Credit Guide – Our Legal Obligations

By law we are required to give you this guide. This guide acknowledges your right to ask about any assessment we make, the financial services we offer and, if applicable, or appropriate, our advice/recommendation about using one credit product rather than another. If in the rare event that you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our services, this guide also provides advice and direction regarding the contact details of our EDR provider –

Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) T: 1800 931 678 E: info@afca.org.au W: www.afca.org.au

Credit Suitability and Assessment Process

As a requirement of law, we cannot recommend any financial product to an applicant until we have completed a full assessment of the applicant’s current financial situation and objectives to ensure any products offered suit the applicants needs. During this process we make reasonable enquiries and also ask the applicant to provide verifiable information themselves, or, if required, request information from third parties we may contact. Please note we may be required by law to carry out these steps in order to process the application.

IMPORTANT – Please see below for a list of reasons where we cannot allow an applicant to enter into a credit contract or increase a limit on any other existing credit contract.

  • If the applicant is unable to fulfil, or fulfil under extreme hardship, any financial obligations to us
  • The applicant could only meet the proscribed financial obligations by selling the main family home
  • The credit contract does not meet the applicant’s requirements or objectives
  • Any regulation under the 2009 National Consumer Credit Protection Act that disqualifies the applicant

Requesting our Assessment Copy

Should a borrower require a free written copy of our assessment please be sure to request it:

  • Prior to entering into a credit contract or before we increase the limit on any existing contract provided by us
  • Any time up to 7 years from the date the contract was signed, or the credit limit increased

The timescales involved are imposed by law. Personal Loans For You have 7 working days from when the applicant requests us to supply it if the applicant’s enquiry is made within 2 years of the credit contract being signed, otherwise the time limit is extended to 21 days. If Personal Loans For You buy the applicants debt from the original credit provider we have an additional 8 days and 4 days to comply.

PLEASE NOTE: Personal Loans For You are not obliged to provide the applicant with a written copy of the assessment if the application for credit or a credit increase has been refused.

Dispute Resolution Process

As with all business relationships built on trust, honesty and integrity there will always be a difference of opinion when things don’t go to plan in regard to the contract, for example a borrower’s financial situation may have changed exponentially since the date the contract was signed. We realise that the unexpected and unplanned do happen from time to time and are firmly of the belief that effective communication is the best way to get the relationship back on track. Please see below for the steps to our dispute resolution process:

  1. If the borrower is dissatisfied with something Personal Loans For You have done, the first step is to call our office to resolve any matters amicably.
  2. If the borrower is still not happy, our Internal Dispute Resolution Manager Ben Tyrell should be contacted on 1300 800 260 to discuss the complaint. We also ask that the borrower put the complaint in writing, so it can be investigated further. The written complaint can be emailed to complaints@directfinance.com.au
  3. If the borrower’s grievance is still not resolved after completing the above steps our ASIC-approved External Dispute Resolution (EDR) provider, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) T: 1800 931 678 E: info@afca.org.au W: afca.org.au

Please note, our IDR process must be completed before our EDR provider is contacted or the matter will be referred back to Personal Loans For You to resolve.