Privacy Policy
Introduction
This policy explains how Brantwood Finance Company collects, uses, stores and protects personal information when you visit our website, make an enquiry, apply for a loan or become a customer. It also explains your rights and how to contact us.
Brantwood Finance Company is a trading name of Blueprint Investments Ltd (company registered in England, number 3140566). In this policy, “Brantwood”, “we” and “us” refer to Blueprint Investments Ltd.
The Website
Our website is www.brantwoodfinance.co.uk. We take steps to protect information submitted through the website and use it in accordance with applicable UK data-protection law, including the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Use of Cookies
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files that a website can store on your device. They can help the website work, remember settings and provide information about how it is used.
What do we use cookies for?
We use cookies needed for the operation and security of the website and its forms. We may also use analytics, including Google Analytics, to understand how visitors use the website. Analytics information may include details about your device and your use of the site; it should not be assumed to be anonymous simply because it does not contain your name. Where the law requires your consent for an optional cookie or similar technology, we will seek it. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings.
Personal Information
When you use our website or services, we may collect your name, address, date of birth, contact details, household and employment circumstances, financial information and other information needed to assess an application or manage an account. We use this information for the purposes explained below. We protect it and restrict access to people who need it for their work.
We may contact you by telephone, email, text message or post about your enquiry, application or account. Providing your contact details for these purposes does not, by itself, mean that you have agreed to receive marketing. Where marketing requires a separate choice, we will ask for it.
You can contact us about the information we hold on you at info@brantwoodfinance.co.uk.
How do we collect information?
We collect information directly from you when you complete a website form, speak to us or correspond with us. We may also obtain information from third parties relevant to your application or account, including a credit reference agency, fraud prevention agency, public record, broker or Open Banking provider, as described below.
If you use our Open Banking provider, you choose whether to use its service and which accounts to connect. The provider will explain its own service and privacy practices to you. We use information it makes available to us to help staff assess your application.
Registration and Online Application Forms
We do not sell or rent the personal information you give us through our website forms.
When you submit our Online Application Form, your answers and any files you provide are stored in our website form system and passed to a restricted internal application system. Authorised Brantwood staff review the application, contact you where needed, carry out relevant checks and record the decision and its reasons. Notification emails to staff do not contain your application answers or attachments.
If your application progresses, we may invite you to use our Open Banking provider. Our staff review the information made available to us and decide whether to progress the application. The internal application system does not make the lending decision automatically.
If we approve your application, authorised staff transfer the relevant details to our Lending Management System. A staff member checks the information before saving the customer record. We also keep approval or rejection information and decision reasons for our reporting and regulatory responsibilities.
Choosing how we use your data:
You can ask us to confirm, correct or update the information we hold about you by contacting info@brantwoodfinance.co.uk. We may ask you to verify your identity before we disclose or change personal information. Your other rights are described below.
We collect information about you:
- As part of an enquiry, loan application and, if a loan is made, during the term of the agreement.
- From you, and where relevant from credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies, public records, brokers and the Open Banking provider you choose to use.
- This may include your name, address, date of birth, contact and employment details, income, expenditure, credit history and records relating to your account. We may also record staff notes and the reasons for an application decision.
We use your infortmation to:
Assess your application, including affordability, and make a lending decision with staff review.
Contact you about your application or account.
Verify identity, prevent fraud and money laundering, and meet legal and regulatory obligations.
Set up and manage your account, collect payments, deal with arrears and respond to complaints.
Keep records of application decisions and meet reporting and regulatory requirements.
Obtain information from, or report to, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies where appropriate.
Depending on the purpose, we use information where it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a loan agreement, to perform an agreement, to comply with legal or regulatory obligations, or for our legitimate interests in responsible lending, fraud prevention and keeping accurate records. Where we rely on your consent for a separate purpose, such as certain marketing, you may withdraw it. If you do not provide information needed to assess an application, we may be unable to offer a loan.
We may share your information with:
- Service providers who help us run our website, internal application process, email, Open Banking process, reporting and Lending Management System, subject to appropriate protections.
- Credit reference and fraud prevention agencies where searches or reporting are needed.
- A party that lawfully takes over or administers an agreement, where relevant.
- Regulators, law enforcement agencies or other bodies where required or permitted by law.
We store your information:
We store information electronically and may keep documents in formats such as PDF. Our internal application system is hosted in the UK. Other service providers may process information in the UK or elsewhere. Where a transfer outside the UK requires a legal safeguard, we will use an appropriate safeguard or an applicable adequacy arrangement.
We keep your information:
We keep information for as long as needed for the purposes described above, including legal, regulatory, complaint and dispute requirements. For the internal application system, our normal periods are:
- Approved applications: 12 months after confirmed transfer to the Lending Management System, unless a documented reason requires longer retention.
- Declined or withdrawn applications: six years after the final decision or withdrawal, unless a documented reason requires a different period.
- Application-decision reporting records: six years after the final decision.
The original website form entry and any resulting customer or loan records may be held separately for the period necessary to process the application, manage an account and meet applicable legal or regulatory requirements. We review the information we hold and do not keep it indefinitely simply because storage is available.
You have the right to:
Ask for access to the personal information we hold about you.
Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Ask us to delete information, restrict its use or object to certain uses, where the law provides that right.
Request a portable copy of information where that right applies.
Withdraw consent where we rely on it, and object to direct marketing at any time.
Ask which credit reference agencies we have used and obtain your file from those agencies.
These rights are not absolute. For example, we may need to retain some information to meet a legal obligation or deal with a claim. We may ask for proof of identity before responding to a request.
Contact
If you have question, want to exercise your rights or make a complaint, please contact our Data Protection Officer on 0161 736 0003 or send your requests to Brantwood Finance Company, 86 North Street, Manchester M8 8RA.
You can also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113.
BRANTWOOD FINANCE COMPANY is a trading name of BLUEPRINT INVESTMENTS LTD who are Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Company Registered in England No. 3140566