Privacy & Your Rights - The Personal Finance Centre
01482 560800Email help@thepersonalfinancecentre.com

Privacy and Your Rights

This privacy notice explains how we use any personal information we collect about you.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you when you engage us for financial planning/financial advice/mortgage advice and investment management services. This information will relate to your personal and financial circumstances. It may also include special categories of personal data such as data about your health, if this is necessary for the provision of our services. We may also collect information when you voluntarily complete surveys or provide feedback to us.

Why do we need to collect and use your personal data?

The primary legal basis that we intend to use for the processing of your data is for the performance of our contract with you. The  information that we collect about you is essential for us to be able to carry out the services that you require from us effectively. Without collecting your personal data we’d also be unable to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations. Where special category data is required we will obtain your explicit consent in order to collect and process this information.

How will we use the information about you?

We collect information about you in order to provide you with the services for which you engage us.

Our Privacy Promise

We promise to keep your data safe and private, not to sell your data as well as giving you ways to manage and review your marketing choices with us.

How the law protects you

As well as our Privacy Promise, your privacy is protected by law. Data Protection law says that we are allowed to use personal information only if we have proper reason to do so. The law says that we must have one or more of the following reasons;

  • To fulfil a contract we have with you
  • When it is our legal duty
  • When it is our legitimate interest
  • When you consent to it

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, but even then, it must not unfairly go against what is right and best for you.

Where we collect your personal information from

We may collect personal information about you from the following sources;

  • When you apply for one of the products we offer
  • When you talk to us on the telephone
  • When you use our website, web chat or text messages
  • In emails and letters
  • In financial reviews
  • In customer surveys
  • From third parties we work with
  • Credit reference agencies

Who might we share your information with?

In instances where we cannot source a suitable product through our internal panel of lenders, then we may share your details with a carefully selected partner who we feel may be able to assist you. They will review your details and contact you to discuss further by phone, email and SMS.

Our partners include Evolution Money, Specialist Money, Norton Finance, Deal Direct, ForestKing Insolvency, The Right Advice, Cream Financial Solutions, Broker Packaging, ECS Group, Aro Mortgages & Optimise Finance.

Where third parties are involved in processing your data we will have a contract in place with them to ensure that the nature and purpose of the processing is clear, that they are subject to a duty of confidence in processing your data and that they’ll only act in accordance with our written instructions. Where it’s necessary for your personal data to be forwarded to a third party we will use appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in transit.

If you agree, we may also contact you via email, SMS or telephone about other products or services that we think may be of interest to you. In order to deliver our services to you effectively we may send your details to third parties such as those that we engage for professional compliance, accountancy, legal, and credit reference services as well as product and platform providers that we use to arrange financial products for you.

To fulfil our obligations in respect of prevention of money-laundering and other financial crime we may send your details to third party agencies for identity verification purposes

How we use your information to make automated decisions

We use systems to make automated decisions based on the personal information we have about you.  This helps us to make sure our decisions are quick, fair, efficient and correct, based on what we know. These automated decisions can affect the products or services we may be able to offer you now or in the future or the price/interest rate we can make available to you. These automated decisions are a result of lender credit scoring systems . It uses past data to assess how you are likely to act while making repayments on any money you borrow.

Credit scoring uses three sources of data collected from an application form, credit reference agencies and data we may already hold. It gives an overall assessment based on this and lenders use this to help make a responsible lending decision that is fair and informed.

Credit Reference Agencies

We carry out credit and identity checks when you apply for a product or service and may use credit reference agencies to help us with this. We share your personal information with Credit Reference Agencies and they will give us information about you. The data we can exchange can include;

  • Name, address and date of birth
  • Credit application details
  • Details of any shared credit
  • Financial situation and history
  • Public information from sources such as the electoral register

This data is used to;

  • Assess whether you are able to afford to make repayments
  • Help detect and prevent financial crime

When we ask Credit Reference Agencies about you, they will note it on your credit file. Other lenders may see this and we may see credit searches from other lenders. If you apply for a product with someone else, we will link your records with theirs. We will do the same if you tell us you have a spouse, partner or civil partner. You should tell them about this before you apply for a product or service as it is important that they know your records will be linked together and that credit searches may be made against them.

Marketing

We may use your personal information to tell you about relevant products and offers. This is what we refer to as “marketing.” The personal information we have for you is made up of what you tell us and data we collect from third parties we work with. We can only use your personal information to send you “marketing messages” if we have either your consent or a legitimate interest. That is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information. It must not unfairly go against what is right and best for you.

You can ask us to stop sending you “marketing messages” by contacting us at any time. We may ask you to confirm or update your choices when we speak with you in the future and if you change your mind you can update your choices at any time by contacting us.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

In principle, your personal data shouldn’t be held for longer than is required under the terms of our contract for services with you. However, we are subject to regulatory requirements to retain data for specified minimum periods. We also reserve the right to retain data for longer than this due to the possibility that it may be required to defend a future claim against us. In any case, we will not retain your personal data for longer than 7 years after our contractual agreement has been terminated. You have the right to request deletion of your personal data. We will comply with this request, subject to the restrictions of our regulatory obligations and legitimate interests as noted above.

