Keeping client information secure is a top priority for all of us at Consumer Advocates Credit Counselors. This privacy notice is to help you understand how we handle the personal information about you that we collect and may disclose. The provisions of this notice will apply to former clients as well as current clients unless we state otherwise.

Our Policies and Practices to Protect Your Personal Information

We protect personal information we collect about you by maintaining physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that meet or exceed applicable law. Third parties who have access to personal information must agree to follow appropriate standards of security and confidentiality. Also, we train people who work for us how to properly handle personal information, and we restrict access to it. Please see the Consumer Advocates Credit Counselors Privacy Commitment, which appears later in this notice.

Categories of Personal Information We Collect and May Disclose

The categories of personal information we collect about you include:


• Information we receive from you on applications or other forms;
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or nonaffiliated third parties, such as your account balances, payment history, and account activity; and
• Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, such as credit bureau reports and other information relating to your creditworthiness.
  We may disclose any of the above information that we collect to third parties as described below.

Categories of Affiliated and Nonaffiliated Third Parties to Whom We May Disclose Personal Information

We do not sell information about current or former clients or their accounts to third parties, nor do we share such information, except when needed, to perform your debt management or to perform other services requested by you or as otherwise permitted by law. Here are the details:


• To perform your debt management, it may be necessary to provide information to companies not affiliated with Consumer Advocates Credit Counselors who have extended credit to you. Also, for purposes of credit reporting, verification and risk management, we will exchange information about our clients with reputable reference sources.
• Information may be disclosed to affiliated and nonaffiliated third parties that perform services for Consumer Advocates Credit Counselors. In all such cases, we require these third parties to treat your private information with confidentiality.
• Finally, we will release information about you if you direct us to do so, or if we are compelled by law or our regulators to do so.

The Consumer Advocates Credit Counselors Privacy Commitment

Our most important asset is our client's trust. We strive daily to keep your information secure. Here, then, is our promise to our individual clients:

1. We will safeguard, according to strict standards of security and confidentiality, any information you share with us.
2. We will limit the collection and use of your information to the minimum that we require to deliver superior service.
3. We will permit only authorized employees, who are trained in the proper handling of client information, to have access to that information. Employees who violate our Privacy Commitment will be subject to disciplinary action.
4. We will not reveal your information to any third party except as provided herein.
5. Whenever we hire other organizations to provide support services, we will require them to conform to our privacy standards.

Opt Out Policy

If you prefer that we not share your nonpublic personal information, you may opt out of those disclosures by sending us a request in writing at: Consumer Advocates Credit Counselors, 23123 US 441, Suite 205, Boca Raton, FL 33428. We will stop sharing your nonpublic personal information as soon as reasonably possible.

By law, you may not opt out of the following:

• information shared with those providing priority service to the financial institution
• marketing of products or services for the financial institution
• when the information is deemed legally required.

Your opt out will apply to all accounts you hold individually and to all accounts you hold jointly with other persons. Your opt out will not apply, however, to any accounts your joint account holder held individually or jointly with persons other than you. If your joint account holders wish to opt out as to such other accounts, they will need to submit a separate op out request.