• Information about an individual, like their name and address that we may use to identify that individual.
• Information about an individual’s current or terminated consumer credit accounts and from the 12th March 2014, an individual’s repayment history.
• The type and amount of credit applied for in any previous consumer or commercial credit applications to any credit provider, where that credit provider has requested information.
• Information about an individual from a credit reporting body.
• Information about consumer and or commercial credit payments overdue for at least 60 days and for which collection action has started.
• Advice that payments that were previously notified to a credit reporting body as overdue or no longer overdue.
• Information about new credit arrangements an individual may have made with a credit provider, in relation to consumer credit currently or previously held, to deal with any defaults or serious credit infringements by that individual.
• Information about the individual’s consumer and or commercial credit worthiness.
• Information about court judgments which relate to judgments which relate to credit that an individual has obtained or applied for.
• Information about an individual on the national Personal Insolvency Index.
• Publicly available information about an individual’s credit worthiness, and an opinion of a credit provider that an individual has committed a serious credit infringement of credit provided by that credit provider.

Credit Related Information – for the purpose of this policy Credit Related Information includes, as relevant, any information we collect, store, use or disclose that out of Personal Information, Credit Eligibility Information and Credit Information.

By signing the agreement with us, you agree to the collection, use and disclosure of Credit Related Information as set out in this Privacy Policy. You do not have to disclose Personal Information to us. If you do not agree or do not provide some or all of the information requested, we may not be able to process or accept your application.

3. Our general commitment

Essential Appliance Rentals undertakes to collect, store and use Credit Related Information only in a manner which is compliant with the Privacy Act.

Essential Appliance Rentals will not use or disclose Credit Related Information other than for:

1. a purpose set out in this Privacy Policy,
2. a purpose for which the information was provided,
3. a purpose required or permitted by law,
4. a purpose you authorised or is disclosed to you, and/or
5. to give effect to your instructions.

Essential Appliance Rentals may collect, store and or disclose information about you to third parties for the following purposes:

1. to comply with the law;
2. to obtain a credit report about you,
3. to allow the credit reporting agency to create or maintain a credit information file containing information about you,
4. to provide you with promotional information about financial services and products we may provide (see section 7),
5. to manage and administer the agreement with you
6. to protect our lawful interests
7. to give effect to your instructions; and/or
8. if we negotiate with a third party the possibility of an acquisition of part to the whole of our business.

4. Our collection and Disclosure of Personal Information

Essential Appliance Rentals collects and discloses Credit Related Information as it may become necessary to process your application and give effect to your instructions.

The information we may collect or disclose includes, when permitted by law:

1. identification information,
2. the fact that you have applied for credit, the type of credit and the amount,
3. whether payments are more than 60 days overdue,
4. the fact that any overdue payments are no longer overdue or a default is remedied,
5. information whether you have committed a serious credit infringement (that is, acted fraudulently or shown an intention to not comply with your credit obligations
6. information about dishonoured cheques,
7. repayment history,
8. information about court judgements against you,
9. any information which is publicly available and relevant to your credit worthiness, and/or
10. certain insolvency information from the National Personal Insolvency Index

Third Party Service Provider

Subject to the Privacy Act, in the process of providing you with the services, we may share, as relevant, Credit Related Information with related bodies corporate and with third parties with whom we have dealings in the usual course of carrying on our business. These third-party service providers may include agents, portfolio managers, mailhouse operators, collection agencies, research providers, dispute resolution schemes, accounting and legal advisers.

We may disclose your Credit Related Information to other organisations, for example:

• Our related companies.
• External organisations that are our assignees, agents or contractors.
• External service providers to us, such as organisations which we use to verify your identity, payment systems operators, mailing houses and research consultants.
• Insurers and re-insurers, where insurance is provided in connection with our services to you.
• Credit reporting bodies, including disclosing that you are in default under a credit agreement (for an amount exceeding $150 and over 60 days overdue) or commit a serious credit infringement, if that is the case lenders, mortgage insurers, where relevant to credit we have provided.
• Debt collection agencies, if you have not repaid a loan as required.
• Our professional advisors, such as accountants, lawyers and auditors.
• State or territory authorities that give assistance to facilitate the provision of home loans to individuals.
• Your representative, for example, lawyer, mortgage broker, financial advisor or attorney as authorised by you, or if required or authorised by law, to government and regulatory authorities.

