* Using the term 'our approved specialists' we refer to the equity release firm we have approved to process your enquiry
The Equity Release Guide is a trading name of Smarter Clicks Financial Services FCA firm registration number 792246 who are licensed credit brokers and not a lender. Nothing on this website constitutes financial advice.
As a licensed broker we process the information you provide us and we may pass this onto our trusted third party lenders or brokers. All credit is subject to you being a UK resident aged 18 or over and subject to your personal circumstances. All lenders operate responsible lending policies and as such credit is subject to status and affordability.
If you need financial advice you should speak to a qualified financial adviser. This website provides information only, and is impartial. The choice of product is for you alone to choose, as we do not promote any specific lenders or products in particular.
Our service is free to use: Smarter Clicks Financial Services Ltd carry out marketing for carefully selected third party brokers / lenders. We can either be paid variable fees each month directly from these brokers / lenders, or receive a commission per successful loan completion, or are paid a set fee per lead delivered (dependent on which broker we use at the time).
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm registration number 792246
© The Equity Release Guide 2017 - 2022. All rights reserved. Registered office: St Johns St, Tunbridge wells, Kent, TN4 9PH
Site built, maintained and designed by www.smarterppcclicks.co.uk
Protecting your privacy is important to us. This privacy policy explains how The Equity Release Guide (a trading style of Smarter Clicks Financial Services Ltd) will collect personal information from you, and how we will use and store this information. The Equity Release Guide (company number 10660222) is the data controller in relation to processing the personal information that you provide to us. Its registered address is Registered Office; St Johns St, Tunbridge wells, Kent, TN4 9PH. The Equity Release Guide is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office ('ICO') under the Data Protection Act 2018 ('the Act') with registration number ZA026964.
Smarter Clicks Financial Services host the The Equity Release Guide website (the 'Website') and will collect information, including personal data you provide through the website. Any information that you submit through the Website will then be shared securely with our trusted panel of lenders and or credit brokers ('Our Partners') to help you find the financial product that you have expressed an interest in applying for. You may then be contacted by telephone, email, SMS or automated message using the information you have provided.
This privacy policy (together with our Terms & Conditions, Cookie Policy and any other documents referred to in it) set out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.
1. INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU
1.1 We may collect and process the following data about you:
1.1.1 information that you may provide by filling in online forms and registration forms on this Website, and we may also ask you for information in the event you report a problem with our Website;
1.1.2 correspondence, or a record of it should you contact us;
1.1.3 surveys that we use for research purposes, which we may ask you to complete, although you do not have to respond to them;
1.1.4 details of your visits to our Website (including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise) and the resources that you access;
1.1.5 information to help verify your identity;
1.1.6 information from third parties in respect of you which may include your employer, a referee or a person residing or working from another country.
2. HOW WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
2.1 The Equity Release Guide uses industry standard security measures to ensure the security of all data. Any data that is stored on The Equity Release Guide secure servers is treated as proprietary and confidential and is not available to the public. The Equity Release Guide has an internal security policy with respect to the confidentiality of personal data, allowing access only to those employees or third parties who have a need to know such information for the purpose of effectively delivering The Equity Release Guide products and services by means of user login and password requirements. The Equity Release Guide routinely evaluates its data security practices to identify security threats or opportunities for improvement.
2.2 No transmission of data over the Internet is guaranteed to be completely secure. It may be possible for third parties not under the control of The Equity Release Guide to intercept or access transmissions or private communications unlawfully. While we strive to protect your data and have taken all possible measures to do so, The Equity Release Guide cannot completely ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.
2.3 Please note that we'll keep information about you securely stored only for as long as we're allowed to for legal, regulatory and legitimate business purposes.
3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
3.1 We use information held about you to:
3.1.1 process and submit your application form to our trusted partners via email, CRM, or secure XML;
3.1.2 remain in contact with you by telephone, sms and/or email for a limited time after you have submitted your application form through our Website to do our best to ensure you find the financial product that you have expressed an interest in applying for;
3.1.3 tell you about other products, services, activities and/or events, either from us or other companies that may be interesting to you, unless you tell us not to contact you about these or other promotions;
3.1.4 pass to our trusted third party marketing partners (if you have provided your consent for us to do so) who may contact you by telephone, sms, post or email about their products and services;
3.1.5 respond to your enquiries or complaints;
3.1.6 carry out system testing and training, and
3.1.7 improve the accuracy of our records (including your address and contact details).
3.2 If you would like to opt-out of receipt of marketing communications from us at any time you may do so by sending an email by clicking here or by writing to us at The Equity Release Guide, St Johns St, Tunbridge wells, Kent, TN4 9PH.
3.3 If you opt-out of our use of your data for marketing purposes, we will honour this once we have had a reasonable opportunity to process your request. We reserve the right to take reasonable steps to authenticate your identity with respect to any such request or other enquiry.
