CASHMAX Payday Loans Privacy Statement

CASHMAX Payday Loans and its affiliates (“CASHMAX”, “we”, “us” or “our”) takes steps intended to meet privacy principles and requirements with respect to personal information under applicable Canadian privacy legislation. The purpose of this statement is to inform our customers and other individuals we deal with (“you” or “your”) how we collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, as more particularly described under applicable privacy legislation.  This statement applies to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information in Canada.  This statement does not apply to information about our employees or to information that is not personal information.

Personal Information We Collect

CASHMAX and its agents and representatives collect personal information in the course of its business of lending and providing financial or credit services including: making consumer loans; and purchasing precious metals and stones. Personal information we collect includes:

• name, address, telephone number, email address and other contact information;
• information provided on payday loan applications and other forms including social insurance number (if provided), driver’s license, length at residence, spouse or partner’s contact information, references (including contact information, residence address and length at that residence, how long known and ability to verify employment information) employment information such as supervisor’s name and contact information, salary, pay dates, and other contact, financial and biographical information;
• bank statements, phone bills, valid driver’s license or government photo ID, cheque or pay stubs and voided cheques;
• phone number(s) and other contact verification and location information collected from third party service providers as part of the loan underwriting process;
• personal information we collect from your transactions with us or our affiliates;
• information you provide when participating in a survey, contest or promotion;
• contact information and financial information from vendors and suppliers;
• information provided by law enforcement agencies in the course of the law enforcement agencies investigations;
• information from organizations or individuals that verify contact information you provide to us;
• information from organizations or individuals that determine your contact information if the information you provided to us is no longer current or valid; and
• such other information we may collect with your consent or as permitted or required by law.

Use of Personal Information

CASHMAX uses personal information in the course of its business including for the following purposes:

• establishing your identity;
• verifying creditworthiness and determining eligibility for and loan amounts;
• servicing loans;
• providing ongoing services and responding to questions from customers and potential customers;
• contacting customers concerning the administration of their account, confirming contact information and collecting debts;
• understanding your needs in order to offer you products and services to meet your needs;
• if you consent, sending you marketing materials about our products and services that may be of interest to you;
• developing promotions and polices based on surveys and administer contests, sweepstakes and promotions;
• managing, administering, collecting or otherwise enforcing accounts;
• verifying and determining employment, references, and contact information including phone number(s) and address(es) for underwriting, debt collection and fraud avoidance;
• protecting against fraud and financial loss;
• maintaining business records for reasonable periods, and generally managing and administering our business including defending and bringing legal actions;
• meeting legal, regulatory, insurance, security and processing requirements; and
• otherwise with consent or as permitted or required by law

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

CASHMAX discloses personal information in the course of its business including in the following circumstances:

• to collect debts itself or to collect debts through collection agencies including affiliates acting in that capacity;
• to organizations and individuals who assist in locating customers in default for debt collection purposes;
• to our affiliates (including outside of Canada) for internal audit, management, billing or administrative purposes including defending and bringing legal actions; and
• as permitted or required by law.  

Service Providers:  We may transfer personal information to outside agents or service providers (including our affiliates acting in this capacity) ("service providers") that perform services on our behalf, (for example providing call centre services, mailing, billing, marketing, verifying contact information, finding contact information when the contact information we have is no longer current or valid, verifying employment and income, verifying references, and information you provided about references, collecting debts, information technology and/or data hosting or processing services, or shredding or similar data destruction services) or otherwise collect, use, disclose, store or process personal information on our behalf for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement.  Some of these service providers may be located outside of Canada, including in the United States and your personal information may be collected, used, disclosed, stored and processed in the United States or elsewhere outside of Canada for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement. We take reasonable contractual or other measures to protect your personal information while processed or handled by these service providers.  While your personal information is located outside Canada it will be subject to legal requirements in those foreign countries applicable to our service providers, for example, lawful requirements to disclose personal information to government authorities in those countries.

Business Transactions:  Personal information may be used by CASHMAX and disclosed to parties connected with the negotiation, assessment or completion of any proposed or actual financing, factoring, hypothecation, securitization, insuring, sale, assignment or other transaction involving all or any part of CASHMAX or our business or assets, for the purposes of evaluating and/or performing the proposed transaction. These purposes may include, as examples:

• permitting those parties to determine whether to proceed or continue with the transaction
• fulfilling reporting, inspection or audit requirements or obligations to those parties

Assignees or successors of CASHMAX or our business or assets (including any loans) may use and disclose your personal information for similar purposes as those described in this Privacy Statement and may be required by applicable laws to retain your personal information for a certain period of time.

