Privacy Policy

Homestar Financial Corporation Digital Privacy and Cookies Policy

Introduction and Scope of Policy

Homestar Financial Corporation takes our clients’ financial privacy very seriously. During the course of processing your application, we accumulate nonpublic personal financial information from you and from other sources about your income, your assets, and your credit history in order to allow a lender to make an informed decision about granting you credit. We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information.

We collect nonpublic information about you from the following sources: (i) information we receive from you on applications or other forms; (ii) information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others; and (iii) information we receive from a consumer reporting agency.

We do not disclose any nonpublic information about our customers or former customers to any third party, except as permitted by law.

Scope of Policy

This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") applies to the collection, use, and sharing of information that you provide to us through electronic channels, such as the internet, facsimile, email, and/or through the information you deliver to us personally or through mail delivered by the United States Postal Service. Our website may contain links to third-party sites not controlled by Homestar Financial Corporation or covered by this Policy. We recommend you review the privacy policies of those companies.

Online Privacy Policy

At Homestar Financial Corporation, we want you to know that we are serious about our responsibility to keep your information confidential and secure. This notice explains how we protect, collect, and share your information. Please read this carefully to understand what we do. Maintaining your privacy and safeguarding your confidentiality is of extreme importance to us.

Collecting your personal information allows us to assist you with your financial needs. Only our employees who need to have access to your information to perform their jobs are authorized to have access to your personal information.

Collection and Use of Your Personal Information

We only collect your personal information when you voluntarily submit a loan application to us. We may ask you to show your Driver's License, provide your employment history, provide us your contact information, or give us your wage statements. We may also need information concerning your assets, income, debts, and obligations. To process your loan application, we also collect your personal information from others, such as consumer reporting agencies.

The types of information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include the following:

  • Social Security number
  • Household income
  • Account balances
  • Payment history
  • Credit history
  • Credit scores
  • Contact information
  • Property value

We may also provide certain information to others when the law requires it, for example, when the information is subpoenaed to prevent fraud or to comply with a request from a government regulator or agency.

Homestar Financial Corporation does not sell its customer lists, customer information, or nonpublic information. When allowed by you and as permitted by law, there are instances when your personal information may be shared with third parties. These third parties that receive your information may not use this information for their own purposes and may not give it to anyone else unless it is to help close your loan. To process your transactions, maintain your account, or report to credit bureaus, we cannot limit this sharing. All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business.

Federal and state regulations require that we store completed loan applications and information for a certain period of time. We must comply with these regulations and cannot completely delete your information until the requisite amount of time has passed.

We do not sell, rent, or lease your personal information to any other third parties. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. We do not use cookies to track your use of our site. We don't use this information to contact you in the future for any other reason. We do not offer advertising on our site and do not share any of your information with advertisers, marketers, or any other third parties.

Agreement to Policy

By using this site or any of Homestar Financial Corporation’s advertisements, pages, or links, you consent to this Policy, including your consent to our use and disclosure of information about you in the manner described in this Policy.

Opt Out Options

We will only contact you to offer our products and services to you. We also can share your information for joint marketing with other financial companies.

When you are a new customer, we can begin sharing your information 60 days from the date we send this notice. When you are no longer a customer, we continue to share your information as described.

You can limit this sharing by contacting us at any time through the methods listed below.

If you would like to opt out of our marketing and communications, please email us at contactus@homestarfc.com.

Policy Changes

Homestar Financial Corporation reserves the right to amend this Policy. If we make updates to this Policy, we will update the Policy with the changes and revise the “date of most recent update” posted at the top of this Policy. Any updates to the Policy become effective when we post the updates on the site. Your use of this website following the update to the Policy means that you accept the updated Policy.

Websites

Homestar Financial Corporation must create a privacy protection policy which must be published or publicly displayed. “Publicly displayed” includes, but is not limited to, posting on an Internet webpage. The policy must:

  • protect the confidentiality of Social Security numbers;
  • prohibit unlawful disclosure of Social Security numbers; and,
  • limit access to Social Security numbers.

Mobile Marketing

To ensure that consumers’ inquiries are handled promptly, courteously, and accurately, some of the phone calls between you and us or any of our affiliates, agents, assigns, and service providers may be monitored and recorded by us and any of our affiliates, agents, assigns, and service providers, to enhance service to you. You consent to this monitoring and recording.

You expressly consent and agree that Homestar Financial Corporation and its affiliates, agents, and service providers may use written, electronic, or verbal means to contact you. This consent includes, but is not limited to, contact by manual calling methods, prerecorded or artificial voice messages, text messages, emails, and/or automatic telephone dialing systems. You agree that Homestar Financial Corporation and its affiliates, agents, and service providers may use any email address or any telephone number you provide, now or in the future, including a number for a cellular phone or other wireless device, regardless of whether you incur charges as a result. You further agree that Homestar Financial Corporation may send emails to you at any email address you provide us or use other electronic means of communication to the extent permitted by law. You have the right to opt in or opt out of this communication agreement at any time and by any reasonable means.

Consumers and borrowers may receive 4-8 messages a month regarding our financial products and services.

For support/help, from your mobile phone, text HELP to 46279 or call toll-free at 1-855-983-0138. You can also email us at contactus@homestarfc.com for additional information.

