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Privacy Policy

Business Fuel Holdings Pty Ltd (ACN 605 339 437) and its related companies (including Scottish Pacific Business Finance Pty Ltd (ABN 79 008 636 388) and its related bodies corporate, Business Fuel Finance Pty Ltd ACN 629 419 021 and Business Fuel (Cash Advance) Pty Ltd (ACN 135 483 626)) (collectively the Company, we, our or us) place great importance in protecting our customers’ personal information. We must comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) contained in the Privacy Act 1988.

COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We are required by law to collect certain information from you to fulfil our obligations as a lender and we only collect this information once consent is obtained from you by agreeing to our Application Terms and Conditions. If consent is not obtained, the loan application does not proceed. Information is predominantly collected electronically from the commercial credit loan application form received from you, although we do obtain information in other ways, including via the Credit Score Process described in our Application Terms and Conditions.

Information which we collect from you includes:

  • your name, contact details (e.g. residential and/or business address, phone number, email address etc);
  • your occupation and employment details;
  • financial information (e.g. your bank account information, details of your income, assets, expenditure);
  • details of your transactions with us; and
  • other personal information, where relevant, such as the names and contact details of your landlord and any personal referees you wish to provide.

We also collect personal information about you from third parties.  Information which we collect from third parties includes, for example, information about your credit worthiness, credit history and details of bank transaction data, as well as information provided by your landlord (if applicable) and/or your personal referees. Information may also be collected from your bank, your authorised representative(s), agents, brokers, advisors, publicly available information and registers, credit reporting bodies and other credit providers.

Your bank account information may be obtained from a third party service provider, Illion Open Data Solutions Pty Ltd (Illion), that we use in order to assess your loan application and to manage your loan. Illion will access banking transaction data (which may include commercial and personal accounts) which is linked to the online banking credentials that you supply to Illion. Your provision of banking login credentials to utilise such third party service provider does not provide us with your login credentials or passwords or the ability to access your internet banking. Further information about bank feeds is provided below.

We will only disclose your personal information to third parties to the extent required by us to fulfil our obligations, such as to our credit reporting bodies (Equifax Pty Ltd and CreditorWatch Pty Ltd) to obtain your consumer and or commercial credit history and to report repayments and defaults; to debt collection firms and alternative dispute resolution service providers. Your personal information may also be disclosed to other service providers, such as our legal advisors, our auditors, IT services providers and identification verification service providers, third parties acting on your behalf (such as your accountant or power of attorney), your referees, other credit providers, as well as law enforcement agencies and regulators. Your personal information may also be disclosed for any other matter related to the primary purpose for which your information was collected, where permitted or required by law or where you have permitted us to disclose your personal information. We will also use your personal information for direct marketing purposes where we have your consent until you ask us to stop 

Tracking Technologies

When you access our website, from time to time “cookies” and “web beacons” may be used to collect information by Business Fuel and our partners such as marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, or other service providers. This information may include information concerning any of the following:

  • the date and time of the visit;
  • the IP address;
  • what pages have been viewed;
  • completion of the online application form;
  • marketing campaign information;
  • the server the computer is logged onto; and
  • the type of browser used.

Use of the information collected by the use of a cookie or web beacon

Subject to acceptance by the internet browser, cookies and /or web beacons are used to assist in product and service development and marketing. This assistance may include:

  • the allocation of a unique number to the internet browser;
  • the collection of statistics concerning visits to the Company’s website and the pages viewed;
  • the customisation of the website to suit the individual and/or particular potential customer groups;
  • to identify whether or not the individual has accessed a third-party company website via our website;
  • for security purposes; and
  • for the development and /or offering of Business Fuel products and services that appear relevant to you.

BANK FEED INFORMATION

When assessing applications for commercial credit and managing loans, we use bank feed information supplied to us by Illion. When you lodge an application for commercial credit, you are referred to Illion’s secure platform where you are required to provide your internet banking login information. Once you have logged into your online bank account(s), Illion, as our agent, accesses your bank account transaction history, usually for the most recent 12 months on the date you apply for a loan, in addition to further ongoing bank transactions for the term of the loan, for the purpose of assessing any future loan application or making a future offer to you.

Our access to the bank feed information supplied by Illion is “read only” and we are able to see, from the bank feed information supplied by Illion, your account names, balances and transaction details. This information assists us to assess your application for commercial credit and manage your loans both now and in the future.

Information about Illion’s privacy practices and procedures is available in its Privacy Policy available here: https://www.illion.com.au/privacy-policy-risk-marketing-solutions/.

NOTIFIABLE MATTERS

Please note that, if you apply for commercial credit with us, or propose to act as a guarantor, we may disclose your personal and/or credit information to, or collect personal and/or credit information about you, from Credit Reporting Bodies. You can find our Statement of Notifiable Matters here. Our Statement of Notifiable Matters provides you with information about the Credit Reporting Bodies we use and information about your rights.

CROSS BORDER DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your personal information may be disclosed to our business partners, service providers and third parties, such as software and data storage providers who operate or hold data outside Australia to assist us in delivering our products and services to you. These countries may include the United States of America, Japan and South Africa. Where we do this, we take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate data handling and security practices are in place.

SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted to us by you however we have taken all reasonable steps and implemented measures to maintain the privacy of this information once received by us.

All your personal information is electronically stored on our server. Security of personal information is achieved by the use of firewalls, anti-virus software, passwords, audit trails and spyware detection to limit unauthorised access and modification.

ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the information we hold about you is relevant, accurate, up-to-date and complete.

You can request that we provide you with access to information we hold about you. If we are able to, we will action your request within a reasonable time frame (usually within 30 days) following receipt of your request.

We may decline an access request in circumstances prescribed by the Privacy Act.

Should you require access to your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below.

CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will correct personal information about you within a reasonable time after we become aware that information is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. If a request for correction is received from you, we will within 7 days acknowledge receipt, and within 30 days of receiving the request (and without charge to you), take any appropriate action and inform you in writing of the outcome. We may be requested from time to time to correct personal information held by another credit provider or Credit Reporting Body. In such cases we will co-operate with other bodies to correct the information.

In all cases where information is corrected, we will notify all third parties to whom the information was disclosed and the corrections made subsequently within a reasonable time frame.

If we refuse your correction request, we will provide you with written reasons for our decision. We will also include a statement with your personal information about the requested correction (if you ask us to do so).

COMPLAINTS

You may contact us at any time if you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or about the way in which your personal information has been handled.

You may make a complaint about privacy to our Privacy Officer using the contact details set out below. Our Privacy Officer will first consider your complaint to determine whether there are simple or immediate steps which can be taken to resolve the complaint.

Your complaint will then be investigated. We may ask you to provide further information about your complaint and the outcome you are seeking. We will then typically gather relevant facts, locate and review relevant documents and speak with individuals involved.

In most cases, we will investigate and respond to a complaint within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days of receipt of the complaint. If the matter is more complex or our investigation may take longer, we will let you know.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you may make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC can be contacted by telephone on 1300 363 992 or by using the contact details on the website www.oaic.gov.au.

PRIVACY OFFICER

Should you require access to, or the correction of your personal information or wish to lodge a complaint, please write to the Privacy Officer, PO Box 9237, GCMC QLD 9726, or email enquiries@businessfuel.com.au or telephone (07) 5644 4503.

Last updated: 1 March 2022