About us and privacy

Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited (“VWFS) will collect personal data about you (“your information”) when you request a quote, from your finance application, if you contact us (including any email address, Internet Protocol (IP) address or telephone number supplied by your electronic service provider) and if you use our product(s) and service(s). Personal information we may ask you to provide includes (but is not limited to), your full name, address, date of birth, payment/bank account information and employment, contact and address details. In addition, there may be instances where we receive your personal data from third parties, such as credit reference agencies, insurers and our franchised retailers or repairers. In consideration of the personal data provided in your application for finance, VWFS are the data controller of this information at the point we receive it. Please note that in the majority of circumstances, the processing of your information is necessary for the performance of the contract (the finance contract) and/or to fulfil our legitimate business interests, the legal bases, which we rely upon when processing your information, are described in our Privacy Policy available on our website. The privacy and security of your personal information is very important to us and your information will be managed properly and kept secure whilst it is in our hands. Please read this notice carefully as it explains how we and/or selected third parties we work with, collect and use your personal information. You should only give personal information about someone else if you have their permission as it will form part of your information and may be used in the ways described in this statement.

How we use your information

The data that we collect about you (“your information”) will be used by us to:

• verify your information;
• comply with legal requirements, including preventing and detecting criminal activity, including fraud and money-laundering;
• provide you with our product and notify you about important changes or developments to the features and operation of those products and services;
• manage your account, including responding to your enquiries and complaints;
• trace and recover debt;
• provide you with information about products and services which are similar to those we previously provided to you;
• carry out risk management and customer modelling, statistical and trend analysis, with the aim of developing and improving products and services;
• carry out corporate finance transactions; and
• to communicate your end of contract and/or contract renewal option(s) to you, where applicable.

Your information will be used to perform credit and identity checks with fraud prevention and credit reference agencies (CRAs), this information may be provided to other organisations. When CRAs receive a search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders. This could lead to you being refused certain services, finance or employment. If you take our product, we may also make periodic searches at CRAs to manage your account and will exchange information about you with CRAs on an ongoing basis, including about your settled accounts and any debts not fully repaid on time. Please note, should you choose not to take up the finance agreement when your application is first submitted to VWFS, we will perform an additional credit search for any subsequent applications for finance thereafter. This will be necessary in the event the subsequent application(s) differ to the initial application (i.e. varying product details, finance term, etc.) and/or where the initial application is being re-submitted 90 days (or more) later. To do this, we will supply personal information to CRAs and they will give us details about you. This will include information from your credit application and about your financial situation and financial history (also your information). CRAs will provide us with both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit, financial situation and financial history information and fraud prevention information. CRAs will share your information with other organisations. Your data will also be linked to the data of your financial associates.

How we share your information

We may share your personal information with other companies within the Volkswagen AG group in order to: fulfil orders, facilitate transactions, handle complaints, provide you with service(s) and/or information that you have requested, for audit and statistical analysis, risk management and product and service development purposes, for the co-ordination and management of customer contract renewals, to communicate with you (where the law allows) and/or to comply with legal requirements.

In connection with customer contract renewals, VWFS and Volkswagen Group UK ("VWG") work together to ensure that follow up activities relating to the renewal of your finance contract(s) are performed as effectively and efficiently as possible. In this instance, VWFS and VWG are “joint data controllers” of the personal data processed for this purpose. As such, our 'Joint Privacy Statement' describes our respective data protection responsibilities and outlines the personal information shared between the parties.

We will not disclose your information to anyone else except:

• where the law says we may or must do so;
• to credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, who will use it to verify your identity and to prevent fraud and money-laundering;
• to companies that provide services to us so we can perform activities relating to your contract and/or to enforce any contract we have with you and/or to protect our rights and/or property;
• to our franchised retailers to provide you with information about your application and our products and services; and
• to our advisors, and to investors and their advisors, for corporate finance purposes.

If your personal information is transferred or stored outside of the UK, we will take steps to ensure that your personal information is protected to UK standards and processed in accordance with UK law.

More Information

Further information on how your information is used by us and fraud prevention agencies, how we maintain the security of your information, how long we will retain your information, your rights relating to the information we hold on you and the details of relevant third parties and Volkswagen Group companies for data sharing purposes can be found in our Privacy Policy which is available:

• at our website: www.vwfs.co.uk
• by contacting us at DPO@vwfs.co.uk
• from the retailer submitting your application for our product if you would like more information before proceeding

You can find more detail about the CRAs and the ways in which they use and share personal information located at: www.experian.co.uk/crain, www.callcredit.co.uk/crain and www.equifax.co.uk/crain.

Marketing

VWFS would like to send you information about its products and services. If you agree, please tick to say how you would like to be contacted:

• E-Mail  
• Telephone call 
• SMS 
• Post

You can change your preferences at any time by writing to or calling us. If you do opt out, you may still see some generic, non-personalised advertising when you are using digital channels.