How we use any personal information we collect

We are committed to protecting your information when you use our services or buy our products. This policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use our Which? Mortgage Advisers service. If you have any questions please call us on 0117 981 7787 and we will be happy to help.

Which? Mortgage Advisers is part of the Which? group. To find out more about the Which? group and who we are, please look at the ‘About Us’ section of our general terms, and if you are a member of Which? or using any of our other websites or products and services, please check our general privacy policy.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect information about you when you either register a call back on our website or telephone us for Mortgage Advice. If you would like us to help you find a mortgage, we will ask you for your personal details, such as contact details, and also information that we require to find out which mortgage is best suited to you, for example your salary, date of birth and current residential status. If you decide to take out a mortgage via us, we will also need to collect all the information required by the lender so we can make your application on your behalf.

If we do make an application on your behalf, we will need to check your idenity so this may involve you sending us your passport or utility bills. We would ask you to always send us such sensitive documents via regsitered post or recorded delivery. We will then do the same when we return them to you. We will use our very best efforts to return such documents on the day of receipt.

There’s no charge for your advice consultations with Which? Mortgage Advisers. However, if we do complete a mortgage on your behalf, we will charge an administration fee. This fee is currently £199 and is subject to change. In addition to this, some mortgage lenders will pay us commission for arranging mortgages with them. We use this money to fund our service. Any profits go towards the campaigning work that Which? does on behalf of all UK consumers. If you would feel more comfortable paying us a fee for the advice we give you, rather than allowing the lender to pay us a commission, then we offer that option too. If you decide that you would rather do this, then we will also need to process a cheque from you for payment.

We also collect information about your use of our websites, and how you arrived at our website in the first place. This can include what links or adverts of ours you’ve viewed or clicked on to reach us, or any search terms you’ve used.   We can also see which pages of our website have been viewed by you and for how long.  All this information helps us tell what content is popular with our customers so we can prioritise it.

Online, we mostly use cookies to collect this information about you. Please see our cookie policy for further information.

How will we use this information about you?

We will collect your contact details so we can get back in touch with you if you request a call back or with regards your mortgage recommendation.

We will use the other personal information which you tell us to find out which mortgage is best suited to you, and then if you decide to make a mortgage application via us, to make the application on your behalf.

If you agree, we will also use your contact details to let you know about our products, services or campaigning work that we think may be of interest to you.

Will you pass my information on to other companies?

We do use other companies to process your data on our behalf, to ensure that we can fulfil all our obligations to you. We only choose those companies who prioritise the protection of personal data and who pass the strict organisational and technical security standards that we set.

If you do decide to apply for a mortgage via us, we will have to pass your application form to your chosen lender. Please be aware that once the application is made, your information is with the lender, and you must therefore check their own privacy policies to see how they process personal data.

The only other times we will pass your details to anyone else would be where we have to for fraud or other legal purposes.

We do not pass your details (email, address, telephone, IP address, cookie details etc.) to any third parties for marketing purposes.

How long will we keep this information about you?

We will only keep information about you for as long as we need to. We make sure that any companies which process your data on our behalf do the same. We have an internal retention policy where there are varying retention periods for different categories of information depending on our legal obligations and whether there is a commercial need, such as answering your queries. After a retention period has elapsed, the data is deleted.

How do we keep your information secure?

Which? takes the security of our customers’ data very seriously. We use multiple layers of firewalls to ensure user data is kept as secure as possible, specialist devices to detect and prevent intrusion attempts, and encryption systems to ensure data is scrambled while being transmitted from system to system. We employ equally rigorous physical security policies to prevent physical access to our data centres. We perform regular system patching, and employ an independent security company to perform penetration tests (authorised attempts to try to hack our systems to show any risks) annually and whenever we bring new systems online.

We ensure third parties employ the same rigour when handling data, ensuring they apply security far in excess of regulatory requirements.

Marketing

We would like to send you information about our products and services which we think may be of interest to you. If you have agreed, then this may include emails. Please note that there is an unsubscribe link in our promotional emails which will take you off our distribution list, or you can call us on 0117 981 7787 at any time.

Access to your information and correction

If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information we hold about you, please write to us at Customer Service, Which? Mortgage Advisers, Third Floor (South), One Castlepark, Tower Hill, Bristol, BS2 0JA, or email us at info@whichmortgageadvisers.co.uk.

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date.  Please always let us know if you think it is not.

What if I’m aged 18 or under?

If this applies to you, please get your parent’s / guardian’s permission before you supply us with any personal information. Without this consent, please do not provide us with any personal information. Please note that we will not be able to arrange a mortgage for you if you are under the age of 18 years.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage. If there is a material change which could have a detrimental effect on you, and we have your contact details, we will contact you to check whether you are happy with it.

How to contact us

If you would like further information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of your information and your rights to access information we hold on you, please contact us:
by email: info@whichmortgageadvisers.co.uk
in writing: Customer Service, Which? Mortgage Advisers, Third Floor (South), One Castlepark, Tower Hill, Bristol, BS2 0JA.