About Beneficial Finance - an old HFC Site.....
Beneficial Finance is a trading name of HFC Bank Ltd, which is a member of the HSBC Group. The HSBC Group has more than 125 million customers in 82 countries, making it one of the largest Banks in the world.
At Beneficial Finance we have developed a reputation for a quick and thorough response to your queries and we welcome the opportunity to address any issues you may have. We treat each complaint seriously in order to resolve any issues as quickly as possible, but there may be instances where we can not reach an agreeable solution. If your complaint has not been resolved once you have exhausted our internal complaints procedure you may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service who will be able to offer you free and independent advice.
For further details regarding our complaints procedure and details of the Financial Ombudsman Service please contact us on 0870 010 0453.
Good Practice
We believe we have the experience and the expertise to ensure that you always get the help and service you need. We are members of the Financial Ombudsman Service. We also subscribe to the Finance & Leasing Association Code of Practice. A copy of this Code may be downloaded from the FLA website at www.fla.org.uk.
HFC Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The Financial Services Authority is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. We are entered on the FSA's Register and our Registered number is 204483. The FSA's Register can be accessed at www.fsa.gov.uk/register.
Website Terms of Use
Unless otherwise specified, this Web Site is directed solely at those who access this Site from the UK. HFC Bank Limited does not make any representation that any product or service referred to in the materials on this Web Site are appropriate for use, or available in other locations. Those who choose to access this site from other locations are responsible for compliance with local laws if and to the extent local laws are applicable.
This site is optimised for JavaScript enabled browsers. If you do not have a browser that supports JavaScript, functionality of this site will be severely limited.
BROWSER UPGRADE RECOMMENDATION: Netscape Navigator versions 4.05 and earlier plus Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 for Macintosh include a security component which expired at the end of 1999. If you use one of these browsers, you may receive warning messages when connecting to certain secure web sites such as ours. These messages may indicate that your connection cannot be verified, because your security component has expired. Beneficial Finance recommends that users of either of these browsers upgrade their browser as soon as possible in order to avoid such warning messages.
Your Privacy
We know that privacy is important to you. You don't want your personal details available to other people. And you certainly don't want anyone else knowing your financial information. We make sure we collect and retain your details responsibly. Click on the points below to find out more.
- We collect your details responsibly,
- We keep your details responsibly,
- Our employees cannot easily access your details
- We have appropriate security in place,
- We limit disclosure of your details to third parties
- We require others to maintain confidentiality
We collect your details responsibly
When we collect information from you, we will tell you what we intend to use it for. We collect information from you that will help us conduct your account, manage our business and provide you with the quality of service and products that you expect. We will only request information that is relevant. We don't collect any details to identify you unless you fill in an online application, questionnaire or e-mail. We do collect non-personal data about visitors to our website. This helps us measure how many people visit the site, and identify any improvements we can make.
We keep your details responsibly
We strive to keep details that are accurate and up to date. Our procedures ensure that we will correct any inaccurate or incomplete information as quickly as possible.
Our employees cannot easily access your details
Our procedures and security controls limit employee access to customer information. The only employees who can see your details do so for business reasons. Everyone who works for us knows just how important it is to maintain confidentiality at all times.
We have appropriate security in place
Our up-to-the-minute security standards and procedures prevent unauthorised access to your details.
We limit disclosure of your details to third parties
We only reveal your details or information about your transactions to third parties if:
- It is necessary for the performance of your Agreement with us, for example to complete a transaction;
- You have given your consent;
- It is otherwise required or permitted by law.
In particular, you are entitled to require us, by giving notice in writing, to stop contacting you or giving your details to others for direct marketing purposes.
We require others to maintain confidentiality
If we disclose your details to a service bureau, other businesses, or subsidiaries of HFC Bank Ltd, we ask them to uphold our privacy principles, so that total confidentiality is guaranteed.
Complaints Procedure
At HFC Bank, we aim to provide the highest standards of service and care to our customers. Our staff are trained to do this, and are committed to providing you with the best possible service at all times. Even the best organisations sometimes make mistakes, and if we do, or we fail to meet your expectations in some other way, we want the opportunity to put things right as quickly as we can. We operate a simple complaints procedure, which aims to resolve any problem quickly and effectively. In addition, HFC Bank is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service (www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk) and the Finance and Leasing Association (www.fla.org.uk).
