Privacy Policy

Who we are

First Credit Advice Limited (company number 08155619), registered office 27-43 St James House, Eastern Road, Romford, RM1 3NH ("we", "us", "our"), takes the privacy of our customers very seriously. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully — it explains how we use your personal data. Throughout this policy, "you" means the customer.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, we are the Data Controller — the organisation responsible for, and which controls the processing of, your personal data. We are one entity and are not part of any group structure.

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) registration number: Z3299816.

Scope of this policy

This Privacy Policy covers our website, fcal.co.uk, and our internal systems, controls and processes for handling your personal data. Our website provides information on solutions to debt and financial difficulty.

If you access any other website linked from our site, that website is not covered by this policy — please check its own privacy policy.

Lawful basis for processing

UK data protection law requires us to set out our lawful basis for processing personal data. We rely on Legitimate Interest — Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR — for the purposes of processing your personal data: "the processing is necessary for your legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual's personal data which overrides those legitimate interests."

This legitimate interest relates to our legal requirement to hold your personal data and financial information on record for up to six years after we stop acting on your behalf. This six-year period satisfies the requirements of our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the legal requirement to retain accounting information for HM Revenue & Customs, and is in line with other financial industry retention periods. A separate Legitimate Interest Assessment document is available on request.

Personal data we collect

We obtain personal data about you, including your name, address, date of birth, contact information, information relating to any financial hardship, financial information (including details of creditors and debtors), income and expenditure (and, in some cases, household income), and the personal data of anyone you have express authority to disclose to us.

By submitting an online enquiry or making a telephone enquiry, you agree to the terms of this policy, including that we may contact you about your enquiry via the contact method you provide (e.g. email address, telephone number).

If you give us information about a third party, you confirm that they have appointed you to act on their behalf and that you can provide evidence of this if asked. Under that authorisation, the third party can give consent to processing of their personal data for the purposes set out in this policy, and receive data protection notices on their behalf. This authorisation remains in place until revoked, verbally or in writing.

Special category data

In certain circumstances we may hold special category data (also known as sensitive personal data) — for example, where a medical condition means a third party should deal with your affairs, or an impairment means we should contact you using a different method. We need this information to tailor our approach to best assist you.

Any special category data is treated in the strictest confidence and held only with your explicit consent. If you do not give explicit consent relating to any impairment or vulnerability, the information will not be recorded and will not be disclosed to any third party.

How we use your information

Your information lets us give you access to our website and supply the services and advice you require. We also use and analyse the information we collect to administer, support, improve and develop our business, and, where necessary, to refer you to the most appropriate financial solution.

We may use your information to:

• Process your enquiries and provide the services you require
• Help us identify you and any accounts you hold with us
• Administer our services
• Prevent and detect fraud
• Tailor our website and its content to your preferences
• Notify you of changes to our website or services that may affect you
• Carry out security vetting
• Improve our services
• Contact you for your views on our services, and — only where you have separately consented — let you know about other products or services that may be of interest, including those of carefully selected third parties

If you've opted in to marketing and change your mind, you can opt out at any time — see Your rights below.

Disclosure of your personal data

We may disclose personal data you provide to us to:

• Our agents and service providers (for example, providers of web hosting, maintenance services, or creditors)
• Law enforcement agencies, in connection with any investigation to help prevent unlawful activity
• Our third-party affiliates — specifically, finance companies and other third parties with whom we deal in the course of providing our services to you
• Any regulator within whose jurisdiction we operate

Where we are making arrangements on your behalf, we may need to pass your information to third parties to conclude those arrangements — for example, referring you to a finance broker if debt consolidation could form part of the solution to your debt issues.

If our business enters into a joint venture with, is sold to, or merges with another business, your information may be disclosed to the proposed or new business partners or owners.

We will not sell your personal data to any other party.

Your rights

You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you, free of charge. This is called a Subject Access Request. To make one, please:

• Put your request in writing, by email or letter
• Include proof of your identity and address (for example, a copy of your driving licence or passport, and a recent utility or credit card bill)
• Specify the personal data you want access to, including any account or reference numbers

You have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your data, free of charge. To do this, speak to us by phone or put your request in writing, provide enough information to identify you, and specify what is incorrect and what it should be replaced with.

To unsubscribe from our e-newsletters, blogs and technical updates, use the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email we send, or email hello@fcal.co.uk with the subject line "Unsubscribe" — we'll remove you within 10 calendar days, usually much sooner.

A reasonable administration charge may apply only where a request is manifestly excessive — this will always be discussed with you first.

International transfers

In the normal course of business, there may be a need to transfer personal data outside the UK and European Economic Area (EEA) — for example, when undertaking quality assurance assessments with international partners. Such countries may not always have the same legal protections for personal data as the UK and EEA.

We put assurances and safeguards in place and consider them before any international transfer is undertaken, to protect the security of your personal data.

Cookies

We use one strictly necessary session cookie to keep you securely signed in to forms on our site and to protect against cross-site request forgery. This cookie does not track you and is deleted when you close your browser session.

We do not currently use analytics, advertising or marketing cookies. If this changes, we will update this policy and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Security and data retention

We use security measures to protect your information from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. We retain your information for six years after we stop acting for you. If you make an enquiry that we're unable to help with, we keep a record of that enquiry for 12 months.

We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information but cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted online. We are not responsible for a breach of security unless it results from our negligence or wilful default.

Anti-money laundering checks

To comply with money laundering regulations, we sometimes need to confirm a customer's identity. To do this, we may carry out an electronic Anti-Money Laundering check on our customers.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, notified by email.

Contact us

All comments, queries and requests relating to our use of your information are welcome and should be addressed to the Operations Manager:

• Post: First Credit Advice Limited, 27-43 St James House, Eastern Road, Romford, RM1 3NH
• Phone: +44 203 918 1986
• Email: hello@fcal.co.uk

You can also lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk — though we'd appreciate the chance to address your concern directly first.

Last reviewed: 20 June 2026 by First Credit Advice Limited