Our lenders (referred to herein as 'us' 'we' and 'our') are lenders which provides consumers with guarantor loans and other financial services. 'You' and 'Your' means You as an individual accessing this website and/or applying for and/or utilising our products and services whether as credit applicant, borrower or guarantor. This Privacy Policy (the Policy) has been prepared to meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act). We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under the Act.
We're committed to safeguarding and preserving your privacy when you visit our site or communicate with us electronically. This Privacy Policy, together with our terms of use, explains what happens to any personal data that you give to us, or that we collect from you. This policy only relates to the collection, protection, disclosure and use of personal data belonging to living individuals. We reserve the right to update and modify this Policy from time to time so please do return to the Site and review this Policy regularly.
By submitting your details to the Site and using our services you are consenting to the use of your personal information in the manner described below. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data. If there is anything detailed below that you aren't happy with then please don't register.
Personal Information Collected
We may collect the following information from you as part of the process of validating your application and managing your loan agreement. Although it is not compulsory to give us this information, if you do not then we will not be able to process any application that you may make for credit offered by us, or any such application to which you are acting as guarantor, as laid out on the Site. Typical data we collect from you includes:
- Details of your visits to our Site and the resources that you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data.
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on the Site, for example:
- Name and residential address;
- E-mail address;
- Telephone number and mobile number - please note telephone calls may be monitored and recorded;
- Details relevant to your enquiry including bank and employment details;
- Information collected via your online application form (as appears on the Site)
- Information about you from applications to Our Affiliates Scheme; and
- Surveys that we use for research purposes;
- Details of transactions you carry out through the Site;
- Information obtained from you or from third parties, such as credit reference agencies (CRAs) (who may search the electoral register) and fraud prevention agencies (FPAs) or other organisations, including your employer, when you apply for a loan or any other product or service or which you or they give to us at any other time; and
- Correspondence and records of all contact with you, including any discussions; please note that calls between us may be recorded and/or monitored.
Information about third parties
Where you make a loan application we may ask you to provide details of individuals who are able to act as referees on your behalf. This will require them to verify some of the personal information you provide about yourself. The information we collect about these third parties are their name, address, and phone number.
Our loans require that borrowers nominate a person to guarantee that the obligations under a relevant loan agreement entered into between us and you will be satisfied. You must have agreed with the guarantor that they will guarantee your obligations should you be offered a loan and you must have obtained their consent to pass their contact details to us in order for us to contact them regarding your loan application. All guarantors are subject to the terms of this policy which is referenced in the relevant guarantor and indemnity agreement.
Information we may collect about you from third parties nominated by you
Where you submit a loan application to us we will contact the guarantor nominated by you in order to verify relevant data that you have provided us with and seek further information. Any further information that we obtain that constitutes your personal information will be processed in accordance with this policy.
Consent to information sharing with guarantor
Where you enter into a loan agreement with us as borrower you must consent to us sharing financial information about your performance of your obligations under it with the guarantor in certain situations. This may include contacting the guarantor in circumstances where you have defaulted or failed to make any payment due on your loan and informing them of your default.
Use of Your information
The information that we collect and store relating to you is primarily used to enable us to process loan applications. In addition, we may use the information to provide you with information you request about our products or services, and to provide you with information on other products which we feel may be of interest to you. In addition your information will also be used to process payments, update and maintain our records and undertake statistical analysis.
We will use your information in order to:
- manage any application you may make;
- provide you with a quotation;
- to contact third parties including credit reference agencies in relation to your application;
- provide you with your fixed sum loan agreement and the facility to manage this through a secure login on the Site;
- to detect fraud and money laundering;
- provide feedback for to our advertisers
- to monitor and analyse our business; and
- to pass to third party companies (provided you have given express consent for the us to do so) who may contact you about products and services that may be of interest to you.
Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies
When you submit a loan application form or sign a guarantor and indemnity agreement you confirm that all the information you have given is true and complete. When you submit a loan application form or sign a guarantor indemnity agreement you authorise us to check the following records about you and others
- our own;
- those at CRAs. When CRAs receive a search form from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file which may be viewed by other lenders. They supply to us both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit and fraud prevention information; and
- those at FPAs.
We will make checks such as are deemed necessary to assess your application for credit and verify identities to prevent and detect crime and money laundering. We may also make periodic searches at CRAs and FPAs to manage your account with us.
Information on applications you submit to us will be sent to CRAs and recorded by them. Where you borrow from us, we will give details of your accounts and how you manage it/them to CRAs. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs to perform similar checks and to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. Records remain on file for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you or in default.
If you tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, we will link your records together so you must be sure that you have their agreement to disclose information about them. CRAs also link your records together and these links will remain on your and their files until such time as you or your partner successfully files for a disassociation with the CRAs to break that link.
If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified, details will be passed to FPAs.
