To provide the highest level of customer service we need accurate customer information. You can help by informing us whenever your circumstances change, either by telephone or post.
How We Use Your Personal Information
Our main use of your personal information is to assist you in your application for a mortgage or provide a specific service you require. Some details we can/will obtain elsewhere i.e. credit reference agencies.
Occasionally, we may contact you by letter, telephone or otherwise to inform you about other products and services that may interest you. If at any stage you wish not to be contacted in the future please write to us at the following address:
- Offset Mortgage Centre
8 The Green, Eaton Ford
St. Neots
Cambridgeshire PE19 7AF.
Unless you have given us your consent, we will not provide information about you to companies outside Offset Mortgage Centre to use for their own marketing purposes.
Occasionally, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) compliance review bodies audit a sample of our customer records to assess our compliance with the regulations. Whenever this happens, strict confidentiality conditions are always imposed.
Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to access the information we hold about you on our records. The act allows us to charge a £10.00 fee for this service. If anything is inaccurate or incorrect, please let us know and we will correct it.
Credit Referencing
If you apply for any credit based products (e.g. mortgage or secured loan), a search will be performed with a credit reference agency. The agency will keep a record of the search.
When applying for a mortgage a search may be performed within public records, such as the Electoral Roll, that are available from credit reference agencies to help verify your identity.
Associations linking your financial records may be created on credit reference agency records when you apply for a mortgage in joint names. Your financial records, and those of anyone financially associated with you, may be considered in any future applications you make.
You have the right to apply to the credit reference agencies for a copy of your credit file. If there is anything incorrect on your file, you have the right to ask the agency to add a notice of correction.
Equifax Plc and/or Experian Limited are used for credit referencing. Their contact details are as follows:
- Equifax Plc
PO Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US
Tel: 0870 010 0583 www.equifax.co.uk
- Experian Ltd
Consumer Help Service
PO Box 8000
Nottingham
NG1 5GX
Tel: 0870 241 6212 www.experian.co.uk
If you have been refused credit you can get advice from your local Trading Standards department, Citizens Advice Bureau or Consumer Advice Centre, or through the agencies` websites. The Information Commissioner also produces a useful leaflet entitled No Credit? You can obtain a free copy from the Information Commissioners website at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk or by telephoning 0870 600 8100
Credit Scoring
When you apply for a mortgage the details you provide, the information they already have and information from credit reference agencies is used to assess credit risk using a technique called credit scoring.
Various factors in all these details help the mortgage lenders assess the risk and determine the mortgage they are willing to offer you.
Introducers
Offset Mortgage Centre panel of approved brokers will ask you to give your consent to contact you regarding their services. Upon completion of any contract that has been arranged the product provider may use your details to contact you about other products and services they may provide. If you do not wish them to do this please ask product provider to remove your details from their customer contact system.
Anti-money Laundering and Statutory
To comply with money laundering regulations, and to help stop criminals using financial products or services to launder money, there are times when we need to confirm (or reconfirm) the name and the address of our customers. We may need to do this whether you are applying to be a new customer or have been one for sometime. This information may be shared with other companies within Offset Mortgage Centre panel of approved brokers.
Some acts of parliament oblige us to disclose information about our customers to certain bodies with statutory powers.
Web Site and Email
If you email Offset Mortgage Centre, or give the Offset Mortgage Centre panel of approved brokers your email address, they will keep a record of it. We may use it to contact you occasionally about our products and services, unless you ask not to do so. We will not give your email address to any unauthorised third parties.
Should you decide to send e-mail, you should remember that messages sent over the Internet are not secure and you should therefore think very carefully before including any information of a confidential nature. The Offset Mortgage Centre panel of approved brokers will respect the confidentiality of your information and will limit the content of any e-mail we create to reflect the security limitations that currently exist within the Internet environment. Should you therefore require us to respond, it is essential that you provide your full name and address to enable us to provide a written response.
When you visit Offset Mortgage Centre website, a certain amount of information is retained regarding the event to enable us to understand the profile of our visitors. The information retained includes the IP address and/or the domain name of the visitors. Cookies may be used to personalise your visit to this site.
This privacy policy only covers Offset Mortgage Centre and does not extend to other websites that are linked to our sites.
Telephone Calls
Offset Mortgage Centre panel of approved brokers may record telephone conversations to offer you additional security, resolve complaints and improve our service standards.
Conversations may also be monitored for staff training purposes.
Responsibility For Customer Confidentaility
Offset Mortgage Centre panel of approved brokers and employees are personally responsible for maintaining customer confidentiality. They provide training and education to all their staff to remind them about their obligations. Their policies and procedures are regularly audited and reviewed.
If you think your confidentiality has been broken please write to: Data Controller, Offset Mortgage Centre, 8 The Green, Eaton Ford, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire PE19 7AF.
Business Customers
The Data Protection Act does not generally apply to companies but it does cover sole traders. When we receive an application from such a business we may perform a search with a credit reference agency on the individual company directors or partners.
