Privacy Policy

We Are Committed to Safeguarding Customer Information

Advantage Credit, Inc. is a Reseller of credit reporting data and services–essentially we are a middleman between the National Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), namely Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, and businesses who purchase and use their credit data.  The majority of our clients are financial institutions who pull credit reports to make credit decisions regarding residential mortgage loan applications.

Please be aware that Advantage Credit requires—and our clients have contractually agreed—that in order to access a consumer credit report, our clients have permissible purpose to request that consumer’s credit report.  Our clients ensure they have this permissible purpose by obtaining the consumer’s affirmative consent to pull their credit report prior to pulling that consumer’s credit report.

Furthermore as a Reseller, before we can fulfill our client’s requests, our clients must first provide us with certain consumer information. We in turn provide this consumer data to the National Consumer Reporting Agencies, our affiliate consumer reporting agency companies, and other data and information providers as applicable in order to then provide the resultant and applicable consumer reports and other requested data and services to our clients.

We understand that clients and their consumer clients may be concerned about what we will do with consumer information – particularly any personal or financial information. We agree that our clients and their consumer clients have a right to know how we will utilize such information. Therefore, we have adopted this Privacy Policy to govern the use and handling of all personal consumer information, otherwise known as Personal Identifiable Information ‘PII’, Personal Sensitive Information ‘PSI’, or Nonpublic Personal Information ‘NPI’.

Privacy Policy

We are committed to the safety, security, and confidentiality of personal identifying information. The information we request from our clients and their consumer clients will be used only to process the client’s request, and to contact the client/their consumer clients for corrections or clarifications that may be needed to process the client’s request. This information will only be disclosed outside of these parameters when required and dictated by law.

Advantage Credit, Inc. will never ask a client user for their password. If we need information for troubleshooting purposes, we will refer our client user to an Advantage Credit, Inc. Client Care specialist who will assist in the client user while adhering to appropriate access security procedures.  Client users should not share their passwords with anyone.

Client users who have User Id credentials may not allow anyone else to use their credentials; each client is liable for how their users use their User Ids and are contractually obligated to not let users share their credentials. 

Advantage Credit, Inc. does not resell or share any identifying personal, consumer, corporate, or demographic information obtained through our services to other companies or entities in any way. Advantage Credit, Inc. may use non-identifying, aggregate demographic data for its own internal analytics and may use client contact information to communicate with clients as appropriate and necessary for Advantage Credit, Inc. business purposes.

 Applicability

This Privacy Policy governs our use of consumer information that clients provide to us or we otherwise obtain in the course of fulfilling client requests for products and services.

Types of Information

Depending upon which of our services the client uses, the types of nonpublic personal information that we access may include

• • Information provided by clients’ from and regarding their consumer applicants, in various methods of communications to us, whether in writing, in person, by telephone or any other means
  • Information we receive from one or more Consumer Reporting Agency and/or other data and information providers as a result of our clients’ use of our services

Changes to Information

If our client’s consumer wishes to dispute or correct information on the consumer report that was pulled on them through Advantage Credit, Inc., a consumer can do so through the dispute resolution process as provided by the Fair Credit Reporting.  Clients should refer their consumer clients to the Consumer Credit Help section on the Advcredit.com website.

Use of Information

We request information from our clients or obtain information about our clients’ consumers in support of our client’s legitimate business purposes and as part of providing our client with relevant Reseller services and data and not for the sole benefit of Advantage Credit, Inc. nor for the benefit of other businesses or third parties. Therefore, we will not release our clients’ consumer information to any party, whether affiliated with us or not, except: (1) as necessary for us to provide the product or service our clients have requested of us; or (2) as permitted by law. We may, however, store such information, including during the period after which any customer relationship has ceased. Such information may be used for any internal purpose, such as quality control efforts or customer analysis.

Former Customers

Even if you are no longer our customer, our Privacy Policy will continue to apply.

Confidentiality and Security

We will use our best efforts to: (a) protect the confidentiality of consumer nonpublic personal information (including social security numbers) in our possession and ensure that no unauthorized parties have access to this consumer information, (b) restrict access to nonpublic personal information about consumers in our possession to those individuals and entities that need to know that information to provide products or services to our clients, and (c) prevent the unlawful disclosure of nonpublic personal information in our possession (including social security numbers). We will use our best efforts to train and oversee our employees and agents to ensure that consumer information is handled responsibly and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and Advantage Credit’s Information Security guidelines. We currently maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard all nonpublic personal information provided to Advantage Credit, Inc.

We may, from time to time, contact our clients via e-mail to inform them of changes or updates to our site or products. We will never send our clients a request via e-mail for any personal information (e.g., social security number, account number, date of birth, etc.). However, when processing dispute requests, consumers may be asked to provide NPI to Advantage Credit, Inc. as part of authentication procedures required by the Bureaus, but this will only be in response to disputes initiated by the consumer.

Privacy Notice: Preparation and Processing of Investigative Consumer Reports

This notice is provided to California residents. Under California law, an “investigative consumer report” is a consumer report containing information on a consumer’s character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living. Advantage Credit compiles investigative consumer reports about individuals and provides them to business for background screening, tenant screening, and similar purposes.

As a Reseller of credit data, Advantage Credit, Inc. is designated as a Credit Reporting Agency (CRA); our data is regulated by the FCRA and our activities are exempt from the CCPA.

The CCPA does not apply to the following types of activities:

Activities involving the collection, maintenance, disclosure, sale, communication, or use of any personal information bearing on a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living by a consumer reporting agency that provides information for use in a consumer report (as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)), and by a user of such a consumer report to the extent governed by the FCRA.

Personal Information Disclosure: United States – In connection with its preparation and processing of investigative consumer reports Advantage Credit may transfer personal information about you to our authorized service providers in the United States and its territories. Such transfer will be conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. Advantage Credit does not use service providers located overseas.

We do not sell or share e-mail addresses or any other information with third parties. E-mail addresses and other volunteered information are kept confidential.

Data Collection

All activities performed on the system are logged. We will periodically check the log files for irregularities or possibly malicious actions. This measure helps with the early detection of illegal activities and/or possible equipment failure. This logged data may also be analyzed to determine how we can upgrade our system to better service our clients. When used in the course of scientific or research purposes, all reasonable identifying information is removed.

Cookies

Advantage Credit, Inc. does not initiate cookies on behalf of third parties within this system. This system does not store sensitive or personal identifying information in cookies. However, non-persistent cookies may be required to maintain session state.

Material Changes in Privacy Policy and Former Statements

Any material changes to our Privacy Practices or security procedures will be posted on this page so that our clients (and correspondingly, their consumer clients) are always aware of what information we collect and how we use it as well as the latest material changes we make to our security procedures.

Security

Data security is of utmost importance to Advantage Credit, Inc. and we undertake with great seriousness the safeguarding our clients’ consumer’s data. To mitigate the potential risk of loss, misuse or unauthorized access of consumer information, Advantage Credit, Inc. undergoes an annual SOC review by independent 3rd party auditors.

Clients are responsible for the safekeeping of each of their users’ unique login credentials and for any misuse of such User Ids/Passwords.

In summary

Advantage Credit, Inc. is committed to protecting our clients’ consumers’ privacy and providing reliable Reseller services to our clients.  We use consumer NPI data only as initiated by, in support of and on behalf of our clients’ requests for credit data and related services.

Consent

By using our systems, our clients consent to the collection and use of all NPI information by Advantage Credit, Inc. If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes related to what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it, on this page.

Additional Information

We welcome clients and their consumers to also check out how consumer information is handled under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):  https://pncciiadv2.azurewebsites.net/ccpa/.