Privacy Policy

Who we are and how to contact us

Your personal information will be held securely by BetterBorrow, which is a trading name of Chetwood Financial Limited, company number 09964966 of Ellice Way, Wrexham Technology Park, Wrexham, LL13 7YT. Chetwood Financial Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, under registration number 740551.

Authorisation can be checked on the Financial Services Register at www.fca.org.uk. In this policy, BetterBorrow, we, us and our, refers to Chetwood Financial Limited.

We’ll collect personal information about you and the way you use our website when you apply for a loan. The ways in which we may use your personal information are described below.

BetterBorrow is the data controller (this means an organisation who determines the purposes and manner in which any personal data is processed) of your information under data protection laws because, in the context of our business relationship with you, we decide how and why it is processed in the ways explained in this policy. We’re registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, under registration ZA218401.

To contact our Data Protection Officer, to find out more about how we process your personal data or exercise any of your rights (see below), get in touch.

How we collect your personal information

We’ll collect your personal information in different ways depending on how you choose to apply for our loan. Please see below.

Direct - we’ll collect the personal information from your loan application made directly through our website
Intermediary - we’ll collect the personal information you’ve entered on comparison sites during your loan application

We also collect personal data from other third parties such as Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs) and Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs).

What kinds of personal information we collect and process

We’ll collect some or all of the following information about you:

Personal information - your name, date of birth, marital status and number of dependents
Contact information - telephone number and email address
Residential information - your address, address history and occupier status i.e. homeowner, tenant, living with parents
Nationality and citizenship information - your nationality and/or whether you have the permanent right to reside in the UK
Financial information - your bank account number, sort code and financial history
A unique number or code given to you by a government body to identify who you are, such as a National Insurance number
Contact history - records of when and how you’ve contacted us including your IP and MAC address
Information about your devices and the technology you use
Employment details - information about your employment status including whether you’re employed, retired or receive benefits
Details about your existing borrowings and loans
Personal information about your credit history which we’re given by Credit Reference Agencies (see the section on CRAs below)
Personal information which we collect from Fraud Prevention Agencies (see the section on FPAs below)
Sensitive or special categories of information including personal data surrounding your health or if you are a vulnerable customer.

Why we process your personal information

Data protection laws require us to explain what legal grounds justify us using your personal information (this includes sharing it with other organisations). The laws refer to “processing” of information which includes everything we do with your personal information from its collection, right through to its destruction or deletion when we no longer need it. For some processing, more than one legal ground may be relevant (except where we rely on a consent).

Here are the legal grounds that are relevant to us:

Grounds	Purpose
Contractual obligation Where processing of your personal data is necessary for us to perform our contract with you or for taking steps before entering into the contract.	Assessing your eligibility for a loan and as part of our automated decision making (please refer to our section below) Setting up your BetterBorrow account Verifying and updating your contact information Processing payments Day to day management of your account Issuing formal notices Sending service communications Addressing any enquiries or complaints we receive from you
Consent Where processing of your personal data requires us to obtain your clear consent.	When you request and give consent that we share your information with someone else For direct marketing communications For some of our automated decision making For some of our processing of special categories of personal data including, for example, your health or if you’re a vulnerable customer
Legal obligation Where processing of your personal data is necessary for us to comply with laws we abide by.	Confirming your identity and undertaking checks with FPAs (see the section on FPAs below) Prevention, detection and investigation of crime Assessing your affordability when applying for a loan Carrying out monitoring and maintaining records Complying with laws that apply to us Responding to enquiries and requests for information by any of our Regulators For establishment, defence and enforcement of our legal rights When sharing your information with other organisations. For example, law enforcement agencies and courts To otherwise meet our obligations under all laws and regulations based on law which apply to our business activities
Legitimate interests Where processing of your personal data is necessary for your individual legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party including their commercial interest or the broader interests of society.	Administering and managing your account Updating your contact details Recovering debt Testing the performance of our products, services and internal processes Adhering to the guidance and best practice of Governmental or regulatory bodies such as the Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential Regulation Authority or the Information Commissioner’s Office Gathering analytics and profiling to monitor and predict market trends Monitoring, reviewing and improving the content and appearance of our website For management and audit of our business operations To carry out searches through third parties such as credit reference agencies (see the section on CRAs below) To carry out monitoring and keep records To administer good governance requirements For market research, analysis and development of statistics As part of our automated decision making Where we share your information with other people or other organisations. For example, the intermediary who introduced you to us, financial institutions and trade associations, debt recovery agencies and market research organisations
Vital interests Where processing of your personal data is necessary to protect someone’s vital interests including protecting someone’s life.	Processing of special categories of personal data. For example, about your health or if you’re a vulnerable customer To fulfill our legal obligation and regulatory requirements When we share your personal information with other people and organisations. For example, if they need to know you’re a vulnerable customer, social services, your carer or relatives and anyone who has power of attorney over your affairs

How we share your data

How we use Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs)

In order to process your application, we’ll perform credit and identity checks on you with one or more credit reference agencies (CRAs).

CRAs collect and maintain information about customers’ and businesses’ credit behaviour.

