Privacy Policy

We Respect Your Privacy.
All of us within the First Financial Holdings family of companies respect your privacy and the personal information you share with us. Regardless of which of our companies you may patronize, your information is shared only with those firms which assist us in our day-to-day operations. Information on current and former customers is never sold to marketers or any other third party. In addition, we are committed to maintaining high levels of security to ensure that your information is accessible only by authorized personnel.

The following policy serves as a standard for all of our affiliates and employees for collection, use, retention, and security of your nonpublic personal information.

The Information We Collect
In order to provide or maintain your accounts, we may gather "nonpublic personal information" about you. Collected via our new account application and other account documentation, this information is critical to open and administer your account. Common examples may include your account history, loan payment history, and similar data. Such information may come from any of the following sources:

• Information we receive from you on applications or other loan and account forms
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others
• Information we may receive from third-parties such as credit bureaus, property inspection services, or the Department of Motor Vehicles
• Predecessor trustees (when applicable)
• Attorneys, accountants, or other professionals assisting in the administration of your account(s) Transactions facilitated through First Financial affiliates

First Financial Holdings and its affiliates have extensive procedures in place to ensure the protection of customer data. Electronically stored information is housed in a secured area with limited, password protected access.
Also, as part of the Company's disaster preparedness plan, electronic data are regularly backed up and housed in a highly secure, off-site facility. Other media (paper, microfilm, etc.) are housed in a secure area with limited access. We always strive to meet or exceed regulations on data security and customer privacy.

Accuracy
To ensure the best level of service, First Financial is committed to keeping its information records as accurate as possible. Transaction history is updated often, and, upon notification by you, we will update your records to reflect changes in address, marital status, account ownership, and similar information that may have a bearing on your accounts.

Questions
As part of our commitment to you, we will provide you with an up-to-date copy of our privacy policy each year. You can also review our policy at our Internet web site: www.firstfinancialholdings.com. Printed copies are available at the offices of any First Financial affiliate. If you have questions, please call:
 

Our Privacy Commitments to You
Commitment 1: Your information will not be sold to marketers or any other third-party.
Commitment 2: Your information will not be shared beyond the First Financial family of companies, firms assisting us in our day-to-day operations, and governmental agencies as needed.
Commitment 3: Your medical and credit data will not be shared among First Financial affiliates or any other part without your authorization.
Commitment 4: First Financial and its affiliates maintain safeguards to ensure the security of your information. We also hold the firms assisting us contractually accountable to similar safeguards.
Commitment 5: We protect and safeguard the privacy information supplied on-line, just as we do through the rest of our business. Personal information provided by sending e-mail
or completing guest registers or information request forms will be used to help communicate with you and to help us answer your questions.

We recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of personally-identifying information that may be submitted to us when you visit our website. The information we receive depends on what you do when you visit our site. This is how we handle the information we learn about you from your visit to our website.

If you visit our site to read or download information on our web pages such as press releases and checking and savings account information:

We collect and store only the following information about you: name of the domain from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are connecting from an America Online account, or a similar domain corresponding to your Internet Service Provider "ISP"); date and time you access our website; pages you may have visited on our site; and Internet address of the website from where you came to visit our website.

We use the information we collect to measure the number of visitors to the different pages and sections of our site, and to help us make our site more useful to visitors.

If you visit our website to use interactive banking tools such as financial calculators and self-tests:

You may be asked for personal information in order to complete the requested analysis or evaluation. This information is NOT retained.

If you identify yourself by sending an e-mail, signing on and using our Internet Banking feature, or filling out forms such as applications, check reorder forms, contact forms and guest registers:

You may be asked for personally-identifying information in order to process your e-mail, transaction, form or application. This information may be retained by us and our business partners for processing and to facilitate decisions. Information you submit to us is treated no differently than any information you might provide in a written format such as a brochure application, reorder slip to order checks, or a letter.

We Want To Be Very Clear

We protect and safeguard the privacy of users of our on-line services, just as we do throughout the rest of our business. We will use personal information to identify you, to communicate with you, and to help us answer your questions.

We will NOT sell personally-identifying information to a third party for the purpose of solicitation or provide personal information to a third party for its own use.

Sometimes we send our customers information about our products and services. If you do not wish to receive this information, or if you believe that your personal information is incorrect please contact us. We will investigate the situation and if appropriate update our records.