Privacy Policy

Introduction

Red Tree Finance Pty Ltd ACN 661 567 184 (“we”/”us”/”our”), Australian Credit License Number 543794, endeavour at all times to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles which together will be referred to in this policy as “Australian Privacy Law.”

This General Privacy Policy applies to all persons accessing our website, dealing with us or from whom we otherwise collect personal information. We also collect personal and consumer credit information provided by persons applying for or receiving credit from us and, in doing so, endeavour at all times to comply not only with Australian Privacy Law, in general, but also with the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 (as may be amended from time to time). All persons who apply for or receive credit from us or you agree to guarantee another person’s credit from us, will be further protected by our Credit Information Privacy Policy.

Any person who receives credit from us and applies to vary the terms of the payments on the grounds of hardship will be additionally protected by our Hardship Privacy Policy.

Pseudonyms

You are not required to provide us with your name or any personal information if you do not wish to. You are free to use any name allowed by law. We, however, will not deal further with you without obtaining your official legal name and other verifiable pieces of personal information.

We are not permitted by law to provide you with consumer credit without obtaining proof of your identity and that is covered in our Credit Information Privacy Policy.

The kinds of personal information we collect

By accessing this website or otherwise dealing with us you agree to this General Privacy Policy in relation to the collection of personal information by the website.

As a result of your visit to our website, we may collect and store information about your visit to this website including:

• the domain name and IP address of the computer from which you accessed the internet;
• the date and time you accessed the website;
• the internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website;
• the pages you accessed while visiting the website;
• through the use of websites, software and internet tracking devices such as cookies, anonymous identifiers and session variables, we may also collect your email address.

Your internet service provider or the providers of your internet browser software may also collect such information for their own purposes. We are not responsible for the collection, storage and use of such information by these entities and refer you to their respective privacy policies.

As a result of you dealing further with us, whether as a prospective customer, an actual customer, guarantor, contractor, supplier or service provider, we may collect and store personal information from you such as:

• your name;
• address, previous addresses and how long you have lived at those addresses;
• date of birth;
• your employer, previous employers and how long you have been in such employment;
• your email address;
• your telephone numbers;
• identification documents (including but not limited to driver’s license and passport details etc.);
• bank account information and transaction history; and
• the details of any references you supply, including the names and addresses of your referees.

If you apply to us for consumer credit, we will collect and store consumer credit information in addition to the above personal information and this will be governed by our Credit Information Privacy Policy.

If you receive consumer credit from us and you apply to us to vary your payment arrangements under your consumer credit contract due to hardship, you may supply us with sensitive information in addition to the above personal information and other consumer credit information and this will be governed by our Hardship Privacy Policy.

If you provide us with bank account transaction history via our external provider’s platform, you understand that you authorise us to access your account information for ongoing use.

If you apply to us for employment, we may also collect and store personal and, in addition, sensitive information about you including your:

• education, training, and other qualifications;
• work history;
• professional or trade associations or union membership;
• hobbies and other interests; and
• criminal history.

How we collect your personal information

We may collect personal information about you from your visit to our website through the use of technologies such as anonymous identifiers, session variable, and/or cookies. You may be able to set your internet web browser to block or limit cookies. Some features of our website may not work as efficiently or not at all if you have done so.

As a result of you dealing further with us, we may collect personal information directly from you and this may be in person, over the telephone, by mail, over the internet, by email or fax or by completion of an application or consent form whether online or otherwise.

If you:

• apply to us for credit;
• agree to guarantee credit from us to another person;
• receive credit from us;
• apply to us to vary the terms of your payments under your consumer credit contract on the grounds of hardship; or
• apply for employment with us,

we may collect personal, credit and sensitive information about you from other sources when reasonable to do so. Among these other sources may be:

• a credit reporting body;
• someone authorised by you such as an agent, broker, accountant, solicitor, financial counsellor, introducers or a guarantor;
• a referee;
• an employer;
• a government body;
• another financial institution;
• a professional or trade association or trade union; or
• our agents,

and we may collect that information directly from them in person, over the telephone, by mail, over the internet, by email or fax or by completion of an application or consent form whether online or otherwise.

There may be instances where you will need to provide personal information about other individuals to us (e.g. about your spouse, dependents or other family members). If so, we rely on you to have obtained their consent to do so (including informing those individuals that you are giving their personal information to us and advising them about this General Privacy Policy and how they can obtain a copy of it).

How we hold your personal information

We use our best endeavours and take all reasonable steps to secure your personal information including:

• maintenance of a secure environment for storage of information whether in hard copy or in electronic form;
• use of a third party software provider, whom uses Azures security measures, which includes encryption of all sensitive data and penetration testing is completed on a monthly basis;
• requiring that access to such information be confined to authorised personnel only; and
• using technology such as encryption and password protection to secure any information kept in electronic form.

We are not responsible for the security of any computer or other device which you use to access our website.

When your personal information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information. However, any destruction or de-identification of personal information will be subject to our legal and regulatory obligations and other legitimate business reasons.

The purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information

If you are a user of our website, a prospective customer, a customer or guarantor of a customer’s credit, a contractor or supplier of goods and services to us, a job applicant or other person from whom we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information we shall do so only for those purposes which are:

• permitted by Australian Privacy Law;
• necessary for:

o the administration of any contract of supply of goods or services to or by us;
o the provision of our products to our customers;
o the consideration of any proposed guarantee of credit;
o assessment and processing of any job application; or
o otherwise for the administration and management of our business;

• better improve website usability;
• required by law;
• in order to investigate or assist with any investigation into any complaint about the conduct of our business, in particular, under Australian Privacy Law;
• to otherwise enforce any term of any contract or other right which arises out of our dealings with you;
• to communicate with you, by way of direct marketing, information about our products and services. If you do not wish us to do so, you can “opt out” of such communication by informing us in person, by telephone, by facsimile, by post or by email;
• to search and/or register any Personal Property Securities;
• as part of a prospective sale, transfer or restructure of our business; and/or
• to otherwise communicate with you or the purposes outlined above.

In addition, if you apply to us for consumer credit or receive consumer credit from us, we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in order to:

• assess your credit application;
• manage your credit contract;
• consider any application for variation of your payments whether or not on the grounds of hardship; and
• collect any debt or otherwise enforce any rights arising under your consumer credit contract.

To find out more on how we deal with your consumer credit information or sensitive information if you apply to us for consumer credit or receive consumer credit from us, please see our Credit Information Privacy Policy.

We may disclose your personal information, including consumer credit and sensitive information, to other parties as part of a process of merger, acquisition, sale of our business or our other assets.

If, for any of the above purposes, we disclose your personal information to any supplier of services to our business or to any prospective purchaser of our business which we shall do so only if it is necessary for the purposes listed above, we shall:

• do so in accordance with Australian Privacy Law;
• obtain assurances from those suppliers that they comply with Australian Privacy Law.

Whether we supply your personal information to overseas recipients

We do not intend to disclose your personal information overseas. We do acknowledge, however, that as part of our backup system, some of your information might be stored overseas (for example if we use “cloud storage”), but the information will generally not be available to be accessed by any person overseas.

Electronic Communications

If you apply for consumer credit with us, you understand and acknowledge that you give consent to electronic communications and that:

• paper based documents may no longer be given;
• electronic communications must be regularly checked for documents; and
• consent to the giving of documents by electronic communication may be withdrawn at any time.

By applying for a consumer credit with us, you authorise us to provide any or all information to you through electronic communication in accordance with the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, including but not limited to:

• notices and disclosure documents about my credit application such as a Credit Guide or a copy of my assessment;
• credit contract documents or variations to a credit contract;
• any other notices or documents required by any law; and
• notices or documents from us.

By applying for a consumer credit with us, you authorise us to act on instructions you send to us electronically, including by not limited to:

• email to the email address provided by us on our website; or
• any other method of electronic communication permitted by law.

How you may access your personal information held by us

You may request access to your personal, sensitive and credit information held by us by identifying yourself in person or by scanned attachments to an email and sending your request for access to us at:

Email: applications@redtreefinance.com.au

GPO Box 3220, Sydney NSW 2001

If we are unable to grant your access to personal, sensitive or credit information, we will give you our reasons in writing within a reasonable time. These may include where providing the information to you may:

• reveal personal information about another individual person;
• pose a threat to the health or safety of another individual person;
• not be permitted by law;
• reveal internal information of a commercially sensitive nature which is not required to be disclosed to you by Australian Privacy Law.

How you may correct any personal information we hold about you which is incorrect

If you believe any personal information which we hold about you is incorrect, please contact us in person by telephone,  by email, identify yourself and tell us what information which we hold about you is, in your belief, incorrect and how you want it changed.

If we cannot agree to the change to the information which you have requested, we will give you reasons in writing.

How you may complain about how we deal with your personal information

If you have any queries or complaints about our collection, use or storage of your personal information (including a complaint relating to any failure by us to comply with our obligations under the credit reporting provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or under the Privacy (Credit Reporting Code 2014), or if you wish to exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal information, please contact complaints@redtreefinance.com.au and address your email to The Privacy Officer. We will investigate and attempt to resolve any such complaint or dispute regarding the use or disclosure of your personal information.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your complaint, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA):

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Telephone: 1800 931 678
Mail: GPO Box 3 Melbourne, VIC 3001
Fax: (03) 9613 6399
Email: info@afca.org.au

Changes to this Policy

From time to time, we will make changes to this General Privacy Policy because of:

• changes to the law;
• changes to technology;
• changes to our systems.

We will notify such changes on our website. Where the changes affect you in a particular way, and you have a consumer credit contract with us, we will notify you if required by Australian Privacy Law and our Credit Information Privacy Policy.

Thank you for reading this General Privacy Policy.

Click here to see our Credit Information Privacy Policy