Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy, which forms part of our Terms and Conditions, explains who we are, how we collect your information and what we do with it.

Please read this carefully as the information within helps you to understand how we use any personal information you supply to us. References to “Data Protection Law” in this policy mean the Data Protection Act 1998 or, when it comes into force, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and any other applicable law, regulation or code relating to data protection in the United Kingdom.  References to “your information” are a reference to personal data as defined under the applicable Data Protection Law.

Who we are:   

This website is owned and operated by UK Car Finance Limited, trading as Refused Car Finance. (“we”, “us”, “our”) Registered in England and Wales, number 9397657. Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, number 714966. Registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) as a Data Controller, number Z1897658.

What information we process about you and why:

We will only collect personal information from you in connection with the goods or services we provide to you. Personal information means any details about an identifiable person or any person whose identity can be reasonably identified from such information.

Any personal information we collect will be securely held in our systems, on behalf of UK Car Finance Limited and for any other Group companies or suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel, so that we and any other Group companies or suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel that you have dealings with, either now or in the future, can manage your contract and relationship with us.  This includes the following information:

• Applications, letters, emails, texts, during telephone (including by recorded call or voicemails) and face to face conversations (with ourselves or our agents, customer surveys) when enquiring about obtaining goods or services from us.
• Information that UK Car Finance Limited or any other Group companies receive from or through other organisations (for example, the DVLA, Credit Reference Agencies, fraud prevention agencies, insurance companies, social networks, employers, debt collection agencies, debt management companies, insolvency services)
• From the analysis of management information from data recording information about your payments and other transactions which are used to help combat financial crime and other illegal activities

Before we, or suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel, enter into an agreement with you, we will ask for the following from you to confirm your identification and that the information provided to us by you (or a third party in cases where a suitably authorised broker, introducer or motor dealer may have referred you to us) as part of your application is correct to include: name, address, date of birth, country of residence, driving licence number (with a copy of the photo card) and on occasion evidence of your right to remain in the UK or your passport.

We use your information before entering into any agreement with you and, if we or suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel do enter into the agreement, administer the agreement and use it for the purposes set out below.  If you fail to provide us with the information listed above, we will not be able to proceed with the credit reference and fraud checks and, subsequently, we, or suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel, will not arrange a finance facility or enter into an agreement with you.

We may share your personal information across any UK Car Finance Group companies and suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel for the following administrative activities:

• To notify you of important changes or developments to the features or operation of the products and services we have provided to you
• To administer competitions
• To respond to queries and complaints
• To undertake financial affordability reviews
• Facilitating secure access to any online platforms that we may offer

And also for the following data sharing activities:

• For updating, consolidating and improving the accuracy of our records
• Crime detection, prevention and prosecution
• Undertaking transactional analysis
• Arrears and debt recovery activities
• Customer modelling, statistical and trend analysis, with the aim of improving or developing products and services offered
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of training and quality control
• Assessing lending and insurance risks
• Managing your ongoing relationship
• Testing new systems and confirming the accuracy of upgrades to any existing system

By making this application and agreeing to our Terms and conditions you are happy to be contacted by Concept Car Credit, Go Car Credit, and/or The Car Loan Centre by phone, email and SMS.

If you opt in to obtain a copy of your credit report your information will be shared with RS Datatech (Trading as UK Credit Ratings).

We share this information to ensure that we better understand our customer’s requirements and we can run your agreements in an efficient and transparent manner.

Generally, any contact will be by letter or telephone, but you may also be sent text messages or contacted by email when it is appropriate.

As we have a legitimate interest in verifying your identity we will:

• Ask you to provide a physical form of identity documentation
• Use a Credit Reference Agency to help us verify your identity from electronic records of other information taken from other public information sources such as the Electoral Register (although the agency keeps a record of this search it is not seen or used by lenders to assess your ability to obtain credit)
• Use your personal information to request and verify details of your driver record with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) or any such agency that may replace it from time to time

If you have a joint agreement, this may mean that your personal data is shared with the other applicant, for example, the joint agreement holder will be able to see transactions made by you and vice versa.

