1. About this policy
This policy explains how PJG Financial Limited, trading as Dot Dot Loans, handles your personal information when you use our website or ask us to find you a loan. Please read it alongside our Terms and conditions.
2. Who is responsible for your data
PJG Financial Limited is the data controller for the information you give us. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZB537016, and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 919697.
3. Information we collect
To match you with a lender we collect your name, date of birth and contact details, your address and residential status, your income, employment and monthly outgoings, and your bank and card details. We also collect technical information such as your device, browser and how you use the site.
4. How we use your information
We use your information to search our panel for a potential match, to share your information with the relevant partner if we find one so you can continue, to prevent fraud, to meet our legal and regulatory duties, and to improve our service. We collect information needed to operate the matching service, assess eligibility, prevent fraud and meet legal obligations to assess your application. We also send your details to UK Credit Ratings, a credit report service, if you tick the credit report trial box or if we do not pass you on to a lender or broker, as explained in section 6.
5. Our lawful bases
We rely on your consent to run a soft search and share your details with lenders, on the steps needed to enter into a contract, on our legitimate interests in running and improving the service and preventing fraud, and on our legal obligations as an FCA authorised broker. When we send your details to UK Credit Ratings (section 6), we rely on your consent if you tick the credit report trial box, and on our legitimate interests if you do not.
6. Who we share it with
To assess your eligibility, process your application, verify your identity, help prevent fraud and look for potential credit matches, we may share your details with relevant finance partners and service providers. These include lenders, credit brokers, credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies, identity verification providers, and technology providers involved in processing your application, as well as service providers who help us run the site, such as hosting and analytics. We may also share information with regulators or law enforcement where the law requires it. Apart from UK Credit Ratings, described below, we do not publish the names of individual partners, and we never sell your data to list brokers or marketing companies.
UK Credit Ratings (credit report service)
UK Credit Ratings is a credit report and credit score service. It is a trading name of RS Data Tech, Ltd (company number 08282923), whose parent company is RateSpecial Interactive. RS Data Tech, Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (firm reference number 738724) and registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (registration number Z3515312). It is not a lender and plays no part in your loan application with us. It is also a credit broker: it may show its members loan and credit card offers, and is paid a commission if they take one.
We send your details to UK Credit Ratings so that its sign-up page is filled in for you:
- If you tick the credit report trial box on our form, UK Credit Ratings' sign-up page opens in a new tab when you submit your application.
- Whether or not you tick the box, if we do not pass you on to a lender or broker from our panel, we take you to UK Credit Ratings' sign-up page in the same tab. This happens if no lender or broker accepts your application, if you have already applied with the same details, if there is no answer within about five minutes, or if a technical problem means we cannot get an answer. It also happens in the rare case that a lender accepts your application but pays us less than our minimum fee, or does not give us a link to take you to it.
We send:
- Your title, first name and last name
- Your date of birth
- Your email address and mobile number
- Your house number or building name, street, town and postcode
- Your bank sort code and account number
- A reference number we create for the introduction, which also shows how you reached us (for example through an advert or a text message)
Our web page sends these details from your browser straight to UK Credit Ratings, through a referral link run by RateSpecial. They do not pass through our own systems on the way. Your sort code and account number are not put in the web address, but everything else is, so it may be kept in your browser history and in the logs of the receiving websites.
The details are sent as the page opens, before you decide anything. You only become a member if you complete UK Credit Ratings' own sign-up, and its service is a paid monthly subscription after a free trial. UK Credit Ratings' privacy policy says it may keep details given on its website even if you do not finish signing up, and may use them to ask why you did not finish or to market other products to you.
If you tick the box, we rely on your consent. If you do not, we rely on our legitimate interests in offering a credit report service to applicants we cannot pass on to a lender, and in being paid for that introduction, which helps keep our service free to use. You can withdraw your consent, or object, by emailing contact@dotdotloans.co.uk. Because the details are sent automatically as the page opens, this cannot recall details already sent, so to have them deleted, also contact UK Credit Ratings at privacy@ukcreditratings.com.
UK Credit Ratings is a separate data controller and is responsible for how it uses your information. Its privacy policy, which says it may transfer information to the United States, is at ukcreditratings.com/privacy.
UK Credit Ratings pays us a commission if you sign up to its free trial. It tells us when one of our reference numbers leads to a sign-up, so that it can pay us. We do not ask for or keep your credit report.
7. Credit reference and fraud agencies
When we search for a loan, only a soft search is carried out, which does not affect your credit score and is visible only to you. If you formally apply to a lender, that lender will carry out a hard credit search that is recorded on your file. Your information may also be checked against fraud prevention databases.
8. How long we keep it
We keep your information only as long as we need it for the purposes above and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations, then we securely delete or anonymise it. Records relating to a completed introduction are kept in line with FCA requirements.
9. Your rights
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to correct it, to have it deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to receive it in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below.
10. Cookies and analytics
Our website uses cookies and similar tools to make the site work, remember your preferences and understand how it is used. You can control cookies through your browser settings. Non essential cookies are only used with your agreement.
11. Marketing choices
We will only send you marketing if you have agreed to receive it. Marketing is optional and separate from your loan application: if you tick the marketing box, PJG Financial Limited and its partners named below may send you relevant marketing relating to your loan application by email, text, WhatsApp and phone. We rely on your consent for this, and we keep a record of when you gave it and the wording you agreed to. If you ticked the marketing box when it named Dot Dot Loans only, you agreed to marketing from Dot Dot Loans only, and that is all we will send you.
Our marketing partners
- Dot Dot Loans (dotdotloans.co.uk)
- UKPayday (ukpayday.co.uk)
- Loans for Bad Credit UK (loansforbadcredituk.co.uk)
All three are PJG Financial Limited's own brands. We do not pass your marketing choice to any other company.
You can opt out at any time using the link in any message or by contacting us. Opting out stops marketing from PJG Financial Limited and all of these partners. It does not affect a loan application you have already started.
12. Keeping your data secure
We use encryption and strict access controls to protect your information, and we require our partners to do the same. No system is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to keep your data safe.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The version published on this page is the one that applies. Please check back so you know how we handle your information.
14. How to complain
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please contact us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
15. Contact us
For any privacy question, or to use your data rights, contact us using the details on our Contact page or write to PJG Financial Limited.