Privacy policy

This is the privacy policy of Energy Lease Pty Ltd trading as Smart Ease in Australia (ABN 25 601 345 055) and New Zealand (NZBN 6532294) (“we”, “us” and “our” in this policy).

We seek to protect and maintain the privacy, accuracy and security of your personal information. We will comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) in the Privacy Act (Cth) 1988 (“Privacy Act”), the Privacy Act, and, when applicable, the Credit Reporting Privacy Code (“CR Code”) and or the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 (as applicable), and all other relevant laws, regulations and codes relating to privacy and personal information (‘Privacy Law’).

Words defined in the Privacy Act, the APPs, the CR Code and the New Zealand Privacy Act have the same meaning when used in this policy.

We may collect personal information about you such as:

  • your name, current address details, previous address details, and landlord or mortgage details including address and phone number
  • date of birth, gender and marital status
  • government identifiers such as driver licence number and passport details
  • email address and telephone/mobile numbers
  • financial information (including credit history), bank account and/or credit card details, and personal references
  • current and previous place of employment, position within the current and previous place of employment, employer’s address and contact details, previous employer details, and business details (if you are applying as a business), and
  • sensitive information about you in relation to insurance products or if you are seeking assistance with financial hardship.

We collect information about your accounts and transactions with us.

We may also collect information when you use our websites. Please refer to the ‘Websites’ section of this policy for further details.

If there is another applicant named in a credit application, you may need to provide their personal information, and you warrant that the other applicant has consented to the collection of their personal information for the reasons it is being collected.

How we collect personal information

We collect personal information in a variety of ways. Mainly we will collect information from you when you knowingly provide it to us by telephone, in person or in documentation such as an application form (which may be an online application). We also collect information when you make a request or enquiry of us.

We may also collect personal information from publicly available sources or third parties, such as a referee provided by you, a credit-reporting body or other credit provider, an insurer of your property, or a person selling your debt to us or engaging us to collect the debt.

Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information about individuals when it is necessary for us to carry on our business functions or to comply with laws.

Importantly, in some circumstances if you do not provide the information that we request, we may not be able to provide our services to you or provide them to the same standard.

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information to answer your enquiry and/or provide the information or service that you requested.

We may also collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information:

  • to enable us to develop, administer and manage our services and businesses
  • to customise services to better meet your needs and preferences
  • to assess your application and manage your account with us
  • to compile a customer profile about you to serve you better
  • to engage a credit-reporting body
  • to conduct a credit and reference check
  • to assess your creditworthiness; for billing purposes and collection of debts
  • statistical purposes
  • future promotional and marketing purposes including direct marketing purposes
  • for research purposes to better improve our websites, products or services
  • any other customer support purposes
  • to notify credit providers of a default by you of your agreement with us
  • to advise credit providers of the status of your agreement with us, in circumstances where you are in default with credit providers
  • to deal with complaints
  • to enforce our rights when you are in breach, and
  • when authorised or required by law. In Australia these laws include:
    • the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), which requires us to collect personal information about you when verifying your identity
    • the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth), which requires us to make inquiries about you when assessing an application for credit by you, and
    • the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth), under which we may need to collect personal information about you to record a security interest on the
    • Personal Property Securities Register.

In New Zealand these laws include:

    • the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Act 2017 (for example, to comply with identity verification requirements)
    • the Tax Administration Act 1994 (for example, to comply with record keeping requirements)
    • the Personal Property Securities Act 1999 (to record a security interest on the Personal Property Securities Register), and, to the extent necessary
    • the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (for example, to comply with the Responsible Lending Code).

When we may disclose your personal information to third parties

In the course of conducting our business we may provide your personal information to:

  • related companies of ours, including our entities in Australia, New Zealand and overseas
  • distributors and introducers of our products and services
  • credit-reporting bodies
  • other credit providers and insurers
  • service providers including mail houses, printers, call centres, marketing companies, and technology providers
  • government bodies
  • regulatory bodies, law enforcement authorities and toll operators in New Zealand, Australia and overseas
  • persons who act as your guarantor or who provide security for credit to you
  • debt collectors and assignees of your debts
  • a recognised external dispute resolution scheme of which we are a member,
  • our professional advisors, including financial and other advisers, our lawyers, auditors and accountants
  • any person who is considering whether to acquire or who has acquired any part of our business, or the rights or obligations under our contract with you
  • other participants in financial and payment systems such as banks, credit providers, clearing entities and credit-card associations.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

  • to meet the purpose for which it was provided
  • if we have your consent to do so or otherwise when we are authorised by law
  • if we are required by law to disclose the information.

Credit reporting

We may access credit-related personal information about you through the credit-reporting system in relation to any application for credit products and services.

We comply with all Privacy Law that applies to the collection, use and disclosure of credit information, including the Australian Credit Reporting Privacy Code and the New Zealand Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2004 (as applicable) in our handling of your credit-related personal information.

Credit-related personal information is a type of personal information which includes information:

  • about your credit history or creditworthiness
  • about your past experiences with us and other lenders
  • about the kinds of credit products you have had or sought
  • about how you have managed your obligations
  • contained in a credit report about you which is obtained by us from a credit-reporting body (CRB), and
  • about your creditworthiness that has been derived by us from such a credit report about you.

