INFORMATION STATEMENT FROM GOCASH.CO.NZ FOR NEW ZEALAND BORROWERS
(This information statement is for borrowers and potential borrowers who are in New Zealand when they sign up for a loan. The loan will be made and administered under New Zealand law. If you are in Australia any loan from us will be made and administered under Australian law and you should consult our Australian Website)
[Gocash is the trading name for First Stop Money Pty Limited.]
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOUR PROPOSED CONSUMER CREDIT CONTRACT
In this statement, the credit provider is First Stop Money Pty Ltd, an Australian company trading in New Zealand as Go Cash. The credit provider also refers to itself as “we” and “us” and “our”. You might also refer to us as the “creditor” or the “lender”.
This statement tells you about some of the rights and obligations of yourself and your credit provider. It does not state the terms and conditions of your contract but provides a lot of relevant information.
If you have any concerns about your contract or your dealings with us, contact us the credit provider at 0800 422 337 or fax at 0061 8 6314 1611 or email info@firststopmoney.com.au. If you wish to write us a letter you may send it to
Go Cash, P.O. Box 22 Seventh Avenue Mail Centre, Tauranga 3140 and, if you still have concerns, read our section on dispute resolution below.
GENERAL
1. How do we decide to lend?
We have a policy of responsible lending. We do not lend unless we believe that you can make the payments and repay the loan without causing yourself hardship, based on the information you provide and what we learn about you. We apply Australian standards on this as at present there are no New Zealand legislative standards. (When New Zealand standards are introduced we will follow them.) You are in no danger of losing your personal possessions or land if you default because we do not take security. Our policy of responsible lending is broadly as follows:
- We make reasonable inquiries about the proposed borrower’s (your) financial situation, and your requirements and objectives;
- We take reasonable steps to verify you financial situation; and
- We make a final assessment about whether the credit contract is ‘not unsuitable’ for you (based on the inquiries and information obtained in the first two steps).
THE CONTRACT
2. How can I get details of my proposed credit contract?
You may apply for a loan from us and if we are willing to lend to you we will make you an offer. If you accept the offer, one of the things you must do is sign our consumer credit contract. YOU SHOULD READ THAT IN ANY EVENT BEFORE YOU SIGN. If you want the loan after reading the contract, you will need to sign it. If you do not want the loan or are unhappy with the contract, you will naturally not sign it.
3. How can I get a copy of the final contract?
We as your credit provider must provide you with a copy of your consumer credit contract either before the contract is made or within 5 days of your signing it. As you will be reading the contract from our website and part of our contract includes agreement to communicate electronically, you will have a copy of the final contract at the time you sign it. You will be able to print it out. We will also provide you with a copy of the agreement by email if you ever ask us.
4. What if I want information about my account with you?
If you ask, we must provided you with as much of the following information as you request:
(a) the effect of a part prepayment on the debtor’s obligations under the consumer credit contract:
(b) full particulars concerning any changes made to the consumer credit contract since the contract was made:
(c) the amount of any fee or charge payable on a part prepayment and how that amount is calculated:
(d) the amount required for full prepayment at a specified date and how that amount is calculated:
(e) the unpaid balance, including the amount of any interest charge outstanding (calculated as at the date that the disclosure statement is prepared):
(f) the information specified in paragraph (o) of Schedule 1 of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 namely:
Payments required
if more than 1 payment is to be made—
(i) the amount of the payments or the method of calculating the amount; and
(ii) if ascertainable, the number of the payments; and
(iii) if ascertainable, the total amount of the payments (but only if the contract would, on the assumptions prescribed by regulations, be paid out within 7 years of the date on which credit is first provided under the contract); and
(iv) when the first payment is due, if ascertainable, and the frequency of payments:
We must comply with the request for disclosure within 15 working days of the later of the date that we receive the request. We do not make a charge for this but we provide it electronically.
However, we do not have to comply with the request for disclosure if—
- (a) disclosure of the matter that is requested has been made to the person making the request during the 3 months before the receipt of the request by the creditor; or
- (b) the request is received by the us more than 1 year after the consumer credit contract has come to an end.