3.4 If you have provided us with consent to pass your details onto our carefully chosen third party marketing partners, then they may use your data, to provide you with information about products and services which they think may be of interest to you. They may contact you about these products and services by post, e-mail, telephone and/or text message. If you want to opt-out of continuing to receive such marketing communications, you should contact that third party directly.
4. DATA TRANSFER
Although we do not routinely transfer personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we may be required to transfer your personal data to any of Our Partners or suppliers if they are based outside of the EEA. Where this is the case, we will make sure that they agree to: keep it secure; apply the same levels of protection as we are required to apply to information held in the UK, and to use it only for the purpose of providing the service to us. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.
5. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
5.1 We may disclose your personal information to third parties:
5.1.1 when we have your permission and/or where we're allowed to or have to by law;
5.1.2 when sharing it with credit reference or fraud prevention agencies in the ways we have explained in this privacy policy;
5.1.3 so other companies – including those based outside the EEA – who provide a service to you or us can process data on our behalf;
5.1.4 if our assets are acquired by a third party, personal data held by us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets;
5.1.5 to investigate any dispute or complaint raised by you; or
5.1.6 so any of Our Partners can use it, to run research and statistical analysis and send you communications about other products and services – including marketing communications, unless you do not consent to this;
5.1.7 to prepare or send any communications to you, or to assist us in connection with any of our administrative or business functions, or in the provision of any of our services to you;
5.1.8 if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Terms & Conditions and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Equity Release Guide, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
6. YOUR RIGHTS
6.1 Our Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of Our Partners. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
6.2 Section 7 of the Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act by writing to us at The Equity Release Guide, St Johns St, Tunbridge wells, Kent, TN4 9PH. Any access request may be subject to a small statutory fee to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.
6.3 If you were introduced to us by a third party, we will give them your contact details and sufficient information about you for their accounting and administration purposes.
6.4 The Equity Release Guide will attempt to resolve any complaint that you may have in relation to data protection issues. In the alternative, or if you are not happy with our final response you have the right to have your complaint dealt with by the ICO.
7. CREDIT REFERENCE AND FRAUD PREVENTION AGENCIES
7.1 When you submit an application form you confirm that all the information you have given is true and complete. When you submit an application form you authorise Our Partners to check the following records about you and others:
7.1.1 our own;
7.1.2 those at credit reference agencies ('CRAs'); and
7.1.3 those at fraud prevention agencies ('FPAs').
7.2 Our Partners will make checks such as are deemed necessary to assess your application for credit.
7.3 If you tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, Our Partners will 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.
7.4 If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified, details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies.
7.5 Law enforcement agencies may access and use this information.
7.6 We and other organisations including Our Partners may also access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example, when:
7.6.1 checking details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities;
7.6.2 managing credit and credit related accounts or facilities;
7.6.3 recovering debt;
7.6.4 checking details on proposals and claims for all types of insurance; or
7.6.5 checking details of job applicants and employees.
7.7 We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.
8. IP ADDRESSES AND COOKIES
8.1 A 'cookie' is a small electronic file that collects information when someone visits a website. A cookie can identify the pages that are being viewed, and this can assist us to select the pages that the viewer sees. Some cookies only exist whilst viewers are online, but 'persistent' cookies - which are not session-based - remain on the viewer's computer, so that he or she can be recognised as a previous visitor when he or she next visits our Website. This allows us to collect information about a viewer's browsing habits whilst on our Website, and this can be useful in assisting us to monitor and improve our services.
8.2 We do not store sensitive information such as account numbers or passwords in 'persistent' cookies, and cookies in themselves, do not contain enough information to identify you. You will only acquire a personal identity in relation to your browsing habits after you have formally provided us with your personal data for the purposes outlined below.
8.3 In addition to using cookies, we might also use web tools to collect information about your browsing activities whilst on our Website. In this respect the information that is provided is similar to the information supplied by cookies, and we use it for the same purposes.
8.4 Any information that we acquire about you using cookies or web tools is subject to the same restrictions and conditions as any other information we collect about you.
8.5 Some of our advertisers may also use cookies or web tools that are set by other people such as advertising agencies, or the businesses to which the advertisements in question relate. We do not have access to any information that might be collected in this way, and, if you are concerned, you should contact the advertiser for more information.
8.6 If you want to delete any cookies already stored on your computer or stop the cookies that keep track of your browsing patterns on the Website, you can do so by deleting your existing cookies and/or altering your browser's privacy settings to block third party cookies (the process you follow will differ from browser to browser). Please note that deleting our cookies or disabling our future cookies means that you may not be able to access certain areas or features of the Website.
9. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time. Any changes we may make will be posted on this page.
