Privacy Policy

Our privacy commitment

MyBudget is committed to protecting your privacy. We adhere to this privacy policy to keep your personal information secure and confidential. We are subject to certain legislative and regulatory requirements, including as an Australian Credit Licensee and Australian Financial Services Licensee, which require us to obtain personal information about you. We are also bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and other legislation surrounding the collection and use of your personal information.

The Privacy Act sets out a number of Australian Privacy Principles. Our aim is to both support these principles and ensure that we comply with them.

This privacy policy outlines the personal information we may collect from you, as well as how and why we collect it. It also shows how we keep this information secure and how we may use or disclose it. The privacy policy applies to all of your dealings and interactions with us – in person, online, over the phone, or by post. References to ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘MyBudget’ in this document refer to all functions and employees of MyBudget Pty Ltd and our sister company MyDebtSolutions Pty Ltd. For information on how to contact MyBudget, please see ‘Contacting us’ below.

How we collect information

We collect your personal information directly from you or where suppliers provide us with your information. MyBudget collects personal information in a number of ways. These include:

Directly from you, when you:
- Request to receive the services offered and provided by us;
- Submit an enquiry, complaint or feedback to us, including via our website;
- Create a client login on our website;
- Attend a face-to-face interview or appointment with us;
- Provide us with information through a data collection form, including on our website;
- Provide us with information by phone or video conference;
- Interact with us via email, the internet, our web-chat services or a mobile app;
- Submit documentation and forms to us; or
- Apply for a contractor or employment position with us;
From your creditors, or any other relevant third party, once authorisation has been provided by you;
Where you are a creditor, and a client provides us with your details;
Via our related entities in the MyBudget group of companies, including MyBudget Loans Pty Ltd;
Via our external service providers, where they collect or process personal information on our behalf; and
Where you otherwise submit personal information about yourself, or someone else, to us, or our website.

We will only collect your personal information from third parties if you give the third party your consent to provide the information to us or it would be reasonably expected. If someone other than you provides us with personal information about you that we did not ask for, or you provide us with unsolicited personal information, we will only hold, use or disclose this information if we determine that we could have collected this information from you had we asked for it. In this circumstance, we will take all reasonable steps to notify you of the collection of that information. If we could not have collected this personal information, we will lawfully de-identify or destroy that personal information. Where you decline to provide us with personal information or refuse us authorisation to collect information from a third party, this may affect our actions in setting up and managing your budget or creditor payment arrangements, or otherwise providing you with our services, and your level of service may be diminished. You may choose to contact us anonymously or using a pseudonym where it is lawful and practicable to do so – for example, if you telephone us requesting our postal address. You will also be able to use our public website anonymously. However, if you do not identify yourself, we will only be able to give you general information and we may not be able to provide the full services you need. Please note that all calls between clients and us or our contact centre are monitored and recorded for our records, as well as for training, evaluation and quality purposes. We also collect audio-visual recordings of all budget consultation appointments for these purposes.

What kind of information we collect

We collect only relevant information about you that is needed to establish and maintain your account and services, or as otherwise necessary to conduct our business, as the law allows and/or requires us to collect. We may collect personal and financial information about you that is not publicly available and information that you otherwise submit to us, including via our website: mybudget.com.au, to our staff or via forms that you provide to us. The information we collect varies depending on the accounts and services you request or use.

We are likely to collect personal information, such as your contact details and other identifying information, necessary for our business dealings with you. This may include your name, email address, postal/residential address, telephone number, and how you heard about MyBudget. We may collect/sight your identity documentation, such as a copy of your driver’s licence, for identity verification purposes. We may also collect further personal information, such as situational information like your current financial status, credit history, how many dependants you have, your employment status, employer and other such information. We will also collect your financial information, including details about your income (including employment contracts or pay slips), expenditure (including bank statements, bills and mortgage or rental payments), debts, credit limits and your balances owing for credit products, bank accounts and payment details and any powers of attorney provided. We may collect information relating to your financial goals and concerns. We will collect audio-visual recordings of all budget consultation appointments with you for complaint, coaching, quality evaluation or compliance monitoring purposes.

Without your consent, we will not collect information about you that reveals your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliations, membership status of professional or trade associations, membership status of a trade union, or details of health, disability, sexual orientation, or criminal record. This is subject to some exceptions, including where the collection is required or allowed by law, and when the information is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim. We understand that this information is sensitive, and our staff are trained to treat any sensitive information we have collected as highly confidential.

As mentioned above, if you request to use our services, we may also receive information from your creditors. This information may be used to assist with negotiations or ongoing budgeting for the particular payments in question. You can speak to your creditors about their privacy policies, including which information they can and cannot provide to MyBudget. Please be advised that if you provide inaccurate or incomplete information, we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you are seeking.

Why we collect information and how may it be used

This privacy policy deals with the personal information of our clients and prospective clients, service providers, creditors and other third parties. We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which it was given to us, or for purposes that are directly related to the provision of our services. Your personal information may be used by us in a number of ways, including:

To assist you in conveniently and easily accessing the services that we offer and provide, including locating your closest physical MyBudget office and offering appointments with us;
To be able to improve the services we offer, including providing staff with feedback and training;
For internal record-keeping and marketing research purposes;
To periodically send surveys and communications about our services or other information which we consider that you may find interesting;
To manage and resolve any complaints;
If you are a creditor, to contact you to obtain credit information in relation to our clients; and
If you are a contractor or job applicant, to assess your application to work with us.

