The following is your Direct Debit Service Agreement with Health Care Insurance (HCi) Ltd. The agreement is designed to explain what your obligations are when undertaking a Direct Debit arrangement with us. It also details what our obligations are to you, as your Direct Debit Provider.

We recommend you keep this agreement in a safe place for future reference. It forms part of the terms and conditions of your Direct Debit Request (DDR) and should be read in conjunction with your DDR form.

You can vary this agreement at any time by logging into OMS or completing a new payments form. Please contact us if you need to cancel the agreement.

Definitions

• account means the account held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to deduct funds from. It may be a credit card or general banking account
• agreement means this Direct Debit Request Service Agreement between you and HCi
• banking day means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a public holiday listed throughout Australia
• debit day means the day that payment by you to us is transferred from your account
• debit payment means a particular transaction where a debit is transferred from your account
• direct debit request means the Direct Debit Request between us and your financial institution
• us or we means Health Care Insurance (HCi) Ltd, (the Debit User) you have authorised by signing a direct debit agreement
• you means the customer who signed the Direct Debit Agreement
• your financial institution means the financial institution nominated by you on the DDR at which the account is held and maintained

1. Debiting your account

By signing a Direct Debit Request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account. You should refer to the Direct Debit Request and this agreement for the terms of the arrangement between us and you.

We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account as authorised in the Direct Debit Request.

If the debit day falls on a day that is not a banking day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following banking day.

If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, you should ask your financial institution.

2. Amendments by us

We may vary any details of this agreement or a Direct Debit Request at any time by giving you at least fourteen (14) days’ written notice.

3. Amendments by you

You may change, stop or defer a debit payment, or terminate this agreement by providing us with at least fourteen (14) days notification by emailing en*******@hc****.au, telephoning us on 1800 804 950 during business hours, or writing to HCi, PO Box 931, Burnie TAS 7320. Alternatively, you can arrange it through your own financial institution.

4. Your obligations

It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made in accordance with the Direct Debit Request.

If there are insufficient clear funds in your account to meet a debit payment:

• you may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
• you may also incur fees or charges imposed or incurred by us; and
• you must arrange for the debit payment to be made by another method or arrange for sufficient clear funds to be in your account by an agreed time so that we can process the debit payment.

You should check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.

If HCi is liable to pay goods and services tax (“GST”) on a supply made in connection with this agreement, then you agree to pay HCi, on demand, an amount equal to the consideration payable for the supply multiplied by the prevailing GST rate.

5. Dispute

If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account, you should notify us directly on 1800 804 950. Then confirm that notice in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly. Alternatively you can take it up with your financial institution directly.

If we conclude as a result of our investigations that your account has been incorrectly debited, we will respond to your query by arranging for your financial institution to adjust your account (including interest and charges) accordingly. We will also notify you in writing of the amount by which your account has been adjusted.

If we conclude as a result of our investigations that your account has not been incorrectly debited, we will respond to your query by providing you with reasons and any evidence for this finding in writing.

6. Accounts

You should check:

• with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your account as direct debiting is not available on all accounts offered by financial institutions.
• your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
• with your financial institution before completing the Direct Debit Request if you have any queries about how to complete the Direct Debit Request.

7. Confidentiality

We will keep any information (including your account details) in your Direct Debit Request confidential.  We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.

We will only disclose information that we have about you:

• to the extent specifically required by law; or
• for the purposes of this agreement (including disclosing information in connection with any query or claim).

8. Notice

If you wish to notify us in writing about anything relating to this direct debit agreement, you should write to HCi, PO Box 931, Burnie TAS 7320 or email en*******@hc****.au.

We will notify you by sending a notice to the email or postal address you gave us in the Direct Debit Request. Any notice will be deemed to have been received on the third banking day after posting.