Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

RC Legal and Collections LTD (collectively referred to as “RC Legal and Collections”, “we”, “us” and “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy informs you about how we look after your personal data, provides information about your privacy rights and explains how the law protects you.

We are the data controller responsible for your personal data. We have appointed a data protection officer (the “DPO”) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the DPO using the details set out below.

• Full name of legal entity: RC Legal and Collections LTD
• Title of DPO: Head of Legal
• Email address: accounts@rclegalandcollections.co.uk
• Postal address: 3rd Floor, Stamford Green, 33 Stamford Street, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 1ES
• Telephone number: 0161 5678 844

About This Privacy Policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how RC Legal and Collections LTD collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website and any personal data you may provide to us at any time.

This website is not intended for children under 16 years of age and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-Party Links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

2. The Data We Collect About You

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different categories of personal data about you, which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity data — first name, maiden name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact data — billing address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial and tax data — bank account and payment card details, financial and bank statements, tax identification number and tax returns.
• Technical data — internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
• Usage data — data about how you use our website and services.
• Marketing and communications data — your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties, and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not collect any special categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If You Fail to Provide Personal Data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel the service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

We use different methods to collect personal data from and about you, including through:

Direct interactions. You may provide your identity, contact or financial data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us via our website, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

• apply for funding via our website;
• contact us about potentially applying for funding with us;
• apply to become an independent sales organisation (“ISO”) or agent for us;
• subscribe to our newsletter;
• request marketing to be sent to you;
• contact us via our website; or
• give us feedback or report a problem with our website.

Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our cookies policy for further details.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; or
• where we need to comply with legal or regulatory obligations.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us as described below.

Purposes for Which We Will Use Your Personal Data

We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so.

5. Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We may use your personal data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or engaged our services previously and have not opted out of receiving such marketing.

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

Opting Out

You can ask us or a third party to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into the website and adjusting your marketing preferences, by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you, or by contacting us at any time at accounts@rclegalandcollections.co.uk.

Where you opt out of receiving marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of your account on the website.

Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

6. Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.

7. Disclosure of Your Personal Data

We may share your personal data with other companies in the RC Legal and Collections and Bizlend group. To best serve you, we may also share your personal data with service providers that provide support services to us. They are contractually restricted from using your data in any manner other than in helping us to provide you with our services.

We may also disclose your personal data to a third party:

• when you ask us to do so;
• where it is required by law or any regulatory obligation; or
• in the event that we sell or buy any business assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specific purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

8. International Transfers

The servers we use to store your personal data are located in the United Kingdom and the United States. Personal data may also be processed by staff members and third party service providers located outside of the European Economic Area (the “EEA”).

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• where we transfer your personal data to RC Legal and Collections and Bizlend group companies located in the United States, we do so under an internal intra-group data transfer agreement which incorporates the standard contract clauses approved by the European Commission (the “EC”);
• the transfer is to a country that has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the EC;
• where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the EC which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or
• where we use providers based in the United States, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US.

Please contact us at accounts@rclegalandcollections.co.uk if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

9. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

10. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect of our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process it and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

11. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide.
• Request erasure of your personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it, where you have successfully exercised your right to object, where we may have processed your data unlawfully, or where we are required to erase it to comply with local law.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data in certain scenarios, for example if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy, or where you need us to hold the data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. This right applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before your withdrawal.

To exercise any of the rights listed above, please contact us at accounts@rclegalandcollections.co.uk.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity before actioning your request. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month.

12. Credit Reference Agencies

In order to process your application we will supply your personal information to credit reference agencies (CRAs) and they will give us information about you, such as about your financial history. We do this to assess creditworthiness and product suitability, check your identity, manage your account, trace and recover debts and prevent criminal activity. We will also continue to exchange information about you with CRAs on an ongoing basis, including about your settled accounts and any debts not fully repaid on time. CRAs will share your information with other organisations. The identities of the CRAs, and the ways in which they use and share personal information, are explained in more detail at www.experian.co.uk/crain/index.html.

13. Contact Details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, or to update your data-sharing preferences or personal details, you may contact us as follows:

• Full name of legal entity: RC Legal and Collections Ltd
• Email address: accounts@rclegalandcollections.co.uk
• Postal address: 3rd Floor, Stamford Green, 33 Stamford Street, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 1ES
• Telephone Number: 0161 5678 844

14. Making a Complaint

We pride ourselves on excellent service, but if you would like to make a complaint about the way we have collected or used your personal data, please contact us at accounts@rclegalandcollections.co.uk.

If you are unhappy about the way we have handled your complaint, or if you would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) at ico.org.uk/concerns or by telephoning the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113.