What personal information do we collect?
The information we collect from you depends on the product or service you apply for, or the service that we provide to you. We will only collect information that we actually need, or where we’re required to collect the information to enable us to perform our legal, regulatory or contractual obligations necessary to provide you with the products or services, or where we have your permission.
This will likely include the collection of:
- personal details (e.g. name, date of birth)
- address details
- contact details (e.g. phone number, email)
- special personal information* (e.g. health information)
- financial information
- employment information
- information on how you use our website(s) and products and services
When you complete our enquiry form we pass the details through VeriLayer, a lead-verification platform. VeriLayer confirms that the contact details you supplied are genuine and checks that they have not been used fraudulently.
Special personal information
Data protection law defines some personal information as “special categories of data”.
This includes information about physical or mental health, sexual life, religious beliefs, race or ethnic origin, political opinions, trade union membership or biometric data.
This information may be necessary to collect when understanding the reason for your financial circumstances, or where it may help us to provide a better service to you. For example, a period of ill health could have caused you to fall behind with your regular payments to your creditors.
Where we need to collect and process this type of data about you, by providing this information to us you give your explicit consent for us and any other third party to process this special data to provide a service as set out in this privacy policy, unless we have a legal obligation to process this type of data.
Any personal information about you relating to criminal convictions or offences may only be used by us when authorised by law.
Information about other people
If you provide personal information about someone else, for example when a joint application is made, you must do so with the permission of the other person.
If you enter into a service jointly with another person (for example, linked Individual Voluntary Arrangements), your personal information and any information about the service provided to you will be shared with the other person.
We will use the personal information about the other person in the ways as described in this privacy policy.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect your information in a number of ways:
- When you make an application or enquiry to us either by phone, email, our website, by a third party or by any other means.
- Information received from a third party, for example a creditor providing information about an account you hold with them, or where you have previously agreed for your information to be shared with us, for example, if you have been introduced to us by another company, or if your details are passed through an affiliate partner.
- When you participate in market research, competitions and promotions provided by us, or on our behalf.
- By adding reviews or interacting with us using social media such as X or Meta platforms (eg. Facebook) etc.
- When we may need to obtain up to date information about you to meet our legal or regulatory obligations.
- Where you have given permission for your information to be provided to us.
How do we use your personal information?
When you make an enquiry to utilise our services we’ll use your information to provide you with appropriate information about any solutions you may be eligible for. If you cannot provide this information we may not be able to progress with your application or enquiry.
We may also use this information to contact you about and process your enquiry or application, for example, by telephone or by sending you an email, text message, WhatsApp or letter.
We will process the personal data we collect about you for the purposes set out below at purposes for processing your personal data.
After you have made your initial enquiry/application, if you also decide to go ahead with any of the products or services that we offer, the sections below explain how we will also process your data when we provide that particular product(s) or service(s).
Fraud prevention and data quality (legitimate interests)
We use VeriLayer to verify that enquiries are genuine, prevent duplicate or malicious submissions and protect our service from fraud. We believe we have a lawful basis under legitimate interests to do this for fraud-prevention and data quality assurance.
This supports both Carrington Dean Group Limited and consumers.
Conducting credit searches
As part of our business operations, we may need to conduct credit searches to assess your eligibility for certain debt solutions. By engaging with our services, you consent to the processing of your personal data by the credit search agency, which includes Equifax for this purpose.
Credit search agencies, including Equifax, may collect, use, and share personal data in accordance with their Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN). If you would like to understand how Equifax utilises and shares personal data, including the legitimate interests they pursue, please refer to the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN).
Ongoing Services
Where we are providing you with advice on debt solutions, with claims management services or any other financial services solution, we will process your personal information to administer the services we provide. This may include contacting you where we may need further information or sending you updates on the progress of the services we provide to you.
Where we provide ongoing services, we will normally require you to agree to the terms and conditions of the service. This includes if you choose to enter a debt solution provided by Carrington Dean Group Limited.
