Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how The New Zealand Home Loan Company Limited (NZHL) and NZHL’s franchises (each “we”, “us”, “our”) collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information. We recognise the importance of protecting your privacy and we will do that in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. Generally speaking, personal information is any information about an identifiable human being. Information about companies or organisations is not personal information.

When you provide us with information about another person, you are confirming that you are authorised to do so and that you will provide that person with a copy of this Privacy Policy.

This policy also applies even if you do not take out a home loan or insurance through us and it may continue to apply to you and your information even after your relationship with us has come to an end.

Changes

We may need to change this policy from time to time by uploading a revised policy onto NZHL’s website. The change will apply from the date that the revised policy is uploaded.

Last updated: 12 July 2024

Information we collect

We collect information about you (for the purposes listed below) when you use our website, when you contact us, when we talk to you about your home loan and insurance needs, and when we provide services to you. This information may be collected from others including your advisers, accountants, health professionals and Akahu (which we use to access financial information from your loan and insurance providers). We may collect information about you from Kiwibank (if you are a Kiwibank customer) in connection with NZHL’s arrangement with Kiwibank that allows us to assist you including with internet banking setup and password resets.

You can choose not to provide information to us

If you choose not to provide the information we have requested, you may be unable to obtain or access our services for which the information is required. Please ask us if you are unsure what information is important and how this might affect you.

Our purposes for collection and use

You agree that we can collect and use your information for the following purposes:

  • To obtain and verify your identity and address.
  • To provide our services to you
  • To respond to communications from you
  • To verify the information, you provide to us (through third parties)
  • To evaluate and improve our customer service
  • To protect and enforce our rights as part of our relationship with you
  • To comply with applicable laws and to support us to engage with relevant regulators
  • To carry out market research, data processing and statistical analysis activities
  • To let you know about offers and services that might be of interest to you (including from our loan and insurance suppliers)
  • Any other purpose authorised by you or the Privacy Act.

From time to time, we may need to use your personal information for another purpose associated with a particular service. If so, we will advise you of that in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Disclosure of personal information

You agree that we can share your information with:

  • Anyone who needs it to assist us with the purposes listed above including businesses that support provision of our services (including information technology service providers, lawyers, accountants, Akahu (subject to Akahu’s privacy policy available here).
  • Where NZHL is the recipient, with relevant franchises and, where an NZHL franchise is the recipient, with NZHL and with any franchises that assist to provide the services.
  • Lenders and insurers in connection with assisting to apply for loan and insurance products and services, to administer the products and services, to make insurance claims, and to renew, vary, replace or exit products or services
  • Kiwibank (for Kiwibank customers only) when we assist you with account related queries (information provided via Kiwibank is subject to their privacy policy available here.
  • Organisations conducting market research, data processing and statistical analysis for us
  • Guarantors of your obligations (where we are permitted to do so)
  • Lawyers and other professionals, and our insurers (and their advisers), in connection with defending, protecting and/or enforcing our legal rights & interests
  • Law enforcement authorities, the courts, government agencies, regulatory authorities in New Zealand and overseas, where we believe the disclosure will assist us to comply with any law or legal rules.

We may also disclose information about you to anyone you authorise us to disclose that information to.

Storage of information

We may store your information physically or electronically ourselves, or with others contracted to hold the information for us in New Zealand and overseas.

Your rights of access to and correction of information

We will do everything reasonable to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate. We rely on you to notify us when any of your relevant personal information changes. You may ask us for access to the information we hold about you and, if necessary, request corrections to it. Under the Privacy Act we may charge you for this in some instances. If you would like access to the information we hold about you, please contact us at [email protected].

Collection of analytics information through our website

To improve our website(s) and our advertising, we may use patterns and other meaningful information gathered from web analytics tools. This may include traffic to, from and within our website(s), your mouse click activity, your IP address, and other information that you voluntarily enter into the website(s). In addition, our website(s) may use third party cookies from Google Analytics for Display Advertisers. This includes features which give us insight into behavioural information relating to visitor age, gender and interests on an anonymous and aggregate level, and who has viewed our advertising on other websites. This helps us to understand browsing behaviour to give a better experience whilst visiting our website(s), and to optimise our advertising, including on and outside our website(s). You can access Google’s Privacy Statement here.

Cookies

We may use cookies when you are on our website(s). Cookies are small pieces of information which can be stored on your hard drive or memory. They allow us to track and target the interests of our website users. Any information we collect and share with third parties through cookies is aggregated and therefore anonymous (it does not include personal information which is likely to identify you). The information may be used for security to help us identify you, to provide you with personalised features and for tracking traffic on our website(s) to serve you ads for our products and services when you visit our website(s) and third-party websites. You can prevent new cookies from being installed and delete existing cookies. The procedure depends on which browser you are using. For information on how to remove cookies check your internet browser. You may be unable to log on to our secure services without accepting our cookies.

How we protect personal information

We will take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to keep personal information safe from loss and from unauthorised access, use, modification, or disclosure.

Internet use

While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, if you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we take reasonable steps to preserve the security of the information in our own systems.

If you follow a link on our website to another site, the owner of that site will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information. We recommend that the site’s privacy policy is reviewed before any personal information is provided.