A guide to the use of your personal information by ourselves and at Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies.

Our company comply with the eight main principles under the Data Protection Act 1998. To summarise, any information we obtain from you regarding your loan enquiry, will be;

• Processed fairly and lawfully;

• Obtained and used only for specified lawful purposes;

• Adequate, relevant and not excessive;

• Accurate and up to date;

• Kept for no longer than is necessary;

• Used in accordance with the rights of individuals;

• Protected against accidental loss or damage; and

• Protected from transfer to countries which may not have such good protection as the UK

Information held about you by the credit reference agencies may already be linked to records relating to one or more of your financial partners. For the purpose of applications you make for a loan you may be treated as financially linked to such people and such applications may be assessed with reference to any “associated” records. When credit reference agencies receive a search from us they will place a search “footprint” on your credit file whether or not this application proceeds. If the search was for a credit application the record of 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.

In assessing if we can help with your loan enquiry, we ask for information about you and search records held by credit reference agencies and law enforcement agencies, who may access and use this information. We may also use credit scoring methods to assess your application and to verify your identity and this information may also be used for prevention of money laundering as well as keeping your record up to date.

The information may be used by us and we may have to disclose details of your application and information to other organisations:

(a) to help us and others check applications or information with and about you and other members of your household; and

(b) to help prevent or detect fraud, money laundering or other crimes. We and other organisations may access and use the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies from other countries.  The credit reference and fraud prevention agencies will keep details of any searches.

You can email us at enquiries@caledoniacapital.co.uk if you want details of the credit reference and fraud prevention agencies that we give information about you (you have a legal right to obtain this information but they may charge you a small fee).