Privacy Statement

USE OF PERSONAL DATA

We are Debt Managers (Services) Limited, registered in England and Wales 8092808, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for accounts formed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (amended 2006).

When we use "we" in this notice we mean us or anyone acting on our behalf. When we use "you", we mean the customer or applicant acting on their own behalf or for a business; or individuals associated with our commercial clients, partners and suppliers.

Please read this Privacy Statement carefully as it contains important information to help you understand our practices regarding any personal data that you give to us.

What information we collect

What personal information we process

This personal information includes your:

  • name;
  • date of birth;
  • address, and your address history (which includes your main residential property and any rental properties you own);
  • telephone number;
  • email address;
  • passport, driving licence, national identity card, Immigration and Nationality Directorate application registration card or fire arms licence details when you provide this as proof of identity;
  • details of expenditure;
  • bank details - sort code, account number;
  • credit history, and records relating to your partner or anyone else you are financially linked with (we receive this information from the credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies);
  • details of your existing borrowings and loans;
  • bank statements;
  • insurance details of the vehicle where appropriate;
  • transaction information on payments into an account, and debit or credit card information;
  • employment/self-employment details;
  • income, expenditure and taxation arrears information;
  • information regarding whether you have any dependants;
  • identifiers assigned to your computer or other internet connected device including your IP address;
  • information linked to your mobile telephone number;
  • details about whether you own your property, rent it or live with others;
  • your financed vehicle details for motor finance;
  • information relating to how you conduct your account and our dealings on it.
  • information about unspent criminal convictions or pending prosecutions relating to any aspect of dishonesty, which may have a bearing on your future employment or the likely conduct of the account.

If you have a joint account, we collect this type of information about all parties to the account.

If you authorise a third party to act on your behalf, for example setting up a Power of Attorney for your account, we record the individual's name, address, telephone number, email address, and bank details if the third party makes payments by direct debit for your account.

In the unfortunate circumstance that one of our customers passes away, we record the following details of the next of kin and any executors of the estate: name, address, telephone number, and email address.

If you make an application on behalf of a business, we will process personal information about shareholders, directors, partners, beneficial owners, authorised signatories or other associated persons, including name, date of birth, address, credit history and publicly available information (for example on the internet, social media and on public registers).

For commercial clients, partners and suppliers, records are kept of meetings, including those via electronic communications and video conferencing technology.

Special categories of Personal Data

Special categories of personal data include information about an individual's health and other categories of personal information which are closely protected (e.g. biometric data).

We do not generally process such information, unless you have voluntarily provided that information to us. For example, where you have notified us of a health issue that would mean you would be classed as a 'vulnerable customer' (i.e. if you, due to your personal circumstances or personal characteristics, are especially vulnerable to financial detriment). You have the right to withdraw your consent for us to hold details of your vulnerability at any time by contacting us by telephone, email or in writing. Criminal offence information is not defined as special categories of personal data, however, this information does require additional protections. Criminal offence information covers information related to convictions and offences, including alleged offences, court proceedings, and sentencing.

Where permitted by law, we process criminal offence information for specific and limited activities and purposes, such as to perform checks to prevent and detect crime and to comply with laws relating to money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, bribery and corruption, and international sanctions. It may involve investigating and gathering intelligence on suspected financial crimes, fraud and threats and sharing data between banks, with law enforcement and regulatory bodies.

How we use your personal information

In summary, we use your personal information for the purposes of:

  • Service provision and internal processing;
  • Management of relationship (e.g. to develop your relationship with us);
  • Tracing customers and recovering debts;
  • Resolving queries/problems (e.g. responding to complaints);
  • Training and service review (e.g. to help us enhance our services);
  • developing our products and services; and
  • Complying with legal obligations (e.g. to prevent, investigate and prosecute crime, fraud and money laundering).

As detailed below, we process your personal information where we have a legitimate interest to do so (except where it would override your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal information), where otherwise permitted by law, or to comply with applicable law and regulation.