Where you are a client or prospective client

We need to collect some information from you so that we can provide you with an appropriate service, which will primarily involve helping you with your budgeting needs, and dealing with lenders and other creditors on your behalf. We also need to collect certain personal information so that we can identify and contact you appropriately. We will use your personal information to assess your suitability for the services we provide, potentially conduct appointments with you and provide you with any further relevant services (which may include a budget plan).

Certain laws, such as the Australian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, may require us to collect personal information about you.

The information you provide to us, or which we otherwise collect about you, will be used primarily to set up and manage your account and deal with lenders and other creditors on your behalf. Much of your information would be provided for a specific purpose, and in that case, it would be used primarily for that purpose. For example, any of your payment details or bank account details which you provide so that we can make bill payments on your behalf would be used exclusively to make bill payments, and for no other purpose. We use the information gathered to tailor your budget to your needs, make arrangements with creditors, and provide you with the service you require. From time to time we may also use the information gathered from you to perform statistical and demographic analyses of our client base so that we can improve our services and match our business model to our clients’ needs.

Direct Marketing

Where appropriate your information may be used to advise you of products or services we offer that we believe might suit your needs. This may include utilising your email address to send you emails or targeted online advertising. You authorise us to use any email address or other contact information you provide to us at any time for such above purposes. If at any stage you wish to stop receiving direct marketing material, you may contact us with this request. We maintain a register for those individuals who do not wish to receive marketing material. Please contact us if you wish to unsubscribe from all marketing communications by email to [email protected]. You agree and acknowledge that even if you opt out of receiving information about future events or marketing material, we will still send you certain essential information relating to the services we provide to you.

Keeping your information up to date

MyBudget takes reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up to date. To ensure that we are able to maintain this level of accuracy and completeness, we ask that you:

Inform us of any errors in your personal information as soon as possible; and
Update us with any changes to your personal information as soon as possible.

Keeping your private information secure

MyBudget is committed to keeping your personal information secure and confidential. We use all reasonable endeavours to keep your information in a secure environment and to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. If you reasonably believe that there has been unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information please contact us using the details below.

We use a combination of technologies, systems and processes to control and limit access to your information. Your personal information is stored across multiple locations within the MyBudget system for better security and further control over who has access to your records. We can refer to this information collectively as your “client file”. These files are accessible to authorised personnel only. They are stored on secure computer systems operated and administered by MyBudget, supported and operated by third parties and protected by security systems that monitor, control and protect access. All computer-based information is protected through the use of access passwords, and data is backed up regularly.

All of our staff are trained to respect client privacy, and they are only given access to the information necessary to perform their jobs and provide services to you, to the extent required for their individual job roles. No one, except our employees and our service providers, has regular access to the MyBudget computer system and records storage, and we have internal physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect the information you provide us and the information we collect about you.

We provide many methods of communication for your privacy, including a secure password-protected online messaging tool, and discreet environments for confidential discussions. We will continue to review our internal security controls to safeguard your member information as we employ new technology in the future.

Our website security

We use multiple levels of security to protect the information you provide us online.

On our website you may access certain site information without revealing your personal identity, however we utilise cookies to provide you with a better user experience. Cookies are small pieces of information that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser. Cookies enable us to recognise your browser and capture and remember certain information. Most browsers allow you to disable cookies. Please refer to the help menu on your browser for more information. Be aware that disabling and blocking cookies may impact the functionality of the service we provide.

We use first-party cookies and third-party cookies to help us compile and monitor aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction. This will allow us to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers may use the information collected on our behalf to help us conduct and improve our business. Anonymous analytical information such as gender and age brackets may be collected when you browse our website. Third-party vendors show our ads on websites and may serve these ads based on a user’s prior visits to our website (for example, through remarketing to site visitors who have not made contact with us, limiting marketing which existing clients receive, or remarketing to a visitor who has made an enquiry but not attended an appointment with us). We may also use this data to optimise our ad campaigns based on your prior visits to our website. You may opt out of the use of cookies by visiting the advertising opt-out page (https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin). You may opt out of our use of Analytics by visiting the Analytics opt-out browser add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). On our mobile app and members’ website, you may access your existing budget, and you may communicate with us via web message. The application information we accept online relies on industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to secure your transaction information and communication. MyBudget’s computer system uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing which information is of most and least interest to members, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

Staying secure online

Your online security relies on our actions and your actions. We will do everything we can to protect your privacy, but there are also measures that you can take. Here are some tips to help you maximise your online security:

Make sure you regularly use and update an anti-virus program, a firewall, and an anti-spyware program. Using these products for your security will help to protect your computer and your personal information.
It is important to protect your login details and password for our members website and mobile application. Pick a password that will not be easily guessed by anyone else. We recommend using a unique password which is not used for any other account or application you use. combination of lower and uppercase letters, symbols and numbers for maximum security. Passphrases are the more secure version of passwords and made up of four or more random words making them longer than a traditional password. This makes them harder to guess but easy to remember.  Changing your passwords to a passphrase is a great way to improve your cyber security.
Memorise your password and destroy any documents that show your login details. If you do choose to keep a written copy of your login details and password, do not keep the information where it may be easily accessed by others. Should you forget your online password, you may contact MyBudget using the contact details below. A representative will only be able to reset your password after verifying your identity using a series of security questions.
If you believe your online security has been breached, please contact MyBudget straight away.

