Notice of Privacy
Policy By explaining our privacy policy to you
we trust that this notice will allow you to better understand how we
keep certain information private and secure while using it to serve you
better. This notice is provided to you as required by the Federal
Privacy Law and refers to our policies and practices effective on and
after July 1st 2001.
The notice explains the
following:
- Protecting the
confidentiality and security of consumer information
- Who is covered by the Privacy Policy; Revisions to
the policy
- The types of
information we have about you and where it comes from
- Sharing information with affiliated
companies
- Sharing information for
legal, business, and joint marketing
purposes
PROTECTING CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY OF CONSUMER
INFORMATIONWe take seriously our responsibility
to respect the confidentiality and security of nonpublic personal
information - called "Consumer Information" in this notice. Our policy
calls for safeguards to protect consumer information only by those who
need access to do their work. The same holds true for our affiliated
companies, which are companies that, now or in the future, we own (or
control), or are owned (or controlled) by, or are under common
ownership (or control) with. We also may maintain, as required by
applicable federal regulations, physical, electronic, and procedural
safeguards to guard your nonpublic personal
information.
WHO IS COVERED BY THE PRIVACY POLICY: REVISIONS TO THE POLICYOur
privacy policy applies to individuals (and their legal representatives)
who are our consumers or customers in connection with financial
services primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, such as
leases installment purchases of vehicles, and insurance. It covers both
current and former customers and treats them the same.
This
notice also describes the privacy policy of our affiliated companies,
except as stated in separate notices they give you. Consumers who
transact financial services business with us but who do not seek
financial services from us are not covered by our privacy policy or
this notice. We reserve the option of revising this notice and our
privacy policy from time to time, but we will give you notice of the
revised policy before disclosing consumer information about you other
than as described in this notice.
Information We
Collect
We collect and use information about you from various
sources. The amount and nature of the information collected and used
varies from transaction to transaction, but the information described
in the following five types:
- Information
from you. Information you provide to us on applications, other forms,
and by other means, such as your name, address, social security number,
assets, income, and debt;
- Information from our
experience and our affiliated companies' experiences. Information about
your transactions and account experience with us or our affiliated
companies, such as parties to transactions, contract or lease balances,
payment history, and communications and
correspondence;
- Information from the experience of
other parties. Information from other outside sources regarding their
employment, credit or other relationships, account experience, or
transactions with you, or verifying representations made by you, such
as your employment history, credit balances, or your property or
liability insurance coverage.
- Information from
credit reports. Information supplied by consumer reporting agencies,
such as information regarding your creditworthiness or credit
history;
- Other general information. Other general
information we obtain about you (such as demographic information) that
is not assembled for the purpose of determining your eligibility for
credit, insurance, employment or other products or
services.
SHARING INFORMATION
WITH AFFILIATED COMPANIESWe may disclose to our
affiliated companies all of the information we collect about you as
described in each of the five categories above. Our affiliated
companies can be financial service providers such as leasing companies,
insurance companies and payment processing companies and non-financial
companies such as automotive repair facilities and data processing
companies. This sharing permits us to give you superior service, make a
wider range of products available, and operate our business more
effectively. We do not share information with nonaffiliated third
parties, other than described below under "Sharing Information for
Legal and Routine Business Reasons and for Joint Marketing". Where they
apply, we reserve limits and restrictions set by law as to sharing
certain kinds of information with our affiliates. For example, unless
you authorize the sharing, we do not disclosure credit worthiness
information about you from credit reports.
SHARING INFORMATION FOR LEGAL AND GENERAL
BUSINESS REASONS AND FOR JOINT MARKETING.We may
disclose any of the above five types of consumer information to credit
bureaus and similar organizations, and otherwise when permitted by law.
For example, this may include a disclosure in connection with a
subpoena of similar legal process, a fraud investigation, recording
motor vehicle registration and other documents in public records, an
audit or examination, or the sale of your account to another financial
institution. We may also share any of the above five types of consumer
information outside of our affiliated companies if we have your
consent, such as when you're requested to be contacted by other
companies we work with.
We may also share all five types of
consumer information above with companies that work for us, possibly
including some of our own affiliated companies, to perform services or
functions on our behalf. These companies may include financial service
providers such as banks, finance companies, and non-financial companies
such as automobile manufacturers and data processing companies, and
other organizations, such as nonprofit organizations that might provide
educational, training, or certification services to businesses such as
ours. We may also share the five types of consumer information above
with companies that work for us to provide marketing and other services
of with financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing
agreements, such as banks or financing divisions of motor vehicle
manufacturers. These companies act on our behalf and, within the time
required by law, will be required by law, will be required by our
policy to be contractually obligated to keep the information that we
provide to them confidential and to use the information that we provide
to them confidential and to use the information only to provide the
services we've asked them to perform for us.
Thank
you for reading this notice and learning about our policy.