Privacy Policy

NZ Motor Finance Limited and its employees, officers and agents ("we", “us” “our” or "NZMF") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. NZMF is bound by, and complies with, the Privacy Act 2020 (the “Act”).

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand the basis on which we collect, use and store your personal information. “Personal information” means any information that can identify you either directly or indirectly (i.e. by reference to other information we have access to), such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, employment details and identity documents.

If you do not consent to the collection, use, disclosure, storage and processing of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, please do not access our website (“Site”) or use any of our products or services.

1. How we collect your personal information

We collect your personal information from you and other agencies in the following circumstances:

  • When you visit our Site. We may collect information relating to your use of our Site and the content you access. This may include your IP address and location data from your devices. We may use cookies and other software to collect this information. For further information on our use of cookies, please see section 3 of this Privacy Policy.
  • When you apply for a product or service. We may collect two types of information from you when you apply for a product or service:
    • Information to verify your identity and address. This may include your name, contact details, date of birth, biometric information (for example, taking a photo of you or recording your voice), identity documents (for example, your driver’s licence, passport, visa or birth certificate) and documents to verify your address. We may also collect information relating to your activity throughout this process and information relating to your device (including your IP address and location data).
    • Information that helps us decide whether a product or service is right for you including your bank statements, details of any debts you owe, tax details (including your IRD number), employment details (including payslips and employment contracts), financial history, information relating to your assets (such as any property or shares that you own), and any other information that may be reasonably required to help us assess whether a product or service is right for you.
  • When you use a product or service. We may collect three types of information from you when you use a product or service:
    • Information relating to your payments and transactions with us including payment records, repayment records, due dates, amounts outstanding and information relating to any other obligations you may owe to us.
    • Information on how you use a product or service or communicate with us including your activity and interactions on our Site, your interactions with us in person, any CCTV recordings of you when you visit us in person, and any recordings (video, chat, voice or otherwise) we collect when you interact with us either on our Site or over the phone.
    • Information you give us when you raise a query, sign up for communications (such as marketing emails) or give us feedback, or any information you give us to update, confirm or correct our records. This may include your name, email address, contact phone number, address and any other personal information included in your communication with us.
  • When we work with third party agencies or use their information. We may collect your personal information from third party agencies to enable us to offer you a product or service and to run our business efficiently including information provided to us by:
    • an agency if you have requested that agency to provide such information (such as from a legal adviser or financial adviser);
    • credit reporting agencies, identity verification agencies or any other appropriate agency in connection with your application for, or use of, a product or service;
    • our related companies to enable us to offer you products or services that may suit your requirements; and
    • government agencies such as the Inland Revenue Department or the New Zealand Police to help us prevent fraud, financial crime or to comply with laws and regulations.

2. How we use your personal information

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • When you apply for a product or service. We may use your personal information to confirm your identity, process your application and advise you on whether a product or service is suitable for you. To decide on whether a product or service is suitable for you, we may use your personal information to check your credit history and to decide whether you meet the conditions for a product or service.
  • When you use a product or service. We may use your personal information to communicate with you about a product or service and otherwise take any action in relation to the provision of a product or service including:
    • managing our business (including maintaining appropriate records so that we can contact you and otherwise provide appropriate products and services to you);
    • transacting and managing payments including reviewing historical transactions if required;
    • managing your account including communicating with you from time to time in relation to fees, payments and your general obligations to us;
    • suggesting to you better ways to use a product or service based on information relating to your usage of that product or service;
    • telling you about any other product or service that may meet your requirements; and
    • telling you when you need to take any action in relation to a product or service, such as making a payment to us or sending us additional information.
  • When we market a product or service to you. We may use your personal information to decide what marketing information to send to you and where to place adverts on websites and social media. Please see section 12 of this Privacy Policy for more information including how to opt-out of marketing communications.
  • When we manage our business. We may use your personal information to run our day-to-day business operations including:
    • preparing management reports and business plans;
    • recovering money owed to us;
    • managing risks for our business and customers;
    • monitoring IT systems for indications of money-laundering, fraud or financial crime; and
    • improving a product or service (including improving and optimising the customer journey in relation to a product or service).
  • When we must comply with the law. We may need to use your personal information to comply with our legal obligations including to comply with:
    • New Zealand law (including, but not limited to, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009); and
    • our obligations to regulatory agencies (including, but not limited to, the Inland Revenue Department, the New Zealand Police and the Financial Markets Authority).

You can choose not to give us any of your personal information that we request. However, this may mean that we will be unable to properly provide you with the products, services, and/or information that you require from us.

3. Use of cookies

When you visit our Site, you can browse and access information without revealing your identity. In order to improve our Site, we may use "cookies" to track your visit. A cookie is a small amount of data that is transferred to your browser by a web server and can only be read by the server that gave it to you. It functions as your identification card, and enables us to record your user journey. It cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. Cookies help us to improve our Site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. Cookies enable us:

  • To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
  • To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our Site according to your individual interests.
  • To speed up your searches.
  • To recognise you when you return to our Site.

Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system may issue cookies when you log on to our Site.

Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies, over which we have no control.

4. Security

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our Site by you; therefore any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

5. Privacy breaches

A privacy breach occurs where there is unauthorised or accidental access to, or disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction of, personal information held by us or an action that prevents us from accessing personal information on either a temporary or permanent basis.

If we learn of a privacy breach involving personal information we hold we will assess whether the privacy breach is likely to cause, or has caused, serious harm to an affected individual or individuals. If our assessment finds that the privacy breach has caused serious harm to an affected individual or individuals, or is likely to do so, we will take steps to minimise any harm, notify the affected individual or individuals (if required and permissible under the Act) and notify the Privacy Commissioner within the timeframes prescribed by the Act.

6. Storage of data

We use third party service providers to assist in storing and processing certain types of personal information for us, and some of these service providers may be located overseas, or use facilities located overseas to provide us with services. These third party service providers do not use the personal information for any purpose other than to enable us to provide the services outlined in this policy.

7. How long do we keep your personal information for?

We will retain your personal information for as long as it is needed to be able to provide products and services to you. If we no longer provide any product or service to you, we will only keep your personal information if it is necessary or required to meet legal or regulatory requirements (including, but not limited to, the Companies Act 1993, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 and the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996), resolve disputes, or to prevent fraud or abuse.

8. External sites

Our Site may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. You should check the privacy practices of those third party sites. Links from our Site to any of those third party sites does not amount to an endorsement by us of any of those other sites or their content.

9. Social media platforms

Please be aware that if you share any of your personal information on a third party social media website or app (e.g. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn), your personal information may be collected or used by the third party website or app and/or the users of these platforms, and could result in you receiving unsolicited messages. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and settings of the social media platforms you interact with.

10. Who we may share your personal information with

We may disclose or share your personal information with other agencies in the following circumstances:

  • Our group companies. We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group which includes our holding company (NZ Automotive Investments Limited) and its subsidiaries, for any of the purposes set out in section 2 of this Privacy Policy.
  • Credit reporting agencies. We may share your personal information with credit reporting agencies who may use that information to generate a credit report (or credit score) on you. Credit reporting agencies are required to comply with the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020 – for further information, please see the Privacy Commissioner’s website here.
  • Identity verification agencies. We may share your personal information with agencies who use that information to verify your identification. These agencies will verify your personal information against official records held by government agencies (including the New Zealand Transport Agency and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs) and authorised credit reporting agencies.
  • Any agency with your consent. We may share your personal information with agencies where you have consented or requested us to do so.
  • A purchaser of our business. If we propose to sell any business or assets, we may disclose your personal information to the prospective buyer of such business or assets. If substantially all of our assets are acquired, your personal information may be transferred to the purchaser.
  • Third party service providers. We may share your personal information with third parties that support our products and services, including any third party that hosts, maintains or provides any underlying IT system, software or data centre that we use to provide our Site or to deliver a product or service to you. These third parties are prohibited from using your personal information for promotional purposes.
  • Our advisers. We may share your personal information with any of our advisers who help us to manage our business, including professional services advisers such as accountants and lawyers, marketing advisers, and any other adviser whose assistance we reasonably require to manage our business.
  • Any agency where required to meet a legal obligation or to enforce our rights, manage risk, prevent fraud and for safety. We may share your personal information with:
    • any agency if required to comply with any legal obligations, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our employees, our customers, or others;
    • the Privacy Commissioner in connection with the mandatory reporting of a notifiable privacy breach under the Act;
    • any agency for the purposes of risk management, fraud protection and credit risk reduction; and
    • any agency that buys debt and assists with financial recoveries (including repossession agencies), or to any agency that we may transfer our rights to (for example, our rights in relation to customer loans).

11. Aggregated information

We may share aggregated information, such as user statistics and other information which does not personally identify you, with our advertisers.

12. Communications with you

You have the right to ask us not to use your personal information for marketing purposes. We will inform you (before collecting your personal information) if we intend to use your personal information for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party agency for such purposes. You can exercise your right to opt-out of our marketing communications by clicking “unsubscribe” when you receive a marketing email from us, calling us on 0800 444 799 or contacting us at privacy@nzmotorfinance.co.nz. If you do opt out, we may still need to send you operational communications (in connection with any application for, or use of, a product or service) in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

13. Access to, and correction of, information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you so that you can update or correct it. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access or correction request may be subject to a fee to meet our costs in providing you with your personal information or correcting that information (in which case, we will let you know the fee in advance). We will usually respond to you within 20 working days after receiving your request.

14. Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. We are not obliged to give you advance notice if an immediate change to this Privacy Policy is deemed necessary. This page will always have the current version of this Privacy Policy.

15. Law

Our Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of New Zealand and you submit to the jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts.

16. Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and should be addressed to the NZMF Privacy Officer by email privacy@nzmotorfinance.co.nz or phone 0800 444 799.

Last updated June 2021

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