Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Aged Care Circle website at agedcarecircle.com.au (the “Site”), including all calculators, guides, provider search features, and related content (collectively, the “Service”).

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. Nature of the Service — General Information Only

The Service provides free, general information and estimates about residential aged care, home care, and related costs in Australia. It includes calculators that produce estimated figures based on inputs you supply and published rates from official Australian Government sources.

The Service is not financial, legal, medical, tax, or professional advice. Outputs from the calculators are estimates only and do not take into account your personal circumstances, objectives, or needs. They should not be relied upon to make decisions about entering aged care, selling assets, structuring payments, or any other significant financial or personal decision.

Before making any decision, you should seek advice from a suitably qualified professional, such as an accredited aged care financial adviser (AACFI), a solicitor, your accountant, or a Services Australia Financial Information Service (FIS) officer, and verify all figures directly with Services Australia and My Aged Care.

3. Accuracy and Rate Data

Aged care fees, thresholds, and rates are set by the Australian Government and updated periodically — typically on 20 March and 20 September each year, with quarterly updates to the Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR). We take reasonable steps to maintain current figures, but we cannot guarantee that every figure on the Service is up to date at every moment.

Provider information displayed on the Service is sourced from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Provider Register, the Australian Government's Star Ratings programme, and other publicly available sources. Pricing, availability, and facility details may change without notice. Always confirm details directly with the provider before making care decisions.

4. Permitted Use

You may access and use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial purposes. In using the Service, you agree not to:

• Use the Service in any way that is unlawful, fraudulent, or harmful
• Attempt to interfere with or disrupt the Service, its servers, or any networks connected to the Service
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Service, other user accounts, or any connected systems
• Use automated scripts, scrapers, or crawlers to harvest content, provider data, or user information, except as permitted by our robots.txt
• Reproduce, copy, sell, resell, or exploit any portion of the Service or its content for commercial purposes without our express written permission
• Submit false, misleading, or defamatory content through any form on the Service, including provider reviews and enquiries
• Impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organisation
• Upload or transmit any viruses, malicious code, or other harmful material

5. User Accounts

Some features of the Service require you to create an account. You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorised access.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these Terms, or that are used in a way we reasonably consider abusive, fraudulent, or contrary to the intended use of the Service.

6. Reviews, Enquiries and User-Generated Content

When you submit a provider review, enquiry, note, or other content to the Service, you confirm that the content is accurate to the best of your knowledge, is your own, and does not infringe the rights of any third party. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to display, reproduce, moderate, and (where necessary) remove that content in connection with operating the Service.

We moderate reviews before publication and reserve the right to decline, edit, or remove any submission that we consider inappropriate, defamatory, misleading, or in breach of these Terms. We are not responsible for opinions expressed in user-submitted reviews.

7. Third-Party Links and Services

The Service contains links to external websites and uses third-party services for analytics, advertising, payments, and email delivery. These third parties are not under our control and we are not responsible for their content, practices, or availability. Your use of third-party sites and services is subject to their own terms and privacy policies.

8. Advertising

The Service displays advertisements served through Google AdSense on guides and calculator pages to help cover operating costs. Advertisements are clearly labelled and are independent of the editorial content, calculations, and provider information displayed on the Service. We do not endorse advertised products or services. See our Privacy Policy for information about advertising cookies and how to opt out of personalised advertising.

9. Intellectual Property

All content on the Service — including text, graphics, logos, the visual design, calculator logic, and software — is owned by Aged Care Circle or its licensors and is protected by Australian and international copyright laws.

Government rate data, legislation, and publicly available provider information remain the property of their respective sources. You may view, print, and share pages of the Service for personal, non-commercial use, provided you keep all copyright and attribution notices intact.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability of the Service or its content, or about any results that may be obtained from using the Service.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free from viruses or other harmful components. Any reliance you place on information from the Service is strictly at your own risk.

11. Limitation of Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer guarantee, right, or remedy conferred on you by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Subject to the above, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Aged Care Circle, its owners, operators, contributors, and affiliates will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary loss or damage — including without limitation loss of profits, loss of data, financial loss, inaccurate estimates, or decisions made based on information from the Service — arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the Service.

You acknowledge that aged care finances are complex and that estimates produced by the Service should always be verified with a qualified adviser and with Services Australia before acting on them.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Aged Care Circle and its operators from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Service, or your infringement of any third-party rights.

13. Service Availability and Changes

We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice. We may also update content, calculators, rates, and features from time to time. We are not liable to you or any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page indicates when the Terms were last revised. Continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If a change is material, we will make reasonable efforts to draw it to your attention.

15. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Australia and the state in which the Service is operated. You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that state for the resolution of any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service.

16. Contact

For questions about these Terms, please contact us via our contact form.