If we disclose Credit Related Information to third parties, we will ensure that these organisations are bound by similar (but not necessarily the same) framework of privacy protection as the framework that governs us.

5. Access to your personal information

You have the right to seek access to any information we hold about you. Contact our privacy officer in this regard. We may charge you a fee to access and or correct your Personal Information that is held with us. You have the right to ask us to correct any information we hold about you if the information is inaccurate or erroneous

 

6. Security of your personal information

Essential Appliance Rentals maintains strict procedures and standards and takes all reasonable care to prevent unauthorised access to, and modification and disclosure of, your Personal Information.

Essential Appliance Rentals will protect any Credit Related Information it holds against misuse or loss. If we no longer need the Personal Information, we will take steps to either destroy the information or de-identify it.

7. Direct marketing

Essential Appliance Rentals may use your Personal Information to provide you with information from time to time in relation to additional services and or products we provide. You expressly authorise us to provide you with this information. You may withdraw your consent at any time by calling us or unsubscribing directly from any email or sms.

8. Credit Reporting Bureau

We may collect, hold and use, information related to your commercial and consumer creditworthiness from a credit reporting agency in order to assist us to produce our own assessments and ratings in respect of your credit worthiness, which may also take into account information we obtain from you and other sources. The reports will have Credit Information from your credit file.

We also disclose information to the credit reporting agency. This activity is conducted for the purpose of assessing your credit capacity, eligibility or history in connection with an application or an obligation as a guarantor, collecting payments from you, and managing our credit relationship. Creditworthiness information includes information that is both positive (like payment information) and negative (like defaults or serious credit infringements that we may disclose to credit reporting bodies if you fail to pay us). If you are in default (for an amount exceeding $150 and over 60 days overdue), we may report the default to the credit reporting agencies in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988.

The credit reporting agencies we use may include:

• Equifax, PO Box 964 North Sydney 2059, www.mycreditfile.com.au, 130 762 007
• Illion, Level 7, 479 St. Kilda Road Melbourne3004, www.dnb.com.au, 1300 734 806
• Compuscan, Level 32, 101 Miller Street, Nth Sydney 2060 www.compuscan.com.au, 02 8019 7053

9. Government identifiers

Essential Appliance Rentals does not have access to any Personal Information that can be regarded as or be used as an identifier unless you supply it to us. For example, Essential Appliance Rentals does not have access to your Medicare number or tax file number. Essential Appliance Rentals will not use any government identifier that was disclosed to us (such as Centrelink number) to identify you.

10. Complaints

If you believe that your Personal Information has been mishandled by us or that we have breached this policy in any way, we invite you to write to our privacy officer through our Help Centre. We will make every effort to resolve your complaint internally.

If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, or AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.

Telephone:	1800 931 678 (free call)
Email:	info@afca.org.au
Internet:	www.afca.org.au
Mail:	Australian Financial Complaints Authority, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

Essential Appliance Rentals reserves the right to vary this policy from time to time. If we change the policy, we will post the revised policy as soon as it is completed on our website. We do not have to provide you with notice of changes to the policy. We encourage you to periodically review our privacy policy for any changes.

12. Transborder use of data

It is not likely that we will disclose Credit Related Information to overseas entities. If we disclose Credit Related Information to overseas entities, we will provide details on our website detailing the entities and countries where the information will be disclosed to. We will ensure that they protect the privacy of your Credit Related Information as we are committed under this Policy and the Privacy Act.

13. Website

When you use our website, we may collect statistical data in relation to your use of the site. This date includes the time and date of the visit to the site, the nature of the inquiry and any documents loaded. We may record your browser type and other internet protocols as permitted.

If you disclosed any Personal Information on the site, the information will be governed under this policy. The use of public internet public access to our website is not without risk. If you transmit Persona Information via the internet you should ensure that the transmission is secured.

Cookies
If you access our website, we may use Cookies for security and in order to better provide you with services. A "Cookie" is a small text file which is placed on your internet browser. We have access to the Cookie and can derive information in regard to the use of the site. You may change the settings on your browser to reject Cookies, however doing so might prevent you from accessing the secured pages on our website.

14. More Information?

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy or would like more information about the way we manage your Credit Related Information, please contact us on 1800 762 335.

Policy Effective Date: November 2017