Consumer Credit Information
Under Rule 3 of the Credit Reporting Privacy Act 2020 (the Act), we must display on our website a statement that sets out the purposes for which we collect credit information and the purpose for which the information will also be used and disclosed. The Act only applies to individuals (consumers), and not to companies.
Credit information is information about consumers that we hold on our credit reporting database; the Act restricts the categories of information that we are allowed to collect and hold for credit reporting. You can find out more information about the Act on the Privacy Commissioner's website at http://www.privacy.org.nz.
We collect credit information to enable us to provide our credit reporting services to our customers (our subscribers). We collect that information from a range of sources. The main sources are:
- From third party publicly available sources such as newspapers, and the Mercantile Gazette
- From our subscribers when they access our credit reporting services; for example, when a subscriber requests a consumer credit report, the subscriber gives us information about that consumer which we use to update our database if necessary. We require the subscriber to get the consumer's authorisation to this before giving us the information.
- For "credit default information", from our subscribers (including debt collectors) when a consumer defaults on an account. Our subscribers must not list a default until it is at least 30 days overdue.
We use credit information to provide our credit reporting services to our subscribers and for any other purpose that the Act allows us to. When they use our credit reporting services, we disclose credit information to them. For example, when we provide our consumer credit reporting service to a subscriber, we disclose credit information to the subscriber about the consumer the subscriber is enquiring about. We do not decide whether the subscriber will extend credit to the consumer, we provide them with information that helps them to make that decision.
The Act requires us to have a brief summary of the rights that the Act gives to consumers. You can read this summary in English by visiting A summary of your Rights.
The Summary has also been translated into a number of different languages. To view any of these please select the relevant language here: Maori, Samoan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Fijian, Hindi, Korean, Spanish or Tongan.
Click here to read the Equifax 'Your Rights Explained' brochure.