Privacy Policy
Wessex Community Bank is committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our visitors to our website. In particular, we want you to know that we are not selling, renting or trading email lists with other companies and businesses for marketing purposes.
We’re giving you detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
We may change this policy from time to time. This policy is effective from 1st April 2018.
Collecting your data
We don’t collect cookie information from our website and we don’t track you, and your interests or collect any information about your general activity on our website until you apply for a product or service. So when you have a look around our website, you’re free from any data collection.
When you apply for a product or service we collect information about you. Some of this might be personal or sensitive information. We do this because we won’t normally be able to offer you any banking services without identifying who you are and what your needs are. We will also want to know a bit about you, especially, if we are looking to lend you money.
Here is a list of some of the key information we might collect:
name and date of birth
contact information including address
employment information and income
Bank account or credit card/debit card details
other information relevant to joining as a Member or applying for a loan or bank account
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a suitable product or service, in particular, for the following reasons:
internal record keeping.
assessing a loan application
opening a bank account
becoming a member of Wessex Community Bank
improve our products and services.
Informing you about your account activity
Sharing information
We may share personal information with other organisations, particularly, Contis Financial Services which operates our ‘engage current account’ for us. You can’t open a current account with us without us sending your data to Contis. This is the privacy policy for the engage current account.
As a bank, it is considered good practice to share your account details with credit reporting agencies. However, it is also a condition of any loan we might provide. It may also be a condition of opening an account if we can't identify with normal I.D.
We provide details about you to data agencies such as Experian and Equifax. We report your account and loan activities to these companies. They keep records for up to 6 years on whether you do or not keep up with your financial commitments such as a loan you have with us. You can find out more about Experian and Equifax to understand how they use your data.
When you apply for membership with us you will automatically be allocated a basic savings account. In order to operate and facilitate monetary transfers between internal and external accounts, your personal data will be shared with COOP bank. COOP bank is our personal banker and has access to customer data during normal banking.
When you apply for an account with us, we collect this information through a company called Cognito. They use their own software to collect and forward this data to us through a secure connection. Your data is encrypted. You can view their privacy policy here.
Marketing
As part of your membership, we also collect personal information to keep you up-to-date with our products or services. We do this:
to tell you about things you’ve asked us to tell you about
to contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information
to check our records are right and to check every now and then that you’re happy and satisfied
We don't rent or trade email lists with other organisations and businesses. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. Our website is safe and compliant with HTTPS (connection security). However, we also specifically encrypt any sensitive information such as:
your national insurance number
credit card details
bank details.
In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we keep all your records electronically off-site with a specialised IT firm called Taylor-Made Computer Solutions. Your information is stored in UK-based tier 3+ Datacentres that are certified to ISO 27001. Data is also encrypted when stored and whilst in transit.
Credit referencing agencies
We may make searches at credit reference agencies such as Experian and Equifax. We access details about how you manage your accounts with other financial providers, including your account balances, credit limits and any arrears. We will also be able to see how you operate your account with utility providers such as gas, electric and water companies.
We'll also use any account agreement to access your credit file at any time in the course of managing your account. All loans are at the sole discretion of the Credit Union.
You can find out more information about how we share your data with credit reference agencies and how they use your data by clicking this link
Address links
We will normally credit search any address that is associated with you, even if you do not provide us with the address.
We may access the following information about you:
past and present loans and whether you have kept up repayments
past and present credit cards and whether you have kept up repayments
past and present address history (even if you don’t tell us some addresses)
if you have ever had a County Court Judgement (CCJ)
if you have ever had a Debt Relief Order (DRO)
if you have ever had an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)
if you have ever been bankrupt
If you provide false or misleading information we will decline your application and we may also send information to credit reference agencies about any false information you gave us. They can make this information available to other organisations to help them make decisions about you. This might affect you getting credit elsewhere.
DATA PROTECTION
Wessex Community Bank is a data controller of the information provided on the application and other forms, in terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 as amended. This information will be used internally by the credit union in order to process your application.
In order to comply with money laundering regulations, before we provide any service, we may search the records of one or more registered credit reference agencies who will provide us with information from the Electoral Register and any other data appropriate to the search. The agency will keep a record of that search. This may be used by other organisations when processing future applications for credit you may make.
Information held about you by credit reference agencies may already be linked to records relating to one or more of your partners. Where appropriate, any applications submitted may be treated as financially linked and your application may be assessed with reference to any ‘associated’ records.
In addition, if the application is successful, details of how you maintain your account may be provided to the credit reference agency who will make this available to other lenders who may use the information for credit assessment, tracing of absconders and fraud prevention.
You are also giving us permission to continue to access this data while you hold an account with us. We may use this to find out where you live and what credit you have during any period when you owe us money or for any other reason relating to managing your account with us.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances. You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. Please contact us at talk@mywcb.org if you wish to make a request.
Sensitive personal data.
We may ask you to provide certain customer-specific information such as a bank statement, payslip, or identification or write to your employer and mortgage company to confirm your details.
This list is not extensive and we may take all reasonable steps to ensure that we can make an informed decision on lending you money and the likelihood of you repaying it.
Fraud prevention agencies
If you provide false or inaccurate information to us or we suspect or identify fraud, details may be sent to fraud prevention agencies. This information may be accessed and used by law enforcement agencies.
If you do not disclose relevant information like you are applying for an IVA, debt relief order or bankruptcy at the time of the application, we may report this as fraudulently applying for credit. We are under no obligation to lend you money or give the reasons for not lending you money. We may also withdraw a loan offer at any time and without notice if we think you have provided us with misleading information at any stage during your application.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Controlling your personal information
You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information. Whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for marketing purposes.
You are entitled to view, amend, or delete the personal information that we hold even if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. If you change your mind just contact us by writing to Wessex Community Bank. 97 Fratton Road. Portsmouth. PO1 5AG or email us at talk@wessexcommunitybank.org
Finding out about the information we hold about you
You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to us at Wessex Community Bank. 97 Fratton Road. Portsmouth. PO1 5AG or email us at talk@wessexcommunitybank.org
If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at [Insert your organisation’s contact details for data protection queries].
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk