How we use your information

Who we are

Company name: Aligned Finance Limited
Registration number: 16436157
Registered office: c/o Clever Accounts Ltd, Brookfield Court, Selby Road, Garforth, Leeds LS25 1NB.

Aligned Finance Limited arranges finance through EFT Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 667290. EFT Finance Limited is an independent finance broker, Company Registration Number 07215828. Registered office: Solo House, The Courtyard, London Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1AT.

This privacy policy explains how we and potential lenders use the personal information we ask you to provide. Please distribute this document to all directors and partners (where applicable). Carefully read this policy and if you have any questions, contact us on [email protected] or [email protected]. By sending us the information we have requested, we understand that you have read and are happy with Aligned Finance Limited and EFT Finance Limited processing your personal data.

Our legal basis for processing your information, under the UK’s data protection laws, is the Legitimate Interests basis. You provide us with your information so that we may find suitable financing for your needs.

We may ask if you have any personal circumstances which may affect your financial journey. Any information you give us and the lender(s) will help us support you better. We would need your Consent to record this information and to pass it on to any potential lender we contact for you. If you prefer to tell the lender directly, we will be happy to let you know the lender’s contact details.

We may also use the data you give us or that we get from a specialist data broking service, to send you direct marketing about our finance broking services. Our legal basis for direct marketing is legitimate interests.

What information we may need from you

The following are examples of the information we may ask you to provide:

• Your full name and home address, and your addresses for the last three years
• Your date of birth
• A copy of your passport
• A copy of your driving licence
• A recent utility bill detailing your home address
• Details of your personal means and liabilities, such as whether you own your home, its value and the mortgage on it
• Whether you know of any adverse credit, such as county court judgments or defaults
• Your business’s accounts and bank statements
• Any additional support you may need

Information from other sources

We may also obtain information from other sources, for example:

• Companies House
• Your website and social media
• Specialist provider of company credit analysis
• Specialist provider of data broking services. Our current business data list was compiled from Apollo.io by an independent supplier.
• A finance broker where one of our brokers used to work, for businesses he arranged finance for there. Ask us and we will tell you which.
• Government sites such as the DVLA and the MOT history service, for a vehicle being financed

How we will use your information

We use a Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM) to record, for example: your contact details, the finance you need, our notes and calls, details of any promotional material you may have received and if you tell us that you do not want to get any more promotional material from us.

We record telephone calls, and use AI to transcribe and summarise them. See “Our own systems” below.

We will pass your information on to potential lender(s). Please contact us on [email protected], EFT Finance’s Data Protection Officer on [email protected], or your usual contact, if you would like to know all the potential lenders we approached on your behalf. We strongly recommend that you review the Privacy Policy notices on the websites of any lenders approached on your behalf.

We will never sell your information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Potential lenders

To process your application, the potential lender(s) will perform credit and identity checks (also called a “search”) on you and your business partners. They will send the information on your application to one or more Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs). The potential lender will then use the information provided by the CRAs to check the data you have provided, assess your creditworthiness and if necessary, prevent criminal activity.

In their data protection notices, potential lenders will state if they use automated credit assessment and decision making or use personal data for marketing and related activities. You have a right to ask any lender(s) approached on your behalf to manually review any automated decision and you have the right to object to your information being processed by the lender for marketing or marketing related activities.

Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs)

CRAs will record the information about you, your business and its proprietors that they receive from the potential lenders. When the CRA receives a search from a potential lender, they place a footprint on your credit file which may be seen by other lenders. The CRAs may supply the potential lender with both public (including electoral register) and shared credit, financial situation and financial history information and fraud prevention information.

If you are a director, the potential lender may seek confirmation, from CRAs, that the residential address you provide is the same as that shown on the restricted register of directors’ usual addresses at Companies House. The potential lender may search all directors as individuals as well as in their role as directors / guarantors.

If you are making a joint application or you tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, you must discuss your credit requirements with them before we send the application to a lender, as the CRAs may link your records together.

If you borrow from a lender, the details of your accounts and how you manage them will be passed by the lender to CRAs. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the outstanding debt and may supply this information to other organisations or Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs) who may perform similar checks to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. This information remains on the CRAs’ record of you for 6 years after your credit agreement has ended, whether repaid in full or not.

If you provide false or inaccurate information and there is any suspicion of fraud, CRAs will record this and may also pass this information to FPAs and other organisations. If your request for funding is declined by a lender, the decline may be recorded on your credit record.

Finance companies use different CRAs and 3 of the CRAs are listed below. You can get details about these CRAs and their data protection policies from the addresses below, which will take you to the same Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN) document. If you wish to know which CRA has been contacted by a lender, please ask us and we will find out for you.

• TransUnion (previously called Callcredit Limited): www.transunion.co.uk/legal/privacy-centre
• Equifax Limited: www.equifax.co.uk/privacy-hub/crain
• Experian Limited: www.experian.co.uk/crain

The information held by the CRAs in the UK may not be the same. If you wish to contact any of the CRAs, it is worth considering contacting them all.