Sharing your information
We may share your personal information with our associated companies and with certain third parties including:
- third parties that may assist us in preparing or sending any communications to you, or to assist us in connection with any of our administrative or business functions, or in the provision of any of our services to you, or to third parties acting as our agents. If they are located in another country we will make sure that they agree to apply the same levels of protection as we are required to apply to information held in the UK;
- if the Company or substantially all of its assets, are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets;
- anyone to whom we transfer or may transfer our rights and duties under this Policy;
- if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Website Terms and Conditions of Use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction;
- if you were introduced to us by a third party, we will give them your contact details and sufficient information about you for their accounting and administration purposes;
- individuals who you nominate as your referees or as a Guarantor, asking them to confirm specific information that you provide to us in your application;
- selected and trusted third parties with whom we have an agreement who may use it to contact you by either electronic means or through the post in relation to offers we/they feel might be of interest to you and regardless of you entering in to an agreement with us; and
- if we have a duty to do so or if the law allows us to do so.
Age
In order to apply for a loan with us or act as a guarantor on a loan application made to us and use our services you must be at least 18 years old. We do not seek or hold any information about children under the age of 18.
Cookie Policy: IP Addresses, Cookies and Web Beacons
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
A cookie is a small electronic file that collects information when someone visits a website. A cookie can identify the pages that are being viewed, and this can assist us to select the pages that the viewer sees. Some cookies only exist whilst viewers are online (session cookies), but persistent cookies remain on the viewer's computer, so that he or she can be recognised as a previous visitor when he or she next visits our site. This allows us to collect information about a viewer's browsing habits whilst on our Site, and this can be useful in assisting us to monitor and improve our services. We may release browsing data and information gathered using cookies in the aggregate, such as publishing a report on trends in the usage of the Site. The report will only contain statistical data and will not identify any individual.
We do not store sensitive information such as account numbers or passwords in persistent cookies, and cookies in themselves, do not contain enough information to identify you. You will only acquire a personal identity in relation to your browsing habits after you have formally provided us with your personal data for the purposes outlined above in paragraph 2.
In addition to using cookies, we might also use web tools to collect information about your browsing activities whilst on our Site. In this respect the information that is provided is similar to the information supplied by cookies, and we use it for the same purposes.
Any information that we acquire about you using cookies or web tools is subject to the same restrictions and conditions as any other information we collect about you.
Some of our advertisers may also use cookies or web tools that are set by other people such as advertising agencies, or the businesses to which the advertisements in question relate. We do not have access to any information that might be collected in this way, and, if you are concerned, you should contact the advertiser for more information.
You will be informed regarding our collection of cookies at the point you first access our Site. Should you wish to prevent the use of cookies then you should refer to your particular device's instruction manual for guidance on how to disable cookies. If you chose to allow cookie use on your device, either for our website or all cookies, then you will have only limited functionality in the use of our Site.
We also use 'Google Analytics', a proprietary analytics tool, to gather non-personally identifiable information which is used to understand how the Site is being used - this information includes the type of browser used, location data and the number of visits to each page.
Transfers outside the EEA
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
Linking to third party Websites
Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Marketing and Opt Out rights
Please note that by submitting your application through the Site you agree that we can contact you by email, telephone and letter and other electronic means to inform and update you on your application account or to advise you of our new products and services.
Every time we contact you for marketing purposes we will give you the opportunity to opt out of receiving further marketing material. You may also opt out of receiving further marketing material. We will process your opt out request in line with the Act and we reserve the right to take reasonable steps to authenticate your identity with respect to any such request or other inquiry
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to make changes to this Policy at any time and any significant changes to this Policy will be emailed direct to the primary email address supplied by you; minor changes will be updated directly to the Policy and may not require notification. We advise you regularly review this document to ensure that you are aware of any amendments and to be clear on how this policy may affect you.
Security and Retention of Information
We are aware of the importance of the data we collect from you and therefore We store data in encrypted form on computers and control access via secure web pages. We employ firewalls and other security technologies to protect our servers from external attack. We train our employees in the proper handling of personal information and when we use other companies to provide services for us, we require them to protect the confidentiality of personal information they receive.
When you enter sensitive information (such as your bank routing or checking account number) on the application form, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We ask you not to permit anyone to use your name.
Unfortunately the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our Site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. We will keep your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, to provide you with services and to conduct our legitimate business interests or where otherwise required by law.
Access to your Data
The Act gives you the right to access the information we hold about you. Any request you make to access this information may be subject to payment of a fee (usually £10) which we will advise you of in advance. If you want to request the information that we hold, please contact us
Blog
We will not be held responsible for the misuse of any personal information you may post on our blog. Please remember participating in our blog means your information is available to all other users.
Customer Testimonials
We believe that the best advertising of our services is through customer referrals and we may contact you to gain your consent to post a customer testimonial on our web site. We will always contact you by email in the first instance to request this.
To find out more information about how credit reference agencies use your data you can contact the agencies currently operating in the UK; the information they hold may not be the same so it is worth contacting them all. They will charge you a small statutory fee;
CallCredit, Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, Leeds LS3 1WZ or call 0870 0601414 or visit www.callcredit.co.uk
Equifax Plc, Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 3001, Bradford, BD1 5US or call 0870 010 0583 or visit www.myequifax.co.uk
Experian, Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham, NG80 7WF or call 0870 241 6212 or visit www.experian.co.uk
Teletrack UK Ltd, PO Box 9424, Nottingham, NG9 9DS
