Credit Guide

 
 

This document provides you with information relating to our activities and those of our credit representatives. It contains information about various fees and charges that may be payable by you to us, as well as about certain commissions we may receive from a licensee when we are acting as a credit representative, or we pay to certain third parties. It also contains information about what you should do if you have a complaint or dispute in connection with our services as a credit representative.

What is a credit representative?
A ‘credit representative’ is a person who has been authorised by a credit licensee to engage in specified credit activities on behalf of the licensee. Our licensee is [companyname].

What is credit assistance?
We give you credit assistance when:

1. we assist you to apply for a particular loan or lease;
2. we suggest you apply for a particular loan or lease (or suggest you apply for an increase to an existing loan); or
3. we suggest you remain in your current loan or lease.


The assessment we need to do before giving you credit assistance
Before we provide credit assistance to you, we assess whether the particular loan or lease is suitable for you. To do this, we need to make reasonable inquiries and verify that:

- the loan or lease or increase will meet your requirements and objectives; and
-you can meet the proposed repayments.


We won’t be able to give you credit assistance if our assessment shows that:

- you won’t be able to meet the proposed repayments without substantial hardship; or
- the loan or lease won’t meet your requirements or objectives.


Getting a copy of our assessment
If we provide you with credit assistance, you can ask us for a copy of our assessment any time up to 7 years after we provide you with a credit assistance quote. To request a copy please contact us. We will provide you with a copy:

within 7 business days after the day we receive your request – provided you make the request within 2 years of the date of our credit assistance quote; or
otherwise, within 21 business days after the day we receive your request.


Information about the licensee and its credit representatives
We act as a credit representative for [companyname]. We are authorised to engage in credit activities including providing credit assistance on its behalf.

Subject to meeting credit criteria, we are able to assist you to obtain loans and leases for you from a broad range of lenders and lessors through our Broker Group. Our Broker Group does not require us to recommend any particular lender and our Broker Group does not set any quotas or obligations on us relating to recommending any particular lender. The Broker Group’s panel of lenders includes a number of lenders and loan distributors that are part of the National Australia Bank Group. These include National Australia Bank Ltd and FAST
Lend Pty Ltd.

The following are the lenders or lessors with whom we generally conduct the most business:

-Commonwealth Bank of Australia
-Fastlend
-St George
-Suncorp
-ANZ
-Westpac
-ING

Ownership
We obtain mortgage aggregation services from the Broker Group. The Broker Group is a member of the National Australia Bank Group. The Broker Group provides services at arm’s-length to our business which include IT systems, loan information and lodgement systems, training and development, commission processing, conferences and professional development events, and assistance with regulatory and compliance obligations. In consideration of the services the Broker
Group gives us, we pay fees to the Broker Group or the Broker Group retains some of the commission panel lenders pay on loans we arrange.

Our business is owned and managed independently from the Broker Group and National Australia Bank Limited (NAB).

Fees and charges


Fees payable for the provision of credit assistance
In most instances, we will not charge you any fees for providing credit assistance to you. If applicable, we may charge a fee for providing credit assistance. More detail about those fees will be set out in a quote we will give to you before we provide you with credit assistance.

Fees payable in relation to acting as a credit representative
We may receive remuneration from our Licensee and/or Broker Group and do not charge you any fees or charges in relation to acting as a credit representative.

Other fees and charges
You may have to pay other fees and charges (such as an application fees, valuation fees and other fees) to the lender, lessor or other parties. You should review the disclosure documents and your loan contract or lease for further details of any such fees and charges.

Comissions


Commissions we receive from our licensee
Our Licensee has appointed our Broker Group as its agent to receive commissions from lenders and lessors and to pay us commission in relation to loan contracts or leases for which we act as a credit representative and provide credit assistance. The total amount of commission we may receive in relation to your loan or lease may vary depending on the lender or lessor, the term, the features, the amount of the loan or lease you ultimately choose and the amount and timing of the repayments that you make.

Loan Contracts such as Home Loans, Investment Property Loans

Upfront commission payable by lenders in relation to home loans and investment property loans is calculated as a percentage of the loan amount and is generally in the range 0.55% and 0.88% of the loan amount. It is usually paid after settlement of the loan.

Trail commission payable by lenders in relation to home loans and investment property loans is generally calculated regularly (monthly, quarterly, bi-monthly or annually) on the outstanding loan balance and is paid in arrears. The trail commission payable by lenders is generally in the range of nil and 0.385% per annum of the outstanding loan amount.

Leases

Upfront commission payable by lessors in relation to leases is calculated as a percentage of the lease amount and is generally in the range of 1.65% and 3.3% of the lease amount. It is usually paid after settlement of the lease.

Trail commission is generally not payable in relation to leases.

Further details of the commission earned by us will be included in the credit proposal disclosure document we will provide to you at the same time as we provide you with credit assistance.

You can request information from us about the fees that we are likely to receive, how those fees are calculated, and our reasonable estimate of the fees or commissions that will be payable.

Volume bonus arrangements
From time to time we or our Broker Group may receive a benefit, directly by way of cash bonus or additional commissions or indirectly by way of training, professional development days or sponsorship, if we or our Broker Group write a particular volume of loans offered by those lenders.

Commissions payable by us
If a third party has introduced you to us or referred you to us, we may pay them a commission or a fee. More detail about those payments will be set out in the credit proposal disclosure document we will give to you before we provide you with credit assistance.

We may obtain referrals from a range of sources, including real estate agents, accountants, financial planners or other people.

Further information about referral commissions, including our reasonable estimate of the amount of any commission payable and how it is calculated is available from us on request and will be included in the credit proposal disclosure we will supply to you when we provide you with our credit assistance.