About us
| CREDIT LICENCE DETAILS | |
| Credit Assistance Provider: | WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd ABN: 13 085 123 539 |
| Australian Credit Licence Number: | 383519 |
| Email: | info@whitestar.com.au |
| Address: | 1B, Redwood Drive, Notting Hill, VIC 3168 |
| Phone Number: | 1300 652 842 or (03) 8514 4200 |
Credit guide
November 2023
This is the Credit Guide of WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd, ABN: 13 085 123 539, Australian Credit Licence: 383519.
A member of the WhiteStar Group. We are licensed to arrange loans under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009
Services We Provide
We will provide you with information on a range of lenders and products. Once you have chosen a loan that is suitable for you, we will help you to obtain an approval.
Our Panel of Lenders
We source loans from a panel of lenders. Subject to meeting the lenders credit criteria, we are able to obtain credit for you from these lenders. These lenders do not necessarily represent all the lenders who offer credit of the nature you seek. The six lenders with whom we conduct the most business are:
AMP Banking, , Resimac, Bankwest, My State and Macquarie Home Loans
Our Responsible Lending Obligations to You
We are obliged to ensure that any loan, or principal increase to a loan which we help you to obtain, is not unsuitable for you. To decide this, we may need to ask you some questions in order to assess whether the loan is not unsuitable. The law requires us to: Make reasonable enquiries about your requirements and objectives; make reasonable enquiries about your financial situation; and take reasonable steps to verify that financial situation.
Credit will be unsuitable for you if, at the time of the assessment, it is likely that the following would apply at the time credit is provided: You could not pay or could only pay with substantial hardship; or the credit will not meet your requirements or objectives. For example, if you can only repay by selling your principal place of residence, it is presumed that the loan will cause substantial hardship unless the contrary is proved. For this reason we must ask you to provide a significant amount of information. It is important that the information you provide is accurate, complete and up to date. If we proceed on incomplete or incorrect information, you may be in breach of your legal obligations to the lender.
We will provide you with a copy of our preliminary assessment of your application if you ask, within seven years of when we provided assistance to you. This requirement is only triggered if we give you credit assistance.
Our Fees and Charges
We sometimes charge a fee for our service. More details about the fees payable by you will be set out in a quote which we will give you before a finance application is lodged. You may obtain from us information about how these fees and charges are worked out.
You may be charged a lender’s application fee, valuation fees and other fees associated with the loan. These fees are not charged by us and will be disclosed to you prior to submission of the credit application. You understand that you will be liable to a credit provider (or valuer) for valuation fees and to a credit provider for any processing and/or legal fees incurred.
Commissions
We may receive commissions from the lenders and lessors who provide finance for you as our customers. These fees are not payable by you. You may obtain information relating to reasonable estimates of those commissions and how they are calculated. When we provide you with credit assistance, you may ask us for a reasonable estimate of the commission likely to be received, directly or indirectly by WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd and its credit representatives. From time to time, we may receive financial or non-financial benefits from WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd, lenders, lessors or others. A portion of a commission received by WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd may be paid to our employees or Credit representatives.
Referral Commissions
WhiteStar Finance may pay Commissions or bonuses to our staff for referring to other associated WhiteStar Group companies for diversification products and services for example to WhiteStar Conveyancing Pty or WhiteStar Property Pty. Referral Commissions or bonuses vary between 0% and 10% of professional fees charged by the associated company or income received by the associated company. These fees are not payable by you.
WhiteStar Finance may also pay Commissions or Bonuses to our staff for referring to WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd. Referral commissions paid by WhiteStar Finance are not payable by you. The commissions or bonuses vary between 0% and 20% of the commission received by WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd.
Referral Fees
We may pay a referral fee (i.e. commission) for third party referrals. An example of a referrer would be an accountant, real estate agent or solicitor. This fee is not payable by you. This fee estimate will be disclosed in the Credit Proposal Disclosure Document. You may on request obtain a reasonable estimate of the amount of commission and how it is calculated.
WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd and your representative may also receive a benefit for referring you to other specialist service providers.
Our Dispute Resolution Procedures
Internal Dispute Resolution:
If you are unhappy with our services, please contact us first as follows:
The Complaints Officer – WhiteStar Group
Telephone: 1300 652 842 or (03) 8514 4200
Email: info@whitestar.com.au
Website: www.whitestar.com.au
Post: Level 1B, Redwood Drive, Notting Hill, VIC 3168
We will try to deal with your complaint within 5 business days. If you want more information about our internal dispute resolution procedure, please contact us.
If you are unhappy with any decision or the handling of a complaint by us, you can refer your complaint to our external dispute resolution provider below. External dispute resolution is a free service established to provide you with an independent mechanism to resolve specific complaints.
External Dispute Resolution Schemes:
WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd is registered with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
If an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, or AFCA. AFCA provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.
Telephone: 1800 931 678 (free call)
Email: info@afca.org.au
Website: www.afca.org.au
In writing to: Australian Financial Complaints Authority GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
Complaints Pertaining to WhiteStar Property & WhiteStar Property Management
WhiteStar Property Pty Ltd is a licensed real estate agency and a full member of the REIV. If you have a complaint that has not been attended to by WhiteStar Property or WhiteStar Property Management, please refer your complaint to Consumer Affairs Victoria www.consumer.vic.gov.au or on 1300 558 181.
Complaints Pertaining to WhiteStar Conveyancing
WhiteStar Conveyancing Pty Ltd is a Licensed Conveyancer. If you have a complaint that has not been attended to by WhiteStar Conveyancing, please refer your complaint to Consumer Affairs Victoria www.consumer.vic.gov.au or on 1300 558 181.
Marketing and Communication Consent
I/we request courtesy calls, SMS updates and offers as well as E-Newsletters and updates from WhiteStar Finance and or associated companies from time to time, at your discretion, to review our loan and to let us know of any new products, services or opportunities which may be to our benefit. This consent shall continue for an indefinite period unless you notify us in writing to remove you from our courtesy calls or other contact, please notify us in writing to info@whitestar.com.au. For any SMS or Email communications you can also unsubscribe at any time.
Things You Should Know
You should ensure that you have approved finance, in writing from the lender, before entering a binding contract to purchase.
It is important you understand your legal obligations under the loan, and the financial consequences. If you have any concerns, you should obtain independent legal and financial advice before entering into any loan contracts. We do not provide legal or financial advice.
We do not make any promises about the value or future prospects of any property you finance with us. You should always rely on your own enquiries.
We represent lenders and have obligations to them, and in particular, to not provide any information we know is misleading or deceptive. We also have obligations under the law to report any fraud, forgery, or other illegal activities. Before using our services, it is important that you understand that we have these obligations.
WhiteStar Property Pty Ltd, ABN: 60 111 524 479 is a related company to WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd, ABN: 13 085 123 539. WhiteStar Finance complies with the responsible lending conduct obligations of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. Any credit assistance offered by WhiteStar Finance is carried out under the responsible lending guidelines. WhiteStar Finance will not be influenced by a borrower’s decision to purchase property through WhiteStar Property, whether or not the borrower sought credit assistance specifically for the purpose of purchasing property through WhiteStar Property. If you choose to purchase property through WhiteStar Property you are under no obligation to use WhiteStar Finance for the purpose of seeking credit for that purchase, any other purchase, or any other reason.
WhiteStar Conveyancing Pty Ltd, ABN 74 084 035 530 is a related company to WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd, ABN: 13 085 123 539. WhiteStar Finance complies with the responsible lending conduct obligations of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. Any credit assistance offered by WhiteStar Finance is carried out under the responsible lending guidelines. If you choose to use WhiteStar Finance to seek credit you are under no obligation to use the services of WHiteStar Conveyancing and visa versa if you choose to use the services of WhiteStar Conveyancing you are under no obligation to use WhiteStar Finance for the purpose of seeking credit for that purchase, any other purchase, or any other reason.