How can I access the information you hold about me?

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information please email or write to us using the contact details noted below.

When your personal data is processed by automated means you have the right to ask us to move your personal data to another organisation for their use.

What if you want us to stop using your personal information?

You have the right to object to our use of your personal information, or to ask us to delete, remove or stop using your personal information if there is no need for us to keep it. This is known as your “right to object” and “right to erasure” or the “right to be forgotten.” There may be legal or other reasons why we need to keep or use your data but please tell us if you think that we should not be using it. You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal information if;

  • It is not accurate
  • It has been used unlawfully but you don’t want us to delete it
  • It is not relevant any more but you want us to keep it for use in legal claims
  • You have already asked us to stop using your data but you are waiting for us to tell you if we are allowed to keep on using it

If you want to object to the way we use your data or ask us to delete it or restrict how we use it, please contact us.

How to withdraw your consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time. Please contact us if you want to do so. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. If this is so, we will tell you.

Cookies

We use cookies to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

For further information visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.

Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

What can you do if you are unhappy with how your personal data is processed?

If you are unhappy with how your personal data is processed, please contact us and we will endeavour to resolve your issue by following our complaints procedure, details of which are highlighted below. You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority for data protection. In the UK this is:

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will inform you of any changes when they occur. This Privacy Notice was last updated on 16/03/2018.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you by writing to us at our usual business address or by email at info@thepersonalfinancecentre.com

  • We will acknowledge your complaint promptly (within 3 working days of receipt of your complaint), normally via email but we can send this by letter or over the telephone at your request.
  • The matter will then be investigated by a senior person who, where possible is independent of the case. They will investigate your complaint competently, diligently, and impartially, obtaining further information as necessary.
  • We will keep you informed of the progress of your complaint throughout the investigation.
  • A final written response detailing our conclusions and resolution to the complaint will be sent to you within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint. Where appropriate, this may include the offer of redress or remedial action. This letter will also confirm that if you remain dissatisfied with our final response, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) within 6 months of the date of our final response letter, otherwise you would lose this referral right.
  • If we are unable to provide you with a final written response within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint, we will write to you explaining why and advise you when you can expect a final written response, informing you that you may now refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman if you wish.
  • If more than 8 weeks from the date of your complaint has passed and you haven’t received a final written response from us, you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman services.
  • Their contact details are as follows: The Financial Ombudsman, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR, no. 0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 4567, website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk email; complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Please note that before the Ombudsman service can look into your complaint, they will expect you to have first got in touch with us and given us the chance to put matter right.

Please also bear in mind that if your complaint involves information from third parties, some delays could be beyond our control. We will, however, pursue information on a regular basis.

In the event that we receive a complaint that is not about us, or our services, and assuming that we can identify the firm to whom the complaint should be addressed, we will carry out the following action:

  • We will write to the firm concerned, explaining that we believe the complaint in question to be theirs, and suggesting that they contact you directly.
  • We will enclose a copy of your original complaint letter.
  • We will write to you, giving contact details of the relevant firm, and invite you to get in touch with them directly. We will also provide you with a copy of the letter we send to the firm.
  • We will copy the new firm in on this letter.

We are committed to treating customers fairly and performing to high professional standards. We aim to be fair and reasonable in all our dealings with customers ensuring an appropriate degree of protection for them.

We hope that you will be happy with your dealings with us. If you do, however, have a complaint about any aspect of the service you have received, we will deal with it politely and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. We take complaints seriously to try and ensure that you are satisfied with your experience of our service.

Also, if you have any suggestions or comments, please tell us, as we welcome feedback that will help improve matters.

Please let us know about things as soon as possible – the sooner we know, the sooner we can take action.

Our complaints procedure has been designed in accordance with the requirements of the financial and legal authorities. You are entitled to be treated fairly and we will respect your confidentiality and investigate your complaint fully.

We keep accurate and comprehensive records of complaints received as well as any actions taken to improve services as a consequence of complaints.

Our Complaints Procedure

Customer satisfaction and delivering good customer outcomes are central to the business of The Personal Finance Centre and we take all customer complaints very seriously, managing complaints to the regulatory standards of the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) and complying with Treating Customers Fairly guidelines.

Where we become aware of customer concerns or unease, we aim to handling the matter as quickly as possible through our appropriate, transparent and effective complaints procedure which gives priority to resolving
customer dissatisfactions as efficiently, clearly and fairly as possible, within a reasonable timescale.

If we are unable to resolve any dissatisfaction you may have straight away, you can contact us to complain via the following methods:

Telephone: 01482 968 600
Email: compliance@thepersonalfinancecentre.com
In Writing: Send correspondence to our registered address which is as follows:

FAO The Compliance Team
The Personal Finance Centre,
The Nook,
Saunders Way,
Cullompton, Devon
EX15 1BS.

Please tell us what happened and how you want things putting right.

On receipt of your complaint, we will carry out the following process:

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