Privacy Policy

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a single person. While some interactions with us, such as getting a quote, can be made anonymously or by using a pseudonym, in order to purchase a car hire excess policy, it is necessary for us to know who you are.  We require certain personal information such as your name, age, contact details, credit card details, rental vehicle pick details to be covered by your policy.

How we collect it

There are several ways we may collect your personal information.  This includes completing forms on our website, when you speak to someone in the call centre, during conversations with our claims team, or through associated appointed third party agents.

For claims, we may collect your details from family members, groups, associations, doctors, medical staff and any other third party such as rental car companies that have been instructed by you to deal with us.  We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit consent.
 
If you nominate individuals to be covered by your insurance policy, you should direct them to this Privacy Policy and make them aware of the content of any privacy notice we provide you.

How we use it

We will only use your personal information for insurance purposes and to provide you with the best customer service that we can.

Such purposes include verifying your identity, offering you a quote, providing insurance to you, administering your policies, managing claims, and any other purpose which is stated to you at the time of collection or any purpose that you otherwise authorise. We use this data to improve your customer journey and ensure that we can deal with you quickly and efficiently. For example:
 

1. We may email or SMS you, confirmation of your purchase of insurance, and any other messages or documents relevant to your policy.
    
2. We will contact you by email, phone or SMS to remind you that your rental car excess insurance quote is still pending if you have requested an insurance quote from us.
    
3. From time to time, we will use your and all other policy holders contact details to send you direct marketing communications including offers, updates and newsletters that are relevant to the services we provide. We always give you the option of electing not to receive these communications in the future. You can unsubscribe by notifying us and we will no longer send these communications to you.

How we may share it

We will never sell, trade or rent your personal information. We will never give your information to an outside organisation, unless we need to in order to assist in arranging, issuing or managing your insurance.

When you purchase car hire excess from us, information you supply will be supplied to Certain Underwriters at Lloyds (the insurer). Insurers are required to protect your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

We may also need to provide your personal information to the insurer, and other third parties in Australia and overseas when you make a claim on your policies. For example, rental car hire companies, claims handlers and investigators, professional advisors, your agents and our related companies.

We may also provide your information to others, if we are required to do so by law, you consent to the disclosure or under some unusual other circumstances which the Privacy Act permits.

For policies purchased prior to 1 December 2018, the insurers on our products was Arch Insurance. 
Arch’s privacy policy can be found here:
https://www.archcapgroup.com/Portals/0/misc/Arch%20Insurance%20Australia%20-%20Privacy%20Policy.pdf

How we hold and protect it

We do our utmost to protect the privacy and security of any personal information we hold.

We hold your information in our computer systems or databases, which may involve storing data on storage or computer systems provided by third party suppliers; in paper records; and/or in telephone recordings.

In some cases, your information may be archived and sent to an external data storage provider for a period of time. We use storage providers located in Australia who are regulated by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, as well as some storage providers located overseas.

We take security seriously and protect your personal information in the following ways:

1. We use industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology which encrypts the information you enter via our website. This prevents other computers from impersonating your computer and prevents third parties from reading or changing your information as it travels over the internet. If you are unhappy about entering your payment information online, then you are more than welcome to email us to finalise your purchase.
    
2. We do not keep your credit card number. Our staff understand and respect customer's confidentiality and privacy in accordance with strict policies based on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and according to data protection statutes.
    
3. Our related company offices operate secure data networks protected by industry-standard firewalls and have password protection systems.
    
4. We restrict access to Personal Information to our employees and contracted third-party providers who need to know that information in order to process it for us and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations.
    
5. We take appropriate steps to destroy or de-identify personal information if we no longer need it for any authorised purpose and are not required by law to retain it.

How we use cookies and web tracking tools

We also use technology to collect anonymous information about the use of our website.  This is employed for statistical analysis to identify usage patterns and improve your experience with our website. For example, we use cookies to help us remember information you previously entered. By passing a unique identification between your computer and the Car Hire Excess website, we can show you quote information that you have already requested, eliminating the need to re-enter information.

Anonymous data we collect includes your computer’s IP address, recording the time and pages you visited, the device and browser you are using. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover the identity of a user. Cookies may also be used to help us tailor our online ads or to deliver an advertisement to you that may be more relevant to you. You can disable cookies in your web browser but if you do so, some features on this website may not work properly. Cookies are also used to ensure against fraud, misuse.

How to update your information

Any personal information that you provide to Car Hire Excess will be collected and held by Insurance Geeks Pty Ltd. You have the right to request access to, or correction of, the information we hold about you by phoning or writing to us using the contact details outlined below. 

Upon receipt of your request and enough information to allow us to identify you, we will disclose to you the personal information we hold about you. We will also correct, amend or delete any personal information that we agree is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date or incomplete.
 

How to contact us about our privacy policy

If you believe your privacy has been breached, or if you have concerns about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using one of the methods outlined below.

Email: [email protected]

Post: Privacy Officer
Insurance Geeks Pty Ltd
PO Box 6798
Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153
Australia

We will investigate the matters raised and we will respond to you directly. If you are dissatisfied with our response, or with the way that the complaint was handled, then you should refer the matter to the Privacy Commissioner’s Office in accordance with the Privacy Act.

If you are unhappy with the response and/or resolution in relation to your complaint or with the way that the complaint was handled through the Complaints Resolution Process, you may be able to refer the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) subject to its Terms of Reference or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The contact details for these bodies are as follows:

Australian Financial Complaints Authority
GPO Box 3
Melbourne VIC 3001
Tel: 1300 78 08 08
Web: www.afca.org.au

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: 1300 363 992
Web: www.oaic.gov.au

Insurance Geeks Pty Ltd may update its Privacy Policy from time to time.  When we change the policy in a material way, a notice will be posted on our website along with the updated Privacy Policy. This policy was last updated on 1 December 2018.