RACQ Bank Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy
1. Who we are
This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy (‘Policy’) applies to Members Banking Group Limited ABN 83 087 651 054 trading as RACQ Bank (‘RACQ Bank’).
In this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy, RACQ Bank is also referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’.
This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy gives you an overview of the privacy and credit-related information handling practices of RACQ Bank. It is supplemented by additional collection notices and other documentation issued by RACQ Bank.
RACQ Bank is part of the group of companies owned by The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Limited (‘RACQ’), which also includes RACQ Insurance, RACQ Assistance, RACQ Foundation and other businesses (collectively referred to as the ‘RACQ Group’).
To find out more about how your personal information is handled by the RACQ Group, including when you use RACQ’s websites and other RACQ Group products and services, please see the RACQ Group Privacy Policy at www.racq.com.au/privacy or you can request a copy from us.
2. When this Policy applies
This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policies applies:
- when you interact with RACQ Bank, including as a current, prospective or former member of RACQ Bank;
- if you deal with us in connection with credit services provided by RACQ Bank, for example, as a guarantor;
- when you transact with an RACQ Bank member.
3. Our commitment to privacy
The protection of your privacy and confidentiality of your personal information is important to us.
We are committed to handling personal information in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles contained within the Act.
We are also committed to helping people in vulnerable circumstances manage their privacy. For more, see “Getting extra help to protect your privacy” below.
As a credit provider, we are also committed to handling personal information in compliance with our obligations under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act.
4. What information does this Policy apply to?
This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy applies to “personal information” held by RACQ Bank. “Personal information” refers to information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
In some circumstances, we also handle “sensitive information”. “Sensitive information” is a subset of personal information, and includes health information, criminal record information, some biometric information, sexual orientation, cultural and religious information, as well as some other categories set out in the Act.
This Policy also applies to “credit information”, “credit-related information” and “credit eligibility information”:
- “Credit information” is particular personal information about an individual that relates to the provision of credit to them, including credit arrangements, repayment history, defaults and insolvency information. We may not hold all these kinds of information about a particular individual. If we hold any of these kinds of information, it is treated as “credit information” under this Policy.
- “Credit eligibility information” means information that has been obtained from a credit reporting body, or that has been derived from that information, that is about an individual’s credit worthiness.
- “Credit-related information” means credit information, and credit eligibility information as applicable in the context.
“Credit-related information” is a type of “personal information”.
5. The purpose of this Policy
In this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy, we describe the key ways in which we typically handle personal and credit-related information in the ordinary course of our business.
We aim to provide a high degree of transparency. However, there may be ad hoc circumstances where we handle personal and credit-related information in a way not described in this Policy. Where that happens, we make sure we comply with our obligations.
We make you aware of how we handle personal and credit-related information in a number of different ways, so you can make informed choices when dealing with us. This Policy provides an overview. We may also describe how we handle your personal and credit-related information in our other collection notices or other documentation we give you, or in consent forms that you give us.
We may also handle your personal and credit-related information in other ways permitted by law, including:
- for the primary purpose for which we collect the personal information;
- where, in the circumstances, you give your implied consent;
- where you reasonably expect it, and the secondary purposes is related (or in the case of sensitive information, directly related) to the primary purpose for which it was collected; and
- on other bases permitted by law, including for law enforcement purposes.
6. What personal information do we collect?
The personal information we collect about you depends on our dealings with you.
| RACQ Bank member (or you apply to be one) |
As an RACQ Bank member, the types of personal information we collect about you may include your name, gender, contact details and date of birth. In addition, we may also collect:
|
| Guarantor for an RACQ Bank member |
Personal and contact details (including name, address, email address, phone number and/or date of birth), personal circumstances (for example, marital status and/or any dependents you have), identity information and government related identifiers (for example, tax file number or tax identification number), financial information, credit information, employment-related information, publicly available information (for example, registers maintained by the various land registries or ASIC) |
| Authorised representative of an RACQ Bank member |
Personal and contact details (including name, address, email address, phone number and/or date of birth), relationship with the RACQ Bank member, identity information (for example, driver’s licence) and your communication history with RACQ Bank |
| Someone who transacts with an RACQ Bank member |
Name, bank account details and transaction details |
The types of personal information we collect may also depend on the ways in which you choose to deal with us, including:
| When you call us | We record the call, which may include your personal information such as your name, date of birth, contact details, residential and postal address, Bank ID number, membership number, and information about your enquiry. |
| When you email us, use our online chat service or correspond with us by mail or social media | We keep a record of communications, which may include your personal information including your name, contact details, Bank ID number, and membership number. |
| When you visit us at one of our RACQ Bank stores or branches |
We may record your image and information about your visit on CCTV. |
| When you make an online enquiry |
We collect your name and contact details, your membership number (if provided), and information about your enquiry. |
| When you engage with us on social media |
We collect your username and the information you provide when interacting with us. |
| When you browse our website |
We record your server or IP address, the date and time of your visit, pages visited, documents downloaded, the site you visited prior to visiting our website, information about your browser and user preferences and your website interactions. This may only be personal information if we can reasonably identify you from this information. |
Where we collect sensitive information, unless we are required or permitted by law to collect such information, we will obtain your consent to this collection. Where you choose to provide sensitive information to us, such as where this relates directly to your ability to meet financial obligations that you owe to us, you consent to us collecting this information.
7. What credit-related information do we collect?
Whether we collect credit-related information about you depends on the RACQ Bank products and services you have requested from us and/or we provide to you.
The types of credit-related information we collect about you may include:
- identification information about you, such as your name, date of birth, gender, contact details, residential and postal address, current and last known employer, and driver’s licence number;
- information about your current or terminated consumer credit accounts and your repayment history;
- the type and amount of credit applied for in any previous consumer or commercial credit applications to any credit provider, where that credit provider has requested information;
- information about you from a credit reporting body, such as information about your credit worthiness;
- information about consumer credit payments overdue for at least 60 days and for which collection action has started;
- advice that payments that were previously notified to a credit reporting body as overdue are no longer overdue;
- information about new credit arrangements you may have made with a credit provider, in relation to consumer credit currently or previously held, to deal with any defaults or serious credit infringements by you;
- information about court judgments which relate to credit that you have obtained or applied for;
- information about you on the National Personal Insolvency Index or through the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX);
- publicly available information about your credit worthiness, and
- an opinion of a credit provider that you have committed a serious credit infringement of credit provided by that credit provider.
8. How do we collect personal information and credit-related information?
Where reasonable and practicable, we will collect personal information (including credit information) directly from you. This information will generally come from what you provide in your application for one of our products or services and supporting documentation, what information you provide when communicating with us, or your use of RACQ Bank services.
Where we are dealing with a child under 15 years old, we will generally collect personal information from the child’s parent or guardian and we will obtain any consents from the child’s parent or guardian.
On occasion, we will collect personal information passively – that is, by observing you. This may occur, for example, where:
- you call our call centre, and we record the call;
- you attend one of our stores or locations and are captured on CCTV; or
- you use our digital services, such as using online banking or using our RACQ Bank app.
We will sometimes collect information about you from third parties, where it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect that information from you directly. This may include, depending on the circumstances:
- from credit reporting bodies, including Equifax and Illion, as authorised by you;
- from your authorised representative (including a joint account holder) or from any referees that you may provide to us in support of an RACQ Bank application;
- from publicly accessible databases such as the National Personal Insolvency Index, company registration details maintained by ASIC, registers maintained by the various land registries and criminal history information in police checks;
- for RACQ Bank members, from the AFCX;
- from third parties, such as your employer, finance brokers and mortgage insurers, other credit providers, third party service providers or other organisations as authorised by you; and
- from publicly available sources, such as social media when you choose to interact with us through that channel.
9. How do we use your personal information and credit-related information?
We generally use your personal and credit-related information for the primary purpose for which we collected it. Generally, this is to provide you the product or service that you have requested or that we provide to you.
In the ordinary course of our business, we may also use it for the following additional purposes, depending on the circumstances:
- verifying your identity, including where we are required to do so by law;
- considering and assessing your application for a product or service, which may include considering your creditworthiness;
- managing your products and services, including managing any loans or the arrangements under which your loan is funded or collecting overdue payments;
- executing your instructions and providing periodic statements;
- for administrative, accounting, audit, insurance, management, training, planning, record keeping, archiving, risk management, staff training, product research and development, internal analysis and other business purposes of RACQ Bank and the RACQ Group;
- providing insurance in connection with our products and services;
- complying with our legal and regulatory obligations, and managing our rights and obligations in relation to external payment systems;
- managing defaults and for debt collection purposes;
- investigating suspicious or potentially fraudulent activities;
- to monitor the security of our premises;
- obtaining and maintaining a credit rating;
- to better understand our members, including by conducting marketing or customer satisfaction research, and to develop and improve our products and services; and
- to manage and respond to complaints.
