Privacy Policy

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 which applies directly under UK law (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, this privacy policy (“Policy”) describes the privacy practices of Career Advance Finance Limited t/a StudentFinance. Career Advance Finance Limited (hereafter, “StudentFinance”) is an educational technology company incorporated under the laws of England with Companies House Number 12790122.

StudentFinance reserves the right at its sole discretion to update the Policy. We will place any updates on this website.

StudentFinance is a data controller and is registered in the UK with the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO) under registration number ZB230368.

‍Personal information we may obtain about you

‍The personal information we may collect from you, when you apply for credit via the Shared Income Agreement Program (“SIA Program”), during the term of your loan agreement with us or when you voluntarily complete a customer survey or provide feedback through our website, includes:

- your name, email address, home address, phone number, passport details, national insurance number, date of birth, demographic information, CV, psychometric tests, social media data, payment details, employment and salary information and identification credentials.
- Records of your credit account and our communications with you, including call recordings which may be recorded and
monitored for security and training purposes.
- Any other personal information you provide to us.

In addition, we may collect information about your device automatically each time you visit our website such as your IP address, type of web browser or cookie information (see the Cookies section below).We also collect information about you from third parties including  your potential or current educational institution and your potential, current or former employers, as well as Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs), publicly available records including the electoral roll and register of County Court Judgments

How we use and share information & our legal bases for doing so
‍We use your personal information with the following purposes:
- To process your SIA Program application.
- Utilisation of automated decision making software to underwrite and to be able to offer our service 
- To communicate with you regarding the SIA Program and your account via telephone, email, SMS or post.
- To share  information with partner schools, training programs, higher education institutions, credit bureaus and potential employers as part of the management of your account in accordance with the terms and conditions of any loan agreement you enter into with us.
- To manage your account, assess your compliance with the terms of your agreement with us and make collections.
- To provide marketing information to you about other products and services we may offer.
For administrative purposes, for example to trace you when necessary, prevent criminal activity or prevent fraud and prevention of money laundering.

We use your information as outlined above to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, because it is necessary for the purposes of our contract with you, to fulfil our legitimate interests in promoting responsible lending and where applicable subject to your consent.  If you do not provide us with your information where necessary for the purposes of meeting our legal and regulatory obligations or where required in accordance with the terms of our agreement, we will not be able to enter into a credit agreement with you.

Where we provide marketing information to you by electronic means (email, text message or telephone) we will only do so where we have obtained your express consent to do so.  Such consent is not required for the purposes of entering into an agreement with us and if you do consent you are free to withdraw it at any time by notifying us directly or using the unsubscribe option in any marketing materials we send. We will action such requests as soon as practicable on receipt.

Where we otherwise rely on your express consent as the legal basis for processing your personal information this will be made clear to you and you are not required to provide such consent and are free to withdraw it at any time.  

We may share your personal information with third parties including:Service Providers:

- we may share information with service providers that help us to perform certain functions related to your loan.
- Partner schools, training programs, higher education institutions educational institution, credit bureaus and potential employers.
- Affiliates: we may share information with other companies under our control.
- As required by Law: we will share information where we are legally required to do so and to protect our legal rights.
- CRAs and FPAs
- Third parties for research purposes.

Information on loan applications and details of your agreement(s) with us will be sent to CRAs and FPAs and will be recorded by them. For example, we provide positive, delinquent and default data to CRAs on a regular (minimum monthly) basis relating to any relevant agreement(s) that we enter into with you. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs and may be used and searched by us and other organisations in order to:
- consider applications for credit and credit related services, such as insurance, for you and any associated person;
- prevent or detect money laundering and fraud;
- trace debtors or recover debts; and
- manage your account.

When CRAs receive a search from us they place a search “footprint” on your credit file whether or not the application proceeds. Records remain on file with CRAs and FPAs for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted. You have a right to be told which credit reference agencies we have used and obtain a copy of your file from CRAs.

TransUnion
‍Consumer Services Team
PO Box 491
Leeds
LS3 1WZ
Tel: 0330 024 7579
‍www.transunion.co.uk/‍

‍Equifax PLC
‍Credit File Advice Centre
PO Box 3001
Bradford
BD1 5US
Tel: 0870 010 0583
‍www.myequifax.co.uk‍

‍Experian 
Consumer Help Service
PO Box 8000
Nottingham
NG80 7WF
Tel: 0870 241 6212
www.experian.co.uk

More information about CRAs and how they use personal information is available at http://www.experian.co.uk/crain/index.html.

‍For how long your personal information will be stored for
‍The personal data provided will be kept as long as they are necessary for the purpose for which they were collected and until the SIA Program is fully terminated or as long as is necessary to comply with our legal obligations, which will be a minimum period of six years.

‍Where is my information stored?
‍The information which we collect about you is stored within the United Kingdom.We may transfer data outside the United Kingdom but will ensure that before we do so, there is adequate protection in place to ensure the security of your data, in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.

‍Your rights
‍Your personal information is protected under data protection law and you have the following rights which you can seek to exercise for free:
- Right of access: you have the right of access to information that we hold about you upon request.
- Right to rectify your personal information: if you discover that the information that we hold about you is wrong or incomplete, you have the right to rectify the information or to request StudentFinance to complete information you believe is incomplete. 
- Right to erasure: subject to certain conditions, you have the right to be forgotten, by deleting the information about you.
- Right to restriction of processing: In some cases, you may have the right to have the processing of your personal information restricted. You have the right to ask us not to use your information for marketing purposes. We will ask for your consent to use your information for these purposes when we collect it.
- Right to object to processing: You may object to the processing of your personal information (including profiling) when it is based upon our legitimate interests. You may also object to the processing of your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing (including profiling to the extent it relates to direct marketing) and for the purposes of statistical analysis.
- Right to data portability: You have the right to move, copy or transfer your personal information.
- Right related to automated decision making including profiling.

If you seek to exercise your rights, have any questions about our Policy or if you have any comments, please contact using the details below: compliance@studentfinance.com

The selected Data Protection Officer is Amer Bhatti and can be contacted via compliance@studentfinance.com

Should you wish to report a complaint in relation to our acquisition or use of your personal information, or if you feel that StudentFinance has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact Information Commissioner's Office. at: https://ico.org.uk/

‍Cookie Policy‍

‍The cookies
‍A cookie is a file that is downloaded to the user's computer, smartphone or tablet when accessing certain web pages to store and retrieve information about the navigation that is made from that service. By visiting our website you agree to us placing essential cookies on your device and accessing them when you visit the website in the future.For further information, visit www.allaboutcookies.org‍

‍What type of Cookies we use
‍This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc.Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyse how users use our website. The information generated by the cookie on your use of the website (including your IP address) will directly be transmitted to and stored by Google on its United States servers. Google will use this information on our behalf to monitor the pathway of your use of the site, compile reports on website activity and provide other services relating to website activity and Internet usage.Google may transmit this information to third parties when required by law, or when said third parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.More information at https://www.google.es/intl/es/policies/technologies/cookies/.

‍How to deactivate Cookies
‍You can refuse the processing of data or information by rejecting the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate configuration of your browser. However, if you do so, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of information about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes indicated above.If you do not wish to be tracked by cookies, Google has developed a supplement that you can install in your browser: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB.