Our privacy policy

Why should you read this document?

During the course of dealing with us, we will ask you to provide us with detailed personal information relating to your existing circumstances, your financial situation and, in some cases, your health and family health history (Your Personal Data). This document is important as it allows us to explain to you what we will need to do with Your Personal Data, and the various rights you have in relation to Your Personal Data.

What do we mean by “Your Personal Data”?

Your Personal Data means any information that describes or relates to your personal circumstances.   Your Personal Data may identify you directly, for example your name, address, date or birth, National Insurance number. Your Personal Data may also identify you indirectly, for example, your employment situation, your physical and mental health history, or any other information that could be associated with your cultural or social identity.

In the context of providing you with assistance in relation to your Finance requirements Your Personal Data may include:

• Title, names, date of birth, gender, nationality, civil/marital status, contact details, addresses  and documents that are necessary to verify your identity
• Employment and remuneration information, (including salary/bonus schemes/overtime/sick pay/other benefits), employment history
• Bank account details, tax information, loans and credit commitments, personal credit history, sources of income and expenditure, family circumstances and details of dependents
• Health status and history, details of treatment and prognosis, medical reports (further details are provided below specifically with regard to the processing we may undertake in relation to this type of information)
• Any pre-existing finance products and the terms and conditions relating to these

The basis upon which our Firm will deal with Your Personal Data

When we speak with you about your finance requirements we do so on the basis that both parties are entering a contract for the supply of services.

In order to perform that contract, and to arrange the products you require, we have the right to use Your Personal Data for the purposes detailed below.

Alternatively, either in the course of initial discussions with you or when the contract between us has come to an end for whatever reason, we have the right to use Your Personal Data provided it is in our legitimate business interest to do so and your rights are not affected.  For example, we may need to respond to requests from mortgage lenders, insurance providers and our Compliance Service Provider relating to the advice we have given to you, or to make contact with you to seek feedback on the service you received.

On occasion, we will use Your Personal data for contractual responsibilities we may owe our regulator The Financial Conduct Authority, or for wider compliance with any legal or regulatory obligation to which we might be subject.  In such circumstances, we would be processing Your Personal Data in order to meet a legal, compliance or other regulatory obligation to which we are subject.

The basis upon which we will process certain parts of Your Personal Data

Where you ask us to assist you with for example your Financial needs, we will only collect information from you which will assist us in determining your eligibility for a loan or other service required. We will not keep your personal data for longer than necessary to provide the service, or as required by law.

We will use special Data in the same way as Your Personal Data generally, as set out in this Privacy Notice.

How do we collect Your Personal Data?

We will collect and record Your Personal Data from a variety of sources, but mainly directly from you. You will usually provide information during the course of our initial meetings or conversations with you to establish your circumstances and needs and preferences in relation to finance. You will provide information to us verbally and in writing, including email.

We may also obtain some information from third parties, for example, credit checks, information from your employer, and searches of information in the public domain such as the voters roll.  If we use technology solutions to assist in the collection of Your Personal Data for example software that is able to verify your credit status. We will only do this if we have consent from you for us or our nominated processor to access your information in this manner. With regards to electronic ID checks we would not require your consent but will inform you of how such software operates and the purpose for which it is used.

What happens to Your Personal Data when it is disclosed to us?

In the course of handling Your Personal Data, we will:

• Record and store Your Personal Data in our paper files, mobile devices and on our computer systems.  This information can only be accessed by employees and consultants within our Firm and only when it is necessary to provide our service to you and to perform any administration tasks associated with or incidental to that service
• Submit Your Personal Data to Credit Reference Agencies, both in paper form and on-line via a secure portal. The provision of this information to a third party is essential in allowing us to progress any enquiry or application made on your behalf and to deal with any additional questions or administrative issues that  lenders and providers may raise.
• Use Your Personal Data for the purposes of responding to any queries you may have in relation to any finance product you may take out, or to inform you of any developments in relation to those products and/or polices of which we might become aware

Sharing Your Personal Data

Your Personal Data will be shared with:

• Credit Reference Agencies.  In order to process your application we will supply your personal information to credit reference agencies (CRAs) and they will give us information about you, such as about your financial history. We do this to assess creditworthiness and product suitability, check your identity, manage your account, trace and recover debts and prevent criminal activity.
• We will also continue to exchange information about you with CRAs on an ongoing basis, including about your settled accounts and any debts not fully repaid on time. CRAs will share your information with other organisations. Your data will also be linked to the data of your spouse, any joint applicants or other financial associates.

The identities of the CRAs, and the ways in which they use and share personal information, are explained in more detail at:

TransUnion:

www.transunion.co.uk/crain

Equifax

www.equifax.co.uk/crain

Experian:

www.experian.co.uk/crain

• Perfect Data Solutions (PDS): you are not required to provide us with viewing access to your bank account transaction information (Transaction History) or internet banking access details.  You may still be allowed to apply for a loan with us if you do not provide us with this information. However, if you do it will help us make an informed decision about whether we can lend to you.

If you agree that we may access your Transaction History the following provisions shall apply.

Provide Accurate Information. You, agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself and your bank accounts (with us or third parties) and you agree to not misrepresent your identity or your account information. You agree to keep your bank account information up-to-date, accurate and complete.

Purposes. We will access your Transaction History using the services of a credit reference agency called Perfect Data Solutions Limited (PDS). We will use your Transaction History to assess your creditworthiness and whether the loan you seek is affordable.

Neither we nor PDS will store or have access to your internet banking credentials, PIN codes or passwords. That information is encrypted in transit and stored by a third party service provider upon their servers in a secure environment outside the EEA.

Third Party Accounts. By agreeing to allow us viewing access to your Transaction History, you authorise PDS and PDS's service providers to access third party sites designated by you, on your behalf, to retrieve information requested by us, and to register to view bank statements over a period of up to 90 days.  You agree that PDS and PDS's service providers may, and are instructed by you as your agent and nominated representative, with full power of substitution and re-substitution, for you and in your name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to access third party internet sites, servers or documents, retrieve information, and use your information, all as described above, with the full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection with such activities, as fully to all intents and purposes as you might or could do in person. This will include the following purposes: copying Transaction History over a 90 day period and storing the copied Transaction History on our servers.

You agree that the Transaction History shall also be used by PDS for credit reference agency purposes and may be taken into account when producing your individual credit score which may be shared with other organisations as part of your credit record.

You acknowledge and agree that when we, PDS or PDS's service providers access and retrieve information and Transaction History from third party sites, this is undertaken as your agent, and not the agent on behalf of any third party (including the bank account provider). You should be aware that third party account providers shall be entitled to rely on this authorisation and agency granted by you.  You should also be aware that this service is not endorsed or sponsored by any third party bank account providers. We would recommend that you refer to the terms and conditions of your internet banking provider if you would like more information.

You understand that allowing us to review your Transaction History is at your sole risk.

We are only able to review your Transaction History on an "as is" and "as available basis" as it is made available to us by service providers. It may not be available to us from time to time.

We cannot guarantee that allowing us to review your Transaction History will guarantee the success of your loan application or the rate at which the loan is available.

• Third parties who we believe will be able to assist us with your enquiry or application, or who are able to support your needs as identified. These third parties will include but may not be limited to, our Compliance Advisers, providers of legal services such as collection agencies (in each case where we believe this to be required due to your particular circumstances).

In each case, your Personal Data will only be shared for the purposes set out in this customer privacy notice, i.e. to progress your finance enquiry and to provide you with our professional services.

Please note that this sharing of Your Personal Data does not entitle such third parties to send you marketing or promotional messages: it is shared to ensure we can adequately fulfil our responsibilities to you, and as otherwise set out in this Customer Privacy Notice.

We do not envisage that the performance by us of our service will involve Your Personal Data being transferred outside of the European Economic Area.

‍

Security and retention of Your Personal Data

Your privacy is important to us and we will keep Your Personal Data secure in accordance with our legal responsibilities. We will take reasonable steps to safeguard Your Personal Data against it being accessed unlawfully or maliciously by a third party.

We also expect you to take reasonable steps to safeguard your own privacy when transferring information to us, such as not sending confidential information over unprotected email, ensuring email attachments are password protected or encrypted and only using secure methods of postage when original documentation is being sent to us.

Your Personal Data will be retained by us either electronically or in paper format for a minimum of six years, or in instances whereby we have  legal right to such information we will retain records indefinitely.

Your rights in relation to Your Personal Data

You can:

• request copies of Your Personal Data that is under our control
• ask us to further explain how we use Your Personal Data

• ask us to correct, delete or require us to restrict or stop using Your Personal Data (details as to the extent to which we can do this will be provided at the time of any such request)
• ask us to send an electronic copy of Your Personal Data to another organisation should you wish

• change the basis of any consent you may have provided to enable us to market to you in the future (including withdrawing any consent in its entirety)

How to make contact with our Firm in relation to the use of Your Personal Data

If you have any questions or comments about this document, or wish to make contact in order to exercise any of your rights set out within it please contact:

SHARON MACPHERSON / info@scotcash.glasgow.gov.uk

If we feel we have a legal right not to deal with your request, or to action, it in different way to how you have requested, we will inform you of this at the time.

You should also make contact with us as soon as possible on you becoming aware of any unauthorised disclosure of Your Personal Data, so that we may investigate and fulfil our own regulatory obligations.

If you have any concerns or complaints as to how we have handled Your Personal Data you may lodge a complaint with the UK's data protection regulator, the ICO, who can be contacted through their website at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or by writing to Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Summary of terms

Browser
Used to locate and display Web pages via a software application. The most popular ones are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator or Mozilla Firefox.

Cookie
Message given to a web browser by a Web server. The message is then stored by the browser in a text file called cookie.txt. Each time the browser requests a page from the server, this message is sent back. A cookie's main objective is to identify users and personalise their visit by customising web pages for them for example by welcoming them by name next time they visit the same site. A site using cookies will usually invite you to provide personal information such as your name, e-mail address and interests.  

IP (Internet Protocol)
All networks connected to the internet speak IP, the technical standard which allows data to be transmitted between two devices. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is responsible for making sure messages get from one host to another and that the messages are understood.

IP Address
If you are connected to the Internet you have one; it may look something like this: 198.184.98.9.

Web Server
Delivers (serves up) web pages to your computer.

‍