In August 2020, we updated our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy. Keystart reviews this policy routinely to continually improve our level of service to you and advise how changes to our business practices might affect the handling of your personal information.
Keystart is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), which regulates organisations in their dealings with your personal information (ie, information or an opinion about you from which you might be reasonably identifiable). The Privacy Act requires us to publish a policy which provides you with current information on how we deal with your personal information.
Amongst other things, Keystart's Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy sets out how we collect, use and disclose your personal information and how you can contact us to request a copy of your personal information, request correction of your personal information or make a privacy related complaint.
Understanding how an organisation handles your personal information helps you to recognise when the security of your personal information may have been compromised and enables you to respond quickly in order to minimise potential damage. It also enables you to make better and more informed choices about how you share your personal information which will enable you to receive goods and services which meet your specific needs whilst minimising your exposure to spam and cyber-risks such as identity theft.
We have reviewed and updated our Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy to, amongst other things, reflect Keystart’s participation in comprehensive credit reporting as of 1 January 2021. As a credit provider, Keystart is required to provide specific personal information about individual credit activities to the credit reporting body Equifax. Equifax uses this personal information to prepare credit reports detailing the credit history of a borrower to other credit providers. Currently, the personal information which we provide to Equifax includes, the date you applied for credit with us, defaults and identity verification information (name, address and date of birth). Under comprehensive credit reporting, we will provide Equifax with a broader set of information, including:
Providing this breadth of information to Equifax enables them to produce credit reports capturing a more complete and accurate picture of your credit history. This will mean that credit providers are better able to determine if a credit product is right for you and even to tailor the features of that product for your specific needs.
A "grace period" is the time following the due date of an account in which the lender cannot report the account as a late payment as part of the Repayment History Information. The grace period is 14 days. Lenders who provide CCR data have taken into account the grace period as part of their calculation for late payments.
This information is sourced from Equifax. You can read more on the Equifax site.
A late payment is where the minimum repayment on a credit account, like a credit card, personal loan or mortgage has not been made on time, in accordance with the credit contract payment schedule (or within a 14 day grace period). Only licensed credit providers can share and receive repayment history information. This doesn’t include telco and utility companies. Repayment history information is recorded monthly and can be held on your credit report for two years. This is displayed as a number indicating how many days in arrears an account was in a specific month.
A default (or overdue account) is the reporting of a debt incurred as part of a credit contract where the lender has followed their obligations in trying to collect the overdue funds and has notified the customer of this action. A default can only be recorded on your report if you miss a payment which is more than $150 and is more than 60 days overdue.
Before listing a default the credit provider must have taken steps to collect the whole or part of the outstanding debt. This means they have sent you a written notice seeking payment (setting out the amount overdue) and a separate written notice advising you that the debt may be reported to a credit reporting body. The default is listed with Equifax to show that the debt is outstanding. This may or may not mean the account is active. A default remains on your credit report for five years.
This information is sourced from Equifax. You can read more on the Equifax site.
There will be new information added to the summary of your credit report, as well as under the heading of "Consumer Credit Liability Information". This may include repayment history information when it has been provided by a lender.
This information is sourced from Equifax. You can read more on the Equifax site.