Accessing your information

You have a right to access your personal information, subject to certain exceptions allowed by law. We ask that you provide your request for access using the contact details set out below.

If you request access we will respond to your request within a reasonable period of time and, where reasonable and practicable, give access to the information in the manner you request. This will be subject to any exemptions provided under the Privacy Act. Access to the requested personal information may include: providing you with copies, providing you with the opportunity for inspection, or providing you with a summary. If you believe that any of the personal information we hold is incorrect, you may request a correction.

We will never charge you for placing a request to access your personal information, and, in most circumstances, we will not charge you for providing such access. However, if you request information that is of a particularly large volume or is otherwise onerous, MyBudget reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee to compensate us for the time spent servicing your request.

If we no longer need your personal information, unless we are required under Australian law or a court or tribunal order to retain it, we will take reasonable steps to destroy, securely delete, or de-identify your personal information as appropriate.

Should we refuse you access to your personal information, we will provide you with a written explanation for that refusal and the complaint mechanisms available to you. All applications for access to personal information can be sent to [email protected].

How we may disclose your information

We may disclose your personal information to organisations outside of MyBudget. The organisations to which we disclose information may include:

To our related entities in the MyBudget group of companies, including MyBudget Loans Pty Ltd, as permitted by section 13B of the Privacy Act;
Compliance consultants to ensure that our representatives are meeting our compliance standards;
Your professional advisors, including your solicitor or accountant, as authorised by you;
Our external service providers and other third parties that assist us to provide our services to you, including technology support providers and data storage providers;
Your lenders and other creditors;
Government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law – for example, to government or regulatory bodies for purposes related to the prevention of money laundering, public health or safety, the prevention or detection of unlawful activities or to protect public revenue;
Third parties for the purpose of resolving complaints or disputes, including beyond the end of your contract;
Product planning and development officers;
Research bodies for the purpose of improving our current and future services;
Third parties for the purpose of securing credit on your behalf, as authorised by you;
Your creditors with whom we are making payment arrangements;
Entities established to help identify illegal activities and prevent fraud where authorised by law; and
Relevant authorities, if we have reason to believe that you or another person is in danger.

We may also disclose your personal information to anyone authorised by you, or to whom you have provided your consent (either expressly or impliedly) or where another permitted general situation applies (as defined in Section 16A of the Privacy Act). In the event that we propose to sell part or all of our business, we may disclose your personal information to potential purchasers for the purpose of them conducting due diligence investigations. Disclosure will be made in confidence and it will be a condition of that disclosure that no personal information will be used or disclosed by them outside of the due diligence process. We may need to transfer some of your information overseas if we are making an arrangement with an overseas creditor on your behalf. The information we may transfer includes your identifying details, such as name, date of birth and address; details of other payments you are required to make; and information about changes in your personal and financial situation, only to the extent necessary to make the payment arrangement. MyBudget uses third-party service providers to assist with activities such as data collection, processing, analysis and storage, marketing optimisation, contract provision and sending surveys or emails to many clients at once. Please be advised that these companies may have different privacy policies to MyBudget. Accordingly, MyBudget is likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients. Although it is not practicable to specify all countries where such overseas recipients are located, particularly where they are your overseas creditors, MyBudget does frequently deal with service providers located in the United States of America, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom. Please note that if MyBudget discloses your personal information to an overseas recipient, that organisation may be subject to different privacy laws, and may not be bound by the Australian Privacy Principles. To the extent that the laws and rights of these countries are not equivalent to the laws of Australia, you agree to be bound by the laws and rights of the relevant extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about a breach of the Privacy Act by us, you may do so by providing your complaint in writing to the contact details listed below. You may also make a complaint verbally.

We will seek to respond to any complaint within a reasonable period of time. We may seek further information from you in order to provide a comprehensive and complete response. You may also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). You may contact the Australian Information Commissioner via telephone on 1300 363 992, by submitting a complaint or inquiry online at www.oaic.gov.au or by writing to the OAIC at GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001.

Contacting us

You can contact us by phone, post or online, using the below details:

Phone number: 1300 300 922
Postal Address: PO Box 3433, Rundle Mall SA 5000
Email: [email protected]

For general and customer service-related enquiries, our phones are open from 7:00am to 6:00pm ACST Monday to Friday. MyBudget is closed on national public holidays. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, you can email [email protected]. Existing clients can also send online messages through our secure client site.

Updates to our Privacy Policy

This privacy policy is effective as of May, 2024. It will be reviewed regularly. You can contact a MyBudget representative for a current policy, using the contact details above. Alternatively, please check our website.