New Home Loans

Your Privacy

The opportunities you deserve, the privacy you expect
New Home Loans. Com, a trusted leader for over 2 years in the loan industry, we offer a wide range of financial products and services through our family of companies. This section explains how we protect your information in a safe, secure and responsible manner.

Your protection is our priority
We strive to safeguard your data. We do this by:

  Setting policies and procedures for carefully handling your information.
  Limiting employee access to sensitive information.
  Protecting against unauthorized access to customer data using data encryption, authentication, and virus detection technology.
  Requiring service providers who do business with New Home Loans to comply with privacy laws; auditing company security practices; monitoring our websites through recognized online privacy and security organizations.

Use of cookies and Web beacons
We design many features of our website so new visitors may anonymously learn about our products and services, view today’s rates and use our educational tools without revealing their identity. For new visitors, we use "cookies" and Web beacons to collect limited data (such as the date, time and areas of our website visited and the website the new visitor came from). When you select one of our products or services, review your accounts online or respond to marketing materials sent to you directly, we will try to identify your browser and may combine information from "cookies," Web beacons and other information collected online with any other data we maintain about you. By improving the marketing and content of our website and making your online experience more convenient, we are able to better serve our customers' financial needs.

Cookies are required to operate the Your Accounts feature
You can have your Web browser disable "cookies." If you turn off "cookies," it is not possible for us to offer you the Your Accounts service. Your Accounts provides online access to consolidated information about all of your accounts with the New Home Loans family of companies.


You have choices
You may limit how we share your personal information. This is called a right to "opt out." You have three options to consider.
Continue receiving valuable and convenient product and service offers
You can enjoy the benefits of valuable product and service offerings without taking any action.
Opt out of information sharing outside the our family of companies
This choice would stop us from sharing non-public personal information with our carefully screened business partners. This may limit our ability to inform you of valuable and convenient products and services from partner companies.
Opt out of information
This choice would stop us from sharing non-public personal information within our group of companies. This may limit our ability to offer conveniences such as a tailored savings quote on homeowners insurance, a custom financial investment plan, and other financial service offers.
We honor our customers’ privacy choices across the family of companies. For loans to multiple borrowers, we will apply an opt out by any borrower to all borrowers on the loan. If you opt out, we will continue to share non-public personal information with our service providers (such as the vendor who prepares our monthly statements), with third parties as required or permitted by law (such as credit reporting agencies or regulators), and share transaction and experience information (such as your loan balance or payment history) within our group of companies.

In today’s dynamic market, opting out may mean missing timely information about products and services that help you accomplish your homeownership and other financial goals. It's something to think about carefully. We don’t want you to miss out on any opportunities.

Our websites may contain links to other companies not in our group, for your convenience and information. If you access those links, you will leave our website. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information.

How to confirm accuracy of your information
We commit to maintain accurate and up-to-date information on all of our customers. We provide access to account information in many ways - over the phone, in online and paper statements, and other communications. If you believe any of your information is incorrect, please notify us immediately using the customer service number provided on your account statement. We will respond timely to your request to correct inaccurate account or transaction information. However, in order to protect your information, we may ask to verify your identity and for other details to respond to your request.

Notification of changes
The policies and practices in this section replace all previous notices or statements about your privacy rights at New Home Loans. If we make any significant changes, we will notify you and only apply those new changes to future use of your information. If we make such changes, we will also revise the policy effective date, so that you can keep track of when those changes occur.
Policy Effective Date: March 13, 2005.


About Internet Security

How Does Browser Security Work?
Recent versions of most internet browsers support the encrypted transmission of on-line documents and the data you enter on a web page. This means that instead of sending readable text, both your browser and the website's secure server encode all text using a security key. That way, personal data sent to your browser or data you send back would be extremely difficult to decode in the unlikely event it was intercepted by an unauthorized party. The key used for encoding is a random number that is unique to your session at the secure website.

There are two grades of internet security: International-grade encryption uses a 40-bit random number negotiated between your browser and the web-server. This means that only one out of about 1,000,000,000,000 possible decoding keys can be used to decipher your data. Domestic-grade encryption uses a 128-bit key, so that the number of possible keys is vastly larger. Our sites uses the highest grade of encryption supported by your browser and your internet connection.