These will set out how we will provide the services to you and where we will be required, under the terms and conditions, to process your personal information.
Marketing and research
We may use your data for marketing purposes, such as:
- Sending you relevant information about our services or updates to your current arrangement
- Offering you guidance or reminders related to your financial wellbeing
- Inviting you to provide feedback or take part in surveys
These activities help us improve our services and support better outcomes for customers. You may opt out at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” in our emails or contacting us directly at [email protected]
In addition, we may use anonymised or aggregated data for research and analysis to understand customer needs and enhance our products and services. This data cannot be used to identify individuals.
Third parties
By agreeing to this privacy policy you agree for us to share data and relevant information with third parties as outlined in this policy. This may be to assess eligibility, provide advice, administer insolvency services, comply with regulatory obligations or products and services not provided by Carrington Dean Group Limited. As an example, this may include sharing information with agreed providers for the set-up of services not offered by Carrington Dean Group Limited.
Where we introduce you to another provider, this does not mean a particular solution has been recommended. Any recommendation or suitability assessment will only be made after your circumstances have been assessed by the relevant provider.
Please see the third parties section for further details.
You can opt out of your data being passed to third parties outlined in this policy at any time by contacting [email protected]. If you object to information being shared with relevant providers, we may be unable to assess or arrange certain solutions that could otherwise be available to you.
However, this may impact our ability to provide you the best outcome as outlined in the Consumer Duty policy set by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Automated decision making
When you submit your details, we carry out automated checks (using VeriLayer) to confirm that the email, phone number and address you have supplied are valid, active and not previously reported as fraudulent.
These checks help us to protect prospective customers and our business from impersonation and spam and to ensure that we only contact genuine enquirers.
The verification process does not make any decision that has legal or similarly significant effects for you. If VeriLayer cannot validate your details, your enquiry is flagged for manual review by a member of our team before any decision is made about the services we may offer you.
You may request human intervention, express your point of view and contest the outcome of the automated verification at any time by emailing [email protected]
How we may contact you about the products and services we provide to you
ensure that you’re kept fully informed, we may contact you by letter, telephone, email, text message, WhatsApp, push notifications, social media or may send you messages by any online customer platforms or other electronic means.
If you start an application for a product or service through us we will attempt to contact you shortly after if you were unable to complete your application for whatever reason.
If you do not want to be contacted in a particular way then you can request this at any time, but if we are providing a service to you, we do need to be able to send you communications. This can often be due to a legal or regulatory requirement.
It is important that you keep us up to date when you change your contact details to ensure that we use your up to date contact information.
How long do we keep your data?
If you do not go ahead with any product or service with us, your personal information will normally be deleted after 12 months unless we have another reason to keep your personal information, for example, if you have given your consent to receive marketing information from us. We will delete your information sooner if you ask us to.
If your details are passed to another company within the Carrington Dean Group Limited, your data will be kept to ensure that the group can provide you with services and comply with legal and regulatory obligations.
Your data will be stored for 6 years from the date that we cease to provide you with group services. We cannot delete this data if you ask us to because we are required to keep it by law. After this time, we will delete the information or anonymise the data so that it cannot be linked back to you.
Other purposes for processing your personal data
Websites and marketing
To help us understand you better and provide you with information about other products which may be suitable and relevant, we will use your personal information to create a profile of you and your circumstances.
This allows us to provide more relevant, accurate and tailored services to you. For example, we may assess your income and expenditure to determine whether you would be eligible for a debt solution through us. We believe we have a legitimate interest to do this and that it is not against your rights.
However, if you don’t want us to profile your personal information this way, to then better enable us to tailor any marketing communications to you, you can contact us to let us know that you wish for your personal data not to be used in this way.
Reviews and market research
Where we have a copy of your personal information we may contact you to ask you to provide a review about the services you’ve received or where we are carrying out market research which may help us design future products and services or to help improve our current services.
Although this information would help us, you wouldn’t be required to provide us with this information unless you were happy to. We consider that this is in our legitimate interests to contact you in this way for market research purposes.