CRAs use information from:

Electoral register
Credit information
Public information such as County Court Judgments, decrees, and bankruptcies

BetterBorrow uses soft searches, also known as ‘quotation searches’, to work out whether you’re approved for our loans. We’ll only register a full search once you’ve set up your Direct Debit and given us permission to do so. When CRAs receive a full search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders.

When we carry out a full credit search on you when you apply for a loan, FPAs (see the section on FPAs below) will keep a log of the searches that we’ve carried out.

We’ll also inform the CRAs about your settled accounts. If you borrow and don’t repay in full and on time, CRAs will record any outstanding debt and they may share this information with other organisations.

This is explained in more detail by following the links below:

How we use Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs)

The personal information we’ve collected from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to:

Prevent fraud
Prevent money-laundering
Verify your identity

If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.

Further details on how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found by following the links below:

We’ll continue to exchange information about you with CRAs and FPAs while you have a relationship with us.

We’ll use this information to:

Help us understand whether you can afford to take out the loan you’ve applied for
Check 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

Using credit scoring and other automated decision making

When you apply for credit, an automated system known as credit scoring may be used to decide if we can approve your loan. It’s a system widely used by credit providers to help make fair and informed decisions on lending.

Credit scoring takes account of information from three sources:

The information you provide on your application
Information provided by CRAs
Information that may already be held about you at BetterBorrow

A credit scoring system helps us lend responsibly as it considers information from these sources, to make an overall assessment of your application.

You have the right to ask that the decision is not made based solely using a credit scoring system.

How we monitor your personal information

This means any listening to, recording of, viewing of, intercepting of, or taking and keeping records (as the case may be) of calls, email, text messages, social media messages and other communications.

Some of our monitoring may be to do the following:

Comply with regulatory rules
Comply with self-regulatory practices
Procedures relevant to our business
To prevent or detect crime
To have a record of what we have discussed with you and actions agreed with you
To protect you and to provide security for you
For quality control and staff training purposes

Where we store your personal information

We’re based in the UK and will generally store your personal information in the UK & Republic of Ireland, but we may transfer your personal information abroad.

If your information is processed within the EEA it is protected by European data protection standards. If your information is transferred outside the EEA, we’ll make sure that suitable safeguards are in place before we transfer the information.

How long will we keep your personal information?

BetterBorrow customers

Unless we explain otherwise to you, we’ll hold your personal information from the end of your relationship with us for the following periods and reasons:

Up to 6 years - to respond to any queries or complaints
Up to 10 years - to maintain records according to rules and regulations that apply to us

BetterBorrow applicants

If you apply unsuccessfully for a product, we’ll hold your personal information only for as long as is necessary to deal with any queries you may have.

Your rights

Here are your rights under data protection laws. There may be reasons why you can’t exercise your rights, but we’ll always tell you if this is the case and explain in more detail when your request is made.

Right to be Informed – the right to know we’re processing your personal information
Right to Access - the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you
Right to Rectification - the right to request we update and correct any out of date or inaccurate personal information we hold about you
Right to Erasure (‘The Right to be Forgotten’) - the right to request that we remove all personal information we hold about you, if there is no need for us to keep it
Right to Restrict Processing - the right to request we restrict the processing of your personal information
Right to Object to Processing - the right to request we stop processing your personal information
Right to Data Portability - the right to request us to provide personal information you’ve supplied to a third party
Rights in relation to automated decision making which has a legal effect or otherwise significantly affects you

If you want to contact us to exercise these rights, get in touch with us on our website.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights against the CRAs, the FPAs, or an intermediary, you’ll need to contact them directly as they’re data controllers in their own right.

What should you do if your information changes?

Get in touch with us as soon as possible if your information changes so we can update our records.

Marketing

If you opt in to receive our marketing communications, we’ll use your personal information to contact you and provide you with product details and offers that are relevant to you.

You can change your preferences at any time by updating them online at betterborrow.co.uk.

IP addresses

When you visit our website, regardless of whether you log in or not, our web servers automatically take note of your domain name, IP address and details about your device. These details reveal nothing personal about you. We use this information to investigate abuse of our website and its users, and to co-operate with law enforcement. We also share this information with third parties.

Cookies

Cookies are text files stored on your computer, mobile or tablet, when you visit websites.

At BetterBorrow we use cookies to to track how our customers interact with our site so we can give you the best possible experience. Take a look at our Cookie Policy to find out about how this work and how to opt out if you’d prefer to not accept certain cookies.

Complaints

If you’re not happy with any aspect of the way that we process your information or fulfil our obligations, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office who enforce data protection laws. They can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/.

Payment Information

Overpayments

You can repay your loan balance early, in part (referred to as an overpayment) or in full (referred to as early settlement, or closing your loan early). If you wish to do this, you should log into your account at betterborrow.co.uk. We accept the following cards for payments:

How we collect repayments

We use GoCardless to process your direct debit payments. More information on how GoCardless processes your personal data and your rights can be found at: https://gocardless.com/legal/privacy.

Refunds

We don’t offer refunds but you can withdraw from your loan agreement by logging into your account at betterborrow.co.uk and closing your loan. To do this, you must log in and click on ‘Manage’ and then ‘Calculate my settlement’ to request a settlement quote.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

From time to time, we update our policy to reflect changes we’ve made for our customers. This Privacy Policy was last updated in June 2021.