COUNTY FINANCE GROUP PRIVACY STATEMENT

Incorporating County Asset Finance Ltd 

At County Finance Group, we take our responsibilities about your privacy very seriously.  We use information gathered about you or provided by you to deliver the best service to you whilst ensuring your data is protected. We are the Data Controller and any intermediary passing information and applications to us is the data processor. Our Data Protection Officer is Dawn Tingay. The contact address is Unit 11, Midland Court, Central Park, Leicester Road, Lutterworth, Leicestershire. LE17 4PN Tel: 01455 200150

Our Information commissioners (ICO) number is Z6243114 and our permissions can be viewed at

https://ico.org.uk/esdwebpages/search

LEGAL BASIS FOR COLLECTING INFORMATION.

 

Our Legal basis for processing the data is one or more of;

  • The data subject has given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific purposes

and/or .

  • The processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party, or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract with them;

INFORMATION COLLECTED

Information maybe collected in varying forms, such as Website Information, Voluntary Personal Information and Information gained from outside sources such as Banks and Credit Reference Agencies.

Website Information – Visiting our website provides statistical information about users which cannot be identified to an individual. It measures how individuals are using our website and accessing our services in order that we can monitor and assess the data in order that we can continually look to improve them and provide a better service to our customers.

Voluntary Information – is information given by you such as providing names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, date of birth etc that can identify you.

Credit Reference Agencies – Data that is collated and held by CRA’s that provides financial and personal information about you and family members.

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) rules and regulations, personal information will not be kept longer than is reasonably necessary, but will be kept for the life of the contract plus a suitable period of time following in case of complaints or activities that require investigation.

In order to process your application, we will perform credit and identity checks on you with one or more credit reference agencies (“CRAs”). Where you take finance services from us we may also make periodic searches at CRAs to manage your account with us.

To do this, we will supply your personal information to CRAs and they will give us information about you. This will include information from your credit application and about your financial situation and financial history. CRAs will supply to us both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit, financial situation and financial history information and fraud prevention information.

We will use this information to:

  • Assess your creditworthiness and whether you can afford to take the product;
  • Verify the accuracy of the data you have provided to us;
  • Prevent criminal activity, fraud and money laundering;
  • Manage your account(s);
  • Checking Job Applicants and Employees
  • Trace and recover debts; and
  • Ensure any offers provided to you are appropriate to your circumstances.

We will continue to exchange information about you with CRAs while you have a relationship with us. We will also inform the CRAs about your settled accounts. 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.  When CRAs receive a search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders. 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 should make sure you discuss this with them, and share with them this information, before lodging the application. CRAs will 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.

Sharing This Information

Information is only stored and used for the purposes of activities offered within County Finance Group.  Information is only shared amongst County Finance staff that require such information to carry out and fulfil their individual roles.  No information is sold to any other parties.  Information is only provided to a lawful body if required to do so by law, eg requested by the Police, Auditors or with professional bodies such as lawyers, should there have been a breach in a contract.

However, we do share information to our preferred credit reference bureau which is Equifax and more information can be found on their website at www.equifax.co.uk

Your Rights to Availability of Information

The Data Protection Act, gives you a right to request information that is held about you.  This should be requested in writing to the company address, there is no charge for this information to be provided. You also have a right not to receive unwanted marketing material from us and if you have initially chosen to ‘Opt In’ for this service, you can change your mind at any time and choose to ‘Opt Out’. This can be done verbally or in writing or unsubscribing if marketing has been received by email.

Customers Rights

As a customer of the group, you have the following rights related to your data and how it’s processed:

  • The right to be informed – this means you must provide, at the point of collecting the data, a privacy or verbal notice informing the individual of how their personal information will be used.
  • The right to access their personal information – this means that the individual has the right to know what information you hold on them, and to request a copy of it. This information must be provided free of charge.
  • The right to get inaccurately recorded information corrected.
  • The right to erasure – this means that the individual can request that their personal data is deleted from your records, also referred to as ‘the right to be forgotten’.
  • The right to restrict how their personal information is used – this means that the individual has the right to object to how you use their personal information, including for direct marketing purposes.
  • The right to receive their personal information in a legible and transferable format.
  • The right to object to the use of their personal information
  • Rights related to automated decision making including profiling – this means the individual has the right to refuse their personal information being used to make a decision based on an automatic process without human intervention.

Complaints

Complaints in the first instance should be addressed to The Complaints Officer at the company address, either by telephone or in writing.

If the complaint could not be rectified by telephone and a written complaint has been received, we will acknowledge this within 5 days, and send out a leaflet from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) outlining the Consumers rights regarding complaints.  Further information can be viewed at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Individuals that have a concern regarding how their data is being held or used has the right to complain to the ICO if they don’t receive a satisfactory explanation from the company. The ICO website is www.ico.org.uk

For further information contact the data protection officer on 01455 200150.