Credit reference & fraud prevention agencies

How Kent Savers uses credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies

This document sets out how Kent Savers Credit Union, Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention agencies use your personal information provided regarding your membership or loan application and agreements.

Please read our full Data Protection & Privacy Notice. In accordance with Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018, the Lender will ensure that your personal data is processed lawfully, fairly and transparently.

When you apply to us for a loan, we check the following records about you and others against our own records and those held on you at Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs).

When CRAs receive a search request from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders if you already have other credit entries on your record at the CRAs, or you apply for other credit in the future. The personal information we collect from you will be shared with Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs) who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.

The CRAs supply to us public information (including the electoral register and information held on county court judgments and/or insolvencies), credit information shared by other lenders and credit providers, and information held at FPAs. Checks that we may make on you include: assessing this application for other credit that you have been given and how that is being managed by you, credit that you have recently applied for and verifying your identity to prevent and detect fraud, crime and money laundering.

We may also make periodic searches at CRAs and FPAs throughout the time you continue to owe any repayments on your Loan with us.

If you are making a joint application or tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, we may link your records together, so you must be sure that you have their agreement to disclose information about them. CRAs also link your records together and these links will remain on your and their files until such time as you or your partner successfully files for a disassociation with the CRAs to break that link.

We will send relevant information on your Loan agreement to the CRAs who will record that information. The information that we provide will include, but not be limited to, how much you borrow from us, details of your address and other personal data, and how you manage your account in comparison to the repayment instalments and terms that you have agreed to.

If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the arrears and any default by you of that debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs to perform similar checks requested by other firms who are registered to access such data, to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. We may also pass your details to third parties to trace your whereabouts and recover any sums due to us with costs.

Records remain on file at a CRA for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you, defaulted, a judgment being granted against you in the County Courts or any form of insolvency registered against you.

Should you give us false or inaccurate information, or we suspect or identify fraud, we will record this and may also pass this information to FPAs and other organisations involved in crime, fraud or money laundering prevention.

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 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018.

How to find out more

If you would like further information as to how your personal data may be used by credit reference agencies, please contact us for a copy of the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN) or go to www.transunion.co.uk/crain. You can also contact the CRAs who currently operate in the UK directly; the information they hold may differ, so we recommend contacting them all. They may charge you a small statutory fee.

Kent Savers Credit Union Limited
39-48 Marsham Street
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 1HH