About the Toolkit

This website is owned and operated by Financial Counselling Australia Ltd (ABN 67 073 167 361) (FCA or we or us).

It is a member only resource to help financial counsellors and capability workers in their work, a sector forum where news and events can be shared, a directory to allow financial counsellors to contact colleagues, a training resource including a Learning Management System and it holds an extensive list of contacts for industries and credit providers that financial counsellors work with. It also acts as a register of qualified financial counsellors that commercial service providers such as banks, telcos, energy providers, debt collection companies and superannuation funds can access to verify that the person they are interacting with is a bona fide financial counsellor.

To access the Toolkit resources, you need to register and create a Toolkit profile.  Your profile will be available to all other Toolkit users (those with their own profile).  Some profiles are also available to approved service providers (see below).

Who can access the Toolkit by creating a Toolkit profile?

A Toolkit profile may be created by:  

• financial counsellors who are members of their State/ Territory association
• financial capability workers
• financial counselling students who are members of their State/ Territory association
• financial counselling agency managers
• State and Territory financial counselling association staff
• representatives of registered training organisations that offer the Diploma of Financial Counselling
• Financial Counselling Australia staff
• representatives of consumer advocate organisations, and
• representatives of approved government bodies with which financial counsellors regularly deal on behalf of their clients.

What information is part of a Toolkit profile?

A Toolkit profile includes the person’s name, employer’s name, work email, work phone and work address.  If you wish, you may also include a photo and bio details. 

A profile will also include a unique National Registration Number (NRN) if you are eligible to be issued with this.  A NRN will only be issued to:

• qualified financial counsellors, and
• financial counselling students who are working as a financial counsellor.

A NRN constitutes verification that the person is a bona fide financial counsellor.

Who can search and access Toolkit profiles?

Toolkit profiles can be accessed by anyone who is registered on the Toolkit and who has a Toolkit profile. 

In addition, commercial service providers, approved by FCA, are able to access Toolkit profiles of those with a NRN.  FCA allows access to organisations that deal regularly with financial counsellors such as banks, telcos, energy providers, debt collection companies and superannuation funds.  They can then use the Toolkit to verify that a customer’s representative is a bona fide financial counsellor. Before being given access to the Toolkit commercial service providers sign an agreement with FCA that sets out the terms and conditions on which access to the Toolkit is granted. They can only use the information on the Toolkit for the purposes intended.

Why are profiles included in the Toolkit?

Profiles are included to:

• foster connections among financial counsellors
• improve referrals between financial counsellors, for example, by knowing which colleagues have specific specialities and
• allow FCA-approved commercial service providers to verify that a customer’s representative (nominee on a third-party authority) is in fact a bona fide financial counsellor.

This promotes confidence in the financial counselling profession for clients and other stakeholders.  

What are the steps in the Toolkit registration process?

1. You complete the registration form to create your own professional profile on the Toolkit

To do this, you must:

• be at least 18 years of age;
• be either a member of your State or Territory financial counselling association or have been given access to the Toolkit by FCA because of your role; and
• agree and warrant to use the Toolkit in accordance with these Terms including our Privacy Policy.

For your profile, you will need to provide us with personal information (see Privacy Collection Statement below).  This includes your name, employer’s name, work email, work phone and work address.  Except for a unique identifier, you are discouraged from including any non-work contact details e.g. your home address or non-work telephone number, unless you are a student and not working as a financial counsellor.

You can also choose to include in your profile your photo and biographical details.

If you like, you can also use the Toolkit to track your professional development and supervision.  This information is not part of the profile information that is visible to other Toolkit users.

• Processing of your registration

Your registration will be checked by an administrator at FCA or a State or Territory financial counselling association.  In the case of a financial counsellor or financial counselling student, we will confirm your eligibility to be issued with a NRN. 

When your registration is approved, you will be notified by email.  In the case of a person eligible to be issued with a NRN, we will update your profile to include your NRN.

You will be able to access your profile using the ‘My Profile’ link under the “My Details” tab.

• Changes to your profile

You can edit your profile thereby making changes to it.  It is your responsibility to keep your profile up to date.

Both FCA and your State or Territory Association have a right to update (or require you to update) your profile information if the information is misleading or inaccurate.

Toolkit Website General Terms

Toolkit resources

1. Unless otherwise indicated, we own or license from third parties all rights, title and interest (including copyright, designs, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights) in the Toolkit and in all of the material (including all text, graphics, logos, audio and software) made available on this website. 
2. Whilst FCA takes care in deciding what material to include in the Toolkit and endeavours to identify material that has become out of date, FCA is not responsible for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the Toolkit resources.  To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all liability for any direct or indirect loss, damage or expense that may arise in connection with your use of the Toolkit.
3. The Toolkit may contain links to websites operated by third parties. Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. Unless expressly stated otherwise, we do not endorse and are not responsible for the content on those linked websites and have no control over or rights in those linked websites. 

Your profile Information and other information you include in the Toolkit

• You must take care with the information you include in or attach to your profile.  You must not:
• upload personal information about someone else without their consent
• post any inappropriate or offensive material
• use the Toolkit to defame or libel FCA, State or Territory financial counselling associations, our employees or other individuals
• upload files that contain viruses that may cause damage to our property or the property of other individuals, or
• post or transmit any unsolicited advertising or ‘spam’, or other material which is detrimental to or in violation of our systems or a third party’s systems or network security.
• Your profile information can be viewed by other users of the Toolkit. You acknowledge that FCA has the right to decide what individuals and organisations should be given access to search the Toolkit.  You agree that you will only provide content that you are comfortable sharing with other users of the Toolkit in accordance with these Terms.
• You agree that FCA and your State or Territory Association may update your profile information if they become aware that your information is incorrect or out of date.

Your Toolkit access

• FCA makes no warranty that your access will be uninterrupted or always available.
• Your Toolkit access is for your financial counselling work-related use only.  You are not permitted to use the Toolkit for other commercial uses including for any marketing purposes.  
• You are not permitted to provide another person with access to the Toolkit via your account details (user name and password).
• You may use the Toolkit only as permitted by law and these Terms. You must not:
• use the Toolkit to harass, stalk or otherwise threaten a person listed in the Toolkit register
• override any security features of the Toolkit
• remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained on the Toolkit, or
• imply or state you are affiliated with FCA without FCA’s express prior written consent.

Communicating with you

1.  In connection with your use of the Toolkit, FCA may send you notifications to the email address specified in your profile.
2. FCA may also use the bulk email function to communicate with you and some or all other Toolkit users. 
3. State or Territory financial counselling associations may also bulk email some or all of their members from the Toolkit site and may contact you in this way.

Termination

1. You may terminate your inclusion in the Toolkit register at any time by contacting FCA.
2. We may suspend or remove your access to the Toolkit if you do not comply with these Terms or our policies or if we suspect there has been any misconduct in relation to your use of the Toolkit.  If so, we are not required to provide you with reasons for doing this.

Other matters

1. We are not liable to you or anyone else if interference with or damage to your computer systems occurs in connection with the use of the Toolkit or a linked website. You must take your own precautions to ensure that whatever you select for your use from our website is free of viruses or anything else (such as worms or Trojan horses) that may interfere with or damage the operations of your computer systems.
2. These Terms are governed by the laws of Victoria and you submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of this State.
3. We may modify the Terms from time to time. It is your responsibility to ensure you comply with the most current Terms. If you do not agree to any modified terms, you should discontinue your use of the Toolkit immediately. 
    

Last updated 24/03/2023