Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

At The Finance Hut Ltd, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain and safeguard your personal information when you visit our website, submit an enquiry, apply for finance, speak with us or otherwise interact with us.

The Finance Hut Ltd is a credit broker, not a lender. As such, we may introduce you to finance providers depending on your requirements, circumstances, the asset or vehicle being financed and lender criteria.

We are not independent financial advisers and are unable to provide independent financial advice.

2. Who We Are

The Finance Hut Ltd is the data controller for the personal information we collect and process, unless we tell you otherwise.

3. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of personal, vehicle, financial and application information:

• Personal identification information: full name, date of birth, address, contact number and email address.
• Financial information: finance requirements, income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, bank information, credit history, loan or finance applications and repayment information.
• Vehicle information: vehicle make, model, registration, mileage, age, value, specification, condition, supplier information, settlement figures, part exchange details and intended use.
• Application and enquiry information: amount of finance requested, deposit, term, finance product preferences, supporting documents and information provided by you or relevant third parties.
• Business information: business name, company name, registration number, trading history, ownership details and business activities where a business or company application is involved.
• Technical information: IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, cookies, analytics data and information about how you use our website.
• Communication records: emails, telephone calls, enquiry forms, messages and notes from conversations with our team.

4. How We Collect Information

We may collect personal information directly from you when you complete a form, contact us by phone or email, apply for finance, provide documentation, use our website or otherwise communicate with us.

We may also receive information from third parties, including finance providers, lenders, credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies, professional advisers, introducers, brokers, dealerships, vehicle suppliers, accountants, service providers and publicly available sources such as Companies House.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use your information for the following purposes:

• To respond to your enquiry and communicate with you.
• To assess your finance requirements and process applications.
• To introduce you to suitable lenders, finance providers or relevant partners.
• To verify identity, prevent fraud and carry out checks required by lenders or finance providers.
• To assess vehicle, supplier, affordability and finance suitability information.
• To manage our relationship with you and maintain records of communications.
• To improve our website, services, customer experience and internal processes.
• To send marketing updates where permitted by law and where you have not opted out.
• To comply with legal, regulatory, accounting, tax and compliance obligations.
• To establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

6. Lawful Basis for Processing

We only use your personal information where we have a lawful basis to do so. Depending on the purpose, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

• Contract or steps before entering into a contract: where processing is needed to respond to your enquiry or progress a finance application.
• Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for our business interests, such as responding to enquiries, managing applications, improving services, preventing fraud and maintaining records.
• Consent: where you have given clear consent, for example for certain marketing communications or non-essential cookies.
• Legal obligation: where processing is necessary to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

7. Sharing Your Information

We may share your personal information with third parties where necessary to provide our services, process your enquiry, comply with legal obligations or operate our business.

This may include:

• Finance providers, lenders, funders and broker partners.
• Credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies.
• Vehicle suppliers, dealerships, valuers, brokers or introducers where relevant to your application.
• AFS Compliance Ltd, where necessary for regulatory oversight, compliance monitoring, complaints handling or other obligations arising from our Appointed Representative status.
• Professional advisers, including accountants, solicitors and compliance advisers.
• IT, hosting, website, CRM, email, analytics and communication service providers.
• Regulators, law enforcement agencies, courts, public authorities or government bodies where required.
• Third parties involved in a business sale, merger, acquisition or restructuring.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

8. Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Checks

Where required for a finance application, lenders or finance providers may carry out credit reference, identity, affordability, anti-money laundering and fraud prevention checks. These checks may involve sharing information with credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies.

The outcome of these checks may affect whether finance can be offered and on what terms. Finance is subject to status, affordability, lender criteria and the information supplied.

9. Marketing Communications

We may contact you with relevant updates, products or services where permitted by law. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by contacting us using the details in this policy or by using any unsubscribe option provided in our messages.

We will not send you electronic marketing where consent is required unless you have provided that consent.

10. Cookies and Website Tracking

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to improve user experience, understand visitor behaviour, measure website performance, support security and help us improve our services.

Some cookies are essential for the website to operate. Non-essential cookies, such as analytics or advertising cookies, should only be used where appropriate consent has been obtained.

You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings, although some website features may not work properly without them. Further information will be provided in our Cookie Policy.

11. Call Recording

Calls may be recorded for training, monitoring, quality assurance and compliance purposes. This Privacy Policy applies to telephone calls recorded by The Finance Hut Ltd.

A recorded call may contain personal data. We handle recorded call information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection requirements.

12. Data Security

We take the protection of personal data seriously and use appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

Access to personal information is restricted to staff, partners and service providers who need it for legitimate business purposes and who are expected to handle it securely and confidentially.

13. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, including to respond to enquiries, manage finance applications, maintain records, comply with legal and regulatory obligations, resolve disputes and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, anonymised or archived in accordance with our retention procedures.

14. International Transfers

Some of our service providers may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where this happens, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal information in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

15. Your Rights

Under data protection laws, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• Right of access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Right to erasure: request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing: ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: request your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format where applicable.
• Right to object: object to certain processing, including direct marketing.
• Right to withdraw consent: withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent as the lawful basis.

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details below. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

16. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content or security of third-party websites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing personal information.

17. Complaints

The Finance Hut Ltd aims to provide customers with the highest standards of service. As we are an Appointed Representative of AFS Compliance Ltd, service complaints are subject to AFS Compliance oversight and reporting requirements. You may use the AFS Complaints Procedure where you wish to make or escalate a complaint about our service.

If your concern relates specifically to how we have handled your personal information, you also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection matters.

18. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business, legal requirements, regulatory guidance or how we use personal information.

The latest version will be published on this page.

19. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact: