Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice explains how Rate Switch Rewards and NeedingAdvice.co.uk Ltd collect, use, store and share your personal data when you make an enquiry, request advice, or use our services.

Why you should read this document

When working with us, we may need detailed personal information about your financial circumstances, existing arrangements, and in some cases your health or family health history. This Privacy Notice explains how we handle that information and outlines your rights in relation to it.

What we mean by “your personal data”

“Your personal data” means any information relating to you or your personal circumstances. This can include information that identifies you directly, such as your name, address, date of birth, or National Insurance number. It may also include details that identify you indirectly, such as employment information, financial data, health details, or other information connected to your social or personal identity.

To provide suitable advice, your personal data may include:

• Personal details: name, date of birth, gender, nationality, marital status, address, telephone number and email address.
• Employment information: salary details, employment history, employer information and benefits.
• Financial details: bank accounts, tax status, loans, credit history, mortgage details and family circumstances relevant to your application or advice.
• Special category data: health information, medical history, relevant medical reports, and information linked to insurance, mortgage or investment recommendations where required.

How we handle your personal data

Our relationship with you is usually based on providing services under a contract, and we use your personal data to fulfil our obligations under that arrangement. This allows us to give advice, assess suitability, respond to enquiries, and help progress applications.

Even if our business relationship ends, we may still use your personal data where necessary for legitimate business purposes, provided your rights and freedoms are not overridden. For example, we may need to respond to questions from product providers, lenders, regulators, or compliance partners.

We may also process your data to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including requirements set by the Financial Conduct Authority and anti-money-laundering rules.

Special category data

In some cases, we may need to collect special category data, such as information about your health or ethnic origin, where this is relevant to the advice or products being considered. This type of information may be necessary, for example, when arranging protection products or assessing insurance suitability.

If you have parental responsibility for children under 13, we may also need to collect information about them where it is relevant to an application, policy, or recommendation, including where a child has a long-term health condition or disability.

For certain insurance products, you may also need to disclose criminal convictions or offences. We handle this information carefully and only where necessary to provide or arrange the relevant cover.

How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data mainly from you, including through meetings, phone calls, emails, online forms, and other direct contact with us. In some cases, we may also receive information from third parties, such as credit reference agencies, employers, lenders, compliance partners, or identity verification providers.

We may use secure systems and technology for checks such as identity verification, anti-money-laundering checks, and where appropriate, credit-related checks.

How your personal data is used

We may use your personal data to:

• store your data securely in physical files, protected systems, or authorised devices;
• provide mortgage, insurance, protection or related advice tailored to your needs;
• share relevant information with mortgage lenders, insurers, and product providers to progress an enquiry or application;
• respond to questions about products or services you have used or enquired about;
• keep you informed about relevant updates connected to your enquiry, application, or existing arrangements;
• meet regulatory, compliance, fraud prevention, and legal obligations.

Data sharing

Your personal data may be shared with third parties where necessary to provide our services or fulfil legal and regulatory obligations.

This may include:

• mortgage lenders, insurers, and product providers;
• compliance advisers and support providers;
• estate agents, solicitors, conveyancers, legal service providers, and surveyors;
• identity verification, anti-fraud, and anti-money-laundering providers;
• other parties involved in progressing your application or delivering related services.

We only share information where it is necessary and relevant. Third parties must not use your data for their own marketing purposes unless you have clearly agreed to this.

Security and data retention

We take the security of your personal data seriously and use appropriate measures to reduce the risk of loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, or alteration.

You should also take care when sending documents or personal information to us, for example by using password protection, encrypted attachments, or secure delivery methods where appropriate.

We normally retain your data for a minimum of six years, or longer where legal, regulatory, or complaint-handling requirements make this necessary. In some cases, we may need to keep certain records for longer periods.

Your rights

You have rights under data protection law, including the right to:

• request a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• ask how and why we use your information;
• ask for incorrect data to be corrected;
• request deletion or restricted processing in certain circumstances;
• ask us to transfer data electronically to another organisation where applicable;
• change or withdraw consent for future marketing communications.

Where data relates to a joint application or shared arrangement, consent or authority from all relevant parties may be required before information can be released.

Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Notice or want to exercise your rights, please contact:

If we cannot comply with your request, we will explain why. If you become aware of unauthorised use of your data, please notify us promptly.

If you remain unhappy, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office via ico.org.uk/global/contact-us or write to:

Future contact

We may contact you from time to time where appropriate, for example to review whether our advice remains suitable or to remind you when a fixed mortgage term may be coming to an end.