Privacy & Security

Member Privacy Policy

We care about your privacy and recognize our responsibility to keep the information you provide us secure and confidential. Along with protecting your financial assets, protecting your privacy is our top priority. Our Privacy Policy is designed to do just that. This Policy is provided to you as required by law. Please read it carefully.

Protecting Your Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we protect the privacy of your personal information. It also explains certain situations where we release information about you to third parties, such as to maintain your account or other circumstances as required or permitted by law.

As long as you maintain a relationship with us, you will receive notice of our Privacy Policy annually. If our information collection or sharing practices change, we will provide you with a revised Privacy Policy. If you have a joint account with someone else or are a co-borrower, please give a copy of this Privacy Policy to them to ensure that each of you is aware of our policy and your options. Our Privacy Policy is always available upon request.

Our Privacy Policy also provides guidance on how you can direct us not to share certain information with our affiliated companies and with non-affiliated third parties. It is your right to Opt Out. Although we are required to send you a copy of our Privacy Policy annually, if you choose to limit the sharing of information, you only need to make your Opt Out request once.

Confidentiality And Security

We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with State and Federal Regulations to guard your non-public personal information.

Scope Of Our Policy

Our Privacy Policy applies to Member Information obtained by or provided by us. Member Information is defined as personally identifiable information about a member or their relationship with us. The Policy applies to individuals who obtain products or services from us for personal, family, or household purposes.

Information Obtained For Your Benefit

We obtain information about you that we believe will be necessary or useful in processing or servicing your savings and loan accounts. Your information also enables us to provide products, services, and other opportunities that we think will be of interest to you. We obtain the following types of Member Information:

• Information you provide on your loan application or that you provide to us verbally or in writing, such as your name, address, Social Security number, and information about your assets and liabilities
• Information about your transactions with the Credit Union, our affiliates, and other third parties, such as your original loan amount, the outstanding balance of your loan or account, your payment history, and the parties of the loan
• Information from consumer reporting agencies, such as your credit score or credit history
• Information we receive from other third parties, such as information available in public records

Who May Receive Your Information?

Information Sharing With Our Affiliated Companies

To give us a complete understanding of your relationship with us, to provide you with efficient and convenient service, and to inform you of new products and services, we may share all of the types of Member Information described in this Policy with our affiliated companies.

Examples of affiliated companies who may receive this information include:

• USE Affiliated Services, Inc.
• CU Cooperative Systems, Inc. - providing ATM-sharing services
• Financial Services Center Cooperatives - providing shared branch services

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, we legally may share certain information about you with an affiliated company. Under the Act, your Opting Out does not apply to the information listed below. We will continue to share this information with our affiliated companies even if you Opt-Out of the sharing of other information:

• Information about your identity, such as your name and address
• Information about your transactions and experiences with us, such as your original savings or loan amounts, the outstanding balance of your savings and loans, your savings and loan numbers, your payment history, and the parties to the savings and loan accounts

You may request that we not share the following types of other information with an affiliate by Opting Out as described in the Opt Out section of this Privacy Policy:

• Certain information from your applications, such as your income, employment history, bank account balances, and other asset and liability information
• Information from a consumer credit report, such as a credit score or your credit history with others
• Information we obtain to verify representations made by you, such as your open lines of credit
• Information we obtain from a person or institution regarding employment, credit, or other relationship with you, such as your employment history, your savings account balances, or your rental payment history

Information Sharing With Non-affiliated Third Parties

To inform you of product and service opportunities that may be of interest to you, we might share the following types of Member Information that we obtain about you, as described in this policy, with non-affiliated third parties:

• Information about your identity, such as your name and address
• Information we receive from other third parties, such as information available in public records

Companies who may receive this information include financial service providers, such as credit card issuers, insurance companies, and mortgage companies. You may request that we not share this information with non-affiliated third parties by Opting Out as described in the Opt Out section of this Privacy Policy.

Your Right To 'Opt Out'

To Opt Out of our sharing certain information with our affiliated companies or with non-affiliated third parties, complete the online Opt Out Request. Upon receiving your Opt Out request, we will update our records to indicate your preference regarding the sharing of Member Information within a reasonable period of time. You may also Opt Out by calling us at (866) USE-4-YOU (873-4968).

Please be aware that your Opt Out Request does not require us to refrain from contacting you, even if we choose to contact you through companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or with other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing arrangements, as described below.