We may use your personal information, including your contact details, to provide you with information we think will interest you about our products and services, where we have your express or inferred consent. This may include conducting marketing and communication purposes and member satisfaction research. If you have registered your phone number on the Do Not Call Register, we may contact you for marketing purposes where we have your express or inferred consent.
We never use sensitive information or credit information for direct marketing purposes.
You may opt out at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing information or do not wish to receive marketing information through a particular channel, like emails. You can make this request by asking one of our contact centre or RACQ Bank store or branch staff, or by contacting our Privacy Officer using the contact details at the end of this Policy, or by ‘unsubscribing’ from our marketing messages, which always include an unsubscribe option.
If you are person transacting with an RACQ Bank member, then we use your personal information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, such as those under the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. We do not use your personal information for other purposes.
10. When might we disclose your personal information and credit-related information?
We may disclose your personal and credit-related information to third parties where this disclosure is the primary purpose for which we collected it.
In the ordinary course of our business, we may also disclose your information in the following additional circumstances, depending on the circumstances:
- to other entities within the RACQ Group, and to our retail agents;
- to our service providers, such as organisations that provide identity verification, payment service providers and other financial institutions to allow payment processing, settlement agents, data storage providers, mailing houses and research consultants;
- to the RACQ Group’s professional advisors, such as accountants, lawyers and auditors where we have taken steps to ensure that these advisors are bound by sufficient confidentiality and privacy obligations to protect personal information;
- to credit reporting bodies, other credit reporting providers and brokers, such as Equifax, Illion and Experian, including disclosing that you are in default under a credit agreement or commit a serious credit infringement, if that is the case;
- to certain entities that have bought or otherwise obtained an interest in your credit product, or that are considering doing so, and their professional advisors;
- to external organisations that are RACQ Bank assignees for the purpose of allowing them to perform obligations under contract assigned to them;
- to debt collecting agencies, if you have not paid an amount or repaid a loan as required;
- to insurers and re-insurers, including lenders’ mortgage insurers, where insurance is provided in connection with our products and services;
- to other financial institutions, for example, when you apply for a loan from another credit provider and you agree to us providing such information;
- to guarantors nominated by you or, where you are a guarantor, to the member who nominated you;
- to referees nominated by you, including your employer;
- an organisation proposing to fund the acquisition of, or acquire, any interest in any obligation you may owe to RACQ Bank (whether under a loan, guarantee or security), that organisation’s agents, persons involved in assessing the risks and funding the acquisition, and after acquisition, the purchaser and any manager;
- the AFCX and members of the AFCX for the purposes for the purposes of reporting fraud, including disclosure to the AFCX and members of the AFCX for that purpose;
- to your representatives and agents, where authorised by you;
- to any person to the extent necessary, in our view, to carry out an instruction you give to us, for example when dealing with mortgage insurers;
- loan introducers or dealers; and
- if required or authorised by law, to government and regulatory authorities, such as under Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing Act laws, State and Territory conveyancing laws, tax laws or in response to a subpoena, and to State or Territory authorities that give assistance to facilitate the provision of home loans to individuals.
Where we disclose your information to our service providers, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by sufficient confidentiality and privacy obligations to protect your information.
We may disclose your personal and credit-related information to recipients located overseas, where permitted by law. Where we disclose your personal information to an overseas recipient, we will take reasonable steps to include relevant obligations aligned with the Australian privacy laws on how the recipient collects, uses, discloses, stores and retains your personal information and credit-related information.
Please see our RACQ Overseas Disclosure list at https://www.racq.com.au/privacy/racq-overseas-disclosure, which lists the countries that the RACQ Group may disclose your personal information and credit-related information to in the ordinary course of its business.
11. How do we hold your personal information and credit-related information?
RACQ Bank implements safeguards to protect the personal and credit-related information we hold from:
- misuse, interference and loss, and
- unauthorised access, disclosure or modification.
We may hold your personal information in hard copy or electronically and we keep it in our facilities and systems or those of our service providers. We have policies and procedures that are aimed at ensuring that information is only accessed by people who have the authority and need to do so. We protect the physical security of our premises, and we implement technical security measures over our electronic systems. We regularly review and test our security measures. While RACQ Bank implements measures to keep personal information safe, RACQ Bank is not able to control all external cyber threats.
