1. The Initiator (Southern Cross Medical Care Society):

(a) Undertakes to give written notice to me/us of the commencement date, frequency and amount of the Direct Debit at least 10 calendar days (but no more than 2 calendar months) before the fi rst Direct Debit is drawn. Where the Direct Debit System is used for the collection of payments which are regular as to frequency, but variable as to amounts, the Initiator undertakes to provide me/us with a schedule detailing each payment amount and each payment date. In the event of any subsequent change to the frequency or amount of the Direct Debit, the Initiator has agreed to give written notice at least 30 days before that change comes into effect.

(b) May, upon the relationship which gave rise to this Authority being terminated, give notice to the bank that no further Direct Debits are to be initiated under this Authority. Upon receipt of such notice, the Bank may terminate this Authority as to future payments by notice in writing to me/us.

2. The Customer may:

(a) At any time, terminate this authority as to future payment by giving written notice of termination to both the Bank and the Initiator.

(b) Stop payment of any Direct Debit to be initiated under this authority by the Initiator by giving written notice to the Bank prior to the Direct Debit being paid by the Bank.

(c) Where a variation to the amount agreed between the Initiator and the Customer from time to time to be direct debited has been made without notice being given in terms of clause 1(a) above, request the Bank to reverse or alter any such Direct Debit initiated by the Initiator by debiting the amount of the reversal or alteration of a Direct Debit back to the Initiator through the Initiator’s Bank, PROVIDED such a request is made not more than 120 days from the date when the Direct Debit was debited to his/her account.

3. The Customer acknowledges that:

(a) This Authority will remain in full force and effect in respect of all Direct Debits passed to my/our accounts in good faith, notwithstanding my/our death, bankruptcy or other revocation of this Authority until actual notice of such event is received by the Bank.

(b) In any event this Authority is subject to any arrangement now or hereafter existing between me/us and the Bank in relation to my/our account.

(c) Any dispute as to the correctness or validity of any amount debited to my/our account shall not be the concern of the Bank except in so far as the Direct Debit has not been paid in accordance with this Authority. Any other disputes lie between me/us and the Initiator.

(d) The Bank accepts no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information about Direct Debits on Bank Statements.

(e) The Bank is not responsible for, or under any liability in respect of:
– any variations between notices given by the Initiator and the amounts of the Direct Debits on Bank Statements.
– the Initiator’s failure to give written advance notice correctly, nor for the non receipt or late receipt of notice by me/us for any reason whatsoever. In any such situation the dispute lies between me/us and the Initiator.

(f) Notice given by the Initiator in terms of clause 1(a) to the debtor responsible for the payment shall be effective. Any communication necessary because of the debtor responsible for payment is a person other than me/us, is a matter between me/us and the debtor concerned.

4. The Bank may:

(a) In its absolute discretion conclusively determine the order of priority of payment by it of any monies pursuant to this or any other authority, cheque or draft properly executed by me/us and given to or drawn on the Bank.

(b) At any time terminate this authority as to future payments by notice in writing to me/us.

(c) Charge its current fees for the service in force from time to time.

If your application is accepted, you authorise Southern Cross Medical Care Society ('Southern Cross') until further notice in writing to charge your credit card with all the amounts (in New Zealand dollars) due on your Southern Cross account from time to time, on or after the payment due date.

Your credit card will be charged on the payment date you have chosen . We'll give you at least 10 days written notice prior to your first payment, by sending you an invoice / statement . To help us, please ensure you submit this authority at least 15 days before your first payment is due. If we don't receive this from you in time or if we're unable to process your request in time, your first payment may occur on another payment date determined by us and the first payment may include more than one billing period. If you were previously paying by credit card your payment date won't change.

We will automatically adjust the payment amount when changes happen to your policy and notify you in advance of the payment date and amount. You may terminate this authority for future payments by giving us formal notice. Where a request to terminate has been received, we will try to cancel future payments as soon as we can but there may be circumstances where we are unable to do this until after the next scheduled payment.

You're responsible for updating your credit card details when you change credit card issuers or receive a replacement credit card with a new card number. Please do this online at mysoutherncross.co.nz and go to My billing and payments. You can also visit southerncross.co.nz/society/for-members/policy-membership/payment or contact us on 0800 800 181 to get a new authority form.

Southern Cross is committed to data security and uses a variety of technologies and procedures to help protect personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. Web portals use Encryption such as secure socket layer (SSL) protocol. Southern Cross does not process or store credit card details but uses a third-party trusted vendor, Payment Express, to process all credit card purchases. Payment Express is a level 1 certified PCI-DSS compliant provider.

Southern Cross Medical Care Society operates from New Zealand (Level 1, Ernst & Young Building, 2 Takutai Square, Auckland 1010, New Zealand).