Legal or regulatory obligation
We are required to process your personal information where we have a legal or regulatory obligation to do so, for example, to adhere to anti-money laundering or our regulatory obligations.
Responding to complaints or enquiries
If you make an enquiry or complaint with us, we will use your personal information to investigate the complaint and deal with your enquiry.
We have a legal and regulatory obligation to deal with your complaint appropriately.
Internal analysis
As part of our legitimate interest to develop our business and our products we will use your personal information to assess our performance as a business and for statistical analysis. We will use as little personal data as we can to achieve this. We may also share this analysis with third parties who provide us with services and where we have a contractual obligation to do so.
Who do share your information with?
We may also share your personal information with the following organisations:
- IT Service Providers who provide IT platforms or other IT services
- Payment Service companies that process transactions for us (e.g. Direct Debits and card transactions)
- Communication providers (e.g. telephone line providers, and email and text service providers)
- Printers who print the letters and information packs which we send to you
- Advertisers and social media companies such as Meta, Google and X for our social media accounts or where we can contact you using your social media account
- Third parties who help us provide a service, who may have introduced you to our services, or can best administer a product suitable to the individual, including insolvency or non-insolvency products that is non-insolvency products.
- VeriLayer, a lead-verification service provider acting as an independent data-processor on our behalf with its own privacy notice.
These companies help us to provide our services to you. We will have a contract in place with any provider who directly provides us with such direct services to ensure that they comply with their data protection obligations and ensure that they have appropriate security measures in place.
We may also share your personal information where we have your consent to do so or where we’re required to do so under a legal or regulatory obligation or court order, such as the police, local authorities or the courts.
Fraud prevention agencies
The personal information we have collected from you may be shared with law enforcement agencies and fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud, money-laundering and terrorist financing and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance or employment. Further details of how your information is used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found by contacting us.
Social media
We use publicly available social media platforms to promote our services, to provide updates and to share any news and promotional updates. We may collect personal information from these social media platforms, for example, if you post a message on our Facebook page. By providing any of your information to us through these platforms you should be aware that:
- the social media web pages are publicly available and you must not provide any personal or sensitive information on our pages that are accessible to the public, such as your account information. We may ask you for your account information via a private message to identify you and to service any request you make; and
- each social media platform will process any personal information you provide through the platform and will be processed in accordance with its own privacy policy. The privacy policies are available to view on each social media platform.
International transfers
We will only share your personal information outside the UK and European Economic Area (EEA), where we have your consent; to comply with a legal obligation; or where we work with a business partner to enable us to provide you with our services, and they process information outside of the EEA.
If we do share your information outside of the EEA we will make sure that it is protected in the same way as if it was being used in the EEA to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.
This may include putting in place a contract with the business partner that means they must protect the personal data to the same standards as the EEA (this may include defined model clauses), or only share the data to a business partner in a non-EEA country where the privacy laws provide the same protection as within the EEA or where they are part of the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or, where necessary, IDTA-approved contractual clauses.
Security
We take the protection of personal information very seriously and we will maintain appropriate measures to maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information you have provided. Such measures include:
- company security policies and standards
- staff security awareness
- role based and biometric access controls to prevent unauthorised access to the information
- encryption and anonymisation technology
- anti-malware technologies
- security monitoring
- security testing
- secure archiving and deletion
- compliance with industry regulation and legislation
How we may we contact you about other products we may offer
If you have provided us with your consent or where we are legally entitled to do so, we may contact you to let you know about other offers, products and services that we provide which we think you may be interested in or that may benefit you. We may do this through post, emails, text messages, WhatsApp, telephone, push notifications, social media or other electronic means.
You can easily let us know at any time if you would no longer like to receive these messages. You can contact us by emailing [email protected] or unsubscribing using the link or information within the message.
Other types of advertising
When you visit our website or similar websites Google may use our advertisements promoting our products and services which may appear on other third party websites you visit across the internet for remarketing purposes, including cross-device remarketing. Google and other third parties will use cookies to tailor advertisements for website users based on their previous visit to our website. More information about cookies can be found below.
