This Privacy Policy was last updated April 2024

‘We’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refer to:
Soda Financial Services Pty Ltd ACN 675 156 886
Australian Credit Licence 557172.

Our dedication to safeguarding your privacy is paramount. We acknowledge the significance of safeguarding your personal data. This document outlines our pledge regarding the privacy policy concerning the personal data we possess about you and how we handle it. We understand that any personal data gathered about you will be utilised solely for the purposes for which it was collected or as permitted by law. Ensuring your confidence in the safeguarding of your personal data is of utmost importance to us. Our commitment to safeguarding personal data entails adhering to the Australian Privacy Principles outlined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act), the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 (Credit Reporting Code), and other pertinent legislations.

Personal information

When we mention personal information, we are referring to data that reasonably identifies you. This data may comprise details or opinions about you. The types of personal information we might gather encompass your name, date of birth, address, email address, phone number, account particulars, occupation, transaction records, and any other details necessary for identification. In the event of a finance application, we may additionally collect information such as the ages and number of your dependents and cohabitants, duration of residence at your current address, employment specifics, proof of income and expenses, as well as your Tax File Number or tax residency status. The personal information we collect, retain, and utilise may also incorporate your credit-related information.

Credit-related information

• Credit information pertains to personal details or opinions regarding you that influence credit that you've received or applied for. This encompasses information about your identity, the nature, terms, and maximum extent of credit extended to you, including issuance and repayment dates, repayment history, defaults (including overdue payments), payment specifics, new agreements, details of financial hardship arrangements (including whether such an arrangement has been made with us), instances of significant credit violations, court proceedings, personal insolvency, and publicly accessible information. and

• Credit eligibility information, which is credit reporting information supplied to us by a credit reporting body together with and any information that we extract from it.

We utilise your credit-related information to evaluate your suitability for receiving financial services. Typically, this information is shared between credit and finance providers as well as credit reporting agencies. In the event of an employment application with us, we'll gather details regarding your employment history and contact your referees for additional insights about you.

How do we collect your personal information?

Whenever feasible and appropriate, we'll gather your personal information directly from you. Additionally, we might obtain information about you from publicly accessible sources, such as public records or social media platforms, or through third-party sources. This can include collecting your personal information from credit reporting agencies, finance brokers, employers, and other individuals like accountants, lawyers, and referees.

Why we collect your personal information

We gather and receive personal information about you, including credit-related details, to facilitate our business operations. This includes assessing your finance application, administering the finance provided, confirming your identity, communicating with you, mitigating risks, and fulfilling our legal responsibilities. Additionally, we may collect your personal information for direct marketing purposes and to maintain our relationship with you. Technological advancements allow companies like ours to obtain and utilise information to gain a more comprehensive understanding of our customers. Periodically, we may also present you with alternative products and services.

Disclosure of your personal information?

We may share your personal information with various parties, including:

·       Existing or potential funders or intermediaries regarding your finance needs.

·       Other guarantors, borrowers, and security providers, if applicable.

·       Borrowers or potential borrowers, particularly concerning any credit you guarantee or intend to guarantee.

·       Organisations involved in managing or administering your finance, such as valuers, surveyors, third-party suppliers, printing and postal services, call centres, mortgage and trade insurers, recovery firms, debt collectors, lawyers, and credit reporting agencies.

·       Our agents, contractors, or external service providers for specific functions like statement production, debt recovery, and IT support.

·       Companies providing information and infrastructure systems to us.

·       Representatives acting on your behalf, such as finance brokers, lawyers, guardians, individuals with power of attorney, and accountants.

·       Individuals or entities with your consent.

·       Auditors, insurers, reinsurers, and healthcare providers.

·       Claims-related providers like assessors and investigators assisting with claims.

·       Legal obligations, such as complying with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 or court-issued subpoenas.

·       Entities involved in our funding arrangements, such as trustees, investors, rating agencies, auditors, or advisers.

·       Other financial institutions for processing mistaken payments.

·       Providers of products or services utilised or marketed by us.

·       Your current or past employers, referees, or identity verification services.

·       Before disclosing your personal information to any party, we will ensure:

The recipient shares a commitment to protecting your personal information comparable to ours.

You have provided consent for the disclosure.

Credit-related information

We share credit-related information to evaluate your finance application and manage the provided finance. If you're considering becoming a guarantor, one of our procedures may involve obtaining a credit report about you.

The credit-related data we possess about you may be stored electronically on our secure servers or in paper form. We utilise cloud storage for this information, which may include credit-related data, and these servers might be located outside Australia.

When we receive credit eligibility information from a credit reporting agency about you, we may also seek publicly available information and details about any significant credit infringements you may have committed.

We may disclose your credit-related information to overseas entities that provide support functions to us, including locations like the USA, Canada, Malaysia, India, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. For more details about these entities, feel free to reach out to us. When we disclose your credit-related information to overseas entities, we ensure appropriate data handling and security measures are in place.

The credit reporting agency we utilise is Equifax Pty Ltd. You can access a copy of their privacy policy at equifax.com.au.

Notifiable matters

We're required by law to inform you about 'notifiable matters' concerning how we utilise your credit-related information. You have the right to request these notifiable matters (along with this privacy policy) in an alternative format.