Privacy disclosure and consent statement
WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd, ABN: 13 085 123 539, Australian Credit Licence: 383519. A member of the WhiteStar Group and all of our related businesses [listed under ‘Further Information’ at the end of this Policy], authorised representatives and credit representatives (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) are collecting personal and financial information about you.
We collect personal information to provide you with the services that you have requested for the purposes of assessing your application for finance and managing of that finance. We may also collect your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing and managing our relationship with you. From time to time we may offer you other products and services. Even if you have your phone number/s on the ‘do not call register,’ you agree to receive calls and emails from us for an indefinite period. This consent shall continue for an indefinite period unless you notify us in writing to remove you from our courtesy calls or other contact, please notify us in writing to info@whitestar.com.au.
1. The information you provide will be held by us.
2. You appoint us as your agent to act as an “access seeker” to obtain your credit information from any credit reporting body on your behalf and for the purposes of assisting you with your finance application. You authorise us to disclose any credit information we obtain to prospective financiers in connection with your finance application.
3. We may use your credit information and any other information you provide to arrange or provide finance and other services.
4. We may exchange the information with the following types of entities, some of which may be located overseas.
- Prospective funders/ lenders, mortgage managers or other intermediaries and related parties in relation to your finance requirements;
- Prospective insurers or insurance representatives in relation to you requesting or requiring insurance quotes or information.
- Other related and unrelated organisations that are involved in managing or administering your finance such as third party suppliers, printing and postal services, call centres;
- Anybody who represents you, such as finance brokers, financial planners, lawyers and accountants.
- Any Real Estate Agent/s or agencies for the purposes of sourcing of property for you or for appraisals as requested by you.
- Any industry body, tribunal, court or otherwise in connection with any complaint regarding our service;
- Where we are required to do so by law;
- Anyone, where you have provided us with consent;
- Your employer, referees or identity verification services;
- Any organization providing online verification of your identity; and
- Any person or business considering acquiring an interest in our business or assets.
- Any of our related entities as listed as members of the WhiteStar Group of companies.
5. You consent to the release of personal information relating to your investment(s) and/or insurance policies to our agents upon request.
6. You may gain access to the personal information that we hold about you by contacting us. A copy of our full privacy policy can be obtained from our website, by visiting whitestar.com.au/privacy-policy/
Our privacy policy contains information about how you may access or seek correction of the information we hold about you, how we manage that information and our complaints process.
By asking us to provide you with our services, you consent to the collection, use, exchange and disclosure of your personal and credit information also as specified below:
- Consent to provide your personal information to a Credit Reporting Body (CRB).
- We can act as your agent to obtain a report or information about your consumer or commercial creditworthiness from a CRB.
- We may disclose personal information such as your name, date of birth and address to the CRB to obtain an assessment of whether that personal information matches information held by it.
If you do not provide the information, we may be unable to assist in arranging finance or providing other services to you.
Further Information – Members of the WhiteStar Group include: WhiteStar Finance Pty Ltd, ABN: 13 085 123 539; WhiteStar Car Loans Pty Ltd ABN: 65 093 403 582; WhiteStar Property Pty Ltd, ABN: 60 111 524 479, Real Estate License number: 088697L; WhiteStar Property Management Pty Ltd, ABN: 98 101 515 842, Real Estate Licence number: 072495L; WhiteStar Conveyancing Pty Ltd ABN 74 084 035 530 Licence Number 001723L; Interlink Group Pty Ltd, ABN: 32 062 722 632; Finance Selection Services Pty Ltd, ABN: 34 077 188 517; Mortgage Selection Services Pty Ltd, ABN: 96 080 116 454; Mortgage Resource Centre Pty Ltd, ABN: 51 088 211 803; Axcelerator Pty Ltd, ABN: 85 103 853 023; All at: 1B Redwood Drive Notting Hill Vic 3168 | Ph: (03) 8514 4200 | www.whitestar.com.au
You agree that we may collect, use and disclose your information as specified above.
This document has been updated on 27th April 2023.