Advantis Credit | Privacy Policy

Advantis take the use of personal data and privacy very seriously and are committed to ensuring that your data is used fairly and lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act & GDPR.

For the purposes of the Act, depending upon the status of your account, we may be either the data controller or the data processor of your data. We are the data controller where the title of the account has been formally assigned to Advantis.

This is where we have purchased the title to the account and in all such instances we will have written to you and advised you of this.

We are the data processor where we are acting on behalf of the original creditor or the current owner of the account. This privacy policy explains how Advantis will use, store and share your personal data.

How we obtain and use personal data

We may receive personal data about you from third parties (our clients who are the owners of the account) and who choose to use the service we offer or from companies from whom we have purchased the account.

We may also obtain information from credit reference agencies. In addition we may also collect information from you or from your appointed representative through the use of our website and from communications between us such as within telephone calls, letters or emails.

Type Of Information - Personal information

What is personal information

Personal data such as your name, address, date of birth, relevant account reference numbers, e-mail address, phone number and details of previous communication with us, for example, records, emails and letters.

This includes information passed to us by the data controller (our client) who has instructed us.

Additionally, each time you visit our website we may automatically collect information and personal data about your computer for system administration, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type. We use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect your reference number, other non-personally identifiable information that you enter and details of your behaviour patterns, including the tracking of visits across multiple devices. Google’s remarketing and advertising reporting has been enabled to provide additional information for the analysis of visitor characteristics and behaviour.

We do this to help us analyse how users use the site (including behaviour patterns and the tracking of visits across multiple devices), to establish more about our website users and to assist us in managing your account. We do not allow Google to make any attempt to establish the identities of any users of our website.

Reason for processing

Legal basis for processing

We have a legitimate interest in processing your data for the purpose of debt collection. This is created through your Article Six rights in the Data Protection Act 2018.

We must make sure that those legitimate interests do not override your interests, rights and freedoms.

Once your account has been closed and/or reassigned by our client, we may continue hold your data to satisfy relevant regulations such as, Anti Money Laundering, Dispute Resolution Rules, Complaint Handing rules, FCA regulatory requirements, etc.

How long we keep your information

Six years from when the account is closed, at which point it will be deleted or anonymised.

Voice recordings are retained for six months.

Subject to an objection based on our legitimate interest or regulatory requirements, our client (the Data Controller) may request the data is deleted or anonymised at an earlier time.

Where a complaint has been made, personal data and the complaint outcome may be retained for at least three years after the complaint has been resolved which may extend the time we retain your data.

Type Of Information - Financial information

What is financial information

Reason for processing

Legal basis for processing

We have a legitimate interest in processing your data for the purpose of debt collection. This is created through your Article Six rights in the Data Protection Act 2018.

We must make sure that those legitimate interests do not override your interests, rights and freedoms.

How long we keep your information

Six years from when the account is closed, at which point it will be deleted or anonymised.

Subject to an objection based on our legitimate interest or regulatory requirements, our client (the Data Controller) may request the data is deleted or anonymised at an earlier time.

There is one exception to the stated timelines. Card payment information will only be stored for a maximum of three months.

Type Of Information - Sensitive information

What is sensitive information

Reason for processing

Legal basis for processing

We only collect the minimum amount of information about any physical or mental health conditions you may have.

Sensitive data will only be collected with your consent or where your Economic Wellbeing under the Data Protection Act 2018 means a) you cannot give consent; b) the firm is unable to ask for consent; or c) obtaining consent would prejudice SCU’s ability to put in measures to protect our customers.

You can remove your consent at any time.

How long we keep your information

Type Of Information - Third Party Information

What is sensitive information

Reason for processing

Legal basis for processing

How long we keep your information

If you require further information about the purposes for which we use your personal data then please contact our Data Protection Officer:

By post:

The Data Protection Officer
Advantis Credit Ltd
Minton Hollins Building
Shelton Old Road,
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
ST4 7RY

By email: marked FAO the Data Protection Officer – admin@advantiscredit.co.uk

A full copy of our privacy notice is available on request.

