Below are different examples of how individuals and small businesses can use Consumer Data Right to save time and find better deals.
Sarah is a savvy shopper who often looks around for the best interest rate deals on her savings, investment and loan accounts.
She also owns a few credit cards from different banks so she can access the best rewards point schemes in the market. She uses her credit cards to pay for many of her everyday expenses, such as shopping, bills and petrol. But Sarah is starting to find all these accounts hard to manage.
After some research, Sarah finds the app Consolidata. Reading more on its website, she learns that Consolidata can combine her banking data from all accounts across the different banks in the one place. Confident this will help her manage her finances, Sarah signs on to use Consolidata’s service and consents to the collection of her banking data from each of her banks using Consumer Data Right.
Data holders can, like anyone else, check the Consumer Data Right Register at any time to make sure a business is an accredited data recipient under Consumer Data Right.
Sarah now manages all her accounts in the Consolidata app. While exploring the app, Sarah finds another handy function that alerts her when monthly payments are due, and automatically groups and sorts all transactions so she has a clear picture of her spending habits.
Sarah can now see how she spends her money across different categories, such as groceries, travel and shopping. As a bonus, she hasn’t needed to pay interest again since using the app.
Sam is a small business owner who owns a brick-and-mortar store and online shop, and also sells his products at a pop-up market for extra revenue.
He downloads the Consolidata app to sort out the cashflows for his business. Because he uses a traditional payment terminal at his shop and a micro-terminal for his work at the market, he currently receives multiple monthly digital and physical bank statements. His online shop also uses various e-payment methods, including a buy-now-pay-later system. All of this has left Sam overwhelmed. He feels his accounting and bookkeeping have become hard to manage.
Using the Consolidata app, Sam gives consent for it to gather his transaction data from his bank. He’s then redirected from the app to his internet banking page, where he enters his banking customer number. Sam also receives a One Time Password from his bank that he uses on the app to confirm that his bank is authorised to share this data with Consolidata through Consumer Data Right. The screen displays a list of bank accounts that Sam can share from. He chooses to share all of his business transaction data for the store.
After giving his consent through Consumer Data Right using Consolidata’s app, Sam can now easily track his monthly cashflows across each of his payment methods. He also uses the app to manage each revenue stream so he knows there will be enough money in the bank when he needs to pay his suppliers.
With the consolidated view of all revenue generated through his store and the market in one place, Sam can now see he’s making about $8000 more per month at the market than he thought he was. On realising this, Sam decides to sell at the market more often.
Amir wants to take control of his finances so he can save to buy a house and go on a holiday. He has been with his bank for some time, and realises that his savings account probably doesn’t have the best available interest rate.
Amir shops around to see what’s on the market. He comes across FairCompare, a price comparison website that can use Consumer Data Right data to publish a report with the best interest rates on savings accounts available to Amir.
Using FairCompare’s app, Amir gives consent to collect his account data from his bank. Amir is sent from the app to his bank’s authentication page, where he enters his banking customer number and the One Time Password from his bank to confirm that he authorises to share his data with FairCompare using Consumer Data Right. His bank then gives him a choice of accounts from which he can share data with FairCompare.
At any point data holders, such as banks, can check the Consumer Data Right Register through CDR.gov.au to make sure the business accessing the data is an accredited data recipient under Consumer Data Right. Individual consumers can also follow the same steps to double-check.
Securely accessing Amir’s savings data, FairCompare sees that in the past 12 months, he has deposited about $1000 per month into his account and made no withdrawals. As Amir has such a strong savings history, FairCompare suggests a few savings account options to help him get bonus interest.
Amir explores one of the offers through Newbank. He learns that its Supersaver account has a better interest rate than he’s currently receiving. Newbank also offers bonus interest to customers who don’t withdraw money from their savings accounts. Confident that Supersaver is a better product for him, Amir decides to switch to Newbank.
Jack, an ambitious entrepreneur, has just had his solar battery prototype approved and plans to expand his business.
Without much in savings, he wants to apply for a business loan but isn’t sure which would be best for him. He knows he won’t be able to service a big loan initially so he hopes to offset some of the loan through government grants. Jack also has a limited credit history, having had just one credit card for emergencies.