We do not have any control over the advertisements you see on other third party websites however you can request to opt out or customise these advertisements by using the Google Ads Preference Manager.
Third parties
To allow us to provide advice on all solutions and to ensure the best outcome for your circumstances, you may be transferred to third parties that can best administer guidance, insolvency products or a non-insolvency product suitable to your needs.
We transfer data to our partners to enable our partners to deliver to you, products, services and information that you have expressed interest in, or that are compatible with the reason you provided your personal data. We may do this because you gave your consent.
Once we have delivered your personal data to our partner, that partner becomes the controller of your personal data and they will treat your personal data in accordance with their privacy policy. Once your personal data has been delivered to our client, we are no longer responsible for your personal data. Our Partners have their own privacy policies in relation to the data they hold or process. You can ask them about their privacy policy when they contact you.
Our Partners are made up of categories of business types. When we talk about our clients in this privacy policy, we mean our partners are authorised and regulated debt solution providers in the United Kingdom.
For the purpose of Debt Management Plans, Individual Voluntary Arrangements, Trust Deeds, Debt Arrangement Schemes, Debt Relief Orders and secured lending:
- Imperial Insolvency Limited, Incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 15073412, whose registered address is Earl Mill, Dowry Street, Oldham, England, OL8 2PF
- Financial Wellness Group Limited. Incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 05254787 whose registered address is at Think Park Mosley Road, Trafford Park, Manchester, M17 1FQ.
- UK Debt Expert Limited. Incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number SC382881 at 4 West Regent Street, Glasgow, G2 1RW.
- Back2Credit Limited. Incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 10508037 whose registered address is at Tricorn House 9th Floor Botanical Suite, Hagley Road, Birmingham, England, B16 8TU.
- MLS Solvency Limited. Incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number SC502966 whose registered address is at 58 West Regent Street, 3rd Floor, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 2QZ.
- Finbora Group Limited. Incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number SC545312 whose registered address is at 4 West Regent Street, 3rd Floor, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 1RW
- Moriarty Financial Services Ltd, registered in England and Wales with company number 11352686 whose registered at 233 Edward Pavillion, Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AF.
- Aspire Money Limited, Registered in England with company number 06457376, whose registered at Unit 1, Castle Court 2, Castle Gate Way, Dudley, DY1 4RH
- Phoenix Insolvency Practitioners Limited incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 12437227 whose registered address is at Earl Mill, Dowry Street, Oldham, England, OL8 2PF.
- The Insolvency Guys incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 11814670 whose registered address is at Suite 138, Peel House 30 The Downs, Altrincham, Cheshire, England, WA14 2PX
- Astute Finance Ltd incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 11334616 whose registered address is at 93 Lapwing Lane, Manchester, England, M20 6UR.
- Hanover Insolvency Limited incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 07204268 whose registered address is at Sale Point 2nd Floor, 126-150 Washway Road, Sale, Manchester, England, M33 6AG.
- Money Plus Group incorporated and registered in England and Wales with the company number 07310059 whose registered address is at Riverside, New Bailey Street, Manchester, M3 5FS.
- Consumer Links incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 09689776 whose registered address is 6th Floor 49 Peter Street, Manchester, England, M2 3NG.
- Debt Support Service incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 06812829 whose registered address is at 8 Exchange Quay, Manchester, M5 3EJ.
- Carrington Dean Group Limited incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number SC382881, whose registered address is at 4 West Regent Street, Glasgow, G2 1RW.