Credit-related personal information that we may collect and hold includes:

  • your name, address and date of birth, occupation (including the name of your employer or organisation, and any previous employers) and your driver’s licence number
  • your banking or credit card details and certain financial information about you, including a statement of your assets and liabilities
  • the fact that you have applied for consumer credit, or you are a guarantor in respect of that credit application and we have accessed your credit report to assess that application
  • the fact that your organisation has applied for commercial credit, or you are a guarantor in respect of that credit application, and we have accessed your credit report to assess that credit application
  • the fact that we provide goods and services on credit terms to your organisation
  • certain publicly available information that relates to your activities in Australia and New Zealand, and your creditworthiness
  • information that, in our opinion, you have committed a serious credit infringement or credit non-compliance action (that is, acted fraudulently or shown an intention not to comply with your credit obligations)
  • insolvency information, including adjudications, discharges, suspensions of discharges and annulments of bankruptcy, and entry into, and termination and discharge from, the no asset procedure
  • assessments, evaluations, scores, ratings, summaries and other information relating to your creditworthiness which is derived by a CRB or us, wholly or partly based on the above, and
  • administrative information relating to credit provided by us.

We collect your credit-related personal information through your dealings with us or from those acting on your behalf.

We may also obtain credit-related personal information from CRBs, who may include this information in reports provided to credit providers to assist them to assess your credit worthiness.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your credit-related personal information as reasonably necessary for our business purposes and as permitted by law, including:

  • to assess, complete and process your application for credit that you make or for which you are a guarantor (where we are the credit provider) or to assist in assessing your application for credit that you make or for which you are a guarantor (where we act as agent of the credit provider)
  • to derive assessments, evaluations, scores, ratings, summaries relating to your credit worthiness that we use in our decision-making processes
  • for account review and management
  • to participate in the credit-reporting system
  • to undertake debt recovery and enforcement activities, or
  • to deal with serious credit infringements.

We may disclose your credit-related personal information to:

  • CRBs, such as Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet
  • other credit providers
  • our affiliates and related entities in New Zealand, Australia and overseas
  • current or prospective guarantors or security providers
  • other CRBs (for example, if you fail to meet your payment obligations or commit a serious credit infringement, we may be entitled to disclose this to a CRB)
  • your agents, referees, employer, executors, administrators, trustees, guardians or attorneys
    your and our professional advisers
  • other credit providers
  • organisations involved in securitisation arrangements or debt assignments, and
  • administrative service providers, such as providers of credit assessment, management and debt collection services.

We may disclose to Equifax, Dun & Bradstreet, or any other CRB, any failure by you to meet your payment obligations in relation to consumer credit and the fact that you have committed fraud or other serious credit infringement. Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet may include information which we provide in reports to other credit providers to assist them to assess your creditworthiness. These CRBs’ policies about the management of credit-related personal information may be obtained by contacting them on the below details:

Security

All personal information held by us will be handled and stored in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act.

We will take reasonable steps to:

  • make sure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date
  • protect the information from misuse, interference, loss or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure both physically and through computer security methods, and
  • destroy or permanently de-identify the information if it is no longer needed for any purpose.

Websites

When you visit our website, we or agencies on our behalf and our internet service provider may monitor and make a record of your visit and log “clickstream data” for statistical purposes, such as your server’s IP address.

This privacy policy is strictly limited to the collection, storage and use of personally identifiable information collected from our customers, in the course of our businesses, and does not apply to any third parties. We have no control over the privacy practices or the content of any third-party websites, and assume no liability for the privacy practices of these websites.

How to access and amend personal information

On request from you we will provide details of the personal information we hold about you. The release of information is subject to some exceptions such as information relating to existing or any anticipated legal proceedings, together with exceptions provided by the Privacy Act.

Unless unusual circumstances apply, we should provide access to you within 30 days of the request.

We reserve the right to charge a fee for providing access to your information when permitted by law. To protect your personal information, the request to us must be in writing and can be sent by letter or facsimile or email. All correspondence should be addressed to:

Mail: The Privacy Officer
Email: enquiries@smartease.co.nz

Our objective is to respond to any request within a reasonable timeframe.

We also aim to ensure that your personal information is accurate, up to date and complete. Amendment of personal information will be conducted upon written or verbal request from you. To do this, you can contact us on 0800 795 695 or write to The Privacy Officer.

Complaints

We are committed to the protection of your privacy and personal information. Complaints you may have about your personal information can be lodged by using the contact details above.

We will attempt to resolve any complaint within 10 working days. If resolution is not possible within this timeframe, we will contact you to discuss the matter further.

You also have the right under the Privacy Act to make a complaint to the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.

Changes to this policy

This policy is subject to change over time without prior notice. We may amend this policy by updating this posting.

Copies of this policy

You can ask us to provide you with a copy of this policy, including a hard copy, by contacting us using these contact details.

Australia
Address: Level 1, 23-27 Wellington Street, St Kilda VIC 3182
Phone: 1300 795 695
Email: enquiries@smartease.com.au
ABN: 25 601 345 055
(Energy Lease Pty Ltd trading as Smart Ease)

New Zealand
Address: Level 1, 10 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1023
Phone: 0800 795 695
enquiries@smartease.co.nz

updated 18 April 2022