Our Credit Guide

This Credit Guide explains who we are, how we help you find a loan, how we are paid, and what to do if you are unhappy with our service. Please read it before we help you with your loan, and keep it for your records.

1. About us
2. How we help you
3. Our obligations to you
4. Your preliminary assessment
5. Fees you pay
6. How we are paid
7. Referrers
8. Lenders we use
9. Complaints
10. Your privacy

01About us

Mortgage Champions is a Melbourne-based finance broker. Through our Personal & Asset Finance division we help customers with car and vehicle loans, personal loans, debt consolidation, novated leases, electric vehicle finance, motorcycle finance, loan refinancing and business car finance. We also help customers with home loans.

02How we help you

As a credit assistance provider, we can:

• talk with you about what you need the loan for and what you can comfortably afford;
• compare loan options from the lenders on our panel;
• recommend a loan, or recommend that you stay with your current loan;
• help you complete and lodge your application; and
• work with the lender on your behalf until your loan settles.

We are not the lender. The lender makes the final decision on whether to approve your loan, and sets the interest rate, fees and conditions in your loan contract.

03Our obligations to you

Responsible lending

Under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, we must not suggest a loan to you, or help you apply for one, if it is unsuitable for you. Before we do, we will:

• make reasonable inquiries about your requirements and objectives;
• make reasonable inquiries about your financial situation; and
• take reasonable steps to verify your financial situation.

A loan will be unsuitable if it is likely that you could not meet the repayments, or could only meet them with substantial hardship, or if it does not meet your requirements and objectives. Please be open and accurate with the information you give us, so we can find a loan that genuinely suits you.

Home loans – best interests duty

When we help you with a home loan (a loan secured by a mortgage over residential property), we must also act in your best interests, and prioritise your interests where there is a conflict with our own.

04Your preliminary assessment

Before we recommend a loan or help you apply, we will prepare a preliminary assessment of whether the loan is unsuitable for you. We keep a copy of this assessment for seven years.

You can ask us for a copy at any time during those seven years. We will give it to you free of charge within 7 business days if you ask within two years of us providing credit assistance, or within 21 business days if you ask after that.

05Fees you pay

[Choose one:]

Your lender may charge its own fees, such as establishment, account-keeping and early repayment fees. These are set out in your loan contract and are separate from anything paid to us.

06How we are paid

If your loan settles, the lender may pay us a commission. These commissions are not an extra fee for you to pay. We will tell you the commission we expect to receive on your loan, or how it will be worked out, before your loan proceeds.

For some loans, the interest rate you are offered can affect the amount of commission we receive. Where this applies, we will tell you before you proceed. [Confirm whether this applies to any of your lenders, and mention any volume bonuses or other incentives you may receive.]

07Referrers

[Choose one:] We do not pay commissions or fees to third parties who refer you to us. or If someone referred you to us, such as a car dealer, accountant or real estate agent, we may pay them a referral fee or a share of our commission. This is not an extra cost to you. Referral fees usually range from [$X] to [$X], and we will tell you the amount before your loan proceeds.

08Lenders we use

We have access to a panel of lenders. The six lenders we currently expect to arrange the most loans with are:

1. [Lender 1]
2. [Lender 2]
3. [Lender 3]
4. [Lender 4]
5. [Lender 5]
6. [Lender 6]

We can give you a full list of the lenders on our panel on request.

09Complaints

We want to know if something has gone wrong. Most concerns can be sorted out quickly by talking to us.

Step 1 – Tell us

Making a complaint is free. We will acknowledge your complaint within one business day, or as soon as practicable, and give you our final response within 30 calendar days. If we can't respond in that time, we will write to you to explain why, and tell you about your right to complain to AFCA.

Step 2 – Contact AFCA

If you are not satisfied with our response, or we haven't responded within 30 days, you can take your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.

Time limits may apply to complaints to AFCA, so you should act promptly or check the AFCA website for the time limit that applies to your situation.

10Your privacy

We collect personal and credit information about you so that we can provide credit assistance. We may share it with lenders, credit reporting bodies, valuers, insurers and the service providers who help us run our business, including the service we use to receive online applications. We handle your information in line with the Privacy Act 1988.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and store your information, how you can access or correct it, and how to make a privacy complaint.