This policy explains how Total Home Loan Options (Australian Credit Licence 517191) collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information and credit-related information. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles and, where they apply to us, Part IIIA of the Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code.

It applies to everyone we deal with — clients, prospective clients, guarantors, referrers and visitors to this website.

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary to help you with your finance. Depending on your situation, this may include:

• Your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email
• Identification documents, such as your driver’s licence or passport
• Employment details, income, assets, liabilities and living expenses
• Credit information, such as your credit history, credit reports and repayment history
• Details of the property you’re buying or refinancing
• Information about other people on your application, such as co-borrowers or guarantors (please let them know you’ve shared it)

We only collect sensitive information, such as health information relevant to a hardship request, with your consent or where the law allows.

Most of the time we collect information directly from you — in person, by phone or video call, by email, or through forms on this website.

With your consent, we may also collect information from others, such as lenders, credit reporting bodies (usually via a lender), your employer, accountant, real estate agent, valuer or conveyancer, and identity verification services.

If you don’t give us the information we ask for, we may not be able to help you find or apply for a loan.

• To understand your needs and objectives and recommend a loan that is not unsuitable for you, as required by responsible lending laws
• To prepare, lodge and manage your loan application and any First Home Owners Grant application
• To verify your identity and meet our anti-money laundering and other legal obligations
• To keep in touch about your loan and let you know about products or services that may interest you (you can opt out at any time)
• To run our business, including training, quality checks, insurance and dispute handling

We share your information only as needed to arrange your loan or as required by law. This may include:

• Lenders and lenders’ mortgage insurers
• Our mortgage aggregator, Loan Market Group (LMG)
• Valuers, conveyancers, solicitors, accountants and real estate agents involved in your transaction
• Service providers who help us run our business — for example our CRM, document storage, IT and loan processing support providers — under confidentiality obligations
• Government bodies such as state revenue offices (for grants), regulators, and anyone we’re required to disclose to by law

We never sell your personal information.

Some of the service providers we rely on — for example cloud-based CRM, email and document storage — may store or process your information on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to make sure your information is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through contractual protections with those providers.

When you apply for credit, the lender will usually obtain your credit report from a credit reporting body. We may receive and use that credit information to help assess and arrange your loan.

The credit reporting bodies lenders commonly use include Equifax (equifax.com.au), Experian (experian.com.au) and illion (illion.com.au). Each has a policy explaining how it handles your credit information, available on its website.

You can ask a credit reporting body not to use your information for direct marketing pre-screening, and if you believe you are a victim of fraud, you can ask it not to use or disclose your credit information for a ban period.

We store your information securely, in electronic systems with access controls and in secure physical storage where paper files are kept. Only people who need your information to do their job can access it.

We keep records for as long as the law requires. When we no longer need your information, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

Like most websites, ours uses cookies and server logs to understand how the site is used — for example the date and time of visits, pages viewed and time spent. This information is collected on an aggregate basis and does not identify you. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, though some parts of the site may not work as intended.

Our website may link to other sites. We’re not responsible for their privacy practices.

From time to time we may send you information about home loans, reviews or services that may interest you. You can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link or by contacting us.

You can ask for access to the personal and credit information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it if it’s inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading. Contact our Privacy Officer — we’ll respond within a reasonable time, generally within 30 days.

If we refuse a request, we’ll explain why in writing and tell you how to complain.

If you have a concern about how we’ve handled your information, please contact our Privacy Officer first. We’ll acknowledge your complaint promptly and aim to resolve it within 30 days. For complaints about credit information, we’ll acknowledge your complaint within 7 days.

If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) — details below. You can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

We review this policy regularly and may update it to reflect changes in the law, technology or how we operate. The latest version will always be on this page, and we’ll give you a free copy on request.