When we may transfer your personal information to third parties:

We may share your information or disclose it outside UK Car Finance Limited Group companies when required by law or permitted under the Data Protection Laws such as when:

• It is allowed under this agreement
• You provide consent
• The information is required by our advisers, agents or others involved in the running of your agreement or those collecting monies on your behalf
• The law, regulatory bodies or the public interest permits or requires it (such as to prevent crime)
• Required to protect your agreement for example disclosures made to the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
• If you were referred to us by a third party i.e. a suitably authorised motor dealer, introducer or broker, we will share with them sufficient information about you to help them with their accounting and administration and to provide and request additional information from you to enable us to offer you a credit facility
• If the Goods are the subject of any insurance claim by or against a third party we may exchange information about you with any applicable insurance company (including third party insurers) and/or the third party in connection with the investigation and/or settlement of the claim

We will not transfer your information outside of the United Kingdom at any time (but please see the section below headed ‘Fraud Reference Agencies’ which details when Fraud Prevention Agencies may transfer your data outside of the EEA).

We will not provide information about you to companies outside our group to use for their own marketing purposes unless you have provided us with consent to do so.

UK Car Finance Limited may from time to time wish to transfer, sell or merge part or all of its business or assets, or any associated rights or interest, or to acquire a business or enter into a merger with it.  If so, we may disclose your personal information to a potential buyer, transferee or merger partner or seller and their advisers so long as they agree to keep it confidential and to use it only to consider any possible transaction.  If the transaction goes ahead, the buyers, transferee or merger partner may use or disclose your personal information in the same way as set out in this notice.

Credit Reference Agency (CRA) searches:

We will use the information that you provide to us to search your record at Credit Reference Agencies.  Records of your “financial associate” (i.e. a person with whom you have, or have had, joint personal financial arrangements such as joint accounts or have made joint credit applications), if you have one, will be shown on your credit file.  The CRA will keep a record of this search whether or not the application proceeds.

The information that we and other organisations share with the CRAs about you, your financial associates and your business (if applicable) may be provided to other organisations and used by them and us to:

• Assist decision making, for example confirming details on applications for credit or other facilities, managing credit accounts or facilities, checking details on proposals and claims for insurance, recovering debt and checking details of job applicants and employees.
• Verify your identity or someone financially linked to you when you apply for services, trace your whereabouts and undertake research, statistical analysis and system testing.

We are also required by the UK Government to screen applications made to us to ensure that we are complying with the international fight against terrorism and other criminal activities.  As part of this requirement, we may need to disclose your personal information to government agencies.

CRAs collect and maintain information about consumers’ credit behaviour.  This includes information about previous applications that you have made for credit and the conduct of your accounts.  It also includes personal information from the Electoral Register, fraud prevention agencies and publically available information such as County Court Judgements, bankruptcies and decrees.

We will give details of how you conduct your agreement with us to CRAs, including information relating to if you borrow and do not repay in full and on time.  Where you fall into arrears and this is not rectified within 28 days of a formal demand being issued, we may record a default notice with the CRAs.  Any such records shared with CRAs will remain on file for six years after your agreement is closed.  This information can be seen by other organisations who may conduct searches if you apply for credit in future and this may affect your ability to borrow further credit.

Should you wish to do so, you have a right to apply to the CRAs for a copy of your file. The CRAs that we use are:

• Experian Consumer Help Service, PO Box 9000, Nottingham NG80 7WP, telephone number 0344 481 8000 or via the internet at experian.co.uk
• TransUnion, Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, Leeds, LS3 1WZ or call 0870 060 1414 or via the internet at transunion.co.uk.
• Equifax plc, Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 1140, Bradford BD1 5US or via the internet at myequifax.co.uk.

The identities of the CRAs, their role also as fraud prevention agencies, the data they hold, the ways in which they use and share personal information, data retention periods and your data protection rights with the CRAs are explained in more detail

Fraud Prevention Agency searches:

Before we provide financing to you, we undertake checks for the purposes of preventing fraud and money laundering and to verify your identity. These checks require us to process personal data about you.

• The personal data you have provided, we have collected from you, or we have received from third parties will be used to prevent fraud and money laundering, and to verify your identity.
• Details of the personal information that will be processed, for example, name, address, date of birth, address, contact details, financial information, employment details, device identifiers including IP address and vehicle details.
• We and fraud prevention agencies may also enable law enforcement agencies to access and use your personal data to detect, investigate and prevent crime.
• We process your personal data on the basis that we have a legitimate interest in preventing fraud and money laundering, and verifying identity, in order to protect our business and comply with laws that apply to us. Such processing is also a contractual requirement of the financing you have requested.
• Fraud prevention agencies can hold your personal data for different periods of time, and if you are considered to pose a fraud or money laundering risk, your data can be held for up to six years.