PURPOSE LEGAL BASIS (As set out under applicable data protection law - for more details visit the ICO website)
Service Provision and Internal Processing
• to service your account; Legitimate interests to provide and manage the service
• to evaluate risk in connection with the provision of our services; To comply with legal obligations to manage and control risk
• to verify the identity of our customers; To comply with legal obligations in financial services regulations for prevention of money laundering
• to report on the performance of an account (see 'Sharing with Credit Reference Agencies' section); Legitimate interests to share performance data with credit reference agencies
• to confirm, update and improve our customer records; To comply with legal obligations in the Data Protection regulations
• to assess what options are appropriate if you are in financial difficulties; To comply with legal obligation to treat customers in financial difficulties fairly
• to trace customers and recover debts; Legitimate interests - debt recovery
• to respond to any queries or complaints that you raise; To comply with legal obligations for complaint handling
• to prevent, investigate and prosecute crime, fraud and money laundering (see 'For crime and fraud prevention and anti-money laundering' section); To comply with legal obligations and legitimate interests for prevention of financial crime and money laundering
• to protect our legal rights and interests Legitimate interests to protect financial position and reputation
• to troubleshoot problems with the Website, or to customise your experience on the Website; Legitimate interests to optimise customers' experience on the Website. Please see our Cookie Policy
• to provide you with any information on the services you have requested; Legitimate interests to provide information on the services as requested
Management of Relationship
• to manage, analyse, understand and develop your relationship with us, for example to understand how often you access our services; Legitimate interests to service customers' accounts, optimise customers' experience with us and develop our products and services
• to inform you about improvements to the Website; Legitimate interests to optimise customers' experience on the Website
• to keep you informed of any of our other/new services and identify and market services that may be of interest to you, where you have chosen to be made aware of this; (see 'Marketing' section) With consent
Training and Service Review
• for training purposes and to enhance or review the service we provide or have provided to you; Legitimate interests to optimise customers' experience with us, to manage performance and develop our employees
Develop products and services
• to conduct statistical analysis and research (see 'Statistical Analysis' section); Legitimate interests to develop our services
• to test strategies and systems (see 'Testing' section); Legitimate interests to develop our services
Other
• for auditing purposes; To comply with legal obligations to conduct audits
• if we are obliged to disclose information by reason of any law, regulation or court order; To comply with legal obligations
• to transfer information to any entity which may acquire rights in us; Legitimate interests for commercial interests
• to monitor access to and use of Secure Trust Bank Group's IT systems, including electronic communications and video conferencing technology; Legitimate interests to manage and control information security risk and the risk of misconduct and to comply with legal obligations for prevention of crime
• for any other purpose to which you agree. With consent

How we retain your information

The personal information that you provide will be retained by us in accordance with applicable laws. We take reasonable steps to destroy or anonymise personal information we hold if it is no longer needed for the purposes set out above.

Set out below are our retention periods

Type of personal information Retention period
• General personal data - this includes the categories of normal personal data, personal identity and personal financial data 7 years after account closure/end of relationship
• Special categories and criminal offence personal data may be captured if voluntarily provided to us. Criminal offence information could be disclosed to us by a third party or through screening checks. 7 years after account closure/end of relationship

Special categories of personal data will be erased if you no longer want us to retain the information

• Call recordings

• Recordings of video conferencing technology

12 months

1 year

Recordings may be retained as evidence of a complaint investigation for 7 years after the resolution of the complaint

• CCTV - digital images if you visit one of our offices 30 days

How we share your information

The recipients with whom we share personal information are:

  • our third party service providers who act on our instruction and need to know the information in order to provide us or you with a service;
  • our third party service providers who act on our instruction and process information on our behalf to help run some of our business operations including email distribution, IT services and websites, diallers and for statistical analysis;
  • independent debt recovery agencies or service providers, tracing agents or investigators, solicitors or other agents for the purpose of collecting monies due or outstanding on your account;
  • the organisations who instruct us to collect debt on their behalf;
  • our affiliates, for the purpose of managing our customer relationships and administering our business;
  • our advisors, for the purpose of assisting us to better manage, support or develop our business and comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • our regulators or other relevant authorities (including the Financial Conduct Authority and Information Commissioner's Office) to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • entities who may or do acquire any rights in us for the purpose of a business sale or reorganisation;
  • credit reference agencies (including TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) - see sections below 'Sharing with Credit Reference Agencies';
  • law enforcement bodies in order to comply with any legal obligation or court order;
  • we reserve the right to sell accounts. In some circumstances, the firm to whom we sell accounts may require us to continue to process personal information. We will inform you if we do this.

Transfer outside of the EEA

Recipients with whom we share your personal information, for example our service providers, may be located in the UK, other countries in the European Economic Area or elsewhere in the world. Different privacy laws may apply in these countries and you understand and unambiguously agree to the transfer of personal information to these countries and parties.

Whenever we or our service providers transfer your personal information outside of the European Economic Area, we or they impose the standard contractual obligations approved by the European Commission on the recipients of that information to protect your personal information to the standard required in the European Economic Area or require the recipient to subscribe to 'international frameworks'. More details on the standard contractual obligations and the international frameworks are available on the ICO's website, or you can contact our Data Protection Officer on the details below.

Monitoring

We record and monitor communications with us, including electronic communications, video conferencing technology and calls, to improve the quality of our service and for your protection and security.

