These Terms and Conditions set out the rules for using the Hobart Loans website and our free services. Please read them carefully. They explain what we do and do not do, what we ask of you, and how responsibility is shared between us, while preserving the rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law.
Acceptance of these Terms
By accessing or using hobartloans.com (the Website), including reading articles, using our calculators and checklists, submitting a form, subscribing to our newsletter or requesting a free loan-readiness review (together, the Services), you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions (the Terms).
These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Disclaimer and Editorial Policy, which form part of these Terms. If there is an inconsistency between these Terms and one of those documents on a particular topic, the document that deals specifically with that topic prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.
If you do not agree with these Terms, please do not use the Website or the Services.
Who we are
The Website is operated by Hobart Loans, an independent personal- and business-finance publication based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia (Hobart Loans, we, us or our). In these Terms, you and your mean the person using the Website or Services.
We publish general information and education about personal and business finance, and we offer a free loan-readiness guidance service that helps people understand their options, organise their documents and prepare before speaking with a lender or broker. You can read more about us on our About us page and about the guidance service on our Services page.
You can contact us at [email protected].
General information only, not advice
All content on the Website, in our newsletter and in our loan-readiness guidance is general information only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not:
- personal financial advice or financial product advice;
- credit assistance or a credit recommendation;
- legal, tax or accounting advice; or
- an offer of credit, a pre-approval, or an indication that any lender will approve an application.
Before making any financial decision, you should consider whether the information is appropriate for your circumstances and obtain advice from an appropriately licensed or qualified professional, such as a holder of an Australian Credit Licence, a financial adviser, a registered tax agent, an accountant or a lawyer. Our Disclaimer explains this in more detail.
No credit assistance and our referral arrangements
Hobart Loans is not a lender and does not hold an Australian Credit Licence. We do not provide credit, arrange credit, suggest that you apply for a particular credit contract with a particular lender, or act as an intermediary between you and a lender.
Our free loan-readiness guidance is limited to general information that helps you understand how lending generally works, what lenders typically look at, and how to organise yourself. It is not an assessment of whether a particular credit product is suitable for you. Responsible lending assessments are carried out by licensed lenders and brokers under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth).
If you want to pursue credit, we may, only at your request and with your express consent, refer you to a business that holds an Australian Credit Licence. Before any referral we will tell you:
- who we propose to refer you to;
- what information we will pass on; and
- whether we will receive a referral fee or commission and, where known, the amount or how it is calculated.
You are under no obligation to accept a referral, and you are free to approach any lender or broker yourself. Once referred, your dealings with that licensee are between you and them, under their own terms, disclosure documents and legal obligations. We are not responsible for the licensee's products, services, decisions or conduct, although we would like to hear from you if you have concerns.
Eligibility
Anyone may read the Website. To submit a free review request, make a referral request or subscribe to our newsletter, you must:
- be at least 18 years old;
- provide accurate, current and complete information about yourself; and
- be legally able to agree to these Terms.
Our Services are designed for people and businesses in Australia, and much of our content relates to Australian law, regulators and market practice. If you access the Website from outside Australia, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for complying with your local laws.
If you use the Services on behalf of a business or other organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to do so.
Use of calculators and tools
The Website includes tools such as our loan calculator, interactive checklists and worked examples. These tools:
- provide estimates only, based on the figures you enter and on simplifying assumptions;
- generally do not account for all fees, charges, rate changes, offset or redraw features, repayment timing, rounding methods, insurance, taxes or lender-specific rules;
- use illustrative rates and examples that are not offers and may not reflect rates currently available to you; and
- do not indicate whether you will be approved for credit or how much a lender will let you borrow.
Results from our tools must not be relied on as the basis for a financial decision. Always obtain a written quote, key facts sheet and comparison rate from the credit provider, and check the actual terms of any credit contract before you sign it.
Our calculators and checklists run in your browser. With your consent, the Website may remember your last calculator inputs, ticked checklist items and bookmarked articles in your browser's local storage so they are there when you return. This information stays on your device. See our Cookie Policy.