Legal, Regulatory, etc.:  CASHMAX may disclose your personal information as necessary to meet legal, regulatory, industry self-regulatory, insurance, audit, and security requirements, and otherwise with your consent or as permitted or required by law (including as required by applicable Canadian and foreign laws applicable to CASHMAX or our agents and service providers, and including lawful requirements to disclose personal information to government authorities in those countries).

Our Website/The Internet  

Passive Information Collection: As you navigate through CASHMAX’ web site, certain anonymous information (such as the URL of the Web site you just came from, the Internet Protocol (IP) address, time of visit, date of visit, the pages visited within the site, and the browser version your computer is currently using) can be passively collected (that is, gathered without you actively providing the information).

Your Consent

Consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information may be given in various ways.  Consent can be express (for example, orally, electronically or on a loan application form you may sign describing the intended uses and disclosures of personal information) or implied (for example, when you provide information necessary for a service you have requested).  You may provide your consent in some circumstances where notice has been provided to you about our intentions with respect to your personal information and you have not withdrawn your consent for an identified purpose, such as by using an “opt out” option provided, if any.  Consent may be given by your authorized representative (such as a legal guardian or a person having a power of attorney).  Generally, by providing us with personal information, we will assume that you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of such information for the purposes identified or described in this Privacy Statement, if applicable, or otherwise at the time of collection.  

You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use and disclosure of personal information at any time, subject to contractual and legal restrictions and reasonable notice.  Note that if you withdraw your consent to certain uses of your personal information, we may no longer be able to provide you our products or services. Note also that where we have provided or are providing loan services to you, your consent will be valid for so long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Statement or otherwise at the time of collection, and you may not be permitted to withdraw consent to certain necessary uses and disclosures (for example, but not limited to, servicing and collecting the loan, maintaining reasonable business and transaction records, disclosures to Canadian and foreign government entities as required to comply with laws, and reporting on credit information after credit has been granted).

CASHMAX collects, uses and discloses your personal information with your consent, except as permitted or required by law.  We may be required or permitted under statute or regulation to collect, use or disclose personal information without your consent, for example to comply with a court order, to comply with local or federal regulations or a legally permitted inquiry by a government agency, or to collect a debt owed to us.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information using physical, electronic or procedural security measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the information in our custody or control, which may include safeguards to protect against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.  Please do not send us any confidential personal information via email as emails are generally not encrypted and unencrypted emails are not secure. Authorized employees, agents and mandataries of CASHMAX who require access to your personal information in order to fulfill their job requirements will have access to your personal information.

Links

We are not responsible for the collection, use, disclosure or security of information by companies or organizations other than CASHMAX. You are encouraged to read the privacy policies of websites reached through the use of links from CASHMAX.

Access, Correction and Contacting Us

CASHMAX may establish and maintain a file of your personal information for the purposes described above, which will be accessible at our retail stores or by contacting the Director of Operations EZMONEY at 1-800-873-7296 X2296. If you wish to request access to or correction of your personal information that is in our custody or control, you may write to 1901 Capital, Austin, Texas, 78746, USA, Attention:  Director of Operations EZMONEY. Your right to access or correct your personal information is subject to applicable legal restrictions.  We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections. If you wish to make inquiries or complaints or have other concerns about our personal information practices, you may write to us as described above, Attention:  Data Security Manager, or telephone 1-800-873-7296 X2278 between 8 am and 5 pm Central Time on business days Monday through Friday.

Privacy Statement Changes

This Privacy Statement may be revised from time to time.  If we intend to use or disclose personal information for purposes materially different than those described in this statement, we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected individuals, if necessary, including by revising this Privacy Statement.  If you are concerned about how your personal information is used, you should contact us as described above, visit one of our retail locations or check at our website periodically at www.cashmaxloans.ca to obtain a current copy of this statement. We urge you to request and review this Privacy Statement frequently to obtain the current version.  Your continued provision of personal information or use of our services following any changes to this Privacy Statement constitutes your acceptance of any such changes.

This Privacy Statement is effective as of August 21, 2009.