• TransUnion (previously Callcredit Limited), Consumer Services Team: 0330 024 7574, [email protected]
• Equifax Limited: www.equifax.co.uk/Contact-us/Contact_Us_Personal_Solutions
• Experian Limited: ins.experian.co.uk/contact

Direct marketing

Where you receive direct marketing communication from us, we will give you the opportunity to opt out of receiving further direct marketing from us.

We check the information obtained from a specialist data broker against the Telephone Preference Service and Corporate Telephone Preference Service registers and our Do Not Contact list.

You have the right to object to the processing of your information for direct marketing purposes.

Our own systems

Aligned Finance Limited decides how its own systems use your information. They are provided by these suppliers, who act only on our instructions:

• Our CRM is hosted by Cloudflare. Our database and the documents you send us are stored in the EU.
• Calls and texts go through Twilio. Calls, recordings and texts are stored in Ireland.
• AI is provided by Microsoft and processed in the EU. We use it to transcribe our calls and summarise them, to draft notes of what you told us for a broker to check, and to read the documents you send us and suggest figures and which lenders may suit. Some of these are being introduced over time. A broker checks what it produces against the original and makes every decision: we do not make decisions about you by automated means alone. When we use AI to compare lenders, we leave out names, dates of birth and addresses. Microsoft does not use this information to train its AI. Like other AI providers, it may keep some content for a limited time to detect misuse of its service, as its standard terms allow.
• Phone numbers are checked against the TPS and CTPS by Provero.
• Email is provided by Google. Our brokers may also use EFT Finance email accounts, so emails with you may be held on EFT’s systems.
• Our accountants and professional advisers.

Cloudflare runs our systems on its worldwide network, so information may be processed briefly outside the UK and the EU while it is in use. Some of our suppliers are US-based companies and may reach information from outside the UK, for example to give support or to keep their services secure. When information leaves the UK, it is protected by the UK’s adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or by the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.

How long we store your information

We store your information in our live systems for 6 years from the end of our contact with you or the end of your last credit agreement, whichever is longer. We keep any information we get from a specialist data broker for 2 years in our live systems, unless you become a customer. Call recordings, transcripts and summaries are kept as long as the record they belong to.

We also store your information in encrypted back-ups. The back-ups are stored in a secure off-site location and will only be accessed for business continuity purposes. Back-ups of our own CRM are overwritten within 30 days. Information is deleted from EFT Finance’s back-ups 10 years after the last processing of your information; it is not currently technically possible to delete individual records from those encrypted back-ups.

Your information security

We take steps to protect your personal data against loss or theft, unauthorised access / disclosure / copying / use or alteration. Only our staff can reach our systems, through a sign-in with a second step, and every change to a record is logged.

Access to your information and correction

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all your personal information, please contact us:

• by email: [email protected] or [email protected]
• by post: Aligned Finance Limited, c/o Clever Accounts Ltd, Brookfield Court, Selby Road, Garforth, Leeds LS25 1NB, or EFT Finance Limited, Milnwood, 13 North Parade, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 2BT

You have the right to ask us to update, correct or remove information you think is inaccurate or incomplete. Where you ask for changes to the information we have, we will also tell any lenders who hold your information. When your finance period ends or if you do not sign a credit agreement, you may ask us to delete your personal information.

Your right to erasure

If you ask us to delete your information, we will remove your information from our live systems within one month of receiving a valid request. Our back-ups will only be accessed for emergency business recovery situations. Due to the way information is stored in encrypted back-ups, it is not possible to delete your information from back-ups as quickly as from our live systems.

Your right to object (legitimate basis processing only)

You can tell us to stop processing your information. We will stop processing your application for credit, unless there are legitimate reasons to continue, for example: the exercise or defence of legal claims.

Your right to withdraw Consent

You can withdraw your consent for our processing of your information regarding any additional support needs you may have. We will continue to process your application for credit without the additional information. We will also advise any lender we have sent your credit application to that you have decided to withdraw your consent.

Your right to complain

If you wish to complain about how we process your personal information, please let us know on the contact details above. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

We work hard to give you a good service and clear information about our products. If you are unhappy with any part of our service, please tell us. You can read EFT Finance’s Complaints Policy on its website: www.eftfinance.co.uk/complaints

If you feel your concern has not been looked at properly, you have the right to make a complaint to the right organisation.

If you want to complain about EFT Finance Limited or about help you got from one of its Appointed Representatives, you can write to The Directors, EFT Finance Limited, Milnwood, 13 North Parade, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 2BT, or email [email protected].

If your complaint is about your finance agreement, please get in touch with the finance company named in your agreement.

Changes to our privacy policy

This privacy policy was last updated 4 October 2026. We keep our privacy policy under review and will place any updates on this page.