Privacy policy

Funding Guru is committed to the upcoming GDPR legislation and keeping your information private. This document sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us or by our 3rd party lender partners when we pass your data on to them. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

By providing your information to us you consent to us processing it in the manner and for the purposes described herein. If, and to the extent, you provide personal data relating to any third party to us, you confirm that you have obtained their consent to pass their personal data to us and for us to process it in the manner and for the purposes described herein.

For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Act (GDPR), the data controller is Funding Guru of 10 Park Place, Leeds, LS1 2RU

1. 1. What information do we collect about you?

In order to provide you with products and services we need to collect, use, share and store personal and financial information about you. We collect this information when:

1.1 we speak to you on the telephone;

1.2 when you register with the website;

1.3 when you complete an online application;

1.4 when you send documents to us;

1.5 when you request a service;

1.6 when you indicate that you would like us to keep you up to date about our products and services; or

1.7 when you provide us with access to your accounts and sources of data relating to financial transactions you enter into online we will access and use that information.

2. 2. How do we use your information?

We will use your information to:

2.1 provide our services to you;

2.2 prevent and detect fraud, money laundering and other crime;

2.3 carry out regulatory checks;

2.4 meet our obligations to any relevant regulatory authority;

2.5 develop and improve our services to you and other customers and protect our interests; and

2.6 make sure that our records about you are comprehensive, accurate and up to date.

2.7 to manage our relationship with you including (but not limited) to undertake underwriting collections and servicing activities.

We will retain information about you after the closure of your file for as long as permitted for legal, regulatory, fraud and other financial crime prevention and legitimate business purposes. As outlined in our new GDPR policies, we can hold information for up to 7 years, unless the client is allowed to exercise the ‘right to be forgotten’ option. Please note that this cannot be undertaken for active clients.

We may use your personal information for market research and other marketing purposes, we shall obtain your consent for such purposes at the relevant time. We will not send you any marketing information unless you have opted in to receive this. You are able to opt out at any time.

3. 3. Safeguard of information

We regularly review our security standards and procedures to help prevent unauthorised access to personal information, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification and unlawful destruction or accidental loss.

4. 4. Recording of calls

Calls with Funding Guru may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

5. 5. Credit reference agency and fraud checks

When you apply to us for a financial product or service, we or a partner lender will check our own records, your records at credit reference agencies and the records held by credit reference agencies relating to your “financial associate” (if you have one) 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, which may be your spouse or partner (not a business partner). We may also, in certain limited circumstances, check the record, including credit details, of other members of your family and if you are a director or partner in a small business, we may also check on your business.

If you are making a joint application or tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, we will search, link and record information about you both together at credit reference agencies (including any previous and subsequent names). You must be sure that you have your financial associate’s agreement to disclose their information to us and for us to conduct these searches. Credit reference agencies also link your records together and these links will remain on your and their files until such time as you or your financial associate tell the credit reference agencies that you are no longer financially linked and this is accepted by the credit reference agencies.

If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud we and/or the lender will record this and may also pass this information to fraud prevention agencies and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention.

With the information that we obtain we or the lender will:

• • assess this application for credit and/or;

• • check details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities; and/or

• • verify your identity and that of your financial associate; and/or

• • undertake checks for the prevention and detection of crime, fraud and/or money laundering; and/or

• • use scoring methods to assess this application and to verify your identity; and/or

• • manage your account with us; and/or

• • undertake periodic statistical analysis or testing to ensure the accuracy of existing and future products and services.

Please be aware that any or all of these processes may be automated.

Where you borrow or may borrow from us or through us via a lender, the lender (us or a 3rd Party) will give details of your agreement and the payments you have made (or failed to make) under it to credit reference agencies. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, the lender will tell credit reference agencies. We may make periodic searches of our own records and at credit reference agencies to manage your account with us, including to assist us in deciding whether to make credit available or to continue or extend existing credit. We may also check at fraud prevention agencies to prevent or detect fraud. If you have borrowed from a lender and do not make payments that you owe, the lender will trace your whereabouts and recover debts.

When credit reference agencies receive a search from us they will:

• • place a search “footprint” on your credit file. Initially we run quotation searches which leave a soft-footprint which has no impact on your credit score. Only if you take a loan will we leave a full-footprint, in which case that search (but not the name of the organisation that carried it out) may be seen by other organisations when you apply for credit in the future; and

• • link together the records of you and anyone that you have advised is your financial associate including previous and subsequent names of parties to the account. Links between financial associates will remain on your and their files until such time as you or they tell the credit reference agencies that you are no longer financially linked and this is accepted by the credit reference agencies.

Credit rating agencies will supply to us or the lender:

• • credit information such as previous applications and the conduct of accounts in your name and of your associate(s) and/or your business accounts;

• • public information such as County Court Judgments (CCJs) and bankruptcies;

• • Electoral Register information.

• • fraud prevention information.

When information is supplied by us or the lender, to them, on your account(s):

• • credit reference agencies will record the details that are supplied on your personal and/or business account including any previous and subsequent names that have been used by the account holders and how you/they manage it/them;

• • if you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, credit reference agencies will record the outstanding debt;

• • records shared with credit reference agencies remain on file for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted.

How your data will be used by credit reference agencies:

The information which we, the lender and other organisations provide to the credit reference agencies about you, your financial associates and your business may be supplied by credit reference agencies to other organisations and used by them to:

• • prevent crime, fraud and money laundering by, for example checking details provided on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities;

• • check the operation of credit and credit-related accounts;

• • verify your identity if you or your financial associate applies for other facilities;

• • make decisions on credit and credit related services about you, your partner, other members of your household or your business;

• • manage your personal, your partner’s and/or business credit or credit related account or other facilities;

• • trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe;

• • undertake statistical analysis and system testing.

How your data may be used by fraud prevention agencies:

The information which we or the lender provide to the fraud prevention agencies about you, your financial associates and your business may be supplied by fraud prevention agencies to other organisations and used by them and us to:

• • prevent crime, fraud and money laundering by, for example;

– checking details provided on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities;

– managing credit and credit related accounts or facilities;

– cross checking details provided on proposals and claims for all types of insurance;

– checking details on applications for jobs or when checked as part of employment

• • verify your identity if you or your financial associate applies for other facilities including all types of insurance proposals and claims;

• • trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe;

• • conduct other checks to prevent or detect fraud;

• • we and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies;

• • undertake statistical analysis and system testing.

Your data may also be used for other purposes for which you give your specific permission or, in very limited circumstances, when required by law or where permitted under the terms of the Act.

6. 6. Third Parties (other than credit reference agencies)

We may share your information with other organisations:

• • to carry out anti-money-laundering and identity checks;

• • if we sell or buy any business or assets, (as we may share your data with the prospective seller or buyer);

• • if we or substantially all of our company assets are acquired by another party, in which case your information will be one of the transferred assets;

• • if we have to share your information to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, or if we have to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions of Use or our loan agreement with you or need to protect our rights, property or our customers;

• • if your details were originally passed to Funding Guru via a third party (such as a referral platform or financial broker) we may report your application outcome and loan status back to that platform;

• • in the event that you do not satisfy our or our lenders eligibility criteria, and/or Funding Guru or our Panel of lenders cannot lend to you, we may ask you for permission to pass your information including your name, email address and contact details to third parties who we think may be able to assist you.

Those third parties may then contact you by telephone or email in order to discuss whether or not they can assist you.

We may also share your information with selected third parties to the extent reasonably necessary in order to enable us to manage our relationship with you.

How to find out more:

You can contact the credit reference 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

• • Equifax PLC, Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 3001, Bradford, BD1 5US or call 0870 010 0583 or log on to www.myequifax.co.uk

• • Experian, Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF or call 0844 4818000 or log on to www.experian.co.uk

Please contact us at info@accesscommercialfinance.com if you want to receive details of the relevant fraud prevention agencies.

7. 7. Access to your personal information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. In accordance with our Data Protection Policy, we charge £10 for all information requests to cover administration costs. Please address requests to: The Data Protection Officer, Funding Guru, 4 Brewery Place, Leeds LS10 1NE

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.

8. 8. Use of cookies

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. This sometimes involves

placing small amounts of information on your computer. These are called ‘cookies’.

These cookies cannot be used to identify you personally and are used to improve services for you, for example through:

– Letting you navigate between pages efficiently

– Enabling a service to recognise your computer so you don’t have to give the same information during one task

– Recognising that you have already given a username and password so you don’t need to enter it for every web page requested

– Measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and that there is enough capacity to ensure they are fast

To learn more about cookies, see:

– www.allaboutcookies.org

– www.youronlinechoices.eu

– www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/

Users typically have the opportunity to set their browser to accept all or some cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these options, of course, means that personalised services cannot be provided and the user may not be able to take full advantage of all of a website’s features. Refer to your browser’s Help section for specific guidance on how it allows you to manage cookies and how you may delete cookies you wish to remove from your computer.

Multiple cookies may be found in a single file depending on which browser you use.

The cookies used on this website have been categorised based on the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide, as follows:

Category 1: strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like shopping baskets or e-billing, cannot be provided.

Category 2: performance cookies

These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.

Category 3: functionality cookies

These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing in a cookie the region in which you are currently located. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as a live chat session. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Category 4: targeting cookies or advertising cookies

These cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisation.

The list below shows the cookies that we use, other than those that are strictly necessary to this service. If you have any queries about these, or would like more information, please contact our Data Protection Manager at Funding Guru of 4 Brewery Place, Leeds LS10 1NE.

 GOOGLE ANALYTICS

We use the Google Analytics service from Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”) to analyze our website visitors. Google uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about the use of the online product or service by users is generally transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. Google will use this information on our behalf to evaluate the use of our online products and services by users, to compile reports on the activities within these online products and services and to provide us with further services associated with the use of these online products and services and the use of the internet. Pseudonymous user profiles can be created from the processed data.

We use Google Analytics only with IP anonymization enabled. This means that Google will truncate the IP address of users within Member States of the European Union or in other states that are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there.

The IP address transmitted by the user’s browser is not merged with other Google data. Users can prevent cookies from being stored by adjusting the settings to their browser software accordingly.

The legal basis for the use of this service is Art. 6 paragraph 1 sentence 1 letter f GDPR. Users can prevent the collection of data generated by cookies by downloading and installing the browser plug-in that is available at the following link:  https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

9. 9. Other websites

Our site may contain links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this site so when you link to other websites, you should read their own privacy policies.

10. 10. Changes

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email.

11. 11. Contact

Questions, comments, complaints or requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to:

The Data Protection Officer,

Funding Guru, 10 Park Place, Leeds, LS1 2RU

You also have the right to contact or complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office regarding this privacy policy.