How Do I Know If Security Is Operating?
Your internet session is encrypted if your security-enabled browser is connected to a website using the Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol. URL strings beginning with "HTTPS://" instead of the usual "HTTP://" indicate that the secure protocol is in effect. Your browser may also tell you if security is operating. For example, Netscape Navigator may display the icon in the lower left corner of your screen in secure mode. If 128-bit security is in effect, it shows the icon. Microsoft Internet Explorer shows a icon in either case. Note that security may be operating without any visible indication if the web page you are viewing employs frames (see below).

If secure transmission is not in effect or only part of a frame-based page is secure, Netscape shows the "broken key" icon, and Explorer does not show the "lock" icon.

Most browsers can be set to give you a pop-up announcement when you enter or leave a secure web page. In Netscape, these settings are on the Security Preferences "General" tab. In IE, the setting is on the "Advanced" tab when you select "Options" on the View menu.

Secure Mode and Frame-Based Web Pages
Security may be operating without displaying any security icons (or Netscape may show the "broken key" icon) if only part of a frame-based page is employing security. You can verify the security of a page within a frame by opening it in a new browser window. Both IE and Netscape allow you to open a link in a new window by right-clicking on the link and selecting that option from the pop-up context menu. When a secure page is open in its own window, instead of being viewed within a frame, you can then see the security icons provided by your browser as well as the "https://" secure protocol prefix in the URL string.

Cookies 
When you visit a website, a small file called a "cookie" may be saved to your computer’s hard drive during your visit. When you revisit the site, the website’s server may open the cookie file and access the stored information. You can usually set your browser to limit or let you know about cookies that a website places on your computer.

Web Beacons
A Web beacon is a graphic image (such as a pixel tag or clear GIF) that is placed on a web page or in an e-mail message to monitor user activity (such as whether the web page or e-mail message is read or clicked). They are often invisible because they are very small in size. They are also used on many web pages for alignment purposes. We sometimes use Web beacons to provide an independent accounting of how many people visit our websites or to gather statistics about browser usage at our websites. Some of our web pages and HTML-formatted e-mail newsletters use Web beacons in conjunction with cookies. It is difficult for you to limit the use of Web beacons because there is no easy way to distinguish their use from alignment and other purposes. They may be loaded from a different web server than the rest of the page.


Third Party Advertising
We sometimes use third party advertising companies to serve our internet ad banners on our site and other sites on which we advertise. If you click on one of those ads, you will be directed to one of our sites offering that particular product or service. If you view a web page where our ads appear, the advertising company may place a cookie on your computer or use a Web beacon to access a cookie they previously placed on your computer. These companies do not collect information that can identify you personally, but may use information about your visits to our sites and other sites to measure the effectiveness of ads. We do not give any personally identifiable information to these companies. Unless you are first notified, these advertising companies do not link any online actions or cookie to any information that can be used to personally identify you (such as your name, address or e-mail address). The companies that distribute our ads are prohibited by contract from using information other than for the agreed upon purpose – to help us market our products and services and to measure response rates.

Third party advertisers are subject to their own privacy policies. Currently, we use Avenue A, Inc. as one of our third party advertisers. If you would like more information about the privacy practices of Avenue A, including information on how to opt-out of their cookies, please click here to visit the Network Advertising Initiative website. To prevent other advertising companies from placing cookies on your computer, you may adjust the privacy settings for your browser to block or filter cookies, or visit each website individually and opt-out.


Similar Devices
For example, we include URLs in e-mail marketing materials sent directly to you (such as special offers) so that we can identify that it is you responding to the campaign and provide details on the offer available to you.

Identity theft

What is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is when someone takes and uses your personal information (such as your name, social security or credit card number) without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. These criminals take the identities of others to open new credit cards; obtain phone or utility accounts, loans, or employment; open bank accounts; and/or pass fraudulent checks. According to the FBI, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America.