5. Can I terminate the contract?
Yes. You have a right of cancellation for a period of time which runs from when the contract was made and depending on when you received disclosure of the terms of the agreement. The following is a copy of the Right To Cancel statement from all consumer credit contracts which we enter into.
Statement of right to cancel
The Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 gives you a right for a short time after the terms of this contract have been disclosed to you to cancel the contract.
How to cancel
If you want to cancel this contract you must give written notice to the creditor.
You must also return to the creditor any advance and any other property received by you under the contract.
Time limits for cancellation
If the disclosure documents are handed to you directly you must give notice that you intend to cancel within 3 working days after you receive the documents.
If the disclosure documents are sent to you by electronic means (for example, email) you must give notice that you intend to cancel within 5 working days after the electronic communication is sent.
If the documents are mailed to you, you must give the notice within 7 working days after they were posted.
Saturdays, Sundays, and national public holidays are not counted as working days.
What you may have to pay if you cancel
If you cancel the contract the creditor can charge you—
(a) the amount of any reasonable expenses the creditor had to pay in connection with the contract and its cancellation (including legal fees and fees for credit reports, etc) and
(b) Interest for the period from the day you received the advance until the day you repay the advance
6. Can I pay my credit contract out early?
Yes, at any time.
7. How can I find out the payout figure?
You can write to us at any time and ask for a statement of the payout figure as at any date you specify. You can also ask for details of how the amount is made up and we will provide them.
8. Will I pay less interest if I pay out my contract early?. Is there any charge if I do?
Yes, you will pay less interest. The interest you can be charged depends on the actual time money is owing. However we do not charge for our loss nor for administrative charges on full or part prepayment.
9. Can my contract be changed by my credit provider after I have signed it?
No
10. Is there anything I can do if I think that my contract is unfair or I disagree with something the lender does?
We pride ourselves on providing good service and products to meet your needs. However, if you feel we’ve got it wrong we want to know about it. Please contact us on 0800422 337 or email us on info@firststopmoney.com.au. We have an internal complaint process and we will do our best to resolve your complaint as soon as possible but in any event we must do so within 20 working days. If we cannot do so within 20 working days we may extend time provided we have a good reason and tell you what it is. If we do not extend the time or if we cannot resolve your complaint within a total of 40 working days we must tell you so and also tell you of your right to refer to our external disputes resolution provider and of the deadline for you to do so.
11 What if I cannot settle with you using your internal process?
If we cannot resolve your complaint within the 20 or (if we extend time) the 40 working days you may refer your complaint to Financial Service Complaint Limited (FSCL) which is an approved external dispute resolution service. You may do so without waiting for any further response or correspondence from us. FSCL can be contacted on at the following addresses and contact numbers
| Mail: | info@fscl.org.nz |
| Telephone: | (Call Free) 0800 347257 or (Wellington) (04) 472FSCL (472 3725) |
| Fax: | (04) 472 3728 |
| Physical Address: | 4th Floor 101 Lambton Quay Wellington |
| Postal Address: | PO Box 5967 Lambton Quay Wellington 6145 |
Here is the url to go to its website and make a complaint.
http://www.fscl.org.nz/howtocomplain.php
FSCL will advise if they can help you with your complaint and their services are free to you.
12. Do I have to take out insurance?
No
13 Do I have to give security over any land or personal property against my not make my loan payments?
No. We do not take security. If you default, our rights are against you personally, not against your property.
14 What fees do I have to pay?
The following are the fees which we charge you;
$1.40. Direct debit fee each time we take your payments from your bank account pursuant to a direct debit authority.
$10.00. Re-schedule payment fee each time you ask and we agree to re-schedule a payment you must make to us
15 Do I have to pay default fees and what are they?
Yes, if you do not keep up your payments and do not first come to an arrangement to the contrary, we will charge you default fees. They are as follows:
$35.00 Defaulted payment fee – charged each time a direct debit to your bank account fails but not more than 4 times consecutively.
$10.00 Default letter fee – charged any time we write to you or to anyone representing you with regard to any default you commit under this agreement
$45.00 Arrears management fee charged each month or part of a month that you are in default with any payment.
