Privacy Policy

BREAK EVEN FINANCE PRIVACY POLICY

Welcome to Break Even Finance. We at Break Even Finance (Pty) Ltd believe in respecting the security of our customers’ personal information and we have structured our privacy policy for this purpose. Our Privacy Policy applies to all our customers, past and present. Please note that our Privacy Policy may be subject to changes from time to time, in which case we will provide sufficient notification of such changes.

Please ensure that you have thoroughly read through our Terms and Conditions alongside our Privacy Policy. This will enlighten you as to how we communicate, interact and conduct business with our clients. In addition these documents describe how we will gather, process and use your personal information.

YOUR CONSENT

By submitting your details to Break Even Finance and/or using Break Even Finance’s services, you accept our Privacy Policy. You also explicitly provide Break Even Finance with voluntary and informed consent to the use and disclosure of your personal information in the following manners, as described throughout this Privacy Policy.

Please bear in mind that you have the full right to object to the use of your personal information. Conditional to the information you expostulate to, Break Even Finance may not be able to proceed with your application(s) as we will require certain personal information to successfully conclude or perform on the contract relating to your application. We are obliged by law to obtain this.

AGE

To register with Break Even Finance and receive any of our products and/or services you must be 18 years of age or older. Minors are strictly forbidden from using our products and/or services.

SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

We understand the value of your personal information, which is why we will take all reasonable steps to secure and protect your information from loss, improper use or unauthorized adjustment. We store your personal information in databases with built-in safeguards and firewalls to ensure the privacy and discretion of said information.

We recognize the need for the appropriate protection and management of your personal information that you share with Break Even Finance. Therefore, we protect your information using secure socket layer (SSL) encryption technology and limit employee access to a strictly need-to-know basis. We store data in encrypted forms on computers and control the access thereof via secure web pages. The use of firewalls and other technological security measures protect our servers from external attacks.

We ensure that our security systems meet or exceed the industry standards, whilst constantly monitoring internet and technological developments to certify that our systems develop and evolve as required. In addition, we regularly test our systems to ensure that our security mechanisms are suitable and up to date.

We are subject to South African data protection laws, including those contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996, the Regulation of Interception of Communication Act of 2002, the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013, the Consumer Protection Act of 2008, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002, and the National Credit Act of 2005 read with the National Credit Amendment Act of 2014. Furthermore, we ensure our compliance with the aforementioned regulations and acts.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal information is information that identifies or relates specifically to you and may include your financial information, name, age, identity number, assets, liabilities, income and payment records. In summary, any information that we know about you will be regarded as your personal information.

PERSONAL SECURITY

When you use the Break Even Finance website and the services provided by Break Even Finance, you may be given an access number, user name, password and/or personal identification number (PIN). You are responsible for preserving the secrecy and confidentiality of your user name, access card, password and/or personal identification number.

COLLECTING YOUR DATA

We collect your information in two ways:

  • Directly from your application; and
  • From external sources, such as credit bureaus and customer service providers.

Break Even Finance may use data that identifies your personal information for a number of things, including:

  • Statistical analysis;
  • To develop and improve our products;
  • To assess lending risks;
  • To update your records;
  • To identify which of our products might interest you;
  • To identify and prevent fraud, money laundering and other criminal activities;
  • To carry out regulatory checks, keeping you informed about your loan, and for market research; and
  • Marketing products and services offered on behalf of third parties.

COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

In order to make use of the loan product(s) and service(s) offered by Break Even Finance, it is necessary for us to find out precisely what you may need and want from us and to ascertain whether, in terms of the provisions of the National Credit Act of 2005, you are eligible to get a loan. Reasons as to why we would collect your personal information may include:

  • To identify you;
  • To process your instructions or requests;
  • To ensure that you meet our lending criteria, we may collect and analyse all the information that we have about you to compile a credit profile, in order for us to grant you a loan and to meet your specific needs; and
  • Once we have gathered and analysed your personal information, we may send you promotional material or details which we think may be of interest to you. If any of this promotional information relates to products, promotions, news or services of a third party, and you indicate that you would like more details, we may inform the third party to contact you directly. However, we will only inform a third party to contact you if you have indicated to us that this is agreeable to you.

Additionally, we will utilize your personal information for the other purposes as set out within the Privacy Policy.

ADDITIONAL DATA COLLECTION

Break Even Finance may collect information about your computer, namely, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type. We will use this information for the purpose of system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertising partners. This allows us to have a better understanding of our customers’ requirements and/or preferences by using cookies to track users as they travel from website to website recording what commercial advertisements they view and select while browsing the internet.

This is statistical data about browsing actions and patterns, which does not identify any individual. In addition, we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies enable Break Even Finance to improve the service offered to you, assist in estimating our audience size and usage patterns, help store information about your preferences and recognize you when you return to our site.

You can set your web browser to refuse cookies. If you do this, you may not be able to enjoy the full use and functionality of our site and you may not be able to take advantage of certain promotions that we may run from time to time. Please note that third parties who advertise on our site may also use cookies, but we do not have access to, or control over them and, therefore, cannot take responsibility for them.

