AMERICAN EXPRESS AUSTRALIA LIMITED CREDIT REPORTING POLICY

 

Effective September 2022

 

About American Express

 

American Express Australia Limited holds an Australian Credit Licence number 291313. You can contact American Express in the following ways:

 

Mail: American Express Australia Limited

GPO Box 1582

SYDNEY NSW 2001

Telephone: 1300 132 639 (in Australia) or +61 2 9271 8664 (if overseas)

 

Credit Information

 

This Credit Reporting policy describes how American Express manages credit related personal information, including credit eligibility information (referred to collectively in this policy as ‘Credit Information’).

 

American Express collects, uses and discloses Credit Information about individuals for:

 

  • Card products - both consumer and commercial products; and
  • Other products – such as personal or business loan or facility

Other Personal Information 

 

For more information about how American Express collects and uses your other personal information, please see our Card Member Privacy Statement, which is available at www.americanexpress.com.au/privacy. 

 

American Express regularly reviews its policies and procedures and may update this credit reporting policy from time to time. The most up to date version of the credit reporting policy will be available on our website. You may also obtain a copy of the credit reporting policy free of charge by contacting our Privacy Officer using the contact details as set out below.

 

Credit Information and how we collect and use it

 

American Express collects and uses various kinds of Credit Information. 

 

Credit Information includes but is not limited to:

 

  • Identification information, including your name, addresses, date of birth, age, occupation, name of your employer, and driver’s licence number;
  •  Whether you have previously applied for consumer credit and/or commercial credit, the name of the respective credit provider, the type of credit, and amount of credit;
  •  Whether or not we have been a provider of credit to you previously, whether or not other credit providers have been able to provide you credit, and the characteristics of the credit, including the maximum amount of credit that we provide to you;
  • The credit contract details that you may have with us, or any other credit provider, including the date of that credit contract you entered into, and your repayment history under that credit contract. The details also include the date that credit contract ceased to be in effect and whether effected by the credit provider or by you;
  • Any repayment history you hold with us and/or other credit providers, which includes information about payments made on time, and in the case of overdue payments, when such overdue payments have been made. Further, if you have had any overdue amount that are greater than 60 days, then whether or not such overdue payments are repaid and proof of such repayments;
  •  Any payments that are owed to us and/or any other credit provider. Such information will be in connection with credit provided to you directly, or where you are a guarantor;
  • Any serious credit infringements that we, or any other credit provider, may have against you;
  • Whether any payment plans, arrangements, and agreements regarding credit provided to you have been entered into with us or any other credit provider;
  • The existence of any court proceedings, insolvency, and any other publicly available Credit Information;
  • Formulation of statistics to ascertain your credit worthiness through scores, summaries, and ratings. Such scores, summaries, and ratings are either derived by us or by Credit Reporting Bodies and may be entirely or partly based on the above information.

Credit Information is collected in a variety of ways. This can include:

    

  •  where you provide such information directly to us, such as via an application for credit;     
  •  where credit reporting bodies and other credit providers provide the information; and 
  •  where the information may be derived through an existing Account you may hold with us. 

The Credit Information we collect will be held by us in electronic and/or physical form. This may be on our internal systems and/or the systems of our service providers. Such information is protected with appropriate safeguards electronically, physically, and operationally. We ensure that all our service providers that handle your Credit Information on our behalf follow our appropriate standards for confidentiality and security. All the individuals that work for us are appropriately trained to handle your Credit Information in the strictest of confidence and access to such information is only accessible to designated individuals based on their duties of employment. 

 

All Credit Information collected by us is in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, Privacy Regulation 2013, and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code.

 

How we use Credit Information 

 

We use Credit Information for our business purposes to enable us to perform our functions and activities and as permitted by law. This includes to:

  • decide whether to approve your application for a product with us and provide you a credit facility;
  • help with other decision-making processes and reviews in relation to your products with us (for example through the credit scores, summaries, and ratings);
  • manage the credit facility we provide you;
  • determine whether you are able to receive product offers, invitations, and certain services;
  • help support the credit reporting system by disclosing information to credit reporting bodies (pursuant to the Privacy Act and Credit Reporting Code);
  • help monitor and prevent you from defaulting on your credit contract;
  • deal with serious credit infringement and any debt collection related activities;
  • help deal with complaints and regulatory matters that may include the involvement of external regulators and to facilitate the resolutions of such matters; and
  • enable us to aid other credit providers that carry out the same.

Sharing your Credit Information with credit reporting bodies

 

We may disclose your Credit Information to credit reporting bodies (as permissible by the Privacy Act) before, during, or after credit is provided to you. This includes:

 

  • that you have applied for a Card, including the Account credit limit
  • that American Express is a credit provider to you, including the type of credit, Account opening and closing dates, and credit limit
  • 24 months of repayment history on your Card Account
  • default information related to payments that are at least 60 days overdue (and advice that overdue payments have been paid in full)
  • if you have entered into a financial hardship arrangement with us, we are required to tell credit reporting bodies that you have entered into that arrangement
  • that you have committed a serious credit infringement
  • that you have made a request to correct your personal information
  • any other information as permitted under the Privacy Act 1988

The Credit Information we share to credit reporting bodies is then be used by the respective body to aid credit providers collectively when determining credit worthiness.