16 What about interest?
We charge a single interest amount of 40% of the loan principal which is included in the repayment figure. That comes to 480% per annum. We do not charge default interest. Your loan is normally contracted to be for no more than 30 days.
17. What do I do if I cannot make a payment when it is due?
You have rights if you are suffering unforeseen hardship – that is if you are unable reasonably, because of illness, injury, loss of employment, the end of a relationship, or other reasonable cause, to meet your obligations.
Accordingly, if you are suffering hardship, you should get in touch with us immediately. Discuss the matter and see if you can come to some arrangement. You may ask us to change your contract in a number of ways –
to extend the term of the contract and reduce payments; or
to extend the term of your contract and delay payments (i.e, postponing the dates that payments are due) for a set time; or
to delay payments for a set time without an extension of the term.
We currently do not have to make any changes if you are already in default or if the cause of the hardship was reasonably foreseeable at the time you borrowed the money but if you are having trouble making payments always talk to us anyway – we want to help.
18. What if my credit provider and I cannot agree on a suitable arrangement?
If the credit provider refuses your request to change the repayments, you can ask the credit provider to review this decision if you think it is wrong. If the credit provider still refuses your request you can complain to the external dispute resolution scheme that your credit provider belongs to. Further details about this scheme are set out earlier.
19 What happens If I make a late payment or completely fail to repay the loan and I do not contact the credit provider to discuss it.
We will normally try to contact you to discuss your defaults but we are not bound to do so. If you make a payment or payments late, you will be charged default fees for payments not made and ongoing fees while you are in default.
20. Can my credit provider take action against me?
Yes, if you are in default under your contract. We may list you as a bad debtor with credit reporters (which means you may have trouble obtaining other credit) and we may also sue you in court.
21 What if I want to renew a loan?
Normally we will make you fresh loans provided that your previous payment record has been acceptable and you have always communicated with us when you found you could not make a payment. We will also renew loans but we do not like to do so more than once or twice unless there is good reason. We make payday loans for short term purposes and our loans are not intended to last more than few weeks. We also apply our responsible lending rules to fresh loans and renewals.
22. Do I have any other rights and obligations?
Yes. The law will give you other rights and obligations. You should also READ YOUR CONTRACT carefully.
23. What kind of personal information do I need to provide?
Without limitation, any of the following Data may be collected:
2.1. First and surname;
2.2. Date of birth;
2.3. Gender;
2.4. Job title;
2.5. Profession;
2.6. Contact information such as full residential and email addresses and telephone numbers;
2.7. Demographic information such as post code, preferences and interests;
2.8. Financial information such as credit / debit card numbers;
2.9. IP address (automatically collected);
2.10. Web browser type and version (automatically collected);
2.11. Operating system (automatically collected);
2.12. A list of URLS starting with a referring site, your activity on this Web Site, and the site you exit to (automatically collected);
and
2.13. Cookie information (see clause 10 below).
24. Our Use of Data
3.1. Any personal Data you submit will be retained by First Stop Money Pty Limited for as long as you use the Services and Systems provided on the Web Site. Data that you may submit through any communications System that we may provide may be retained immediately.
3.2. Subject to Clause 4, your Data may be shared with carefully selected 3rd parties who may email you from time to time with other financial offers that may be suitable to you. By providing us with your email address, you give your consent to us using this information as described. If you prefer not to receive 3rd party information, or information from us, you may opt out at anytime by using the “unsubscribe” function available in the marketing emails that are sent to you. If you opt-out of our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, we will honour such choice once we have had a reasonable opportunity to process your request.
3.3. All personal data is stored securely in accordance with the principles of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988. Any or all of the above Data may be required by us from time to time in order to provide you with the best possible service and experience when using our Web Site. Specifically, Data may be used by us for the following reasons:
• internal record keeping;
• improvement of our products / services;
• transmission by email or post of promotional materials that may be of interest to you;
• contact for market research purposes which may be done using email, telephone, fax or mail. Such information may be used to customise or update the Web Site.
