What is a Credit Representative?

A ‘credit representative’ is a person who has been authorised by a credit licensee to engage in specified credit activities on behalf of the licensee.  Our licensee is with AFG (Sure Harvest Pty LTD).

Simply Simple is the trading name of John Lam Quach. John is an Authorised Credit Representative of AFG (Sure Harvest)

What is credit assistance?

We give you credit assistance when:

 

         i.            we assist you to apply for a particular loan or lease.

       ii.            we suggest you apply for a particular loan or lease (or suggest you apply for an increase to an existing loan); or

     iii.            we suggest you remain in your current loan or lease.

The assessment we need to do before giving you credit assistance.

Before we provide credit assistance to you, we assess whether the loan or lease is suitable for you.  To do this, we need to make reasonable inquiries and verify that:

 

-          The loan, lease, or increase will meet your requirements and objectives; and you can meet the proposed repayments.

 

We won’t be able to give you credit assistance if our assessment shows that:  

 

-          You won’t be able to meet the proposed repayments without substantial hardship; or the loan or lease won’t meet your requirements or objectives.

 

Getting a copy of our assessment

If we provide you with credit assistance, you can ask us for a copy of our assessment any time up to 7 years after we provide you with a credit assistance quote.  To request a copy please contact us and we will provide it to you:

 

·         within 7 business days after the day we receive your request – provided you make the request within 2 years of the date of our credit assistance quote; or

·         otherwise, within 21 business days after the day we receive your request.

 

Information about the licensee and its credit representatives

 

We act as a credit representative for AFG (Sure Harvest Pty LTD).  We are authorised to engage in credit activities including providing credit assistance on its behalf.

 

Subject to meeting credit criteria, we can assist you to obtain loans and leases for you from a broad range of lenders and lessors through our broker group.

 

The following are the lenders or lessors with whom we generally conduct the most business:

 

·        ANZ

·         AMP

·         St George

·         CBA

·         ING

·        NAB

·         Macquarie Bank

·         ME Bank

·         Suncorp

·         Westpac

Fees payable for the provision of credit assistance

We will not charge you any fees for providing credit assistance to you.

 

We may receive remuneration from our employer, and/or broker group and do not charge you any fees or charges in relation to acting as a credit representative. 

 

 

Other fees and charges

You may have to pay other fees and charges (such as an application fees, valuation fees and other fees) to the lender, lessor or other parties. You should review the disclosure documents and your loan contract or lease for further details of any such fees and charges.

Commissions we receive from our licensee

Commissions are paid to our licensee Sure Harvest Pty LTD. A portion of that commission is paid to us (The Credit Representatives) and is outlined in the Credit Proposal. The total amount of commission we may receive in relation to your loan or lease may vary depending on the lender or lessor, the term, the features, the amount of the loan or lease you ultimately choose and the amount and timing of the repayments that you make.

 

Clawbacks on commissions

Lenders have a ‘Clawback’ period which means, if at any time the loan settled is prepaid or refinanced within the period (Usually 2 years), commissions paid by the lender to us must be repaid back to the lender. Put simply, the lender takes back the commissions they paid to us resulting in hard time and effort being put in for nothing.

 

As a small boutique business, clawbacks affect us to a great extent. Please have courtesy with respect to our time and effort in assisting you with your financial goals and contact us personally if you ever have any new requirements or needs to reduce the impact of clawbacks.

 

Loan Contracts such as Home Loans, Investment Property Loans and Personal Loans

 

Upfront commission payable by lenders in relation to loans is calculated as a percentage of the loan amount and is generally in the range of 0.5% and 1% of the loan amount.  It is usually paid after settlement of the loan.

 

Trail commission payable by lenders in relation to loans is generally calculated regularly (monthly, quarterly, bi-monthly or annually) on the outstanding loan balance and is paid in arrears. The trail commission payable by lenders is generally in the range of 0% per annum and 0.25% per annum of the outstanding loan amount.

 

Upfront commission payable by lessors in relation to leases is calculated as a percentage of the lease amount and is generally in the range of 1% and 4% of the lease amount.  It is usually paid after settlement of the lease. Trail commission is generally not payable in relation to leases.

 

Further details of the commission earned by us will be included in the credit proposal disclosure document we will provide to you at the same time as we provide you with credit assistance.

 

You can request information from us about the fees that we are likely to receive, how those fees are calculated, and our reasonable estimate of the fees or commissions that will be payable.

 

 

Volume based arrangements

Our broker group might have volume bonus arrangements in place with Lenders.  From time to time, we or our broker group may receive a benefit, directly by way of cash bonus or additional commissions or indirectly by way of training, professional development days or sponsorship, if we or our broker group write a particular volume of loans offered by those lenders.

Commissions payable by us

If a third party has introduced you to us or referred you to us, we may pay them a commission or a fee.  We obtain referrals from a range of sources, including real estate agents, accountants, financial planners or other people.

 

Further information about referral commissions, including our reasonable estimate of the amount of any commission payable and how it is calculated is available from us on request and will be included in the credit proposal disclosure we will supply to you when we provide you with our credit assistance.

Disputes and complaints

We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible service.  If at any time we have not met our obligations – or you have a complaint about any of our services – please inform us so we can work towards a resolution.  We will endeavour to deal with your complaint promptly, thoroughly and fairly.

How to make a complaint and the complaint process

Your Mortgage Broker has an EDR Scheme with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), membership number 78601. In the first instance, please contact your credit assistance provider.

 

If you have any complaints about the services provided to you, you can take the following steps:

 

·         Contact the Complaints Officer by phone on 1800 931 678

 

·         If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved within 3 days, put your complaint in writing and send it to Sure Harvest Pty LTD Complaints Officer, PO Box 388, Sydney Markets NSW 2129.

 

·         If you still do not get a satisfactory outcome, you have the right to complain to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority Limited – GPO Box 3, MELBOURNE, VIC 3001. ABN 38 620 494 340.

 

Third party products and services

If your complaint relates to a product or service acquired through a third party (for example, a lender) we may ask you to contract the relevant third party.  They will deal with your complaint under their complaints resolution process.

 

If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint by the third party under their complaints resolution process, you are entitled to have your dispute considered by their External Dispute Resolution Scheme.  Please contact the third party for further details.

Keeping you informed

Our Complaints Manager will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within five business days.  If unable to resolve the complaint/dispute to your satisfaction within five business days, they will write to you advising the procedures we will follow in investigating and handling your complaint.

 

Within 45 calendar days from the date you lodged the complaint with us, we will write to you advising you the outcome of the investigation and the reason/s for our decision, or if required, we will inform you more time is needed to complete the investigation.

 

If you do not think we have resolved your complaint to your satisfaction, you may take the matter – free of charge – to the relevant External Disputes Resolution Scheme (provided it is within the scheme’s terms of reference) as detailed below.  You may also refer the matter to the relevant External Disputes Resolution Scheme at any time, but if our internal process is still in progress, they may request that our internal processes be complete before considering the matter further.

 

Our external dispute resolution service provider is the Credit and Investments Ombudsman: