Personal Information Guide

1) When you apply to open an account, the organisations we send your application details to may check the following records about you and others (see 2 below)

  • Their own;
  • those at credit reference agencies (CRAs). When CRAs receive a search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders. They supply to us both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit and fraud prevention information.
  • those at fraud prevention agencies (FPAs).

They will make checks such as; assessing this application for credit and verifying identities to prevent and detect crime and money laundering. They may also make periodic searches at CRAs and FPAs to manage your account with them.

2) If you are making a joint application or 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.

3) Information on applications will be sent to CRAs and will be recorded by them. Where you borrow, they may 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 defaulted.

4) If you give false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud this may be recorded and may also be passed to FPAs and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention.

5) If you have borrowed and do not make payments that you owe, they may will trace your whereabouts and recover debts.

6) We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.

7) 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 Data Protection Act 1998.

This is a condensed version and if you would like to read the full details of how your data may be used please phone on 0330 223 0166 and ask one of our staff

You can read the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN) here. The CRAIN sets out how the credit reference agencies use and share personal data.

You can contact the CRAs 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 060 1414 or log on to www.callcredit.co.uk
  • Equifax PLC, Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 1140, Bradford, BD1 5US or call 0844 335 0550 or log on to www.equifax.co.uk
  • Experian, Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF or call 0844 481 8000 or log on to www.experian.co.uk

Please write to us at our address if you require details of the credit reference agencies from whom we pass information about you.