Cookies

Cookies are small, often encrypted, text files that are placed on your computer’s web browser directories which allow a website to recognize a user’s device. They are commonly used on the internet and often help to improve the user’s overall internet experience.

We use “Session” cookies. These are temporary cookies, which only exist whilst you are using the website, until you close the browser after accessing the website. Session cookies help the website remember what options you chose on the previous page, so you do not need to re-enter information. They are designed to improve your experience whilst using the site. These cookies do not contain personal information and cannot be used to identify you.

We also use cookies to help us improve our service to you. For example, we use Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyse how users use the site (including behaviour patterns and the tracking of visits across multiple devices), to establish more about our website users and to assist us in managing your account. The cookies collect your IP address, your reference number and certain non-personally identifiable information that you enter. Google’s remarketing and advertising reporting has been enabled to provide additional information for the analysis of visitor characteristics and behaviour. Find out more about how these cookies are used on the Google Privacy site.

You can configure your internet browser to allow or reject cookies. Please refer to your browser’s help area for instructions on how to do this. Note that configuring your browser to reject cookies may cause some websites not to function as they were intended and this may diminish your internet experience. Further information regarding cookies can be found here http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ (links to external website).

Sensitive Personal Data

The Data Protection Act defines certain personal data as ‘sensitive’, for example personal data regarding your physical health and mental health.

In order to carry out our role, we are required by the FCA to understand the circumstances of our customers in order to help them find the best way of resolving their account. This may involve collecting and using sensitive personal data. In certain circumstances then we may, for debt collection purposes, therefore ask you for some sensitive details and we would then ask for your consent to store that information.

Alternatively you may voluntarily give such personal data to us. We will only use this personal data for debt collection purposes and would only share such sensitive personal data with our clients who need to be aware of such information for debt collection purposes only. Any sharing of your sensitive personal data with clients will be on the basis of your consent or if we are required or permitted to do so under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Credit Reference Agencies

The Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs) hold personal data about consumers. Most of the personal data held by the CRAs relates to how you have maintained your credit accounts. They also hold address details and personal data from public sources such as the electoral roll, public records including county court judgments, and bankruptcy and insolvency data. We may obtain personal data about you from the CRAs for debt collection purposes and to check your credit history, verify your identity (or someone linked with you), to locate you and to prevent fraud.

Where we have acquired the title of an account we may provide details to the Credit Reference Agencies with regular information about your account, or the behaviour of your account. Other lenders may use this to make decisions on future applications for credit or for the purpose of tracing customers.

We may also obtain information from Credit References Agencies to help locate you and to check/update your contact details and to enable us and our client to make financial decisions.

Data shared with any Credit Reference Agency will be subject to a common CRAIN privacy notice found here : https://www.callcredit.co.uk/legal-information/bureau-privacy-notice

Recorded Phone Calls

We may monitor and/or record phone calls between our staff and you in order to offer you and our staff additional security, resolve complaints, and for training and quality purposes.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We regularly review our policies to ensure they are up-to-date with current legislation requirements, and we reserve the right to amend this policy as and when required. The website will always display our up-to-date privacy policy.

Access to personal data

You are entitled to access the personal data that we hold about you by making a Subject Access Request. If you would like more information on this process or would like to contact us about any aspect of this privacy policy then please contact our Data Protection Officer:

By post:

The Data Protection Officer
Advantis Credit Ltd
Minton Hollins Building
Shelton Old Road,
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
ST4 7RY

By email: marked FAO the Data Protection Officer – admin@advantiscredit.co.uk

Complaints

If you wish to raise a complaint you can do so in writing to the above address, marking your correspondence for the attention of the Complaints Team. Alternatively you can email your complaint to admin@advantiscredit.co.uk or call one of our advisors on 01782 401101.

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