Thank you for visiting theequityreleaseguide.co.uk
Below you'll find a few important things you need to know about us and your use of our services. Please read these terms and conditions carefully before you start to use our services.
Information about us
The Equity Release Guide is a registered Trading Name of Smarter Clicks Financial Services. registered in England and Wales (company number 10660222). Registered office: St Johns St, Tunbridge wells, Kent, TN4 9PH. Smarter Clicks Financial Services is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is entered on the Financial Services Register under reference number: 690249. Licenced by the Information Commissioners Office, (registration number ZA026964)
The The Equity Release Guide service
We provide a number of services via telephone, online and by other means. In asking us to provide you with a service(s) you are also entering into an agreement with us.
By entering into an agreement with us you are accepting our terms and conditions and agree to abide by them.
We acknowledge our obligations to this agreement by performing the service you have requested. In doing so we are the service provider and you are our customer.
We deal directly with the customer and have no obligation to any party other than our customer.
If you are accessing our service on behalf of a 3rd party our obligation is still with you, the customer. And as our customer the terms and conditions of this agreement apply to you, the customer and no other parties or agents connected to you.
Accessing and using our website
Access to our website is permitted on a temporary basis, and, as explained below, we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our website without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our website is unavailable at any time or for any period.
From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our website, or our entire website, to users who have registered with us.
If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms and conditions.
You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our website. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our website through your internet connection are aware of these terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.
Intellectual property rights
We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our website, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our website for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others to material posted on our website.
You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our website must always be acknowledged.
You must not use any part of the materials on our website for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
If you print off, copy or download any part of our website in breach of these terms and conditions, your right to use our website will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.
Service Limits
We act as a credit broker to our customers. On behalf of the customer we locate lenders and providers of financial services which offer loans or offers of finance.
We work alongside a number of loan, finance providers and other credit brokers (“Our Partners”). These are the companies and organisations that we use to help find loans and offers of finance for our customers.
We do not provide loans or finance and do not represent the interests of or act on behalf of any of Our Partners.
Once a customer enters into an agreement with us and accepts our terms and conditions, we act as the customer’s credit broker for a period of 6 months. This period allows us the chance to try and find a loan or offer of finance required by the customer.
Our customers are protected under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (as amended) (“CCA”) and all of the lenders and financiers we work with to find loans for our customers are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
To find out more information about how the CCA protects the rights of consumers contact the Trading Standards Institute www.gov.uk/find-local-trading-standards-office or the Citizens Advice Bureau www.citizensadvice.org.uk
Examples of rates, amounts borrowed and repayment periods given on our website are provided by way of offering a representative example of the product to help the customer understand the products on offer.
We do not provide the representative examples as any form of assurance of what any of Our Partners will actually offer the customer, or as any guarantee that the customer will be approved for finance by Our Partners.
The decision to provide customers with loans or offers of finance lies with Our Partners alone and will depend on many things including a lender’s assessment of a customer’s credit worthiness by taking into account their credit history.
Reliance on information posted
Material on the website
This website and the information, names, images, logos regarding or relating to us are provided 'as is.' Commentary and other materials posted on our website are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our website, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.
Financial information
Articles and information contained on our website pertaining to financial services available on the market and their use and the management of personal finances are presented as opinion only and are not presented as financial advice. Users of our website and services requiring financial advice are advised to seek information from a registered and qualified Independent Financial Adviser (IFA).
Our website changes regularly
We aim to update our website regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our website, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our website may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.
Our liability
The material displayed on our website is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, we and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:
• All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
• Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our website or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our website, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for loss of income or revenue; loss of business; loss of profits or contracts; loss of anticipated savings; loss of data; loss of goodwill; wasted management or office time; and for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable, provided that this condition shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of the categories set out above.
This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
Communications from or on behalf of The Equity Release Guide
We will contact customers by telephone, SMS, email and post about relevant products and services related to us, our associated companies and/Our Partners unless the customer has told us that they do not want to be contacted about these or other promotions.
By using our services to request a quote for a financial service or product, the customer will be contacted by Our Partners by telephone, SMS, email, fax and/ post in order to provide them with that particular financial service or product.
Checks and references
We do not carry out credit checks on customers when loan and finance applications are made or when customers register with our service.
However, Our Partners who will try to find loans and finance on behalf of customers may use external credit reference agencies and credit scoring services to ascertain that the customer is eligible for a loan or finance and meets the criteria of Our Partner.
Credit checks and credit reference agencies can also help prevent fraudulent applications so by proceeding with your application you agree to Our Partners using data provided for the purpose of preventing fraud and ensuring the customers identity is as claimed. This data may be used by a Credit Reference Agency or Fraud Agency and these agencies may keep a record of your information.
