Badger Loans Ltd acts as a credit broker and not a lender. This means that while we do not actually lend you money we can match you with reputable, trustworthy organisations who might. The way we do this is as follows: when you make an application for credit via our website, your completed application form with all your data on it goes into what is called a pingtree system. This is a piece of computer software containing the lender’s panel of who we submit our business to, in the case of Personal Loans this is Lead Affinity (FCA number 729302 – their Privacy Policy is here: https://www.leadaffinity.com/privacy-policy.html .) In the case of Payday Loans this is Leadtree Global (FCA number 728649 – their Privacy Policy is here: https://www.leadtreeglobal.com/PrivacyPolicy) Leadtree’s address is: 23 Hinton Rd, Bournemouth, BH1 2EF. The pingtree system endeavours to match you to the cheapest, most suitable loan product for you based on your answers in the application form. The system features the lending products of up to 40 different lenders depending on which type of loan you are trying to access.
As part of this process your data may be seen by the following organisations in order to give you a loan:
Personal loan providers.Short term loan providers.Guarantor loan providers.Credit brokers.Credit Referencing Agencies (CRAs).Identity and Verification service providers. Data aggregation companies.Credit report and scores services. Personal data monitoring services.Government agencies.
Be aware that some of these companies will have their own Terms & Conditions and own Privacy Policies which may differ to ours. You may need to opt out or in of their marketing programmes and will be given the option to do so at various points along your journey to getting a loan.
If you are successful in obtaining a loan via the pingtree on our site we will receive a commission from the lender who provides the loan. The amount of commission will vary according to the lender and their perceived risk of you as a customer.
These third parties may use this personal data where they have a lawful reason to do so, which may include these organisation’s own legitimate interest.These third parties may disclose all personal data included in the loan application and loan repayment details to your credit record.In order to provide you with the service these third parties may contact you by sending you service messages via SMS, email or automated calls.
The information disclosed may be stored and used by these third parties for the following purposes: assessing the risk to grant credit; preventing fraud and money laundering (including to verify your identity and to trace debtors); carrying out research such as analysis of market trends and customer demographics; customise and develop the product/service which they offer to you or other individuals in the future.
The CRAs have produced a standard Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN), which sets out how data will be processed by the three CRAs and how each can be contacted:
- Experian: www.experian.co.uk/crain
- Equifax: www.equifax.co.uk/crain
- Call Credit: www.callcredit.co.uk/crain
As part of the services offered to you through our site, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the EEA. By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers, or our third parties’ servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EEA. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.
Information is also kept relating to any applications you may enter via our website. This information will be kept for a minimum of six years, which will commence at the end of the relationship. We are required to do so to ensure that if any disputes or complaints are raised, we have your information to enable us to address the complaints or disputes.
Your data will not be kept indefinitely and will only be kept for as long as is required by legitimate or regulatory needs. When there is no longer a need for your data and there are no regulatory requirements, information will be kept for a maximum of 2 years, purely to assist with auditing. It will then be securely removed.
For the purposes of the Data Protection Act, Badger Loans Ltd is the Data Controller operating under licence number ZA208778 at the registered address mentioned above in the section ‘Who are we?’