We use up-to-date security measures on our website to protect your personal information and your credit-related information. Any data containing personal, credit or related information which we transmit via the internet is encrypted. However, we cannot guarantee that any information transmitted online is entirely secure. If you have any questions or concerns about transmitting your personal information online, you may contact our Privacy Officer, as there are other ways for you to provide us with your personal information.
We ask you to keep your passwords and personal identification numbers safe, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions at https://www.racq.com.au/banking/forms-and-documents.
12. Your right to access your personal information and credit-related information
You may request access to the personal and credit-related information that we hold about you at any time from the Privacy Officer, using the details at the end of this Policy.
We will respond to your request for access within a reasonable time. If we refuse to give you access to any of your personal information, we will provide you with reasons for the refusal and the relevant provisions of the Privacy Act that we rely on to refuse access. You can contact our Privacy Officer if you would like to challenge our decision to refuse access. Where we incur cost providing you with access to personal information, we may charge you a reasonable amount.
13. Your right to request correction of your personal information and credit-related information
We take reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information and credit-related information that we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. You may have options to request to update your personal information yourself, such as through your internet banking account. If this is not an option and if you believe your information is incorrect, incomplete or not current, you can request that we update this information by emailing banking@racq.com.au, contacting our call centre, or visiting an RACQ Bank store or branch.
To request to update your credit-related information, please email racq@racq.com.au.
Before correcting or providing access to personal information or credit-related information in response to a request, we will require your identity to be confirmed. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time. If we do not correct your information we will provide you with the reasons for the refusal. You can ask us to associate a statement with the record indicating your disagreement with it.
14. How you can ask questions, raise comments and make complaints
If you have any questions or comments regarding your privacy or credit-related information in relation to RACQ Bank, please contact us on 13 1905 or email us at privacy@racq.com.au.
If you believe that we have not fulfilled our obligations under the Privacy Act or you do not agree with a decision made by RACQ Bank in relation to accessing or correcting your personal and credit-related information, you can make a complaint to our Privacy Officer – details are below.
Once we have received your complaint, we will investigate and endeavour to respond to you within a reasonable time. If you are unhappy with the response from RACQ Bank, you can direct your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority or the Australian Privacy Commissioner at:
Australian Financial Complaints Authority
GPO Box 3
Melbourne VIC 3001
email: info@afca.org.au
Telephone: 1800 931 678
Website: https://www.afca.org.au/
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (‘OAIC’)
GPO Box 5288
Sydney NSW 2001
email: privacy@privacy.gov.au
15. Getting extra help to protect your privacy
Credit reporting bodies collect credit information about individuals which they provide as credit reports to credit providers (such as us) and others in the credit industry to assist in managing credit risk, collecting debts and other activities. You can ask a credit reporting body, through contact details on their website, not to use or disclose your personal information if you believe on reasonable grounds that you have been or are likely to be a victim of fraud, including identity fraud. For further information about these credit reporting bodies, visit:
- www.equifax.com.au
- www.illion.com.au, and
- www.experian.com.au.
RACQ Bank recognises that many of us could be facing difficult situations and we endeavour to help and support as best as we can, if needed, and to take additional steps to protect your privacy.
If your finances are being controlled by someone else in a way that is causing you concern, or if you are being threatened, controlled, coerced, or experiencing violent acts that may be causing you to be fearful, speak to one of our staff who can help you by taking steps to protect your privacy and managing the products you hold, or wish to hold with us, to reasonably suit your needs. We have many options appropriate for complex and challenging times and we are here to provide care and additional support to our members.
Call 000 if you are in immediate danger.
Call our Group Member Advocate Office on 1800 848 869 between 8:30am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday. We can arrange the National Relay Service or an interpreter, if required. To find out more how the Member Advocate Office can help you, refer to the “Group Member Advocate” page here.
To access other support services, refer to the “Supporting vulnerability and hardship” page here.
16. How to contact us
Our Privacy Officer’s contact details are:
Privacy Officer
Group Risk & Compliance
PO Box 4 Springwood QLD 4127
email: privacy@racq.com.au
17. Updates to this RACQ Bank Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy
This Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy was last updated in April 2025.
We may make changes to this Privacy and Credit Reporting Policy from time to time to ensure that it is up to date and accurate, and to reflect any changes to the law or our operations. As a result, we may update and change this Policy from time to time, and the updated version will be published on our website.