We share your credit-related information with credit reporting agencies. This information is used to verify your identity, evaluate your creditworthiness, assess your finance application, and manage your finance. The credit reporting agency may share the information we provide about you with other credit providers to aid in their assessment of your creditworthiness. Additionally, we may access information that other credit providers have shared with the credit reporting agency to assist in our evaluations of your creditworthiness.

The information we exchange with credit reporting agencies includes your identification details, loan types, borrowing amounts, loan payment history, and any serious credit infringements (such as fraud).

If you fail to meet your payment obligations or commit a serious credit infringement regarding any finance we've provided or arranged, we may disclose this information to a credit reporting agency.

You have the right to request access to your credit-related information held by us and request corrections if necessary.

At times, credit reporting agencies may use your credit-related information for 'pre-screening' credit offers at the request of other credit providers. You can contact the credit reporting agency to opt out of this use of your information.

If you suspect you've been a victim of fraud, you can notify the credit reporting agency. Upon receiving your notification, the credit reporting agency must refrain from using or disclosing your credit-related information for 21 days. You can contact Equifax Pty Ltd, illion.com.au, or experian.com.au for more information.

Notifiable Data Breaches

The Privacy Act incorporates a Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme, which mandates us to inform you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about certain data breaches. We'll also recommend steps you can take to mitigate the impacts of a breach, such as changing your password.

Under the NDB scheme, we're required to notify you about a data breach likely to result in serious harm to affected individuals. There are exceptions where notification isn't mandatory, such as when appropriate remedial action has been taken to eliminate the risk of serious harm to any individuals.

If we suspect a data breach has occurred, impacting your personal information and posing a likely risk of serious harm, we'll promptly notify you and the OAIC. We'll maintain close communication with you regarding the breach's nature, the measures we're implementing, and steps you can take to minimise the impact on your privacy. If you believe any personal information we hold about you has been affected by a data breach, please contact us at info@sodafin.com.

Direct marketing

Occasionally, we may utilise your personal information to furnish you with updated details regarding finance offers that may be of interest to you, organisational modifications, or new products or services offered by us or our affiliated companies.

If you prefer not to receive marketing information, you can opt out at any time by emailing us at info@sodafin.com. If the marketing communication is via email, you can also utilise the unsubscribe function. We won't levy any charges for honouring your request and will endeavour to fulfill it within a reasonable timeframe.

Updating your personal information

Maintaining accurate and current personal information about you is of utmost importance to us. Throughout our relationship, we may request you to notify us of any changes to your personal information.

Should you need to update any details, please feel free to reach out to us. We typically depend on you to ensure the information we have about you remains accurate and complete.

Access and correction to your personal and credit information

We are committed to granting you access to the personal and credit-related information we hold about you. You have the right to request access to any of this information at any time.

Please note that we may charge a fee to cover our costs for retrieving and providing this information to you. Depending on the nature of your request, we may respond immediately. Otherwise, we typically aim to respond within seven days of receiving your request. In some cases, we may need to reach out to other entities to properly investigate your request.

There are situations where we may not be obligated to provide access to your personal or credit-related information. For instance, if the information pertains to ongoing or anticipated legal proceedings, if your request is deemed vexatious, or if the information is commercially sensitive. If access is denied, we will provide an explanation for our decision.

If you believe any of the personal or credit-related information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate, or outdated, you have the right to request a correction. Upon receiving your request, we will aim to correct the information promptly or provide an initial response within seven days. Following our investigation, we'll inform you about whether the information has been corrected within 30 days. We may need to consult with other entities as part of this process.

Should we refuse to correct personal or credit-related information, we'll provide you with our reasons for this decision.

Using government identifiers

When we collect government identifiers, such as your tax file number, we do not use or disclose this information other than as required by law and neither will we ever use a government identifier to identify you.

Business without identifying you

In most cases, it will be essential for us to verify your identity to conduct business with you successfully. However, where lawful and feasible, we'll provide you with the option to engage with us without furnishing personal information. For instance, if you're making general inquiries about interest rates or current promotional offers, we may offer you the opportunity to proceed without providing personal details.

Sensitive information

We'll only gather sensitive information about you with your explicit consent. Sensitive information encompasses details regarding your racial or ethnic background, political beliefs, memberships in trade or professional associations or unions, sexual orientation, criminal history, or health status.

How safe and secure is your personal information we hold?

We are committed to safeguarding your personal information by storing it in a secure environment. This may include storing your information in both paper and electronic formats. We will take all reasonable measures to prevent misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure of your personal information.

Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal or credit-related information, or if you have a complaint regarding our compliance with the Privacy Act and the Credit Reporting Code, you can contact us via email at info@sodafin.com

Upon receiving your complaint, we'll acknowledge it within seven days and aim to provide you with a decision within 30 days.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response from our complaints officer, you have the option to escalate your complaint to our External Dispute Resolution Scheme, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). You can reach AFCA by phone at 1800 931 678, via email at info@afca.org.au, or by mail at GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001.

Further information

You may request further information about the way we manage your personal or credit-related information by contacting us at info@sodafin.com

Change in our privacy policy

We regularly review all our policies to ensure they align with market expectations. Given that technology, laws, and market practices evolve continuously, we may need to update this privacy policy periodically or as circumstances dictate. You can access the most current version of our privacy policy on our website at www.sodafin.com.