We collect information from clients so we can understand your situation and needs in relation to our services and products, assess loan applications, lend responsibly, and better support people experiencing harm and hardship. This statement outlines our privacy practices and explains how we handle personal information with care and respect.

1. Introduction

This Privacy Statement applies in addition to Good Shepherd New Zealand’s general privacy policy and any privacy statement provided by your community provider, your loan provider, and/or your loan funding provider.

2. The personal information we collect

When you enquire about our services and products, the entity receiving your enquiry (usually Good Shepherd New Zealand or your community provider) will collect the information that you disclose to them in your enquiry.

This will include your name and contact details but may also include other information like demographic data and how you intend to use the services and products provided – this might include a financial conversation, loan, debt solution or referral to other services.

If you engage in one or more conversations about our services and products, in person, by phone or otherwise, and if you apply for our services and products, your community provider and any relevant loan provider will collect further information from you. 

This information may include payslips and bank statements, evidence of your household expenses, details of your debts, proof of identification, details of how you intend to use a loan, and any other relevant information you disclose during our engagement or needed to inform your application. You may provide these documents to us electronically, including by uploading them through our website or application portal, by email, or in person. Where you provide a bank statement directly to us, we may upload this to Credit Sense, a third-party tool, to read and categorise the transactions and help assess your application — see section 6 for more detail.

If you are applying for a loan and your application is successful, your community provider or loan provider will collect further information about you as they interact with you throughout the term of your loan – this includes your payment history and records of any further communications they have with you regarding the loan.

Good Shepherd NZ staff may also collect information about your finances and current debt.

If you later agree to participate in any detailed research or provide a client story, then we may request further information. 

What we collect and how we treat that information will be disclosed to you at the time. We will ask for your consent in advance of collecting this additional information.  

3. If we can’t collect your information, we may not be able to provide our services and products

Sometimes we require and ask for certain information. If you don’t provide it, we may not be able to provide our services or products.  We will explain this further at the time it is requested.

However, this does not apply to information requested for research purposes or related to client stories – it is always completely optional as to whether you take part in these separate activities. If you do not want to participate, it will not affect your participation in our services and products. 

4. Why we collect your personal information

Your personal information is collected to deliver our services and products. 

This may include:

1. Receiving and processing enquiries and (where applicable) transferring your enquiry or application to the appropriate community service and/or loan provider;
2. Considering your eligibility for a service or product, including identifying you and understanding your financial position;
3. Helping you with your financial situation, including managing your debts and/or negotiating with creditors on your behalf (if you consent);
4. Completing and submitting a loan application (if this service is relevant to you), and negotiating with the community provider and/or loan provider if necessary;
5. Assessing your application(s). This may include your ability and capacity to repay, credit history, and a review of any assessment recommendations from your loan funding provider;
6. Providing and administering your loan (if applicable), including monitoring and assisting you to manage your repayments, and conducting audits, monitoring and training;
7. Identifying options for other support, services or products relevant to your situation and needs, where we are unable to help;
8. Handling complaints;
9. Reporting between parties involved in our services and products, including relevant loan providers, loan funding providers and other funding providers, Good Shepherd New Zealand staff, community providers, the Ministry of Social Development and other internal and external stakeholders;
10. Carrying out research, assessment and analysis of any projects and initiatives – this is on the basis that your personal information will not be published in a manner that identifies you unless you expressly consent to it;
11. Contacting you in relation to your use of our services and products and requesting your consent to participate in further detailed research or client stories from time to time.

Good Shepherd New Zealand, your community provider, your loan provider and/or funding providers may conduct research, evaluation and statistical analysis relating to our services and products.

Where personal information is used for research, evaluation or statistical analysis, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that published information does not identify you unless identification is permitted by law or you have expressly agreed to it.

Where we use personal information for research or statistical purposes in a form that does not identify you, we may not need to obtain your consent for that use where this is permitted by the Privacy Act 2020.

5. How your personal information is used

Your personal information is used to carry out the above purposes of collection (section 4).  Your personal information may only be used for another purpose if permitted under applicable privacy law, or with your consent. 

6. Who your personal information is disclosed to

Generally, your personal information is only disclosed where this is to carry out the purpose of collection (section 4), or where permitted by applicable privacy law. 

However: 