After browsing through loan comparison websites, Jack comes across FairCompare, which offers personalised loan comparisons. Jack consents to FairCompare assessing his credit history through Consumer Data Right to create a personalised loan comparison report.
Jack is redirected from FairCompare’s app to his bank’s authentication page. He logs in to authorise to share his data with FairCompare using Consumer Data Right, and also selects accounts to share his data from.
Then, on the FairCompare website, Jack enters how much money he wants to borrow, how long he wants to borrow it for and the fee he’s willing to pay at the beginning of the loan. The site then comes back with some offers.
Jack finds a great loan with LoanTree. He contacts them to find out how to apply. Chatting to LoanTree, Jack finds out it’s also an accredited data recipient under Consumer Data Right. Having just gone through the process, Jack confidently consents to share his credit history data with them.
After more discussions about Jack’s business plan, LoanTree approves a small short-term business loan with no up-front fees so he can get his business up and running. With the process complete, Jack then withdraws his consent for both LoanTree and FairCompare to access his data through Consumer Data Right.
Six months later, Jack takes his solar battery product to market.
After the consent and data-sharing process is complete, consumers use the accredited data recipient’s website or app (such as a comparator website) to delete the data once it’s no longer needed. The accredited data recipient must securely delete and de-identify the data upon receiving the request.
As the main carer for her children and partner, Jane has a complex personal situation and is struggling financially. She decides to engage a debt adviser to help her take control of her finances. She chooses FinanceOne, which is a newly accredited data recipient under Consumer Data Right.
FinanceOne suggests looking at her banking data to track her daily spending habits, and this can be done much faster and more accurately if Jane consents to having her data collected using Consumer Data Right. Jane agrees, but says she only wants to share her data for three months, so she can try their services first. She downloads FinanceOne’s mobile app, logs in and is automatically redirected to her bank to authorise the data-sharing process.
At any point, data holders, such as banks, can check the Consumer Data Right Register using CDR.gov.au to make sure that the business accessing the data is an accredited data recipient under Consumer Data Right. Individual consumers can also follow the same steps to make sure the data will be shared securely.
After FinanceOne securely receives Jane’s data through Consumer Data Right, her debt adviser uses her transaction data to fill out their income and expense tools. With a full view of everything in the one place, Jane also gets a useful picture of how she spends her money.
The budgeting tool helps Jane set daily, weekly and monthly budgeting goals. Realising she spends most of her money on groceries, Jane sets herself a budget for every weekly grocery run. This move saves her hundreds of dollars. Jane also uses the budgeting tool’s weekly scorecard function to track her progress against her budgeting and savings goals for that week and stay accountable. Jane also gets alerts from FinanceOne with handy tips on how to make debt repayments in small, manageable chunks.
As the busy parents of two children, Carl and Penny have always tried to live within their means. But this has become more challenging, as Carl is now working shorter hours because of restructuring at his workplace.
Penny researches affordable budgeting and money management services, and comes across Pennypinchers. The Pennypinchers app is a budgeting service, and can also send Penny alerts about deals in groceries, petrol and other areas. Interested, Penny downloads the app. While scrolling through it, she comes across the Consumer Data Right logo. Penny recalls the logo from a recent ACCC advertisement but is struggling to recall what it is about, so she does a web search on ‘Consumer Data Right’. She learns that it is a new, safe and secure way to share your data with trusted businesses that can help you get a better service or product based on your needs.
Using the app, Penny gives Pennypinchers consent to share data from her bank account, which is separate to the joint account she shares with Carl. Penny is redirected from the app to her internet banking page. Penny then receives a One Time Password from her bank, which she types into the app to authorise her bank to share her transaction data with Pennypinchers.
With access to Penny’s data, Pennypinchers tracks her spending and even helps her identify opportunities to save money. A little worried about what will happen to her data if she decides to stop using Pennypinchers, Penny does some digging around on the app. She’s relieved to find that she can easily withdraw her consent to share her data with Pennypinchers at any time, and even request that the data be deleted.
Penny and Carl have been able to save around $220 a month with the help of Pennypinchers’ budgeting services and the alerts they get on offers across the economy.