Information provided by the customer must always be true and accurate as misleading information will be regarded as a breach of our terms and is likely to breach any agreement the customer has entered into with Our Partners. Furthermore, misleading information may also result in the instigation of criminal procedures against the customer.
If the customer has authorised any 3rd Parties to access the service on behalf of the customer instructions issued by authorised 3rd parties will be contractually binding on the customer on whose behalf the 3rd Party is acting.
Should the customer choose to make a joint application for a loan or finance via our site each party will be dealt with as a customer acting with the consent of the other and if correspondence is entered into with one party of the joint application it shall be assumed that the communication is with both parties.
Exclusions
The obligations and responsibilities of any breach of contract of or by us does not extend beyond the agreement with the customer and does not include any obligation to any bank, counter party, intermediary or other third party connected to the customer.
The customer takes full responsibility for any loss or damage incurred through the provision of misleading or incorrect information to us by the customer.
Should loss arise from our non-performance there will be no liability held against us if this is caused by something beyond our reasonable control, including changes in the law or regulations affecting our normal operations.
Apart from provisions expressly covering associate companies, nothing in these terms is enforceable by anyone who is not a party to them.
Information about you and your visits to our website
We process information about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By using our website, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
Viruses, hacking and other offences
You must not misuse our website by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our website, the server on which our website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our website. You must not attack our website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.
By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our website will cease immediately.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our website or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.
You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.
Our website must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our website other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
If you wish to make any use of material on our website other than that set out above, please contact us on our contact form by clicking here.
Links from our website
Where our website contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.
Applicable law and jurisdiction
These terms and conditions and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales or by Scots Law if you are resident in Scotland at the time of entering an agreement with us.
Language
The agreement is in English and all communications between you and us will be in English.
Financial information
Articles and information contained on our website pertaining to financial services available on the market and their use and the management of personal finances are presented as opinion only and are not presented as financial advice. Users of our website requiring financial advice are advised to seek information from a registered and qualified Independent Financial Adviser (IFA).
Changes to terms and conditions
We may change these terms and conditions at any time by posting changes online. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. By continuing to use the site after changes are posted you are accepting our new terms and conditions. Some of the provisions contained in these terms and conditions may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our website.
Complaints
We aim to offer an excellent service to all our customers. If you feel that we have failed to provide our service or wish to make a formal complaint of any kind, write to:
Compliance Manager
Smarter PPC Clicks
St Johns St, Tunbridge wells, Kent, TN4 9PH
A response will be provided promptly upon receipt of your letter of complaint.
If we do not resolve your complaint internally to your satisfaction, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service:
Financial Ombudsman Service,
Exchange Tower,
London,
E14 9SR.
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Contacting us about these terms and conditions
If you have any comments about our website or our terms and conditions please click here to submit a contact form
The Equity Release Guide is committed to excellence in customer service and to treating its customers fairly. It recognises that from time to time things can go wrong, which means you may need to make a complaint. All complaints are investigated fairly and thoroughly, so that we can resolve your issue, and, where we have made a mistake, for us to learn from your complaint.
How do I complain?
In the event that you ever have to complain to us, you should contact:
The Equity Release Guide, St Johns Street Tunbridge Wells Kent TN4 9PH
or by phone 0121 737 8420 or by email info@fairmontloans.co.uk
Do I have to make the complaint in writing?
No. We are happy to accept complaints by telephone on the above number. Please make it clear that you are registering a complaint and make a note of the name of the person you spoke to and the date on which you rang. If you want the FOS to consider your complaint, you must send your complaint to them within 6 months of the date of the final response.
In relation to your complaint you can also request a review from the European Online Dispute Resolution platform: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/
What happens next?
a) We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and in any event within 5 working days of your complaint being received. If you do not hear from us in that time, please check first to see that we have actually received your complaint.
b) We will investigate your complaint fairly, impartially and thoroughly.
c) If we are not able to provide you with a full response to your complaint within four weeks, we will send you a letter explaining how we are progressing with our investigation.
d) After we have investigated your complaint, we will write to you explaining the outcome of the investigation.
How long will the investigation take?
We will investigate your complaint as quickly as possible. We will aim to complete our investigation within eight weeks of receiving the complaint and you will always receive our final response in this timeframe. If we cannot come to a conclusion in that time, we will tell you why and refer you to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
What happens at the end of the investigation?
We will send you a final letter, which will either uphold your complaint and let you know how we plan to resolve it, or reject it.
What if I am not satisfied with your decision?
If, for any reason, you are not happy with our decision, or if we have been unable to reach a conclusion to our investigations, then you will be entitled to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Their contact details are as follows:
Telephone: 0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 4567
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Post: Financial Ombudsman Service Exchange Tower London E14 9SR
Please note that we are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which means you are not entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations.
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