Our priority is to you, their customer. We require our brokers place your finance needs above those of anyone else.

Our mortgage managers and brokers are required to be transparent about products, your options, applicable fees, and charges as well any conflicts of interest. They will communicate in simple to understand language and act with the highest standards of integrity. They are committed to ensuring the product selected will meet your needs, requirements and be in your best interests at the time of assisting you obtaining finance.

This Credit Guide contains important information about us, the services we provide and the activities of the credit representative operating under our credit licence. It also contains:

  »     information about fees and charges that may be payable by you to us;
  »     commissions that we may receive when we are acting as a credit representative;
  »     commissions that we may pay to third parties for the introduction of business; and
  »     information about what you should do if you have a complaint or dispute regarding our services and activities.

We are required to provide this document to you as soon as practicable after it becomes apparent that we are likely to provide credit assistance to you. We provide “credit assistance” when we:

Suggest or assist you in applying for:

  »     a particular loan with a particular lender; or
  »     an increase to an existing loan with a particular lender; or

Recommend that you remain in an existing loan contract.

Preliminary Assessments

Prior to providing credit assistance to you, we must assess whether the particular loan is “unsuitable”. A loan will be “unsuitable” based on the information you provide to us if:

  »     You will be unable to repay the proposed loan or will only be able to repay the proposed loan with substantial hardship; or
  »     The proposed loan does not meet your requirements and objectives.

We are required to document our findings that the proposed loan is not unsuitable by way of completing a Preliminary Assessment. The Preliminary Assessment will set out your:

  »     requirements and objectives;
  »     financial and relevant personal situation; and
  »     ability to repay the proposed loan.

We are also required to take reasonable steps to verify information provided by you to us. This verification may include:

  »     requesting you for copies of documents that demonstrate your financial situation – in some cases we may also need to sight original documents, and
  »     contacting third parties to assist in verifying the information that you provide.

Obtaining a copy of the Preliminary Assessment

If we provide you with credit assistance, you may request a copy of our Preliminary Assessment anytime for up to 7 years and we must provide you with a copy of the assessment within the following timeframes:

Your request is made:	Before the Credit Day* Up to 2 years after the Credit Day Between 2 to 7 years after the Credit Day
We will give you your assessment:	As soon as possible after we recieve your request Within 7 business days after we receive your request Within 21 business days after we receive your request

*The Credit Day is the date the credit contract (i.e. the loan) is settled or the loan amount is increased.
There is no charge for requesting or receiving a copy of the Preliminary Assessment.

Fee and Charges that are payable by you in relation to our credit assistance

We may charge a fee for providing credit assistance to you. If applicable, details about these fees payable by you will be set out in a Credit Quote which we will give you prior to submitting your loan application.

Other fees and charges

You may have to pay other fees and charges (such as application fees, valuation costs and other applicable fees) to the lender or other parties. You should review the particular loan contract documentation for further details of any such fees and charges.

Our mortgage management services and aggregator receives commission from the lenders and then pays us commission in relation to loan contracts (such as home and investment property loans) for providing credit assistance.

An upfront commission is payable by lenders in relation to settled (drawn-down) loans and is calculated as a percentage of the loan amount. It is usually paid after settlement of the loan.

Trail commission is payable by lenders in relation to settled (drawn-down) loans. It is calculated monthly on the outstanding loan balance and is paid in arrears.

The upfront and trail commissions that we are paid by lenders are not payable by you. Details of commission to be received will be included in the Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal document that we will provide you with when credit assistance is provided.

From time to time, I may also receive a non-commission benefit by way of training, professional development, entertainment, gift, conference attendance, sponsorship, or entry into a competition run by a lender or my aggregator, at no extra cost to you. The nature of such arrangements are temporary, and the occurrence and amounts are often not readily ascertainable, however if they are apparent as a result of assisting you with credit assistance, this will be disclosed to you.

Our aggregator

We have approval to utilise lenders and their loan products through the services of our aggregator ‘Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd ABN 77 161 731 111, Credit Representative 437202 is authorised under Australian Credit Licence 389328’. The aggregator charges us a fee depending on our contract arrangements, consisting of:

  »     a share of commission that is paid by the particular lender;
  »     a membership fee for our business;
  »     a monthly fee for each of our accredited loan writers.

Our mortgage management services

We may receive management fees from the lenders and lessors who fund our products. These are not fees payable by you.

Referrers and referral fees

We obtain referrals from a range of sources, including accountants, financial planners, real estate agents and other people. If you were introduced or referred to us, we may pay the referrer a commission or a fee.

Details of any commission or fees being paid to the referrer will be included in the Summary of Requirements and Credit Proposal document we provide to you.