1. If you make an enquiry to Good Shepherd New Zealand about using our services and products, Good Shepherd New Zealand may pass your information on to the appropriate Good Shepherd New Zealand staff member, community provider and/or loan provider;
2. Your information may be transferred between Good Shepherd New Zealand staff and community providers;
3. Records relating to your use of our services and products may be stored on central files or a central database administered by Good Shepherd New Zealand, your community provider and/or your loan funding provider. Good Shepherd New Zealand, your community provider, your loan provider and/or your loan funding provider may access your personal information (including information held on these databases), and may use it for audit and monitoring purposes, to provide technical support and training to the relevant community provider, loan provider and/or loan funding provider, to generate de-identified reports for research, evaluation and analysis, and to help improve our services and products;
4. Good Shepherd New Zealand, your community provider, your loan provider, and/or your loan funding provider will exchange information about your use of our loans service and (if you apply for a loan) your loan, including in relation to your credit history, and financial capacity. Those parties will also exchange information about how you pay off your loan (including your relevant balances) and your loan management in general;
5. At times, we may disclose information about you to credit reporting agencies, debt collection agencies, creditors, or law firms when dealing with existing debt; 
6. Community providers, loan providers and/or loan funding providers will tell Good Shepherd New Zealand if they receive a complaint from you about our services and products and may involve Good Shepherd New Zealand in the complaints handling and resolution process. Similarly, if Good Shepherd New Zealand receives a complaint from you about our services and products, it may forward that complaint on to the relevant community provider, loan provider and/or loan funding provider;
7. If you have a loan outstanding, this fact may be disclosed to other loan providers and/or community providers if you apply for another Good Loan through them;
8. We may share personal information with the third-party partners that we conduct research with. This includes organisations like the Ministry of Social Development and Statistics NZ, who may supplement, match and check our information.  We only do this for the purpose of the research, and to evaluate the success and outcomes of our services and products.  The research published will not identify you personally unless you expressly consent to it;
9. If you enquire about or participate in one of our services or products as part of the Employee Financial Wellbeing Programme (such as Woolworths NZ Employee Financial Wellbeing Programme) we will not share any information about you to your employer unless you consent;
10. We also need to report information to our loan funding providers, the Ministry of Social Development and other funding providers to obtain funding from them. This is for the purpose of allowing the loan funding providers, Ministry and other funding providers to track and assess the outcomes of the services and products that they fund.  Any information we give to the loan funding providers, Ministry and/or other funding providers for this purpose will not identify you in any way and will only be used for analysis, evaluation, reporting and research purposes. 
    
    In addition:
    
11. You may be asked to share your personal information with another organisation as part of your involvement with our services and products, for example for identity (ID) verification or to get a credit report. We will inform you before this happens and ask for your consent before your information is provided to them.
12. We also use Credit Sense, a third-party service, to access and analyse your bank transactions. This happens in one of two ways: (a) with your agreement, we email you a secure link to Credit Sense, where you enter your own internet banking login details directly with Credit Sense (not with us), and Credit Sense provides us with your last 90 days of bank transactions and a categorised summary; or (b) where you have provided us with a PDF bank statement directly, we may upload this to Credit Sense to produce the same categorised summary. In both cases, Credit Sense is contractually prohibited from retaining your information. We do not require separate consent each time we use Credit Sense in this way, as it forms part of how we assess bank statements for the purposes described in section 4.
13. Your personal information may be disclosed where required or permitted by applicable law;
14. Good Shepherd New Zealand may share information with their service providers and related entities (and vice versa) in connection with carrying out the purposes explained above;
15. If Good Shepherd New Zealand services or products or your loan is transferred to a third party your personal information may be shared with that third party;
16. Some systems and central databases used as part of Good Shepherd New Zealand services and products are hosted or supported outside New Zealand (e.g. in Australia).  Your personal information may therefore be processed or stored as part of this. Where we disclose personal information to an organisation outside New Zealand, we comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 2020.
17. We may also collect information about you indirectly, that is, from a source other than you. This may include: your credit history from a credit reporting agency; assessment recommendations from your loan funding provider; and complaint or loan status information from another community provider, loan provider, or loan funding provider. Where we do this, it is for the purposes described in section 4 and, where relevant, in connection with our responsible lending obligations under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003..

7. Retention and security of personal information

Your information will be protected by reasonable security safeguards against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, and other misuses.  Your information will not be kept for longer than permitted by applicable law. 

8. Electronic Disclosure

Good Shepherd New Zealand, your community provider and/or your loan provider may send you notices and communications in relation to our services and products in electronic form and by electronic communication.

9. You have rights of access and correction

Under the New Zealand Privacy Act, you have certain rights to access personal information held about you and to correct it if it is wrong. 

To request access to or correction of your personal information held by Good Shepherd New Zealand, please contact us on the contact details below:

Good Shepherd New Zealand Limited
PO Box 49
Wellington 6140

Telephone 0800 466 370
support@goodshepherd.org.nz 

10. Glossary

In this Privacy Statement:

Good Shepherd New Zealand’s services and products are on our website and include financial wellbeing support, no interest loans, family violence economic harm support, and low-cost car insurance.

Good Shepherd New Zealand or we/us means Good Shepherd New Zealand Limited and includes its (directly or indirectly) related entities in New Zealand and Australia.

Community provider means a community or other organisation that you talk to regarding a service or product. Sometimes we provide the same services as a community provider, so your provider may actually be Good Shepherd New Zealand or one of our related entities.

Loan provider means the organisation that funds your loan.  If you take out a Good Loan, your loan provider is either Good Shepherd New Zealand or your community provider.

Loan funding provider means the bank that provides Good Shepherd New Zealand, your community provider and/or your loan provider with loan funding.