Clear Car Claims is a trading name of API Financial Services Limited.
This privacy policy sets out how API Financial Services Limited, collects, uses and protects your information when you use this website or our services, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
API Financial Services Limited is the controller and is responsible for your personal data. We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. By using our website and/or our services, you may be providing us with some of your personal information and we want to make sure that we do not use your data in a way that you would not expect. API Financial Services Limited assure you that your personal information will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy and in compliance with the latest privacy regulations.
API Financial Services Limited may change this policy in future by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 22/11/2024.
Personal Information We Collect
Personal information is any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data which has been anonymised. We will only collect the personal data necessary to assess your enquiry and, with your consent, refer your case to our partner firms.
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Contact information: Name, current and previous addresses (including postal, email and IP addresses) and telephone numbers.
- Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
- Financial Data: includes information on your financial circumstances, the lenders or financial institutions used by you, the financial products you have taken out and the details and status of those financial products.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products, and services. This may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency, and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system.
- Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
- Special Category Data: We will only process special category data where you have provided this to us and given your explicit consent to store it or we have a legal/regulatory obligation to. This includes race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data.
This list may not include all the information we require when providing our service/s. The information we ask you for will relate to your specific enquiry and will only consist of the information we need to carry out our service. If you contact us other than via our website, we will keep a record of that correspondence and a copy of call recordings.
Method of collection
- Direct interactions: By you filling in forms on our website or social media or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise.
- Third parties or public sources: We may receive information about you from various reputable third-party lead providers, from our regulators, your lenders, DVLA or from publicly available data.
- Credit Information Firms: We may verify your identity through third party credit information firms who will carry out a soft credit search. We will always obtain your consent to do this and it will not affect your credit score in any way.
- We will always inform you where we have obtained your information from if requested by you.
The basis on which we process your information.
The legal grounds for processing your personal information depend upon the nature of our relationship with you and the context of processing and are as follows:
- Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you.
- Processing is necessary for the purposes of your legitimate interests or our legitimate interests, where your fundamental rights and interests do not override those interests. In order to determine this, we shall undertake a Legitimate Interests Assessment and balancing test.
- Processing is necessary for compliance with mandatory legal or regulatory obligations to which we are subject.
- Processing is undertaken after you have given us your express consent.
What we use your personal information for
We collect/store or use your information to…
| Purpose |
Legal basis |
| carry out initial eligibility checks and, with your consent, refer your case to one of our partner firms. |
Consent |
| send to our partner claims management companies, solicitors or law firms |
Consent |
| send to our service provider/contractor partners |
Contract and/or Legitimate Interests |
| send you information or marketing about our products and services |
Legitimate Interests and/or Consent |
| contact you where you fail to fully complete our online form |
Legitimate Interests and/or Contract |
| provide annual statistics to our regulator |
Legal Obligation |
| resolve complaints against us or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims |
Legitimate Interests and/or Legal Obligation |
| gather feedback to enable us to improve our website, products and services |
Legitimate Interests |
| verify your identity where we receive requests to access or change the information we hold about you |
Legal Obligation |
| maintain our accounts and records |
Legal Obligation |
| comply with legal and regulatory obligations |
Legal Obligation |
| research and analyse trends to better understand how users are using our website and services in order to improve them |
Legitimate Interests |
| inform you about changes in our services and important service related notices, such as security and fraud issues |
Legal Obligation |
| maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice |
Legitimate Interests and/or Legal Obligation |
Providing your personal data to others
We may share your personal data, with your consent, with one or more of our carefully selected third-party claims management companies, solicitors, or law firms. This is solely to allow them to contact you regarding their services, including reviewing your potential case. Once your information is passed to them, these partners will act as independent data controllers and will provide you with their own privacy policies explaining how they use your data.
We may also share your data with insurers, compliance consultants, professional advisers, or other service providers strictly to support the referral process, manage risks, or meet legal and regulatory obligations.
Your data may be disclosed to suppliers or subcontractors, such as IT service providers, call centres, or credit information firms, who act solely as processors on our behalf and are bound by agreements to protect your information.
We will disclose personal data to our partners Valid8 IP Ltd for the provision of credit report information which may include Equifax Ltd, and TransUnion. If you’d like to understand how the credit reference agencies use and share personal data (including the legitimate interests they pursue) please read the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN) http://www.transunion.co.uk/crain; https://www.equifax.co.uk/crain;
You consent to us sharing your Title, Name, Address, Date of Birth and Addresses with Valid8 IP Ltd for the purposes of obtaining your credit report and verifying your eligibility to claim, in accordance with Valid8 IP ltd Privacy Policy. These checks will not affect your credit score.
We may disclose personal data when required by law, to protect vital interests, or to assist in the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.
Some data processors we use may be located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). We conduct robust due diligence and implement appropriate safeguards to ensure your rights are protected. Please contact us if you would like further information about international data transfers and the safeguards in place.
Marketing
We may contact you for marketing purposes in accordance with your preferences and applicable law. This may include information about:
- Our services (Clear Car Claims)
- Services offered by our partner law firms or claims management companies, but only if you have explicitly consented to receive such communications
You can opt out of marketing at any time by contacting us using the details provided in this privacy policy or by following the opt-out instructions in any communication you receive.
We may also rely on legitimate interests for direct marketing, such as informing individuals about services similar to those previously enquired about, provided you have not opted out.
Marketing may be sent via post, email, SMS, or telephone, in accordance with your preferences.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. As you interact with our website, we may collect Technical Data and Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using Third-Party cookies, specifically Google Analytics. You can view Google’s privacy policy here: www.google.com/policies/privacy.
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.
You will be asked to provide your consent for us to use cookies upon your first visit to our website.
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. Also, to opt out of being tracked via Google Analytics, you can use Google’s opt-out browser add-on: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
How long do we keep your personal information
We retain your information for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was originally obtained.
We have some legal and regulatory obligations to hold certain pieces of information for specific timeframes for example, we are required to keep a copy of telephone call recordings for a period of 12 months after our last contact with you.
Where we have provided a service to you, we will hold all information relevant to this for 6 years to enable us to defend any claims/complaints made about our service. Information relating to any complaints will be held for a further 3 years.
We also need to keep some of your information for our accounting and reporting requirements.
Your contact details will be held for the purposes of direct marketing for a 6 years, this is to enable us to let you know about new products or services that may be of interest to you as detailed above.
Your Rights
You have the following rights in accordance with the UK GDPR and the DPA:
- To know that your data is being processed
- To access your personal data free of charge
- To have your information corrected if inaccurate (Including ensuring any third party puts right any inaccuracy)
- To request that your data be erased
- To restrict processing
- To request transfer of your data
- To object to processing and;
- Rights relating to automated decision making and profiling
You may request that we provide you with any personal information we hold about you. Where you send us a request to access your data, this will usually be free of change and sent to you within one month (unless your request is complex). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity before we are able to process your request.
We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
We may use automated decision making in our claims process and/or profiling in order to send you targeted marketing.
You have the right to access details of the information we used to create your profile and the right to object to profiling, including profiling for marketing purposes.
You have the right to request human intervention or challenge an automated decision.
We do not use automated decision making which would produce legal or significant effects on individuals.
If at any point you wish to raise a complaint regarding our data handling then you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) the supervisory authority for data protection issues in the UK whose information is available at www.ico.org.uk. However, we would appreciate to opportunity to deal with any concerns directly with you in the first instance.
Security
API Financial Services Limited recognise the personal nature of the information we collect, process and store. As we are committed to ensuring that your information is secure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to prevent loss, unauthorised access, misuse or disclosure and to make sure that your information is safe and secure. If password access is required for certain parts of our website/application, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which may be collected or you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
General and Opt out
You may not transfer any of your rights under this privacy policy to any other person. We may transfer our rights under this privacy policy where we reasonably believe your rights will not be affected.
If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of this privacy policy (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of this privacy policy will not be affected. Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed a waiver of that, or any other, right or remedy.
If you have any queries relating to our privacy policy or the personal data we hold about you, wish to opt out of marketing or you wish to invoke any of your legal rights, you can contact us by:
Emailing:
info@clearcarclaims.com
Telephone:
01792 311 599
Write to us at:
API Financial Services Limited
Ground Floor Unit 7
Tawe Business Village Enterprise Park
Swansea
SA7 9LA