How Does Identity Theft Occur?
Criminals gain access to personal information in many ways, but the most common method is to take it from the victim themselves - you. They steal mail (such as account statements, new checks and offers of credit) left in a mailbox, discarded in the trash or stored in an easy to get to location in your home or office. They take credit card and personal identification from your purse or wallet. Without knowing it, you may give the information directly to the criminal when you enter data at an unsecured or unknown website, or in response to a fraudulent request for account information through an unverified e-mail ("phishing"). Imposters also ask for information from you in unsolicited phone calls, tricking you into thinking it is someone you know, such as your bank ("pre-texting").

What Happens to the Victim?
Identity thieves can damage the credit reputations and lives of victims. Studies have shown that victims spend an average of $808 and 205 hours resolving the identity theft. Time and money is spent clearing credit reports, reporting the theft to lenders and merchants, and filing complaints with law enforcement and governmental agencies. One of the menacing problems of identity theft is that it can happen more than once. Once the initial incident is resolved, the thief may begin using the victim’s identity again after waiting 6 months to a year and the cycle begins all over again.

How Can I Prevent Becoming a Victim?
Identity theft requires someone to gain access to your personal information. You can take steps to decrease the risk of someone stealing your information.
Destroy papers you throw out. Shred or completely destroy any documents that contain personal information before discarding them in the trash. This includes information about you, your family, your home, or your accounts such as credit card solicitations, pre-approved credit offers, convenience checks contained in your statements, bills, cancelled checks, loan offerings, ATM or credit card receipts, insurance or tax information. Just as important are receipts from ATM’s or self-service devices such as gasoline pumps. Don’t just leave them behind or throw them in the trash. Criminals only need a few pieces of information about you to get credit in your name and access your existing accounts.
Be careful who you give your information to over the telephone. Do not give out personal information such as your social security number, credit card or bank account numbers, or loan numbers over the phone to anyone who has called you without first confirming who you are speaking to, why they need the information and that they are who they claim to be.
Guard your PINs. Never give out your Personal Identification Number (PIN). Memorize your PINs and never write them on your cards or carry them in your wallet.
Report lost or stolen credit cards, checks or identification immediately.
Store your personal information securely. Keep it where it is not easily available in the event of a burglary or other unauthorized access.
Be cautious online. Make sure it is safe when you are asked to provide information at websites or with online merchants you do not have an existing relationship with. Always confirm that you are in a secure session before entering personal information online (see How Do I Know if Security is Operating?).
Check your credit reports. Review your credit report regularly to identify any inquiries or accounts that you are not aware of and did not apply for.
Protect your mailbox. If your residential mailbox is not secure, don’t put outgoing mail in the box and promptly pick up incoming mail or obtain a secure postal mailbox.
Safeguard your checks. Never print your personal information such as a Social Security Number or driver’s license number on your checks.


What Should I Do if I Become a Victim of Identity Theft?
Contact the three major credit bureaus Equifax
P.O. Box 105069
Atlanta, GA 30348
1-800-525-6285
www.equifax.com Experian
P.O. Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
1-888-397-3742
www.experian.com TransUnion
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-680-7289
www.transunion.com
Ask them to send you a copy of your credit report and instruct them to place a fraud alert on your record. Once you receive the report, review it carefully. Contact any creditors listed that you did not apply for credit with and inform them that you have been a victim of identity theft. Instruct them to close the account, send you copies of the application and any transactions, and to promptly clear your credit record.
Contact your local police or sheriff’s department and file an identity theft complaint.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or via their hotline at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338).


Identity Theft Resources
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 1-877-438-4338 Privacy Rights Clearinghouse 1-619-298-3396
Social Security Administration Fraud Hotline 1-800-269-0271 Identity Theft Resource Center 1-858-693-7935
Department of Justice Identity Theft Statistics
US Postal Inspection Service 1-800-372-8347 Identity Theft Laws (by state)


What are we Doing to Assist in the Battle Against Identity Theft?
Protecting the confidentiality and security of our customers’ personal information is a priority for us and our family of companies. You can find more information in our Privacy and Security Policy. We understand the implications identity theft can have and take very specific steps to reduce the chance that identity thieves can damage the credit reputations of our customers. As a result, we have put multiple safety measures in place to combat identity theft.