CFS Finance Limited Privacy Policy

Community Financial Services Limited and its assignees, employees and agents (together CFS) are committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy statement outlines how we collect, store, use and share your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. You can also find information about how to access, update or correct your personal information, and how to opt out of receiving communications from us.

What personal information about you do we collect and hold?

Depending on your interactions with us, the personal information that we may collect and hold includes:

• your name, address, email address, contact number(s), date of birth, gender and driver licence number;
• information about your financial position and employment status, personal circumstances, credit and repayment history, and Ministry of Justice fines;
• any additional information provided in a consumer or commercial credit or lease application you make;

• when purchasing, trading or financing a vehicle, your name and address information may be collected from the NZTA motor vehicle register for the purpose of confirming vehicle registration and ownership details;

• information about your preference for products and services we offer from time to time;
• any other personal information which we are required to collect for identification verification purposes such as passport/visa and licence verification;
• any additional information you provide, such as when you contact us, log in to our website (www.cfsfinance.co.nz);
• any information you may provide to us through customer surveys;
• when you’re dealing with any member of CFS Finance by telephone, live web or video chat service, your conversation may be recorded for training or verification purposes; 
• a record of any queries you have made or communications you have with us; and
• any other information that you authorise us to collect.

How do we collect and hold your personal information?

Generally, we collect personal information directly from you when you contact us or through the dealer, broker or branch to which you have provided your personal information.

We may also collect personal information through/from:

• this website, our social media accounts, applications, or through promotional activities;
• credit reporting agencies and identification service providers, if you make an application with us;
• our agents, related companies and other organisations which provide services to us;
• Banks or financial institutions, as part or our legal obligations when paying or receiving money on your behalf;
• other third parties, including but not limited to your agents, referees, present or former employers, and other present or former creditors, as permitted or required by the Privacy Act 2020 or other applicable legislation (including any applicable regulations or codes of practice); and
• publicly available information.

Personal information we collect is held by us or on our behalf by other parties for the purposes described above. Some information we hold may be stored in “the cloud” in secure databases on our behalf by third parties based overseas. The use of these services and the transfer of information overseas (if applicable) will not relieve us of our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 and this Privacy Policy.

Where personal information is transferred outside of New Zealand, or sent to external service providers or third parties we will take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate data handling and security arrangements are in place.

What do we do with your personal information (apart from your consumer credit information)?

We may use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of:

1. responding to or following up on any enquiries, comments or complaints that you submit to us;
2. customer service requirements and providing information and services to you which you have requested;
3. for product development purposes, including to assist you to access new channels for delivery of, and access to, our services, for example applications and payment methods;
4. processing and assessing an application, including completing credit checks on you;
5. to make ongoing credit decisions about you including reviewing and managing your loan or other account, collecting or recovering any payments or other amounts from you, monitoring your compliance, or to better service any loan or other account we provide;
6. to confirm and verify your identity including electronically matching your Information with identification information on third party databases;
7. to notify a credit reporter or a credit provider if you default in any payment or breach any contract or arrangement with us;
8. utilizing services provided by other third parties in connection with the assessment of any application or the provision of any loan, lease or other products or services by us;
9. to send you direct marketing and promotional communications, including by email and/or SMS, unless you tell us not to as detailed below under “Marketing and Opting Out”;
10. any use which is required or authorised by law, including to comply with any laws in New Zealand and overseas, including but not limited to any mandatory obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Finance of Terrorism Act 2009;
11. to monitor and screen any account you have with us for fraud or other crime detection or prevention purposes or risks to our products our services;
12. any other purpose you have consented to, or authorise. 
    

Who will we disclose your personal information to?

