Credit Referencing Conditions

Credit Reference Information
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When you apply to us to open an account, this organisation will check the following records about you
and your business partners:
- Our own
- Business records at credit reference agencies (CRAs). When CRAs receive a search from us, they will place a search footprint on your business credit file that may be seen by other lenders. They supply to us public (including the electoral register) and fraud prevention information.
- Those at fraud prevention agencies (FPAs).
- Information on applications will be sent to CRAs and will be recorded by them, including information on your business and its proprietors. CRAs may create a record of the name and address of your business and its proprietors if there is not one already. Where you borrow from us, we will give details of your accounts and how you manage them to CRAs.
- If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs to perform similar checks and to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. Records remain on file for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted.
- If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud, we will record this and may also pass this information to FPAs and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention.
- If you have borrowed from us and do not make payments that you owe us, we will trace your whereabouts and recover debts.
- We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.
- Your data may also be used for other purposes for which you give your specific permission or, in very limited circumstances, when required by law or where permitted under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
How to find out more: You can contact the CRAs currently operating in the UK; the information they hold may not be the same, so it is worth contacting them all. They will charge you a small statutory fee.
- CallCredit, Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, Leeds, LS3 1WZ or call 0870 0601414
- Equifax PLC, Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 3001, Bradford, BD1 5US or call 0870 010 0583 or log on to www.myequifax.co.uk
- Experian, Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF or call 0844 4818000 or log on to www.experian.co.uk