Introduction

This is the privacy policy of MINI (UK) Limited and MINI Financial Services (GB) Limited.

A Guide on how MINI Financial Services and Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies will use your data if you apply for finance from MINI Financial Services appears at the end of the privacy policy.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time by publishing the amended version on our websites.

THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLIES TO PERSONAL INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT INDIVIDUALS. IT DOES NOT APPLY TO INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT COMPANIES AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS, NOR TO THE USE OF YOUR INFORMATION BY THE PROVIDERS OF MINI INSURANCE PRODUCTS. DETAILS OF THEIR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE PROVIDED TO YOU IN THE RELEVANT PRODUCT INFORMATION.

We take the privacy of your personal information very seriously and will only use your personal information in accordance with the current data protection law in the UK and this privacy policy.

How do we receive your information?

We may receive information about you:

• when you contact us directly, normally via our website or our customer services teams, whether to apply for one of our products or services or to make an enquiry or other request, 
• from our network of authorised BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad dealers, 
• from our other group companies and carefully selected business partners who provide products and services under one of our brands, and 
• occasionally from other third parties who may lawfully pass to us information about you. 

Using your information

We may use your information (which we receive from you or third parties or learn from the way you use our products or services) for a variety of purposes, including:

• to provide or manage any information, products and services you have asked for,
• to help us identify you when you contact us, 
• for general administration purposes, 
• to help us improve the quality of our products and services, 
• to help us detect and prevent fraud and money laundering, 
• to help us recover debts, 
• to carry out analysis and customer profiling, and 
• to identify other products and services which might be of interest to you and to inform you about our products and services (please see below). 

We may share your information for any of these purposes with:

• our other group companies in the UK and abroad, 
• authorised BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad dealers, 
• our carefully chosen business partners who provide products or services under one of our brands, and 
• our service providers and agents who perform services on our behalf, such as credit card processors and data management firms. 

We may also pass your information to third parties:

• if we have been asked to provide information for legal or regulatory purposes, 
• in relation to existing or future legal proceedings, 
• in the process of selling one or more of our businesses or to anyone to whom we may transfer our rights under any customer agreement we have with you, 
• for the purpose of preventing fraud/loss, for example to fraud prevention agencies. 

If one of these organisations is outside of the European Economic Area we will make sure they agree to apply the same level of protection of your information as we are required to apply in the UK.

NBIf you apply for finance from MINI Financial Services, please also see the Guide on how MINI Financial Services and Credit Reference and Fraud Reference Agencies will use your information both when you apply and during the course of your finance agreement appearing at the end of this policy.

Informing you about our products and services

We may use your information to contact you with news on BMW cars and motorcycles and MINI cars and other products and services (provided by us, our other group companies or our carefully selected business partners) which may be of interest to you and occasionally for market research purposes.

We may also pass your information to our other group companies, authorised BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad dealers and our other business partners for these purposes.

We, and these other parties, may contact you by post and phone and, if you give us your prior agreement to do so, by email, SMS and other electronic means.

The range of products and services offered by us, our approved BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad dealers, our other group companies or selected business partners include: 

• MINI / MINI vehicles, 
• motor related products and services, including (amongst other things) vehicle finance, leasing and ancillary insurances, vehicle accessories, vehicle emergency service, vehicle warranties and motor insurance, and 
• other products, including (amongst other things) insurance.

Our group companies trading in the UK include BMW (UK) Limited, BMW Financial Services (GB) Limited and Alphabet (GB) Limited and our group brands include BMW, MINI, BMW Financial Services, MINI Financial Services, BMW Motorrad, Alphera Financial Services and Alphabet. Some of the products mentioned above are provided by selected business partners.

You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us on our vehicles and other products and services by ticking the appropriate box (if providing your information on this website) or at any time by calling us on free phone 0800 561 0666, or writing to us at MINI Customer Information Centre, Selectapost 51, Sheffield, S97 3GB.

You can also contact us at the above address or telephone number if you have previously asked not to receive marketing communications but would now like to hear from us with news on BMW, MINI or BMW Motorrad vehicles and other products and services.

