Frequently Asked Questions

The kind of information we collect depends upon your financial needs and the products and services you request. For example, when you apply for a loan with us, we need information about your financial status – such as your place of employment, income, monthly expenses and personal assets and debts outstanding – to process your loan application. In addition, in order to make your banking as convenient and efficient as possible, we maintain information about your transactions with us, your account balance, and repayment history. Our collection and use of information is consistent with the Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Use and Protection of Customer Information developed by the American Bankers Association.

We collect information from many sources. Much of our information comes directly from you when you fill out a loan or account application. For a loan application, we also obtain information from credit reporting agencies and other creditors regarding your credit and repayment history. We retain communications from you (such as letters or emails) in order to answer questions you may have and to keep records of your requests or concerns regarding our products and services. We also use your letters or emails to measure how effectively we have addressed your concerns. We also obtain demographic and household information from outside sources such as database information firms.

We have strict internal policies against unauthorized use or disclosure of your information. Our employees have an appropriate level of access to your personal information in order to conduct your financial affairs. We emphasize the importance of confidentiality through our code of conduct, employee training, operating procedures and privacy policy. We require the businesses with which we have a relationship to maintain the confidentiality of consumer information.

We maintain information and data about you to maintain the security of your accounts and to protect you and the entire institution against fraud. We need clear and accurate information to be able to positively identify you and authenticate your transactions in order to prevent access to your accounts by unauthorized individuals.

We also collect and analyze client information as the first step in developing new products. For example, if we know you are a homeowner in need of additional financing, we can recommend a home equity loan or credit line as an alternative to an installment loan because of its potentially lower costs and tax benefits.

We are also required by laws and regulations to gather certain information. For example, we are required by federal regulation to obtain a tax identification number (generally a social security number) for many of our accounts, including all savings, checking and/or investment accounts that pay interest.

Sandy Spring works hard to assure that your information is current, accurate, and as complete as possible. If you see any inaccuracy in your statements or in any other communications from us, please call our Client Service Center at 800.399.5919 or 301-774-6400 or contact us at [email protected]. It is our policy to investigate and correct inaccuracies in a timely manner.

Yes. Under current law, we are allowed to share certain information such as your name, address, and information about your accounts – among our family of companies. In some cases, such as fraud investigation or in response to a validly issued search warrant or subpoena, we may be required by law to provide certain information to law enforcement agencies. There are also laws and regulations that affect the sharing of information with firms outside our family of companies such as check printers, data processors and marketing firms.

Our goal is to make your financial dealings with us more efficient and easier for you to manage. In addition, information sharing allows us to keep you informed about new products and services, often provided at special rates because you have other account relationships with us. It also helps us to prevent fraud. For example, because of information sharing, a client who reports a lost or stolen debit card knows that the information will automatically be shared throughout our family of companies to prevent problems with other accounts. These uses of information not only offer you convenience, they also dramatically increase the chance of preventing further losses and of apprehending the thief.

No. We recognize that, when clients provide medical information for a specific purpose, they do not wish it to be used for any other purpose other than to provide the product or service they have requested. If a client provides personal medical information, we will use it only for the purpose for which it is intended and will not disclose it unless you direct us, in writing, to do so.

Yes. You can choose to opt out of affiliate information sharing, except for information about your specific transactions and experience.

We use third parties to help us process your financial transactions and to provide you with a full range of financial products and services. For example, we use third parties to print your checks, to process your account transactions, to help us market our products and services, and to mail account statements. This means more efficient services and helps keep your costs as low as possible. In addition, when you open an account or apply for a loan, or line of credit, we use various credit bureaus as part of the process for approving your application. We may also use outside companies to help us with fraud investigations.

We may retain vendors to help us to better understand our customers’ needs and to optimize our customers’ online experience. Our vendors may use cookies and other technologies to collect data about our customers and their online experience. Our vendors are contractually forbidden to sell or share any of the data collected on our behalf.

We will not share your information with any company that does not agree to keep your information confidential. We carefully select the third-party companies we work with and any information that is shared is always subject to a strict confidentiality agreement. Moreover, it is a violation of federal law for a third party to reuse customer information received from us unless that information is also publicly available elsewhere.

To remove your name from our marketing lists, please do one of the following;

• Write to:
  Quality Control – Operations
  Sandy Spring Bank
  17801 Georgia Avenue
  Olney, MD 20832
• Call our Client Service Center at 800.399.5919 or 301.774.6400
• Send us an email at [email protected]
• Visit your nearby community office

In order to ensure that we accurately reflect your request, please provide your full name, street address, and social security number. For telemarketing and/or email requests, also include your telephone number or email address as appropriate. It may take up to eight to twelve weeks for your request to be fully effective. If you choose to remove your name from our list, you may not hear of new products, special offers or discounts that we extend to our clients from time to time. Please note that we will continue to send you marketing material and promotional materials in your statements.

Go to the Sandy Spring Privacy Notice