We may disclose your personal information for the above purposes to:

1. any person or organisation named in your application or any other person or entity to whom you have consented to us disclosing your personal information, for example the dealership where you financed your vehicle;
2. any of CFS' associatedentities, relatedcompanies, affiliates or subsidiaries
3. any financiers of CFS and its employees and agents
4. our agents, related companies and organisations which provide services to us (such as mailing houses, promotions and advertising agencies, insurers, printers, hosting sites/providers, consultants advisors (including lawyers and accountants), contractors, direct debit providers, debt collection agencies and consumer research agencies) and with which we do business (including dealers and/or brokers) (related entities);
5. credit reporters or credit reporting agencies and other credit providers, including for the purpose of obtaining a credit report about you and/or to allow the credit reporting agency to maintain a credit information file containing information about you. (The personal information about you that we may disclose to a credit reporting agency may include positive credit account information (including the type and status of accounts, the amount of credit extended and credit limits, and the nature and frequency of repayments), ongoing credit account information, repayment history information and credit default information including Ministry of Justice (MoJ) fines;
6. the relevant authorities if any disclosure is required or authorised by law, including disclosure of any suspicious or threshold transactions or activities;
7. anyone who assists us to identify, prevent or investigate fraud, unlawful activity, misconduct or threats to our systems;
8. Any other person or organization as permitted or required by the Privacy Act 2020 or other applicable legislation (including applicable regulations or codes of practice); and
9. with your consent, to guarantors if a credit arrangement is guaranteed.

Access to personal information

You may request access to personal information (including your credit information) we hold about you by contacting us at the contact details below. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will endeavor to provide you with a suitable range of choices (including direction to a credit reporting agency) as to how access is provided (e.g. emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval.

We rely on you to update us if your information changes. If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it and we will either amend the information or make a record of your comment, as we think appropriate. 

You acknowledge that credit reporters and debt recovery agencies are entitled to keep any information we give them about you and incorporate it into their own credit reporting databases, and they may give it to other people who pay for it and use their services. In addition to the compliance with the Privacy Act 2020, credit reporting agencies are subject to the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020. You can ask credit reporters and debt recovery agencies to correct your information if it needs to be updated.

Marketing and Opting Out

We may use information relating to your visit to our website, or information you provide to us, for marketing purposes (including direct marketing) in order to continually improve the product and/or service we provide to you and/or to contact you from time to time with marketing material about our other products or services and those of our related entities. We may also share your personal information with our related entities so that they can provide you directly with marketing material about their products and services. 

You may opt out of receiving this material at any time by contacting us on 0800 88 2000 or by email to customerservice@cfsfinance.co.nz

Your consent to receive this information will remain current until you advise us otherwise.

Any person can notify the Motor Vehicle Registrar that they do not wish to have their name(s) and address(es) made available under a Motor Vehicle Register authorisation.

Websites

We may collect information about you when you visit our website or social media pages or use our applications. In general you can visit our website without telling us who you are, however particular sections of our Website may require you to provide us with personal information and in order for some functions of the website to operate correctly, “cookies” may be used. The amount of information that you provide to us will depend on the services that you choose to use and your interactions with us.

We may use cookies and advertising programs (such as Google Analytics) that place cookies on your computer, to monitor traffic patterns and collect information about your browsing history (including on external websites). This information, which does not identify you personally, is collected in order to improve your online experience and allow us to serve you more efficiently. Not all of the information collected in this way is personal information.

Information captured (whether via use of cookies, statistical records or threat identification) is not passed on to third parties, except for events that have been identified as deliberate and malicious activity against the integrity of the site, in which case such information is passed on to relevant legislative authorities for further investigative and possible enforcement activities. 

CFS Finance Limited and Community Financial Services Limited has taken strong measures to protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure or alteration. By using our website, you agree that the internet is not completely secure, and that accordingly we can only use our best endeavors to secure your personal information and cannot provide any definitive assurance regarding security of personal information.

Questions and Complaints

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that we have at any time failed to keep one of our commitments to you to handle your personal information in the manner required by the Privacy Act 2020, then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following contact details:

For security reasons, we require that all requests for personal information are provided in writing.

We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint. If we do not agree, we will provide reasons. If we do agree, we will advise what (if any) action we consider appropriate to take in response. If you are still not satisfied after having contacted us and given us a reasonable time to respond, then we suggest that you contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner by:

Jurisdiction

The use of this website will be governed by New Zealand Law.

Miscellaneous

This policy is effective from 23 November 2021.

We may change this policy from time to time. By visiting our Website you will be deemed to have agreed to our updated Privacy Policy. Although we intend to observe this Privacy Policy at all times, it is not legally binding on us in any way. From time to time we may regard it as necessary or desirable to act outside the policy. We may do so, subject only to any other applicable contractual rights you have and any statutory rights you have under the Privacy Act 2020 or other applicable legislation.