Privacy Policy

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018, the data controller is Q-Finance of Suite 2, Alexander House, Durham, County Durham, DH7 8XL.

This policy, together with our Terms & Conditions and any other documents referred to in it, explains our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

Information you give us. This is information you give us by filling in forms on our site or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise — including when you register, apply for finance, search for a vehicle, or report a problem. It may include your name, address, email address and phone number, financial and credit card information, personal description and photograph, date of birth, employment details and address history.

Information we collect about you. On each visit we automatically collect:

• ✓ Technical information, including your IP address, login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform.
• ✓ Information about your visit, including the pages and vehicles you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visit, page interaction such as scrolling and clicks, how you browsed away from the page, and any number used to call our customer service line.

Information we receive from other sources. We work closely with third parties including business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers and credit reference agencies. We will notify you when we receive information about you from them and what we intend to use it for.

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users, which helps us give you a good experience and lets us improve the site. For detail on the cookies we use and why, see our Cookie Policy.

Information you give to us. We use it:

• ✓ To carry out our obligations under any contract between us, and to provide the information, products and services you request.
• ✓ To tell you about other goods and services we offer that are similar to those you have already purchased or enquired about.
• ✓ To tell you about goods or services we feel may interest you. We will only contact you by email or SMS if you have consented, and you may withdraw consent at any time.
• ✓ To notify you about changes to our service.
• ✓ To make sure our content is presented in the most effective way for you and your device.

Information we collect about you. We use it:

• ✓ To administer our site and for internal operations — troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.
• ✓ To improve the site and how content is presented.
• ✓ To let you take part in interactive features when you choose to.
• ✓ To keep the site safe and secure.
• ✓ To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.
• ✓ To make suggestions and recommendations about goods or services that may interest you.

We may share your personal information with any member of our group, and with selected third parties:

• ✓ Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors, where this is necessary to perform a contract with you.
• ✓ Analytics and search engine providers who help us improve and optimise the site.
• ✓ Credit reference agencies, for assessing your credit score where that is a condition of us or a partner entering into a contract with you.
• ✓ Finance brokers and lenders, for the purpose of providing the finance you have asked for.

We will also disclose your personal information if we sell or buy any business or assets, if the firm is acquired, or if we are under a duty to disclose it to comply with a legal obligation, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Q-Finance, our customers or others — including exchanging information for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

A full list of the processors we currently use is available on request.

All information you provide is stored on our secure servers, and any payment transactions are encrypted. Where you have a password giving access to parts of the site, you are responsible for keeping it confidential — please do not share it.

Data may be transferred to, stored at, and processed by staff at a destination outside the European Economic Area by one of our suppliers, including staff engaged in fulfilling your order, processing payment details and providing support. By submitting your personal data you agree to this. We take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure your data is treated securely and in accordance with this policy.

Transmission of information over the internet is not completely secure. We will do our best to protect your data, but we cannot guarantee the security of data sent to our site, and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have it, we use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access.

Unless the law requires otherwise — for example to prevent fraud or tax evasion — we do not keep personal data longer than we need it for the purpose we collected it. Ordinarily that is seven years if you have purchased a vehicle or services or obtained finance through us, and six months if you have not.

Where you have not objected to marketing about similar goods and services, or have given and not withdrawn consent for other marketing, we keep the data for as long as we need it for those purposes. We review what we hold regularly and delete anything we no longer need; anything that must be retained but is not needed day to day is archived or taken offline.

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will ask your consent before collecting your data if we intend to use it that way or disclose it to a third party for that purpose, and you can prevent it by not ticking the relevant boxes on our forms.

• ✓ To have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
• ✓ In some cases, to have your personal data removed from our systems — for example where we no longer need it, where you withdraw consent, or where you object and there is no overriding legitimate interest.
• ✓ Where processing is automated and based on your consent or a contract, to receive your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable form, or to have it transmitted directly to another organisation where that is technically feasible.
• ✓ To ask us not to subject you to a decision with legal or similarly significant effect made solely by automated processing, unless it is necessary for a contract, authorised by law, or you have given explicit consent.

You can exercise any of these rights at any time by writing to us at Suite 2, Alexander House, Durham, County Durham, DH7 8XL or emailing enquiries@q-finance.co.uk.

The Data Protection Act also gives you the right to access the information we hold about you. We will not charge for this unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if repetitive, or for further copies of the same information.

Our site may contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. Those websites have their own privacy policies and we do not accept responsibility or liability for them. Please check them before submitting any personal data.

Any changes we make to this policy will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email.

Questions, comments and requests about this policy are welcome and should be addressed to Suite 2, Alexander House, Durham, County Durham, DH7 8XL or enquiries@q-finance.co.uk.

If you have a complaint about how we process your personal data, please contact us and we will do our best to resolve it. If you remain dissatisfied, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, by telephone on 0303 123 1113, or through the contact and complaint forms at ico.org.uk.