Berlin-Wheeler (the "Company"), has assisted companies to successfully manage delinquent accounts with a robust selection of collection services. From active account management in a first party environment, third party collections, legal assessment and resolution, to modern computer technology and consulting, we help our clients to develop strategies to reduce accounts receivable and maintain a compliant and positive image within the community. If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please contact us as follows:
Berlin-Wheeler, Inc.
2942A SW Wanamaker Drive Suite 200
Topeka, KS 66614
785.271.1000
800.888.7243
bwmail@berlinwheeler.com
This Privacy Policy describes the Company's policies and practices regarding its collection and use of your personal data, and sets forth your privacy rights. This Privacy Policy applies both to the Company's online information gathering and dissemination practices for this website (the "Site"), and information collected or received offline, whether directly from you or from other sources.
If you have arrived at this Privacy Policy by clicking through a link on our Site, or by searching for or clicking on a link directing you to any page of our Site, then this Privacy Policy applies to you. When you use the Site, you consent to the use of your information in the manner specified in this Privacy Policy. By your continued use of the Site, you consent to the terms of this policy.
Use of our Site is strictly limited to persons who are of legal age in the jurisdictions in which they reside. You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to use our Site. If you are not at least 18 years of age, please do not use or provide any information through this Site.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to any website owned and/or operated by or on behalf of any other entity, even if our Site posts a link to those other websites and you click through from our Site. To the extent that you visit and/or disclose information through other sites, you are subject to the privacy policies and practices of those sites.
The following is a description of: (i) the categories of personal information the Company may have collected in the preceding 12 months; (ii) the sources from which we may have collected it; and (iii) the business purposes for which we may have collected it.
We do not knowingly solicit, collect, or receive information from or about minors (under the age of 18).
You may choose to voluntarily submit or otherwise disclose Personal Information to us (e.g., name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, social security number, account numbers, financial information, card payment information, or banking information, etc.).
If you provide the Company with a telephone number and/or e-mail address, you are consenting to receive auto dialed, prerecorded/artificial voice message calls and text messages at that number, or e-mail messages at that e-mail address, from us or from third parties that work for us, even if the number you provide is for a wireless telephone and/or using that number results in charges to you. Do not provide us with a work email address unless you are consenting to receive emails at that work email address. You are acknowledging that there is no expectation of privacy at that work email address and you will hold the Company harmless for any third-party disclosure to any email sent to that work email address.
That information - whether submitted or disclosed through the various "Contact Us" options on the Site, by mail, e-mail, telephone, fax or electronically, and whether the purpose for your submission is to inquire about your account or our services, make a payment, or apply for employment, etc. - is governed by this Privacy Policy.
If you use a mobile device to access pages of this site optimized for mobile viewing, opt in to receive SMS (text messages) from the Company (as/when available), or use a mobile application, the following additional terms and conditions ("Mobile Terms") also apply to you. Your access to this site via your mobile device or use of a mobile application confirms your agreement to these Mobile Terms, as well as the rest of the Terms of Use.
By providing your email address and/or cell phone number and confirming or updating your contact information and by checking the box to agree to receive future email and/or SMS/text messages from Berlin Wheeler, Inc available when using https://www.bwpayment.com or https://www.berlinwheeler.com/dispute, you agree to receive SMS text messages on your mobile device, or email messages like payment reminders and notifications, from the Company in conjunction with the services we provide. The number of messages will vary by account. Message and data rates may apply. Wireless carriers are not liable for undelivered or delayed messages. By providing us with your mobile number and opting-in, you agree you have ownership rights or permission to use the number given to us.
You understand and agree that you may revoke your consent at any time, and you may do so in writing addressed to the Company or by texting STOP to any text message the Company sends you. You may also request support by texting HELP to any message the Company sends you or by emailing the Company at bwmail@berlinwheeler.com. Finally, You understand that the Company has relied upon your statements obtained herein and on your promise to fulfill the obligations contained herein.
Subscriber text messaging originator opt-in data and consent details will not be shared with any third parties not required for our everyday business purposes except when explicitly authorized by the subscriber.
You may also instruct the Company to stop sending you emails or other information by contacting the Company at 800-888-7243. The Company may, however, continue to use your Personal Information to contact you to service your account or as otherwise authorized by law. Please note that if you use more than one name or e-mail address when communicating with the Company or using this site, you may continue to receive communications from the Company to any name and/or email address not specified in your opt-out request. If you initiate contact or correspond with us, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, whether oral or written, and we reserve the right to use your contact information, and any other information that you provide to us in your message, to respond thereto, optimize customer service, or attempt to resolve your request or inquiry. Thus, we may use the information you provide to further correspond with you or to accept payment on or otherwise manage your account.
If you wish to change or correct any information voluntarily submitted to us, please do so by contacting us in the manner described below.
Please note that your communications with us are with a debt collector, in an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Calls may be monitored or recorded.
The Company may receive and maintain Personal Information (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth, social security number, account numbers, financial information, court records, etc.) contained in communications with someone other than you, such as your spouse, power of attorney, attorney, or other authorized representative, in connection with the collection of any debt.
