Financial Privacy - Opt-Out Info

 

 

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) companies that offer financial services may share your private financial information with others. Companies that offer financial services include:

• Banks, savings and loans, and credit unions
• Insurance companies
• Securities and commodities brokerage firms
• Retailers that directly issue their own credit cards (such as department stores or gas stations)
• Mortgage brokers
• Automobile dealerships that extend or arrange financing or leasing
• Check cashers and payday lenders
• Financial advisors and credit counseling services
• Sellers of money orders or travelers checks.

 

According to Federal law these companies must send you an annual privacy notice, giving you the opportunity to opt-out of the sharing of some parts of your personal financial information with others. The FDIC points out that “Financial companies share information for many reasons: to offer you more services, to introduce new products, and to profit from the information they have about you… If you prefer to limit the promotions you receive or do not want marketers and others to have your personal financial information, you must take some important steps.”

 

Unfortunately, you cannot opt-out of all sharing of your private financial information. The law lets financial companies share your information for some purposes without your permission. For example, a financial company can share your private financial information with

• firms that help promote and market the company's own products or products offered under a joint agreement between two financial companies
• Records of your transactions--such as your loan payments, credit card or debit card purchases, and checking and savings account statements--to firms that provide data processing and mailing services for your company
• Information about you in response to a court order
• Your payment history on loans and credit cards to credit bureaus.

 

In these cases, you have no right to opt-out of the sharing of your private financial information. If you choose to do business with these financial companies, they can share and profit from your private financial data. However, you do have the right to opt-out of sharing of your private financial information for marketing purposes. When you receive a privacy notice in the mail from your financial companies, take a few minutes to read the notice and if you want to limit the sharing of your private financial information for marketing purposes – Opt-Out.

 

Examples of privacy notices can be seen at the following sites:

Bank of America https://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/consumer-privacy-notice.go

Citibank https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/portal/template.do?ID=Privacy

Wells Fargo https://www.wellsfargo.com/privacy-security/privacy/individuals

 

If you haven’t already reviewed the privacy notice from each of your financial companies, contact them and ask for a copy of the privacy notice and inform each of these financial companies that you wish to opt-out of the sharing of your information.