- Nextpath Finance incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number 644681 whose registered address is at 4 West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 1RW
- Clarity Insolvency Limited incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 17179172 whose registered address is at Unity House, Westwood Park Drive, Wigan, WN4 4HE
For the purpose of unsecured loans, consolidation loans, protections and insurances, car finance, banking, utility switching, mobile phone contracts and credit building:
- Your Loan Expert Ltd incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number SC538950 whose registered office is at 89 West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 2BA
- Freedom Finance Ltd incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 06297533 whose registered office is at Atlantic House Atlas Business Park, Simonsway, Manchester, M22 5PR
- Simply Money Ltd incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 10145269 and FCA number 796023 whose registered address is at the 5th Floor Beckwith House, 1 Wellington Road North, Stockport, United Kingdom, SK4 1AF.
- Norton Finance incorporated in England and Wales with company number 5995692 whose registered at Norton House, Mansfield Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S60 2DR
- Moriarty Financial Services Ltd, registered in England and Wales with company number 11352686 whose registered at 233 Edward Pavillion, Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AF.
- Monetise Media Ltd incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 07875484 whose registered address is at Unit J, Williams Yard, Derby Road, Melbourne, Derbyshire, DE73 8JR.
- Nextpath Finance incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number 644681 whose registered address is at 4 West Regent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 1RW
- Cleanslate Financial Limited incorporated and registered in Scotland with company number SC880431 whose registered address is at 70 West Regent Street, Glasgow, G2 2QZ
Use of live chat services
Our live chat service is powered by Salesforce, a platform that enables us to offer seamless and secure communication. Salesforce operates in compliance with applicable data protection laws, ensuring your data is handled responsibly and securely.
All advice and guidance provided through our live chat is delivered by our partner UK Debt Expert Limited. UK Debt Expert adheres to stringent standards to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and confidentiality of the information shared.
When you use the live chat service, we may collect your personal information, such as your name, contact details, and details of your query, to provide personalised assistance. This information is used solely to address your needs and improve our service delivery.
Salesforce, Carrington Dean Group Limited and UK Debt Expert Limited implement robust security measures to safeguard your data against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse.
Your rights
Access to your personal information
You have the right to request from us a copy of the personal information that we may hold about you. This is often called a “Data Subject Access Request”. You can request this information by contacting us as set out below.
Before providing this information to you or to another person or company where you have requested this personal information to be sent to, we may ask for proof of identity or ask sufficient questions to enable us to locate the information and ensure that we’re only providing it where you have given your agreement.
Right to have your personal information corrected
If the personal information we hold about you is incorrect you have the right to request that we correct this.
Right to stop or limit the processing of the data we carry out
You may request that your personal information is deleted or that we stop processing the information if we’re no longer entitled to process it. There may be occasions where we are unable to delete the data due to our legal or regulatory obligations. We will however discuss this with you if you request for your information to be deleted.
Portability
In some cases you may be able to request for your information to be provided to you or to another company in a format that can be processed electronically by you or the other company. If you want to request this you’ll need to contact us.
Contact
If you have any questions or queries about how we use your personal information you can contact us by emailing [email protected].
If you are not happy with how we process your personal information you should contact us in the first instance. If you’re not happy with how we have dealt with your complaint you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can find their details on their website at https://ico.org.uk/
If you click on a link that takes you to a third party website that is not ours we will not be responsible for how they use your personal data. You should read its own privacy policy to understand how they may use your personal data.
Cookies
Cookies we use
We place small text files (“cookies”) on your device for two purposes only:
- Essential cookies – help the site load, stay secure and remember your cookie preferences.
Legal basis: legitimate interests (UK GDPR Art 6 (1)(f)).
Typical lifespan: up to 12 months.
- Analytics cookies – Google Analytics 4 (GA4) helps us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it. GA4 truncates IP addresses and provides aggregated reports.
These cookies are set only after you give consent via our banner.
Legal basis: consent (Art 6 (1)(a)).
Typical lifespan: up to 26 months.
We never sell cookie data.
Your choices
When you first visit, a Cookiebot banner lets you Accept all, Reject all or Customise categories. You can change your mind any time via the “Cookie settings” button at the lower-left corner of every page.
Updates
Any updates to this privacy policy will be found on this page. If we make any important or significant changes to the way we may collect and use your personal information we will endeavour to notify you of this change.
Updated: 15/6/26