We want to provide you with the best possible service, so calls to Break Even Finance will be recorded and/or monitored for quality checks and staff training. Recordings may also be used to help us combat fraud and other criminal acts.

SHARING YOUR DATA

Break Even Finance shares the data you submit with third parties involved in the process of providing the services you request, for example: credit bureaus, collection agencies, lenders and customer service providers. Break Even Finance maintains trusted relationships with these carefully selected third parties, whom perform services on our behalf. All service providers are bound by contract to preserve the confidentiality and security of your personal information and are restricted in their use thereof as per this Privacy Policy. The service provider is required to immediately notify us when there are grounds to believe that there has been unauthorized access and/or activity relating to your personal information.

By signing the document and/or clicking the “I Accept” box beneath the loan agreement and direct debit mandate, you agree that we may disclose your personal information:

  • In the event we sell, buy or merge with any business or assets (in which case we may disclose your personal information to the prospective seller, buyer or partner of such a business or assets);
  • If our business or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party (in which case personal information held about customers will be of the transferred assets);
  • If we have a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with a legal request, or in order to enforce any of our terms and conditions; and/or
  • In relation to the implementation, administration and/or enforcement of any agreement entered into with Break Even Finance.

RIGHT TO REQUEST ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

As mentioned before, we are committed to the security and protection of your personal information and any information shared with and disclosed to third parties is only done with our knowledge and explicit authorization. You are entitled to request access to your information at a prescribed fee and to request that excessive, inaccurate, irrelevant, unnecessary, outdated, misleading or unlawfully obtained information be corrected, deleted or in the case of a dispute, indicate that correction has been requested, but not made.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSACTIONS ACT

We voluntarily subscribe to the principles, charted in Section 51 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002, which govern your right to having your personal information kept private and discreet. We briefly outline these principles as follows:

  • We will only collate, use, gather, process and store your personal information with your express permission as set out in our Privacy Policy. Unless if we are legally required to do so, we will only use such information for the lawful/legal purpose for which it is required as outlined in this Privacy Policy.
  • We hereby disclose the specific purpose for which we collate, use, request and store your personal information. Additionally, we will keep a record of your personal information and the specific purpose(s) for which we have gathered and used it.
  • We will not use your personal information for any other purpose, other than that which we disclosed to you herein, unless you give us your express written permission to do so, or unless we are permitted or required by law to do so.

Further to the requirements of the ECT Act; we will disclose your personal information without your consent:

  • If we are required to do so by law or by a court order;
  • If disclosure is in the public interest;
  • If disclosure is in Break Even Finance’s interest; and/or
  • With your implied consent.

In terms of the Consumer Protection Act and section 45 of the ECT Act, you recognize that you have the option to unsubscribe and/or opt out of any mailing list maintained by Break Even Finance for commercial and marketing communications.

CONTACT FROM BREAK EVEN FINANCE AND THIRD PARTIES

As part of the application process, we will ask you whether we or any of our partners may contact you about our products and services by mail, email, telephone and SMS (or any other reasonable method(s)). If you ticked “yes” or agreed to this communication in writing but no longer wish to receive such communications, please login to our website, visit the “My Account” page and change your communication preference at any time, or follow the instructions in the message itself.

Additionally, you may register on the National “Opt Out” register of the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa by going to www.dmasa.org.

We may transfer your personal information to selected third parties. If at any time you wish to stop receiving such contact from a third party, you will need to follow the instructions about unsubscribing provided at that time by the respective third party. Please note that we only partner with trusted companies who will respect your right to unsubscribe from any such marketing communications, but we will not be responsible for managing that process or any disputes.

THIRD PARTY LINKS

The Break Even Finance site may contain links to third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these third parties have their own terms, conditions and privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for them. By registering at Break Even Finance, you may receive contact and offers from third party companies as you have agreed to do by accepting our Privacy Policy and, while we only work with selected partners, we are not responsible for the representations and/or services of these third parties.

We are not responsible for any representations, information, warranties or content on any website of any third party, including websites linked to the Break Even Finance website or websites facilitated by Break Even Finance. We do not exercise control over third parties’ privacy policies or terms of service and you should refer to the privacy policy of any such third party to see how such party protects your privacy and secures your personal information.

CHANGES TO THE BREAK EVEN FINANCE'S PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to modify, update or amend, including without limitation, by the addition of new terms and conditions, our Privacy Policy from time to time with or without notice. You therefore agree to review the Privacy Policy whenever you visit the Break Even Finance website for any such change. Save as expressly provided to the contrary in this Privacy Policy, the revised version of our Privacy Policy shall succeed and replace all previous versions thereof.

APPLICABLE LAWS

Break Even Finance’s Privacy Policy will be governed by, construed and interpreted in accordance with all the relevant laws of the Republic of South Africa. To the extent that a court has authority and control over any dispute which may arise out of or in connection with our Privacy Policy, we both respect and submit to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.

Contact details

For any queries or requests, please contact us:

Email – customercare@breakevenfinance.co.za