Recognizing Your Right to Privacy
We are committed to providing you with responsive, personalized service and to keeping you informed about new services that may be of interest to you. As we endeavor to assist you in achieving your financial goals, we want to assure you that protecting your privacy is important to us. We want you to understand what information we collect and how we use it.In the sections that follow, we describe the types of customer information that are collected and how and why that information may be shared with others.
As used in this notice, the terms “we,” “us” and “our” mean NBT Bancorp Inc. and its Family of Companies, including: NBT Bank, N.A.; NBT Financial Services, Inc.; NBT Settlement Services, LLC; Pennstar Bank, a division of NBT Bank, N.A.; Pennstar Management Trust, a division of NBT Bank, N.A.; Pennstar Financial Services, Inc.; EPIC Advisors, Inc.; Hathaway Insurance Agency, Inc.; and Colonial Financial Services, Inc. “Customer information” means information about you that we collect in connection with providing you with a financial product or service and that is considered “nonpublic personal information” within the meaning of the federal law on consumer privacy. “Family of Companies” means the financial institutions and companies referred to as “we,” “us” and “our” above.
The Information That We Collect
The primary reason that we collect and maintain customer information is to serve you and administer your financial relationship with us. This information may be collected from a variety of sources, including the following:- Information you provide to us on applications or other forms.
- Information we receive from an outside company, such as a credit bureau or other financial institution.
- Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others.
Maintaining the Security of Your Customer Information
We restrict access to your customer information 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 protect your customer information.Information Use and Disclosure
Within our Family of Companies, we may share information we collect from our account records:- Information from your account applications and about your transactions and experience with us, such as name, address, account balances, account activity, types of accounts, payment history, deposit history and parties to transactions.
- Financial services, such as banking, investment advisory services, securities broker-dealer services and insurance services. We share this information in order to provide you with information about new or enhanced financial services and to evaluate our total relationship with you and our Family of Companies in order to provide you with the best possible service.
Information Sharing and Joint Marketing Arrangements
We may disclose customer information to companies that we have partnered with in order to perform joint marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements.- We may share customer information we receive from you on an application or other forms, such as name, address, Social Security number and phone number.
The types of businesses to which we may disclose this kind of customer information include:
- Financial services providers, such as insurance agents.
- Nonfinancial companies that perform marketing support services on our behalf.
- Joint marketers, such as credit card companies.
Information Sharing and Other Parties
We may disclose certain customer information to government agencies, credit reporting agencies and other outside parties as permitted by law. This might include disclosures necessary to service your account, to report the existence and condition of an account to reputable credit bureaus, to comply with a government subpoena or to prevent unauthorized transactions.Our Policy Regarding the Use of Information About Former Customers
We do not share customer information about former customers except as permitted by law.Protecting Your Customer Information
- Don’t give personal information, such as account numbers or Social Security numbers, over the telephone, through the mail or over the Internet, unless you know with whom you are dealing.
- Store personal information in a safe place and tear up or shred old credit card receipts, ATM receipts and unused credit card offers before throwing them away.
- Pay attention to billing cycles and statements. Contact the bank if you do not receive a regular monthly bill or statement. It may mean that the document has been diverted by identity theft.
- Check all account statements carefully to ensure all charges, checks or withdrawals were authorized.
If you suspect that someone has had unauthorized access to your account with us or to your personal identifying information, such as your Social Security number or credit card information, you should:
- Contact the fraud department of each of the three major credit bureaus to report the identity theft and request that the credit bureaus place a fraud alert and a victim’s statement in your file. The fraud departments of the three national credit bureaus can be contacted as follows:
TransUnion — 1-800-680-7289
Equifax — 1-800-525-6285
Experian — 1-888-397-3742
You may request a free copy of your credit report. Credit bureaus must provide a free copy of your report if you have reason to believe that you have been a victim of identity theft and you submit your request in writing. - Contact the bank or other creditor where you have an account.
- File a report with your local police department.
- Contact the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft Hotline toll-free at 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338). The FTC’s toll-free teletypewriter (TTY) number is 1-866-653-4261.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact our Call Center at 1-800-NBT-BANK (1-800-628-2265). IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT CREDIT REPORTING — We may report information about your account to credit bureaus. Late payments, missed payments or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report.
10/1/2007