We receive and maintain Personal Information contained in the accounts receivable within the portfolios that we service, including credit issuers, creditors, and accounts receivable portfolio owners. This information may include a name, date of birth, social security number, information contained on credit applications, the original creditor's account number, employment information, court records, the balance of the account at the time of sale, and the last date a payment was received on an account, etc. We use this information to seek the collection and recovery of accounts receivable, to fulfill responsibilities to our clients.
The Company may receive and maintain Personal Information from our Service Providers. Service Providers are persons or entities that we contract with to provide a material service in connection with the recovery of accounts. This may include, for example, location service providers, attorneys, letter vendors, and data service providers that scrub information. Information that we typically may receive includes residential address, phone numbers, bankruptcy activity, military status, death or probate status, credit information, court records, payment records, and correspondence or call recordings with consumers.
Our Site automatically collects certain information during a user's visit to the Site. The information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses of your device, the location where the device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system and other information about the usage of the Site, including a history of pages viewed. We use this information to improve the Site's design, estimate user volume and usage patterns, speed up searches, and improve the user experience by customizing options and recognizing return users. We may also use this information to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences. More specifically:
Each time a user visits the Site, we may automatically collect an internet protocol (IP) address and the web page from which the user was directed to the Site. In order to administer and optimize the Site and to diagnose and resolve potential issues or security threats to our Site or to the Company, we may use an IP address to help identify users and to gather broad demographic information about them.
Cookies (browser or flash) are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to a user's device through the web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize the browser and capture and remember certain information. We use cookies to optimize Site functionality and improve a user's experience while navigating through the Site. Most or all browsers permit you to disable or reject cookies. You can do this by adjusting your preferences in the browser.
Our Site may incorporate "pixel tags" or similar tracking technologies (collectively, "pixel tags") that track the actions of Site users. Pixel tags are used to collect information, such as the internet service provider, IP address, the type of browser software and operating system being used, the date and time the Site is accessed, the website address, if any, from which a user linked directly to the Site and/or the website address, if any, to which the user travels from the Site and other similar traffic-related information.
We may aggregate information collected from Site visits by various users to help us improve the Site and the services that we provide through the Site.
Our Site tracks when visitors enter through a marketing landing page. The Site also keeps a record of third-party websites accessed when a user is on our Site and clicks on a hyperlink. But we do not track users to subsequent sites and do not serve targeted advertising to them.
Web servers for the Site may gather anonymous navigational information about where visitors go on our Site and information about the technical efficiencies of our Site and services. Anonymous information does not directly or indirectly identify, and cannot reasonably be used to identify, a particular individual. Examples of anonymous information may include certain information about the internet browser, domain type, service provider and IP address information collected through tracking technologies and aggregated or de-identified data. We use anonymous analytics information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Site.
The Company does not sell to third parties for their own use any of your Personal Information. Except as described in this Privacy Policy, we also do not disclose to third-parties information about your visits to our Site.
The Company does not knowingly collect and does not, and will not, sell non-public Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age without first obtaining affirmative authorization.
We may provide your Personal Information to our clients, typically credit issuers or accounts receivable portfolio owners, that engage us as a Service Provider, through a written contract, for the purpose of managing accounts receivable portfolios or otherwise fulfilling our contractual responsibilities. The types of Personal Information we may share with our clients include updated contact information, financial, bank account or payment information, and performance metrics.
We may share your Personal Information with our affiliates and other persons or entities that we contract with to provide a material service, referred to as Service Providers.
Our Service Providers include collection service providers such as law firms, location service providers, data service or security providers, and technical support companies. In connection with providing these business services to the Company, one or more of our Service Providers may have access to identifying information, such as your name, address, or social security number. We restrict our Service Providers from accessing or using your Personal Information for any purpose other than as reasonably necessary to perform a business purpose that we authorize in the contract, and your Personal Information will not be further used by our Service Providers or disclosed to any Third Party.
We may share your Personal Information with third parties to whom you or your agents authorize us in advance to intentionally disclose to or allow to use your Personal Information in connection with the services that we provide.
In the event of a sale, assignment, liquidation, or transfer of our assets or of any portion of our business, we reserve the right to transfer any and all information that we collect to unaffiliated third-parties in connection with that event.
The Company has no obligation to monitor the Site or the use of the Site or to retain the content of any user session. However, we reserve the right, at all times, to monitor, review, retain and/or disclose any information, as necessary, to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request or to cooperate with law enforcement and other authorities in investigating a claim of illegal activity. We may use IP addresses to identify a user when we feel it is necessary to protect the Site, our service, clients, potential clients or others.
The Company takes reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards designed to protect against the unauthorized disclosure of Personal Information, and Personal Information is disposed of properly and securely utilizing industry standards. Our data security policies and practices are periodically reviewed and modified as necessary, and subject to third party assessments annually.
The California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), effective January 1, 2020, grants privacy rights to California consumers in connection with their Personal Information.
Personal Information or "PI" is "information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household."
