Privacy policy

Chocolate Home Loans respects your privacy. This policy explains how we handle personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect

• When you use a form on this website: your name, email, phone number if you give it, your message, and how you'd like us to contact you.
• When you ask us to follow up on a calculator or the loan health check: the figures or answers you entered, so we don't have to ask again.
• Where you came from: the advertising campaign or website that brought you here (UTM tags and the referring site's name) and the first page you visited. Not your full browsing history.
• When we help you with a loan: the information lenders need, such as identity, income, employment, assets, debts and expenses, and credit information with your consent.

You can use the calculators and the checklist without giving us any personal information. What you type into a calculator stays in your browser unless you send it to us.

How we use it

To respond to you, to understand your situation, to recommend and apply for credit on your behalf, to meet our legal obligations, and to keep in touch about your loan. If we ever send you anything that isn't about your own loan, you can opt out at any time.

Who we share it with

Only as needed to help you, or when the law requires it:

• lenders and mortgage insurers you apply with
• our credit licensee and our aggregator, LMG
• credit reporting bodies (such as Equifax, Experian and illion), with your consent
• service providers who help us run the business (such as our website hosting and email), under confidentiality obligations
• your conveyancer, accountant or others you ask us to deal with

We don't sell your personal information.

Where your information is stored

Information you send through this website is stored on servers in Australia. It isn't sent to analytics or advertising services: this site doesn't use tracking cookies or advertising tags.

Once we're helping you with a loan, lenders and others we share information with may store or process it overseas: [whether this happens and which countries, from the licensee's privacy policy]

Automated decisions

Nothing on this website makes decisions about you automatically. The calculators and the loan health check give estimates only, and a person reads every enquiry.

Cookies and your browser

We use your browser's own storage to remember your light or dark theme, your checklist ticks, and how you arrived at the site for the length of your visit. Staff who sign in get a session cookie. None of this is used to track you across other websites.

Access and correction

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, by contacting us. Asking is free, and we'll respond within 30 days.

Questions and complaints

Contact us at [privacy contact email]. If you're not satisfied with our response, see our complaints page (which includes the Australian Financial Complaints Authority) or contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.