Privacy notice

Help with Money, a trading style of Your Debt Plan UK Limited (company number 905649). Our registered office is Unit 10 Wilson Business Park, 1 Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Hillington Park, Glasgow, G52 4NQ. Your Debt Plan UK Limited is the “controller” of your personal information. That means we decide how it’s used, and we’re responsible for looking after it.

We follow the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under number ZC272443.

We don’t give debt advice. When you ask for help, we pass your details to a partner debt firm, which then contacts you.

You can reach our data protection contact at [email protected].

When you answer the questions on our website, we ask for:

• roughly how much you owe, how many debts you have, what kinds, and which part of the UK you live in
• whether you have an overdraft and, if you do, how much you rely on it
• your monthly income and spending, as a range, and your work status
• whether you have missed a payment in the last three months, and how you feel about your money
• your first and last name, your mobile number and your email address
• the six-digit code we text to your mobile, which shows the number is yours
• the result of a check on your email address and mobile number, to see whether the address is real and the number is live
• if you ask for a call, the time you choose

We also keep some information about your visit, so we know where you came from and can pass it on with your enquiry:

• the page you arrived on and the website you came from
• any campaign tags in the address you followed, such as the name of an advert
• basic technical information in our server logs, such as your IP address, browser and device, to keep the site running and secure

The budget planner works on your device, and the figures you type in are saved in your browser. If you used it on the same device before you sent us the form, its figures are sent with your enquiry. If you didn’t use it, nothing is sent.

The partner debt firm that contacts you may ask for more, such as your date of birth, your address, and what you owe and to whom. It will tell you what it needs and why, under its own privacy notice. If you tell us about your health or other sensitive matters because they affect your money, we’ll only use that with your explicit consent, or where the law allows it.

The law says we need a valid reason, called a lawful basis, for each way we use your information. Here are ours.

• To show you the right question and keep your answers as you move through the form

  Lawful basis

  Legitimate interests: it’s how the form works. Your answers are held in a short-lived cookie, which holds no name or contact details.

• To check your mobile number by text, and to contact you about your enquiry

  Lawful basis

  Taking steps at your request before a contract, and legitimate interests (making sure the details are genuine, and preventing misuse).

• To pass your answers, contact details and chosen call time to a partner debt firm, so it can contact you

  Lawful basis

  Taking steps at your request: you asked to be put in touch.

• To meet our legal duties, such as company, tax and data protection law

  Lawful basis

  Legal obligation.

• To know which advert or link brought you to us, and to tell that advertising platform when you get in touch

  Lawful basis

  Legitimate interests: we pay for adverts so that people who need help with debt can find us, and we need to know which ones work. It’s part of how we run the service, so it doesn’t depend on your cookie choice. You can object at any time (see Your rights).

• To keep the site safe, understand how it is used and improve it

  Lawful basis

  Legitimate interests. We only rely on this where your own rights don’t outweigh it.

• To send you marketing, if we ever do

  Lawful basis

  Your consent. We don’t send marketing unless you’ve opted in, and you can opt out at any time.

• Health or other sensitive information you choose to share

  Lawful basis

  Your explicit consent, or the law’s allowance for substantial public interest, such as protecting someone who may be vulnerable.

Our form uses your answers to check whether a partner debt firm is likely to be able to help. For example, a partner debt firm can only take enquiries about two or more debts, so the form stops if you have only one. That isn’t a decision about your finances. Free, impartial debt advice is available from MoneyHelper, StepChange and National Debtline, whether or not you speak to us.

We only share your information with people who need it to help you, or when the law says we must:

• Our customer management system, I Need Leads (ineedleads.co.uk), where your enquiry is recorded.
• CheckIO (checkio.co.uk), which sends the six-digit code to your mobile and, before the first text, checks that your email address is real and your mobile number is live.
• Our website hosting provider, which keeps the site running.
• A partner debt firm. We pass it your answers, contact details, any budget planner figures and your chosen call time, so it can contact you about your enquiry. That’s the service you ask for when you send us your details. The partner then uses your information under its own privacy notice, which it gives you.
• Regulators and public bodies, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office, when the law requires it.
• Professional advisers, such as lawyers, auditors and insurers, when we need them.

Our providers act under written agreements and only on our instructions. We never sell your personal information.

Advertising platforms (Google, Meta and TikTok): when you send us your details, we tell the platform whose advert brought you to us that it worked, so we can reach people who need help and stop paying for adverts that do not. We do this whatever you chose about cookies, because it is part of how we find the people we help. Your email address, phone number and name are scrambled (hashed) before they leave us, so the platform can only match them to an account it already knows. We also send the advert’s click reference, your IP address, your browser’s details and the time you got in touch. We never send the answers you gave about your money. Each platform uses this under its own privacy policy.

WhatsApp: if you choose to message us on WhatsApp, your messages and your number go through WhatsApp, which is run by Meta, under its own privacy policy. We note on your enquiry that you chose WhatsApp, so we know to reply there.

Our website uses an encrypted connection, so what you type travels securely. Our providers keep your information in the UK or the European Economic Area. They only keep it elsewhere with the safeguards UK law requires, for example in countries the UK recognises as safe, or under approved contract terms.

• Your answers while you fill in the form

  How long

  Up to 7 days, in a cookie in your browser. It’s deleted when you reach the thank-you page. It holds no name, number or email address.

• Your budget planner figures

  How long

  On your device until you clear them or press the reset button. If you send us an enquiry, the figures sent with it are kept with the enquiry record.

• Your enquiry record

  How long

  Up to 2 years from our last contact with you.

• Your information once it has been passed to a partner debt firm

  How long

  The partner keeps its own records under its own privacy notice.

• Call recordings, if we make them

  How long

  If we record a call, we keep the recording for up to 2 years.

After that, we delete your information securely or make it anonymous.

Your information belongs to you. You have the right to:

• get a copy of the information we hold about you
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong or incomplete
• ask us to delete it, in some circumstances
• ask us to limit how we use it
• receive it in a form you can take elsewhere
• object to us using it where we rely on legitimate interests
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it

To use any of these rights, contact [email protected]. You don’t pay to use them, and we’ll reply within one month. We may ask you to prove who you are first, so we never give your information to someone else.

The site stores a small amount in your browser to make the form and the budget planner work, and to remember which advert or link brought you to us. We only use other companies’ analytics and advertising cookies if you agree, and you can change your answer at any time with “Cookie settings” at the foot of every page. Our cookie notice lists everything.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

We may update this notice if how we work, or the law, changes. We’ll publish any significant change here and change the date at the top.