 

Pre-Screening by Credit Reporting Bodies & Direct Marketing

 

From time to time, a credit reporting body may use your Credit Information to assist credit providers with directly marketing to you. The Credit Information that is disclosed to credit providers is used for the purposes of ‘pre-screening’ you to determine your eligibility for direct marketing campaigns.

If you do not want your Credit Information to be used in the assistance of pre-screening for direct marketing purposes, then you can contact the credit reporting bodies mentioned above at no cost to you to request the credit reporting body does not use your information for this purpose.

The credit reporting bodies that American Express deals with are:

 

Equifax

PO Box 964

NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059

Telephone: 1300 762 207

www.equifax.com.au

 

Experian

PO Box 1969

NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060

Telephone: 1300 783 684

www.experian.com.au

 

illion

PO Box 7405

ST KILDA VIC 3004

Telephone: 1300 734 806

www.illion.com.au

 

Each credit reporting body is required to have a policy on the management of credit reporting information. To obtain a copy, please see their website or contact them using the details above.

 

Fraud

 

If you reasonably believe that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud, you have a right to request a credit reporting body place a ‘Ban’ on your file. A ‘Ban’ is where a credit reporting body may not use or disclose your credit reporting information for a period of 21 days. You can place a ‘Ban’ on your file by contacting the credit reporting body directly.

 

Cross border disclosure of Credit Information

 

American Express is a global organisation and we may use international entities to help our business functions. As a result, American Express we may need to share your information outside of Australia. It is impracticable to list out each country that we may share your information to, but such countries include the United States of America, Malaysia, India and the United Kingdom. We will ensure that any transfer of your personal information is subject to appropriate conditions of confidentiality to ensure your information is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

 

All Credit Information that we transmit overseas are handled in accordance with Australian privacy laws, as well as in strict accordance with our credit reporting practices. All overseas organisations and service providers we engage are properly trained to adhere to relevant laws and internal policies.

 

How you can access your Credit Information

 

You have a right under the Privacy Act to access Credit Information we hold about you, free of charge. If you would like to access your Credit Information, please contact our Privacy Officer as detailed below. Once we receive your request, we will endeavour to provide you access provided it is reasonable and feasible to do so. At the time of the request, we will need to verify and validate your identity to ensure that the information we are providing is being conveyed to the appropriate individual.

 

Depending on your request, there may be some legal limitations to the access we grant you. For example, the information we provide you as a result of a request may be limited if it is linked to information that may divulge our confidential operations, methodology, systems, etc.

 

In the event we refuse access, we will provide you a written explanation of our decision and your options of review.

 

To request access to your Credit Information, please contact:

 

The Privacy Officer

American Express Australia Limited

GPO Box 1582

SYDNEY NSW 2001

 

How you can request correction of your Credit Information

 

We will take reasonable steps to make sure that the Credit Information we collect, use, or disclose is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. If you determine that any Credit Information held by us is incorrect, then you may ask us to correct the information. To do this, you may either give us a call on the number at the back of your Card or send us the details of your request in writing. The following applies to correction requests:

 

  • The Credit Information you request will have to be Credit Information that we hold;
  • We will aim to make a decision within 30 days from receipt of your request;
  • To enable us to consider your request, we may need to consult and share the details of your request along with other personal information, with a credit reporting body and/or another credit provider;
  • If we are unable to finalise a decision within 30 days, we will notify you of the delay, provide the reasons for this, the expected timeframe to finalise our decision and your options for review;
  • If we agree to correct your information, we will give you notice of the correction. We will give the notice of correction to any person or organisation you nominate, that we have consulted with to consider the correction request, or we have disclosed the corrected Credit Information to in the last 3 months from the date of the request;
  • If we do not agree to correct your Credit Information we will give you notice setting out the reasons for not correcting the Credit Information and your ability to access our external dispute resolution scheme or make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.

 

There are no fees associated with making a correction request and having any Credit Information corrected as a result of such request.

 

Complaints

 

American Express is committed to customer satisfaction as part of its service philosophy. We want to work with you to resolve any issues you may have with us.If you have a complaint about how we manage your Credit Information or personal information, or want to let us know about any other issues you may have, Please contact us by phone on the number at the beginning of this policy to discuss your complaint. You can also call us on the number on the back of your Card.

 

If you prefer to write to us, please address your complaint to:

 

The Customer Relations Manager

American Express Australia Limited

GPO Box 1582

SYDNEY NSW 2001

 

We’ll let you know that we’ve received your complaint within 7 days. If we can’t resolve your complaint within 45 days, we’ll contact you to explain any issues we may be having and ask you to give us more time.

 

If you have concerns about the way we handle your Credit Information or personal information, you can make a complaint about us to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner(OAIC) on 1300 363 992, through www.oaic.gov.au or at GPO Box 5218 Sydney, NSW, 2001.

American Express is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).


AFCA offers a free external dispute resolution service for individuals who are unable to resolve an issue with their credit provider directly. AFCA will review our actions in accordance with their Terms of Reference to determine if we have fulfilled our obligations to you as your credit provider. As part of their processes, AFCA will generally ask if you have tried to resolve the issue with us first. If you are not satisfied with our actions and would still prefer to seek help from AFCA, please contact them on 1800 931 678, through www.afca.org.au or at GPO Box 3, Melbourne, VIC, 3001.