A consumer has rights regarding his/her PI, including:
A business subject to the CCPA must, at or before the point of collection of PI, inform a consumer as to the categories to be collected and the purposes for which it shall be used. A service provider that receives or collects PI on behalf of, or at the direction of, a covered business may not be required to provide a notice of collection to the consumer.
A covered business must disclose in its privacy policy the PI it has collected, sold, or disclosed for a business purpose in the past 12 months.
Collection: A business must disclose the following in response to a verifiable request:
Sale: A business that sells PI or discloses it for a business purpose must disclose, in
response to a verifiable request, the following:
A California consumer has the right to request that a covered business delete his/her PI, subject to certain exceptions. Once a request is reasonably verified by the covered business, the PI requested to be deleted must be removed from the records held by that business. The business must also direct its Service Providers with whom the information was shared to also delete the information unless it is subject to an exception.
A request to delete may be denied if retaining the information is necessary to:
A business must not discriminate against a consumer who exercises CCPA rights. A business may charge different prices or provide a different quality of goods or services, but only if the difference is reasonably related to the value provided to the consumer by the consumer's data. A business may offer financial incentives to a consumer for the collection, sale, or deletion of personal information on a prior, opt-in consent basis.
A business that sells PI to third parties must provide notice to consumers, clearly inform them of the right to opt out of the sale, and provide a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link on its website that enables the consumer to opt out of future sales.
A business is prohibited from selling the PI of a consumer the business knows is less than 16 years of age, unless (for a child between 13 and 16 years of age) the child has affirmatively authorized the sale or (for a child less than 13 years of age) the child's parent or guardian has affirmatively authorized the sale.
If you are a California resident and wish to submit a CCPA Request to Berlin-Wheeler, Inc, you may use one of the following methods:
Fill out a Form on our Website:
Click here to access the web form
Call us, Toll-Free at:
800.888.7243
Please be advised that we are only required to respond to your request to know or access twice in any 12-month period.
We are required to keep records of your CCPA request for at least 24 months, including any assigned reference number, the request date and nature of the request, the manner in which the request was made, the date and nature of our response, and the basis for any full or partial denial.
We need to be reasonably sure that the person making the request about your PI is you, or a representative authorized to make a request on your behalf.
We cannot comply with your request if we cannot verify your identity or your authority to make a request for another person. Accordingly, we will ask for information such as your full name, mailing address, last four digits or your social security number, etc., to attempt to verify your identity and locate your records, if any.
To the extent possible, we will not ask you for new information to verify your identity, but instead will request information that we can cross-check against existing records. If we are unable to verify your request without new information, we will delete the new information as soon as practical after processing your CCPA request, except as may be required to comply with the CCPA's record retention requirements.
We will never require you to create an account with us in order to verify your request, but if you already have an account, we may use that information to assist with verification. We will only use information you provide to us during the verification process to try to verify your identity or your authority to make the request for another person.
Requests to access the specific pieces of information we may hold, and not just a list of the categories of information, require heightened verification procedures, and we will require you to submit a written declaration under penalty of perjury stating that you are the consumer whose PI is the subject of the request. In addition, certain pieces of information, such as a social security number, driver's license number or other government-issued identification number or financial account numbers, will not be disclosed in response to a CCPA request.
If you wish to authorize someone else to act on your behalf in connection with your CCPA rights, we must receive proof that this person is authorized to do so. Proof can be provided by a consumer verifying his/her own identity directly with us and then providing written authority for a designated person to act on the consumer's behalf, or through receipt of a power of attorney or other legal documentation of authority, or proof of registration with the California Secretary of State as a designated representative of another consumer. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.
Within 10 days of receipt of your request, we will provide an initial confirmation with an assigned reference number.
If you submit a Request to Delete, we are required to re-confirm your choice to delete the information after verifying your request, but prior to actual deletion.
The Company strives to provide a response within 45 days of receiving your request. If we need additional time, we will let you know.
We will send our response to your request by U.S. mail or email, at your option. Any information we provide will cover only the 12-month period preceding receipt of your request.
If we cannot respond to or comply with your Request to Know or Request to Delete, because, for example, we cannot verify your identity or because an exception applies, we will explain our reasoning and decision in our response.
We do not charge a fee to process your request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded, and we have informed you in writing of the reasoning behind a charge and its estimated cost. We will provide a cost estimate before completing your request if we determine that a charge is warranted.
We are providing you this notice under Nevada state law. You may be placed on our internal Do Not Call List by contacting us at 800-888-7243. Nevada law requires we provide the following contact information: Bureau of Consumer Protection, Office of the Nevada Attorney General, 555 E. Washington St., Suite 3900, Las Vegas, NV 89101; Phone number: 702.486.3132; email: aginfo@ag.nv.gov
In accordance with Vermont law, we will not share information we collect about Vermont residents with nonaffiliates except as permitted by law, such as with the consent of the customer or to service the customer's accounts. We will not share creditworthiness information about Vermont residents among Berlin-Wheeler, Inc's affiliates except with the authorization or consent of the Vermont resident.