Automated Decisions

As part of the processing of your personal data, decisions may be made by automated means. This means we may automatically decide that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk if our processing reveals your behaviour to be consistent with that of known fraudsters or money launderers, or is inconsistent with your previous submissions, or you appear to have deliberately hidden your true identity. You have rights in relation to automated decision making: if you want to know more please contact us using the details provided below.

Consequences of Processing

If we, or a fraud prevention agency, determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, we may refuse to provide the financing you have requested.

A record of any fraud or money laundering risk will be retained by the fraud prevention agencies and may result in others refusing to provide services, financing or employment to you. If you have any questions about this, please contact us on the details provided.

Data Transfers

Whenever fraud prevention agencies transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area, they impose contractual obligations on the recipients of that data to protect your personal data to the standard required in the European Economic Area. They may also require the recipient to subscribe to ‘international frameworks’ intended to enable secure data sharing.

Your Rights

For more information on your rights or to exercise these rights, please see the section below headed ‘Your Rights’.

Automated processing:

We use automated and manual systems to protect ourselves, suitably authorised companies on our Lending Panel and our customers against financial crime and other crimes.  When you apply to us for a loan, an automated credit scoring system may be used to help us decide whether to lend to you.  The method helps us to assess the likely conduct of your agreement based on a range of data, including information relating to how you have previously run other similar agreements.  We also use the information provided by the CRAs to help us to meet customer identification requirements and to confirm information that you have provided us with regarding income and expenditure.  This system of credit scoring is widely used in the financial services industry and helps us to make fair and informed decisions on responsible lending.  If you are declined through this automated process you may contact us within 21 days to have our Lending Panel decision reconsidered manually.

Sensitive Personal Data:

Data Protection laws define some information as “sensitive” (political opinions, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin, physical or mental health, trade union membership, sexual life, criminal proceedings and offences).  If you apply to us for a loan, or to enable us to service that loan, we may ask you for some “sensitive” personal information.  We will ask you for explicit consent to allow us to collect and keep this information.  We may need to share this information with other parts of the group and our subcontractors to keep your records up to date.

We will not, without your consent, use or disclose any sensitive personal information about you, such as information about any injury or medical condition.

We record and monitor phone calls with you for quality and training purposes and to ensure that we have carried out your instructions correctly, to help resolve queries or complaints, to detect or prevent fraud or other crimes and for regulatory purposes.

Retention of your information:

We will retain personal information we collect, store and process in accordance with currently applicable laws.

We will not retain your personal information for longer than is necessary save for regulatory or legal requirements.

 Your rights:

Where we have asked for your consent to use your information in a particular way, and you have given consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time by notifying us in writing at the details provided below.

From the date that the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) comes into force, you have the right:

• To be informed about the processing of your personal data (this is what this privacy notice sets out to do)
• To object to processing of your personal data
• To withdraw your consent to processing your personal data
• To have your personal data erased (Your Right to be Forgotten)
• To restrict processing of your personal data
• To request access to your personal data and information about how we process it
• To specify which Credit Reference agencies we have shared your personal data with
• To move, copy or transfer your personal data (Your Right to Data Portability); and
• rights relating to automated decision making, including profiling – please see above for further information as to your rights when we make decisions about you based on automated processing.
• To have your personal data corrected if it’s inaccurate and to have incomplete personal data completed

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority where your data has or is being used in a way that you believe does not comply with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (Regulation (EU) 2016/679).  The supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office.  We encourage you to contact us before making any complaint and we will seek to resolve any issues or concerns you may have.

Contact Us:

Should you have a complaint about how we handle your personal information you may contact our Data Protection Officer in writing at the address below, whereupon we will investigate your complaint. You also have the right to make a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) following attempts to redress your complaint with us.

You may request details of the information we hold on you. If you believe we hold inaccurate information, or you have any questions regarding the information we hold on you, you may contact us in writing at the address below. Note we may request valid proof of identity before we are able to disclose any information.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO)

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

www.ico.org.uk

For any more information about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us.