Please note if you purchase a vehicle from an authorised MINI dealer or otherwise give your information to an authorised MINI dealer, you will have a separate relationship with the dealer in relation to the dealer's use of your data and you will need to contact the dealer concerned in relation to any request you may have in relation to the dealer's use of your data.

We will only send you marketing communications by email or other electronic means if you give us your agreement to do so. For example, we may inform you when inviting you to provide your email address that by providing your email address you will be indicating your agreement to receive marketing emails. If you give us your agreement and subsequently wish to opt out you can do so by clicking the unsubscribe link which we include on all our marketing emails or you can contact us at any time at the address or telephone number above.

Our website

We try to keep our website secure. However you recognise when providing your information to us through our website or when you send us or ask us to send you any of your confidential information by email, that the internet and email communications over the internet may not be secure. We cannot be responsible for any loss or unauthorised interception of information transmitted via the internet which is beyond our control.

Our website may contain links to other websites outside of our group. Our privacy policy only applies to our website. We are not responsible for the content, privacy or security of other websites.

Use of Cookies on our website.

A "cookie" is a piece of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer's hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the "lifetime" of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number.

When you visit our website we send you a cookie. We may use cookies in the following ways:

• to help us recognise you as a unique visitor (just a number) when you return to our website and to allow us to tailor content of our site to match your preferred interests; 
• to compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our site and to help us improve the structure of our website. We cannot identify you personally in this way. 

Two types of cookies may be used on this website : session cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the site, and persistent cookies, which remain in the cookie file of your browser for longer ( how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie).

Some of our Web pages may also contain electronic images known as Web beacons (sometimes known as clear gifs) that allow us to count users who have visited these pages. Web beacons collect only limited information which including a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the Web beacon resides. 

Disabling/Enabling Cookies.

You can accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features of our site if cookies are disabled.

You can find Information on how to disable or enable cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org

Providing information to us

If you give us information on behalf of someone else, you confirm to us that you have their permission to do so and that they are aware of the contents of this privacy policy and do not have any objection to our processing their information in accordance with this policy. 

You are responsible for informing us of any change in your details, such as a change of address. You have a right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in the information we hold about you.

You have a right to ask what information we hold about you. We will charge you a small fee for this (the statutory fee is currently £10).

You may contact us at the address below for these purposes.

If you are under 16 please do not provide us with any personal information unless you have the permission of your parent or guardian to do so.

Telephone calls to us may be recorded and/or monitored for training purposes.

Contact us

You can contact us in relation to this privacy policy by writing to us at MINI Customer Information Centre, Selectapost 51, Sheffield, S97 3GB

A GUIDE ON HOW MINI FINANCIAL SERVICES AND CREDIT REFERENCE AND FRAUD PREVENTION AGENCIES USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WHEN YOU APPLY FOR FINANCE FROM MINI FINANCIAL SERVICES

What we do when you apply to us for finance

a) We may check our own records and search at credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies for information, including credit details, on you and, if you have one, your financial associates (a financial associate is a person with whom you have, or have had, joint personal financial arrangements such as joint accounts or have made joint credit applications, for example a spouse or partner), other members of your family and if you are an owner, director or partner in a small business, your business.

b) We may pass information that is supplied to us to credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies. As well as the information you provide directly to us or to the dealer, we may receive information about you from our other group companies and carefully selected business partners who provide products and services under one of our brands and occasionally from other third parties who may lawfully pass to us information about you.

c) If you have any financial associates, we may link and record information about you both in our own records and at credit reference agencies and we, and others, will take their information into account. We may take both your and their information into account in future applications by either or both of you and continue this linking until your agreement ends and one of you notifies us that you are no longer linked. So you must be sure that you have their agreement to disclose information about them.

d) We may obtain references and make enquiries about you from other persons and organisations. If we require any guarantee or other security in relation to your obligations under any proposed agreement, we may provide information about your application to the person you wish to provide the guarantee or other security.

e) If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud, we will record this and may also pass this information to fraud prevention agencies and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention.

f) With the information that we obtain we will:

• Assess your application for credit; 
• Check details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities;      
• Verify your identity and the identity of your spouse, partner or other directors / partners if applicable; and/or 
• Undertake checks for the prevention and detection of fraud and/or money laundering. 
• We may use scoring methods to assess this application and to verify your identity. 
• Manage your personal and/or business account (if you have one) with ourselves, 
• Undertake periodical statistical analysis or testing to ensure the accuracy of existing and future products and services, 
• Any or all of these processes may be automated. 
• Undertake market research. 

