Please take some time to read through this and ask us to explain anything that isn’t clear.
Professional Contractor Mortgages will always take your privacy seriously and assure you that every reasonable precaution will be taken to protect the personal information you supply.
We’ve created this summary of our Privacy Policy to explain what personal information we collect during the course of advising you and delivering our service.
If you want to talk to us more about how we use your data, you can get in touch with us, by email, telephone or post, using the details below, or by contacting your dedicated Mortgage Consultant or Case Manager in our Client Services Department.
Professional Contractor Mortgages is responsible for processing the personal information you provide to us and is registered with the Information Commissioners Office in the UK (registration number ZA750666).
To find out more information about data protection laws, and specifically, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that protect your rights, please visit: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public; or if there’s anything you’re unsure about in this Privacy Policy, feel free to contact us.
For Clients and Website Visitors who are addressed in this privacy policy and who are located within the European Union, your data controller is Professional Contractor Mortgages to the extent that it is processing your personal data.
Where you are introduced or referred to us by a third party, we become your data controller upon completion of your first call with us.
If you apply for a mortgage or protection policy through us, we will ask you for direct debit details to pass onto your chosen lender or insurer so that they can collect your mortgage or insurance premium payments.
If the product you’ve applied for carries a cost (for example, mortgage valuation fees or lender product fees you choose to pay upfront), we will ask you to provide payment information such as your debit card or credit card details.
Your card details will be passed to mortgage lenders for fees that have been disclosed to you and you have agreed to pay. Once the payment details have been passed to the lender, they will no longer be held in any format by Professional Contractor Mortgages.
For products such as insurance, we will need to collect and process information that the General Data Protection Regulations define as “special categories”. This includes details about your health and any criminal convictions you have. If we need to ask for anything like this, we will always explain what information we require and why. We will always process and store this information securely.
When you visit our website or use our online services, we collect certain data automatically. This may include (but isn’t limited to) the following:
So that we can offer you the best possible service, we may monitor or record our phone calls with you. This helps us check we’ve done what you asked us to do correctly, resolve any queries or issues and train our staff to provide a quality service. We also monitor phone calls for regulatory purposes and to help detect and prevent fraud and other crimes.
How we use your information – We will need to use your information to accept you as a new or returning customer
When any of our customers apply for a product, the law requires us to check their identity. This makes it harder for criminals to use financial systems, or to use false names and addresses to steal the identities of innocent people. Checking everyone’s identity is an important way of fighting money laundering and other criminal activities.
To confirm that you are who you say you are, we will try to verify your name and address by checking your details against databases held by credit reference agencies and the electoral roll. If we cannot verify your name and address in this way, we may ask you to provide us with additional documents to confirm these details.
We will use your details to identify other products and services we offer that we believe you might want to know about – but only where we have your consent.
If you no longer wish to receive such information from us, you can update your preferences by writing to us, giving us an email, or a call. We will update your preferences straightaway.
As you might expect, the law requires us to comply with lots of regulations – including ones about processing customer information. Where necessary, we use your personal data to allow us to fulfil our legal and regulatory requirements.
If we must use your personal information for any purposes that we haven’t described in this policy, you’ll hear from us. We will let you know exactly what we will use it for before we go any further and, where appropriate, obtain your consent.
Data protection laws require that, to process your personal data, we must meet at least one prescribed condition for it. We rely on the following conditions for the activities we carry out:
Necessary for performance of a contract or to comply with the law
In most cases, you will provide the information we ask for because you want to use our services. This means that our use of your information is governed by contract terms. It’s your choice to give us this information. If you choose not to, we may not be able to provide the services you need from us.
Consent
Where we collect other information from you – or when third parties do so for us – we always ask for your consent first. For example, before you use our website you’ll be asked to consent to us using cookies to collect data about the device you’re using. We also seek your consent in the following scenarios:
In the United Kingdom, organisations can use personal information where the benefits of doing so are not outweighed by the interests or fundamental rights or freedoms of individuals. The law calls this the “Legitimate Interests” condition for processing.
Who we share your personal information with
Because of the nature of our role as a mortgage adviser, we share the personal information you give us with people who need to handle it so that we can provide our services to you.
Public bodies, law enforcement, and regulators
The police, other law enforcement agencies, regulators, as well as public bodies such as local and central authorities can sometimes request personal information. This may be for reasons including:
Lenders and Insurers
We will share credit report information and personal information (such as your name and address) with lenders and insurers. This is for purposes that may include:
You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you at any time.
Potential recipients
To fulfil our legal and contractual obligations, we may also share your personal data with a select number of third parties however this will only be with your consent and
If you no longer wish us to share your data with any of these organisations, you may withdraw your consent at any time
If we must use your personal information for any purposes that we haven’t described in this policy, you’ll hear from us. We will let you know exactly what we will use it for before we go any further and, where appropriate, obtain your consent.