User conduct and prohibited uses
You may use the Website and Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You must not:
- use the Website in any way that breaches any applicable law or regulation, or that is fraudulent or misleading;
- submit false information, impersonate another person, or submit another person's details without their knowledge and consent;
- submit spam, unsolicited advertising, chain messages or bulk form submissions;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website, its servers, or any system or network connected to it;
- introduce viruses, malware or other harmful code, or carry out denial-of-service or similar attacks;
- use automated tools such as bots, scrapers or crawlers to copy or extract content from the Website in bulk, other than standard search engine indexing that respects our technical instructions;
- use our content to train, fine-tune or build datasets for machine-learning or artificial intelligence systems without our prior written permission;
- reproduce, republish or redistribute our content except as permitted in the Intellectual property section below;
- frame or mirror the Website, or present our content in a way that suggests an association with or endorsement by Hobart Loans that does not exist;
- send us content that is defamatory, obscene, threatening, harassing, discriminatory or that infringes anyone else's rights; or
- interfere with other people's use of the Website.
We may block access, ignore submissions or report matters to the relevant authorities where we reasonably believe these Terms have been breached.
Forms and communications
Contact and free review request form
When you submit our contact / free review request form, you confirm that the information you provide is accurate and that you consent to us contacting you using your preferred contact method to respond. Submitting the form does not create a client relationship involving financial advice or credit assistance, and it does not oblige you to do anything further.
We aim to respond to enquiries promptly, but we do not guarantee a response time, and we may decline to provide guidance where a request falls outside what we do (for example, where you need personal financial advice or urgent help with debt). In those cases we will try to point you to an appropriate resource.
What not to send us
Please do not send us your tax file number, internet banking passwords, credit card numbers or copies of identity documents. We never ask for them, and email is not a secure way to send them. If a licensed lender or broker you are referred to needs documents, they will explain their own secure process.
Newsletter
Our newsletter is free and requires confirmation by email (double opt-in). Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Electronic communications
You agree that we may communicate with you electronically, including by email, and that electronic communications satisfy any requirement that a communication be in writing.
Feedback
If you send us suggestions, corrections or ideas about our content or Services, you agree we may use them to improve our content without any obligation to you. We will not publish your name or personal details without your consent.
Intellectual property and licence to use content
Unless otherwise stated, the Website and its content, including articles, guides, checklists, glossary entries, calculators, text, graphics, design, layout, logos and the Hobart Loans name, are owned by or licensed to Hobart Loans and are protected by Australian and international copyright, trade mark and other intellectual property laws. Some images are used under licence from third parties and remain their property.
What you may do
We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to:
- view, read and use the Website for your own personal or internal business purposes;
- print or save a copy of individual pages for your own reference;
- share links to our pages; and
- quote short extracts from our articles (for example, a sentence or a short paragraph) in your own commentary, reporting, review or educational material, provided you attribute Hobart Loans as the source and, where the quote appears online, include a link to the original page.
What you may not do
Without our prior written permission, you must not reproduce whole articles or substantial parts of them, republish our content on another website, sell or commercially exploit our content, remove copyright or attribution notices, or alter our content in a way that changes its meaning. Nothing in these Terms limits any use permitted under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).
To request permission for other uses, email [email protected].
Third-party links and websites
The Website contains links to websites operated by others, including government regulators and agencies, lenders, brokers, advertisers and sponsors. We provide these links for convenience and information. Unless expressly stated, a link does not mean we endorse the linked website, its owner, or its products or services.
We do not control third-party websites and are not responsible for their content, accuracy, availability, privacy practices or security. Your use of a third-party website is governed by that website's own terms and policies. We recommend you read them.
Advertising and sponsored content
Hobart Loans is funded by advertising and sponsorship, and possibly by referral fees that we disclose before any referral. Information for prospective advertisers is on our Advertise here page.
- Sponsored content is always clearly labelled as sponsored.
- Advertisers and sponsors do not control or approve our independent editorial content, and paying for advertising does not buy favourable coverage.