Sharing with Credit Reference Agencies

We undertake checks with credit reference agencies for the purposes of validating your personal circumstances, evaluating our risk and for statistical analysis to help us enhance our services (see 'Statistical Analysis' section).

Credit reference agencies add to the record about you information about your repayment history, including any default or failure to keep to the terms of an agreement with us.

Credit reference agencies hold your personal information for up to six years.

These records will be shared with other organisations may be used and searched by us and them to:

  • consider applications for credit and credit related services, such as insurance, for you and any associated person; and
  • trace customers, recover debts, prevent or detect money laundering and fraud, and to manage accounts.

We use Equifax, TransUnuion, and Experian as our credit reference agencies. More information about the credit reference agencies and how they process your personal information is available at: www.equifax.co.uk/crain, www.transunion.co.uk/crain and www.experian.co.uk/legal/crain

You can also find information about the credit reference agencies on the website of the Information Commissioner's Office at www.ico.org.uk/for-the-public/credit

For crime and fraud prevention and anti-money laundering

We undertake checks for the purposes of detecting and preventing crime, fraud and money laundering. These checks require us to process your personal information with the credit reference agencies. The consequences of these checks may mean that if we determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, we may require repayment of your account or we may stop providing existing services to you. If you have an agreement with us (for example, if we wish to require the repayment of an existing loan) then the terms of that agreement will dictate how we do this.

We may also enable law enforcement agencies or relevant authorities to access and use your personal information to detect, investigate and prevent crime.

Statistical analysis

We use personal information of individuals who have an account with us for statistical analysis to assess risk, to refine recovery, strategies, and for analysis such as loss forecasting.

The personal information we use is obtained from clients, debt sellers and credit reference agencies. Wherever possible, this information is processed on an anonymised basis. The credit reference agencies will not add a record to your credit file of processing conducted for this purpose.

Testing

We use personal information of individuals whose account is being serviced by us (and those associated with our commercial clients, partners and suppliers) have applied for a product with us to test strategies and our internal systems and those of our third party service providers.

Testing can involve personal information being shared with and obtained from our third party service providers, credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies. Wherever possible, this information is processed on an anonymised basis. The credit reference agencies will not add a record to your credit file of processing conducted for this purpose.

Marketing

We do not send marketing materials to our debt collection customers.

From time to time, we may send corporate clients and potential corporate clients information regarding our services that we think may be of interest where we have your agreement.

If, at any time, you prefer not to receive further communications from us in any or all forms (except in connection with information or services that you specifically request), you will have the ability to unsubscribe from electronic communications by means of a link or by contacting us. To unsubscribe from such communications by SMS, reply 'STOP' to the SMS.

Third Party Websites

This website contains links to other websites. We accept no responsibility or liability for the content of other websites which are not under our strict control, in particular, we are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting other websites and such sites are not governed by this Privacy Statement. Please see section titled 'Access to Website' in our Website Terms and Conditions for further details.

Email

Emails sent via the internet can be subject to interception, loss or possible alteration, therefore we cannot guarantee their security. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data sent by email and therefore will have no liability to you for any damages or other costs in relation to emails sent by you to us via the internet.

Children's Privacy

The Website is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18 without the agreement and involvement of a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 18.

Updates

We will keep this Privacy Statement under review and make updates from time to time. We will notify you of any major changes which will affect the processing of your personal data, for example if we change the credit reference agencies we use. We may make minor changes (such as to correct typographical errors, or to add information about other services which do not affect your personal data at this time) without notifying you.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies (including Google Analytics cookies to obtain an overall view of visitor habits and visitor volumes to our Website). To view more information on what cookies we use and how we use them please review our separate Cookie Policy.

Your data protection rights

You have the right to request copies of certain of your personal information within our custody and control and details of how we use that information. Your request should be made verbally or in writing.

If you think any of the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, you can also request it is corrected or erased.

You also have rights, in certain circumstances:

  • to object to our processing of your personal information;
  • to require us to stop processing your personal information; and/or
  • to withdraw your agreement to processing based on 'consent'.

In relation to all of these rights, please call us or write to us at:

Data Protection Officer
Debt Managers (Services) Ltd
Yorke House, Arleston Way
Solihull
West Midlands
B90 4LH

Please note that we may request proof of identity when we receive your request.

Complaints process

Data Protection Officer

If you are unhappy about how your personal information has been used, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the details set out below. You also have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (https://ww.ico.org.uk), which regulates the processing of personal data.

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by telephone or in writing:

Data Protection Officer
Yorke House, Arleston Way
Solihull
West Midlands
B90 4LH

Telephone queries can be made to: 01709 758449