Information Sharing With Companies That Perform Services On Our Behalf

We may share all of the types of Member Information we obtain about you, as described in this Policy, with companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or with other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing arrangements, as permitted by law. We may continue to do so even if you Opt Out. All of these companies are obligated to keep the information we provide to them confidential and to use the information only to provide the services we have asked them to perform for us.

Information Sharing in Other Situations

We may share all of the types of Member Information that we obtain about you in other legally permitted situations that are not subject to Opt Out, including:

• If we have your consent to a disclosure for a specific purpose
• To complete your transaction and maintain your account, such as recording of deeds of trust and mortgages in public records
• In response to a subpoena, a fraud investigation, or other legal process
• To credit bureaus or similar reporting agencies and with others who ask for credit references in accordance with customary business practices
• To regulatory agencies and auditors
• To another financial institution or entity that purchases your loan or account, or if we sell or merge parts of our business
• To another company that we hire to collect on your account
• To affiliates, investors, servicers, rating agencies, mortgage insurers, due diligence firms, and others in connection with loan sales and securitizations

Our Former Members

Should your member relationship end with USE, this Privacy Policy and your Opt Out preferences will continue to apply to Member Information we obtained about you.

Maintenance of Accurate Information

We strive to keep our records of Member Information about you accurate and up to date. When you notify us of an error, we will update or correct any erroneous information.

For more information, call (866) USE-4-YOU (873-4968).

For the online Opt Out form, click here.

To learn more about your rights, visit the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a non-profit consumer education, research, and advocacy program, whose publications empower individuals to take the necessary action(s) to control their personal information by providing practical tips on privacy protection.

Internet Privacy Policy

USE Credit Union is committed to protecting the privacy of our members. In general, you can visit us on the World Wide Web without disclosing to us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. However, some functions that you perform on our Website will collect certain information about you, and we want you to know how we handle that information.

If you visit our Website, USE Credit Union collects and stores information on the domain you use to access our Website, the Internet address of the site from which you linked, and the date and time of your visit. This information is used to measure the number of visitors to the various pages on our site, in order to better serve our membership.

Our site utilizes a standard technology called "cookies" and Web server logs to collect information about how the site is used. Cookies are a feature that allows Web servers to recognize the computer used to access a Website. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses. We use information learned from cookies and Web server logs to review and improve our Website.

If you send email, USE Credit Union collects and stores personal identifying information in order to process your email, online form, or online application. This information is not provided to any third parties, nor is it used at USE Credit Union for any reason other than communication. Due to the volume of email activity, these messages are deleted after they are answered or completed.

If you visit a secure site, such as Online Banking, you will be asked for personal identification numbers that will give you access to the "members only" section of our Website. This information enables USE Credit Union to regulate entry to our secure site and to measure member usage. Any identifying information gathered is not provided to third parties.

If you link to another site from any of our pages, you are leaving our site pages, and we cannot be held responsible for any information that may be gathered at a linked site. We make every effort, however, to ensure that all linked sites follow similar privacy policies as ours to offer you maximum security and privacy.

We will not sell, share, give, or otherwise provide your personal information to any non-affiliated third party for marketing. We have partners who provide valuable services that the Credit Union does not offer. They may collect information through their Websites in order to administer services you have requested and may share this information with USE Credit Union. We hold these partners to strict confidentiality standards and prohibit them from giving your information to any party other than USE Credit Union. We will share information only when necessary to administer the products and services we provide (for example, with credit bureaus) or when required to do so by the state and/or federal government. In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, we report to the three national credit bureaus.

Our site is not intended for use by children. We do not knowingly market to, or solicit data from, children. In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which provides rules and guidelines for protecting children's privacy online, we require parental consent for our online members under the age of 13.

You may elect not to receive email marketing and advertising materials from USE Credit Union. You may make this request in person, by telephone, by email, or by writing to us. We will take all reasonable steps to make sure your requests are followed. To remove your name from marketing and advertising solicitations, you may choose one of the following options:

• By U.S. mail:
  USE Credit Union
  ATTN: Privacy & Compliance
  P.O. Box 881109
  San Diego, CA 92168-1109
• By telephone: (866) USE-4-YOU (873-4968)
• By email: memberservice@usecu.org

We will respect your wishes regarding promotional and non-essential communications, but we reserve the right to contact you with important information about your USE account. USE Credit Union reserves the right to change this policy at any time by providing you with a new privacy policy.

Important Information About Procedures For Opening A New Account

To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account.

What this means for you: When you open an account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth, and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver license or other identifying documents.