- Products and services advertised on the Website are offered by the advertiser, not by us. Any dealings you have with an advertiser are solely between you and that advertiser.
The presence of an advertisement or sponsorship does not mean that the product is suitable for you or that it is the best option available. Our Editorial Policy explains how we keep our journalism independent.
Disclaimers and limitation of liability
Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law
Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy, or any guarantee, warranty or other term or condition, implied or imposed by any law (including the Australian Consumer Law in Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified (Non-Excludable Rights). Where these Terms would otherwise operate to exclude or limit a Non-Excludable Right, they do not apply to that extent.
Disclaimers
Subject to your Non-Excludable Rights:
- the Website and Services are provided free of charge, on an "as is" and "as available" basis;
- while we take care to make our content accurate and current at the time of publication, we do not warrant that content is complete, accurate, up to date or suitable for your purposes, particularly as interest rates, lending policies, government schemes and laws change;
- we do not warrant that the Website will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free from viruses or other harmful components; and
- we do not warrant the products, services, decisions or conduct of any lender, broker, advertiser, sponsor or other third party.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to your Non-Excludable Rights:
- Hobart Loans is not liable for any loss or damage (including indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of opportunity, loss of data, or financial loss arising from a borrowing or investment decision) arising out of or in connection with your use of, or reliance on, the Website, the Services or any third-party website, product or service; and
- where our liability for breach of a guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law can be limited, our liability is limited, at our option, to supplying the relevant services again or paying the cost of having the services supplied again.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
Indemnity
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify Hobart Loans against any loss, liability, claim or reasonable cost (including reasonable legal costs) that we suffer or incur as a direct result of your breach of these Terms, your unlawful use of the Website, or your infringement of any third party's rights. This indemnity is reduced to the extent that the loss was caused or contributed to by our own breach, negligence or wrongful act.
Privacy
We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles as described in our Privacy Policy. Our use of browser storage and our cookie consent banner are explained in our Cookie Policy. By using the Services, you acknowledge that your information will be handled as those documents describe.
Availability and changes
Changes to the Website and Services
We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Website or Services at any time, including articles, tools, the newsletter and the free review service. We may also need to make the Website temporarily unavailable for maintenance, security or reasons beyond our control. We will try to minimise disruption, but we do not guarantee continuous availability.
Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in our Services, the law or our practices. The current version will always be published on this page with its "last updated" date. If a change is significant, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to your attention, such as a notice on the Website or an email to newsletter subscribers. Changes apply from the date they are published and do not apply retrospectively. Your continued use of the Website after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.
Termination
You may stop using the Website and Services at any time, and you may unsubscribe from our newsletter whenever you wish.
We may suspend or end your access to all or part of the Services, or decline to respond to submissions from you, if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, if your use creates a risk for us or others, or if we are required to do so by law. Any provisions of these Terms that by their nature should continue after termination (including those relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and governing law) will continue to apply.
Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tasmania, Australia, and the applicable laws of the Commonwealth of Australia. You and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Tasmania and any courts entitled to hear appeals from those courts.
If you have a concern, we encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve it informally. This does not affect any right you have to approach a court, tribunal or regulator.
Severability and waiver
If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid, void or unenforceable, it will be read down to the extent necessary to make it valid, or if that is not possible, severed, and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
A failure or delay by us in exercising any right under these Terms does not operate as a waiver of that right. A waiver is only effective if it is in writing.
Entire agreement
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Disclaimer and Editorial Policy, form the entire agreement between you and Hobart Loans about your use of the Website and Services, and supersede any prior understanding on that subject. They do not affect any separate agreement you make with a lender, broker, advertiser or other third party, which is between you and that party.
You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms. We may assign our rights and obligations under these Terms in connection with a sale, merger or restructure of our publication, provided your rights are not reduced as a result.
Contact us
If you have questions about these Terms, please contact:
- Hobart Loans, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
- Email: [email protected]
You can also use the form on our Contact us page.
