Credit Guide

This Credit Guide is designed to help you decide whether to use our credit assistance services. It explains who we are, the services we provide, how we and our representatives are paid, our obligations to you, how we manage conflicts and how you can make a complaint.

We provide credit assistance by helping you identify and apply for loans or leases that may meet your requirements and objectives. We may provide information about credit products available from lenders on our panel and assist you to compare relevant options. Once you have chosen a loan or lease that is suitable for you, we will prepare and submit the paperwork, communicate with lenders and any other parties involved in the credit process and assist you in obtaining your approval.

All our credit representatives are accredited with Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 505926.

Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd maintains a lender panel. The lenders with whom Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd currently conducts the most business with are listed below. This does not mean these lenders will necessarily be suitable for you, and any recommendation must be based on your individual circumstances, requirements and objectives.

• Pepper Money
• Bankwest
• AMP
• Firstmac
• Macquarie
• La Trobe

From 1st January 2021, mortgage brokers have been required to act in the best interests of consumers when providing credit assistance. This obligation is known as the Best Interest Duty (BID) and is contained in the NCCP Act. When providing credit assistance, we will:

• act in your best interests at all times;
• give priority to your interests where we know, or reasonably ought to know, that a conflict exists between your interests and our interests, or those of our representatives, associates or related parties;
• determine which credit products are likely to be in your best interests and which are not;
• consider the relative benefits, risks, costs, features and limitations of relevant credit products having regard to your circumstances;
• make recommendations that we reasonably believe are in your best interest; and
• comply with all obligations under the NCCP Act relating to conflicts of interest and conflicted remuneration.

In practice, this means we will:

• gather and document information to understand your individual circumstances, financial positions, needs, requirements and objectives;
• compare suitable credit options available through our lender panel having regard to factors such as cost, product features, eligibility, serviceability, lender policy and your stated priorities;
• explain the available options and our recommendation in a way that helps you make an informed decision;
• assess relevant products in line with your needs;
• maintain appropriate records to support the credit assistance provided; and
• where a conflict exists between our interest and yours, we will give priority to your interest as required by the NCCP Act.

We must not provide credit assistance that would be unsuitable for you. Before we assist you to apply for a loan, a principal increase to a loan, or a lease, we must make an assessment based on whether a credit product is suitable to your circumstances. To do this, the law requires us to:

• make reasonable enquiries about your requirements and objectives;
• make reasonable enquiries about your financial situation; and
• take reasonable steps to verify that financial situation.

Credit will be unsuitable for you if, at the time of the assessment, it is likely that the following would apply at the time credit is provided:

• you could not pay or could only pay with substantial hardship; or
• the credit will not meet your requirements or objectives.

For example, if you could only meet your repayments by selling your principal place of residence, the credit may be presumed to cause substantial hardship unless the contrary is proved. For this reason, we must ask you for information about your financial situation, requirements and objectives. It is important that all the information you provide is accurate, complete and up to date.

If we provide credit assistance, you may request a copy of our preliminary assessment for your application. You may request this assessment within seven years of the date we provided assistance to you.

If we arrange a loan for you to purchase or refinance real estate, remember you must make your own enquiries about the value of the real estate and its potential for future growth. Any valuation obtained by a lender or by us may be for lending or internal purposes only and should not be treated as independent advice about the property's value or suitability.

Generally, you do not pay us a fee for our credit assistance. If a fee for service is payable, details of these fees will be set out in a Credit Quote or any equivalent disclosure.

You may also be charged lender application fees, valuation fees, government charges and other costs associated with the loan or lease. These fees are not charged by us and will generally be disclosed to you prior to submission of the credit application. Please note, however, that if a valuation is conducted and you ultimately choose not to proceed with the loan, you may be liable for the valuation fees.

We may receive commissions from the lenders and lessors who provide finance for you as our customers. These commissions are not payable by you directly.

You may ask us for a reasonable estimate of the commission we or our credit representatives are likely to receive and how it is calculated.

From time to time, we may receive financial or non-financial benefits from Yellow Brick Road Group, lenders, lessors or others. Some or all of any commission received by Yellow Brick Road Group may be paid to our credit representatives.

Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd may pay commissions to our credit representatives for referrals to diversification partners or other service providers. Referral commissions may be calculated as a percentage of professional fees charged by the relevant provider. These fees are not payable by you directly, and relevant referral arrangements will be disclosed where required.

We may pay a referral fee for third party referrals who refer you to us, such as real estate agents, accountants, financial advisers or solicitors. These fees are not payable by you directly. Where applicable, this fee will be disclosed in the Credit Proposal Disclosure Document or equivalent document. You may request a reasonable estimate of the amount of commission and how it is calculated.

Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd and your representative may also receive a benefit for referring you to other service providers.

You should ensure that finance approval is confirmed in writing from the lender, before entering into a binding contract to purchase property or committing to any transaction that depends on finance approval.

You should understand your legal obligations under any loan or lease and the financial consequences of entering into it. If you have any concerns, you should obtain independent legal, financial, tax or property advice before entering into any credit contract or related transaction.

We do not provide legal, financial, tax, accounting or property investment advice, and we do not make any promises about the value, suitability or future prospects of any property you finance with us. You should rely on your own enquiries and obtain independent advice where appropriate.

We represent lenders and have obligations to them, and in particular, to not provide any information we know is misleading or deceptive. We also have obligations under the law to report any fraud, forgery, or other illegal activities. Before using our services, it is important that you understand that we have these obligations to lenders, and under the law.

Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd is required to have adequate arrangements in place to identify, manage and, where required, disclose conflicts of interest.

Infinity Group Finance Pty Ltd collects personal and credit-related information about you in order to provide you with the services that you have requested, to manage our relationship with you, to assess your application for finance and to manage that finance.

Full details of what we collect, how we hold it, who we disclose it to, how you may access or correct it, and how to make a privacy complaint are set out in our Privacy Policy.