What we do when you have a finance agreement with us

a) We may give details of your agreement and how you manage it to credit reference agencies.

b) If you do not repay us in full and on time, we may tell credit reference agencies and we may trace your whereabouts and recover payment.

c) We may make periodic searches of our Group records, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies to manage your agreement with us, to take decisions regarding your identity and credit, including whether to make further credit available or to continue or extend existing credit. We may also check at fraud prevention agencies to prevent or detect fraud.

d) We may use your information to undertake periodic statistical analysis or testing to ensure the accuracy of existing and future products and services.

e) We may pass your information to third parties for legal or regulatory reasons, including in relation to any existing or proposed legal proceedings, or in the process of us transferring this agreement or our business to any person. If you fail to pay any licence fees, duties, fines, insurance premiums, congestion charges, or other sums which become due in respect of the Vehicle, we may pass your information to the authority or organisation which is demanding payment. We may also provide information about your agreement to any person who has provided any guarantee or other security in relation to your obligations under this agreement.

f) If you give us false or inaccurate information and we identify fraud, we will record this and may also pass this information to fraud prevention agencies and other organisations involved in fraud prevention to prevent fraud and money laundering.

What the Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies will do

a) They will place a search 'footprint' on your credit file whenever they receive a search from us. We will make a search when you apply for credit from us and we may also make searches during the period of any agreement you hold with us. If the search was for a credit application they will place a search 'footprint' on your file whether or not your application proceeds and the record of that search (but not the name of the organisation that carried it out) may be seen by other organisations when you apply for credit in the future.

b) They will link together your records and those of anyone that you have advised is your financial associate, including previous and subsequent names of you and any financial associates. Links between financial associates will remain on your and their files until such time as you and your financial associate successfully file for a disassociation with the credit reference agencies.

c) They will supply to us:

• Credit information such as previous applications and the conduct of accounts in your name and of your associates and/or your business accounts 
• Public information such as County Court Judgements and bankruptcies 
• Electoral Register information; and 
• Fraud prevention information 

d) If you have an agreement with us, credit reference agencies will record the details that we supply to them on your agreement and how you manage it. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, credit reference agencies will record the outstanding debt.

e) Records shared with credit reference agencies remain on file for 6 years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted.

f) The information which we, other organisations and fraud prevention agencies provide to the credit reference and fraud prevention agencies about you, your financial associates and your business (if you have one) may be supplied by credit reference and fraud prevention agencies to other organisations and used by them and us to:

• Prevent fraud and money laundering by, for example, checking details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities; checking details on proposals and claims for all types of insurance; checking details of job applications and employees 
• Verify your identity if you or your financial associate applies for other facilities including all types of insurance applications and claims 
• Assist other organisations to make decisions on credit and credit related services or other facilities, about you, your partner, other members of your household or your business 
• Trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe 
• Manage credit and credit related accounts and other facilities; and 
• Undertake statistical analysis and system testing. 

g) Law enforcement agencies may also access and use this information.

h) We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.

You can contact the Credit Reference Agencies currently operating in the UK. The information they hold may not be the same so it is worth contacting them all. They will charge you a small statutory fee.

Call Credit
Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, Leeds LS3 1WZ or call 0870 0601414

Equifax plc
Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 3001, Bradford BD1 5US or call 0870 010 0583 or log on to www.myequifax.co.uk

Experian
Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF or call 0870 241 6212 or log on to www.experian.co.uk

Please contact us at MINI Customer Information Centre, Selectapost 51, Sheffield, S97 3GB or call us on 0800 561 0666 if you want to receive details of the relevant Fraud Prevention Agencies.