Trust & safety

NeighboursLoop is built so that you are never lending to an anonymous account. Every member has a profile with a real name and photo, a verified phone number, a suburb, and a public history of how many items they have lent and borrowed along with their ratings from both sides of past loans.

You also stay in control of every loan. You decide who borrows your item, when they collect it, and when it is due back — and you can decline any request without giving a reason.

Nobody outside your friends can see your address. NeighboursLoop stores two locations for each member: your exact address, and a deliberately fuzzy point at roughly street level.

People you have not connected with as friends only ever receive the fuzzy point and your suburb name. The address is removed from the data entirely before it leaves our servers — it is not hidden in the app, it is never sent. Map pins on item listings use the fuzzy location too.

Every member verifies a phone number by SMS during sign-up, and can additionally verify an email address. Verified badges appear on the profile, so you can see at a glance what has been confirmed before you agree to a loan.

Members also sign in through Google, Apple, Facebook, or email and password, which adds another layer of identity behind each account.

After an item is returned, both people can rate each other from one to five stars and leave a short written comment. Ratings as a lender and ratings as a borrower are tracked separately on the profile, so you can see how someone behaves in the role that matters to you.

Because ratings only become possible after a loan is actually completed and returned, they cannot be manufactured without a real exchange having happened.

Yes. Every listing is reviewed before anyone else can see it. An automated reviewer checks the photos and description for explicit content, for whether the photos actually show the item described, for whether the item matches its stated category, and for prohibited content such as weapons, drugs, stolen goods, or visible identity documents.

Anything the automated check is not confident about goes to a human moderator before it is published. Listings that fail are rejected or returned to the owner for changes.

You can report any member or any listing from inside the app, and you can block a member outright. Blocking is bidirectional and immediate: a blocked member disappears from your feed and your search results, you disappear from theirs, and neither of you can message the other.

Reports go to a moderation queue that our team reviews. Members who breach the rules can have listings removed or their account suspended, which also removes their items from discovery for everyone.

This is the most important thing to understand before you lend something valuable. NeighboursLoop is not a party to the arrangement between two members, and it does not insure loans, hold deposits, or compensate for loss or damage. There is no payment of any kind between members on the platform.

What NeighboursLoop does provide is a record: who borrowed what, when it was due back, and the messages you exchanged. If something goes wrong, contact the other member first. Where it is warranted, report the matter to the police — and in cases of fraud, theft, or illegal activity we may share information we hold in response to a lawful request from Australian police.

Our honest advice: lend within your own tolerance for loss. Build up through smaller loans with someone before lending your most valuable tools.

Every loan on NeighboursLoop is a tracked object rather than an informal favour. When a borrow request is accepted it records a collection time and a return date, and the item is publicly marked as borrowed until it is returned.

Both people get reminders as the return date approaches and again if it passes. Both of you can see the loan and its due date in your Borrows tab for its whole life, so nothing quietly gets forgotten.

Meet somewhere you are comfortable and, where you can, somewhere public or familiar. Check the item together at hand-over and again at return, so both of you agree on its condition — the app prompts you to do this at the moment of hand-over.

Be straightforward about anything the borrower needs to know: how the item works, anything fragile about it, and any safety equipment it needs. If you feel uncomfortable at any point, you do not have to go through with a loan.

No. NeighboursLoop is for adults. Accounts are not intended for children, and we have a dedicated child safety policy setting out our approach and how to report a concern.

We collect what the platform needs to work — your profile, your address for suburb-level discovery, and your activity on the platform — and nothing is sold. You can delete your account, and the personal information attached to it, from inside the app at any time.

The Privacy Policy sets out in full what is collected, how it is used, and how long it is kept.