PRIVACY NOTICE FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

We respect your privacy and the personal information you share with us. You should know how we treat the information you entrust to us, and the rights you have about your personal information pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). 

The CCPA affords California residents more control over their personal information collected by businesses such as Homestar Financial Corporation, explained in more detail below.

Definition of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information

The CCPA defines “Personal Information” as information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly with, a particular consumer or household. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following if it identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. The law defines “Sensitive Personal Information” as personal information that, among other things, reveals a consumer’s social security, driver’s license, state identification card or passport number; a consumer’s financial account, debit card, or credit card in combination with any required security or access code, password or credentials; a consumer’s precise geo location, a consumer’s racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs or union membership, and the contents of a consumer’s mail, email, and text messages.

Information We Typically Collect, Sell or Disclose to Third Parties

In the past months, we collected the following categories of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information:

Category

Type of Information

Collect

Identifiers

Real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers

Yes

Any personal information described in subdivision (e) of Section 1798.80

A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, employee photos, insurance policy number, education, date of birth, name and contact information to contact in the event of an emergency, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, prepaid account number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.

Yes

Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law

Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).

Yes

Commercial information

Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.

Yes

Biometric information

Voice mail messages

 

Yes

 

Internet or other electronic network activity information

Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.

Yes

Geolocation data

Physical location or movements

 

No

 

Sensory Data

Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information

 

No

Professional or employment-related information

Current and past job history, employer names, and dates of past employment.

Yes

Education Information

Information that is not publicly available personally identifiable information as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g; 34 C.F.R. Part 99).

Sometimes

Inferences drawn from collected information

Inferences drawn from any of the information identified in this subdivision to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes

Yes

Retention

To the extent this information is collected, we intend to retain this information for a period of time in compliance with any regulatory requirement to retain such information, or in compliance with the Company’s document retention policy requirement, whichever is longer.

The Use of Information

The Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information collected is used for the purpose of operating our core business of originating, processing, funding and selling mortgage loans. More specifically, the personal information is used to:

  • Assess the credit worthiness of the California Resident consumer.
  • Assess the California Resident consumer’s ability to repay the loan.
  • Assess the value of the property that secures the California Resident consumer’s mortgage loan.
  • Continue contact with California Resident consumers who have contacted us to inquire about, but did not apply for, a loan.
  • Report the information to the appropriate state and federal regulatory authorities as required by law.
  • Audit our internal controls, our compliance with state and federal law and the quality of our loans.
  • Verify the veracity of the information we rely on to render loan approvals and fundings, including identify of the applicants.
  • Prosecute parties who commit fraud or other illegal activity associated with our business.
  • Marketing and advertising analyses, including the success of marketing campaigns.
  • To administer the requirements of CCPA

Selling Your Information

We do not sell personal information to third parties for advertising or marketing purposes or use the personal information we collect for other purposes without first providing notice to you.

Sources Used To Collect

We obtain the categories of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information listed above from the following categories of sources:

  • Directly from our consumers or their agents. For example, from documents that our consumers provide to us related to the services that we are asked to perform.
  • Indirectly from our consumers or their agents. For example, through information we collect from our consumers in the course of providing services to them.
  • Directly and indirectly from activity on our website www.homestarfc.com. For example, from submissions through our website portal or website usage details collected automatically.
  • From third-parties that interact with us in connection with the services we perform. For example, appraisers, title companies, credit reporting agencies, appraisers and other service providers.

Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties

We disclose your personal information to authorized service providers and other third parties in connection with the services we perform for you, including consumer reporting agencies, technology providers, title and appraisal companies, loan servicers, investors, regulatory agencies, in response to court orders and to conduct voluntary satisfaction surveys.

In the past 12 months, we have not sold any personal information, and do not intend on selling information in the foreseeable future.

Your Rights

You have the right to request us to:

  • Delete information we may have collected about you in the past 12 months.
  • Correct inaccurate Personal Information we maintain about you.
  • Disclose the specific pieces of data and categories of information we have collected about you in the last 12 months.
  • Opt-out of us selling your personal information to third parties.

We are subject to certain legal requirements and maintain certain legal rights that may limit our ability or your rights to act on your requests.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

  • Deny you goods or services.
  • Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
  • Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
  • Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

How to Exercise Any of Your Rights

If you are a California Resident consumer, you may make any of these requests as follows:

  1. Completing an online form through our website at www.homestarfc.com/contact/
  2. Calling us Toll Free at 1-855-983-0138

Upon receiving your request, we will take the following steps:

  • Our goal is to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt, but if we need more time (an additional 45 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
  • If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account.  If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option.
  • Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt.  The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable.  We will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
  • No charge will be charged to process your request(s) unless it is excessive, repetitive, or unfounded.  If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

If you have any questions about our process or practices, please contact us as follows:

  1. Homestar Financial Corporation, 332 Washington St NW, Gainesville, GA 30501
  2. Through the HOMESTAR website at www.homestarfc.com/contact/
  3. Calling us Toll Free at 1-855-983-0138

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

You have the right at any time to direct us to not sell your personal information to third parties. This is known as the right to opt-out. You may exercise this right by completing this online form at www.homestarfc.com/contact/.

 

Contact Us

If you have any questions and/or concerns concerning this Policy, please contact us at 1-855-983-0138 or through our website at www.homestarfc.com/contact/.