Privacy Notice
The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance or employment. Further details of how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found by visiting www.CIFAS.org.uk
In order to process your application, we will perform credit and identity checks on you with one or more credit reference agencies ("CRAs"). We will also retain and use your information to improve our products and services. Where you take services from us we may also make periodic searches at CRAs to manage your account with us during the life of that account.
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);
- Trace and recover debts;
- Ensure any offers provided to you are appropriate to your circumstances; and
- Improve our products and services
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 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.
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 at www.hitachicapital.co.uk/CRAIN.
This is also accessible from each of the three CRAs:
Callcredit www.callcredit.co.uk
Equifax www.equifax.co.uk
Experian www.experian.co.uk
or you can obtain a copy of this information by asking the person who is responsible for supplying you with the goods financed under this agreement.
