The Data Protection Act
How The Ridgeway Partnership Use Your Personal Information
Credit Referencing
Credit Scoring
Representation
Anti-Money Laundering and Statutory
Email
Telephone Calls
Responsibility for Customer Confidentiality
Business Customers


The Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act 1998 (the "Act") puts obligations on users of personal information and lays down the principles for its use. One principle states that information has to be processed fairly and lawfully. This means that you are entitled to know how The Ridgeway Partnership intend to use any information you provide. You can then decide whether you would want The Ridgeway Partnership to have that information. To provide the highest level of customer service The Ridgeway Partnership need accurate customer information. You can help by informing The Ridgeway Partnership whenever your circumstances change, either by telephone or post.

How The Ridgeway Partnership 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. This will include your name, address and telephone number. If you are applying or enquiring about health or life insurance, it may also include some data concerning your health. We may also obtain some details from credit reference agencies.

After completion of the service which we provide to you, your personal data may be archived and retained on our database and manual files. Such data will only be used in order to assist us to comply with our legal requirements or if your account is re-activated in relation to any subsequent application or request for a service.

If you apply to The Ridgeway Partnership for insurance The Ridgeway Partnership will pass your details to the insurer. If you make a claim, any information you give The Ridgeway Partnership or the insurer may be put on a register of claims and shared with other insurers to prevent fraudulent claims. A list of participants is available from the insurer.

Occasionally, The Ridgeway Partnership may contact you by letter, telephone, email or otherwise to inform you about other products and services that may interest you. The Ridgeway Partnership will request that you sign a separate document agreeing to this. If at a later stage you wish not to be contacted in the future please write to us at the following address:

Client Services
The Ridgeway Partnership
First Floor, 45 Market Place
Bawtry
Doncaster
DN10 6JL.

Unless you have given us your consent, The Ridgeway Partnership will not provide information about you to companies outside The Ridgeway Partnership 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 Act you have the right to access the information The Ridgeway Partnership hold about you on record. The Act allows The Ridgeway Partnership to charge a £10.00 fee for this service. If anything is inaccurate or incorrect, please let us know and we will correct it.

If you do not want to receive unsolicited mail from other companies, you can prevent this by registering with the Mail Preference Service. In addition the Telephone and Fax Preference Services enable you to object to you receiving unsolicited marketing phone calls or faxes from other companies. To register, simply telephone the appropriate number below:

Mailing Preference Service 0207 291 3310
Telephone Preference Service 0207 291 3320
Fax Preference Service 0207 291 3330
For more details about all the preference services, please see the Direct Marketing Associations website at: www.dma.org.uk

Credit Referencing
If you apply for a credit based product (e.g. mortgage or secured loan) as recommended by The Ridgeway Partnership, a search will be performed with a credit reference agency. The agency will keep a record of the search. When applying for a mortgage The Ridgeway Partnership may search public records, such as the Electoral Roll, that are available from credit reference agencies to help us 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.

We may use Equifax Plc and/or Experian Limited for our 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 The Ridgeway Partnership already have and information from credit reference agencies are 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 terms they are willing to offer you.

Representation
The Ridgeway Partnership provides advice on General Insurance from various insurance firms. We will ask you to give your consent for us to contact you regarding the services available. Upon completion of any contract that has been arranged in relation to the insurance products, the provider may use your details to contact you about other products and services they provide. If you do not wish them to do this please ask them 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. The Ridgeway Partnership may need to do this whether you are applying to be a new customer or have been one for sometime. Some Acts of Parliament oblige us to disclose information about our customers to certain bodies with statutory powers.

Email
If you email The Ridgeway Partnership, or give us your email address, we will keep a record of it. The Ridgeway Partnership may use it to contact you occasionally about our products and services (see "How The Ridgeway Partnership Use Your Personal Information" above), unless you ask not to do so. The Ridgeway Partnership will not give your email address to any unauthorised third parties. When emailing us, always use the email facility on our website to make sure that the content of your email is secure. If you send us emails in other ways, remember that it will be insecure and could be intercepted. If you do send us insecure email, please keep any confidential information in it to a minimum. The Ridgeway Partnership will do the same when we reply.

Telephone Calls
The Ridgeway Partnership 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 Confidentiality
All our employees are personally responsible for maintaining customer confidentiality. The Ridgeway Partnership provide training and education to all our staff to remind them about their obligations. Our policies and procedures are regularly audited and reviewed. If you think your confidentiality has been broken, please write to:

Data Controller
The Ridgeway Partnership
Liley House, 33 Northgate
Tickhill
Doncaster
DN11 9HZ

Business Customers
The Act does not generally apply to data relating to companies but it does cover data relating to partnerships and sole traders. When we receive an application we may perform a search with a credit reference agency on the individual company directors or partners,and their data will be used in accordance with this statement.

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