Service Expectations
We are aware that on rare occasions things can go wrong and when this is the case we want to resolve the problem for you as quickly as possible. If you have a problem with your account, please contact us on 0870 010 0453 where we will help to resolve the situation to your satisfaction.
If you feel that you have a complaint that has not been resolved to your satisfaction, please let us know. Within 5 days of our receiving details of your complaint, we will
- write to you to acknowledge our receipt of your complaint,
- tell you the name and job title of the person handling the complaint and
- give you details of our internal complaint handling procedures.
The only time we will not do this is where your complaint to us is resolved by the close of business on the next working day following our receipt of your complaint.
Within 4 weeks of our receipt of your complaint, if it is not resolved, we will either send you a response explaining why we have not yet been able to resolve the complaint and when we expect to be able to do so or give you our final response to your complaint.
In all cases we will, within 8 weeks of receiving your complaint:
- send you our final response to the complaint, which will include an explanation of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if you are dissatisfied with our response. We will include a copy of the Ombudsman's explanatory leaflet telling you how to complain to him;
or - send to you a further holding response explaining why we are still not in a position to provide a final response to you and when we expect to be able to do so. We will also, with this letter, tell you that you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are dissatisfied with our action and give you a copy of the Ombudsman's explanatory leaflet telling you how to complain to him.
The only time we will not do this is if, within 8 weeks of our receiving your complaint, we have sent you a response which:
- offers you redress or rejects the complaint, and gives valid reasons for our doing so;
- informs you how to pursue your complaint with us if you remain dissatisfied;
- refers to the ultimate availability of the Financial Ombudsman Service if you remain dissatisfied with our response; and
- indicates that we will regard the complaint as closed if we do not receive a reply from you within 8 weeks.
We will consider your complaint to be closed when we have issued a final response to you or where you have indicated in writing that you accept the response we have issued to you or where we have written to you giving the information which is required and you have not responded to us within 8 weeks.
A copy of our Internal Complaints Procedures, the Finance & Leasing Association Lending Code of Practice and details of the Financial Ombudsman scheme can be obtained on request by phoning Customer Services on 0870 010 0453.
Privacy Statement
Privacy
This Privacy Statement sets out our current policies about how your personal and financial information is dealt with and demonstrates our commitment to your financial privacy. We may change the content or services found on our Site at any time without notice, and consequently our privacy policy may change at any time in the future. You agree to revisit this page regularly and your continued access to or use of this Site will mean that you agree to any changes.
Public areas
When using the public portion of the Site you are not required to provide us with any personal information and we do not monitor or collect any personally identifiable information from you on your use of the public portions of the Site. We may track the number of users who visit areas of the Site, but this tracking will not identify you. We may also record the location of your computer on the Internet for systems administration and trouble-shooting purposes and to report aggregate information.
Personal information
If you provide us with certain up-to-date data about yourself, such as applying for a loan, we will handle that data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. We maintain strict security standards and procedures to prevent unauthorised access to your data by anyone, including our staff. We use secure technologies including data encryption, firewalls and server authentication to protect the security of your data. All our Group companies, staff and third parties who provide our support services are required to observe our privacy standards and allow us to audit them for compliance.
This site uses cookies. What are cookies?
Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk for record keeping purposes. Cookies can make the Internet more useful by storing information about your preferences on particular sites and enabling website owners to provide more useful features to their users. Our cookies contain no name or address information or any information that will enable anyone to contact you via telephone, email or any other means. Most web browsers are initially set to accept cookies but if you prefer you can set your browser to disable cookies or inform you when they are set.
However, given that we may sometimes use cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of our website if you disable them. Our web pages use tracking technology to enable us to count users who have visited certain pages on our website. We do not use tracking data to access your personal information and it is simply a tool we use to analyse which web pages customers' view, in an aggregated manner. If you prefer us not to collectany such information, simply set your browser to disable cookies.Information on how to disable cookies can be obtained by referring to your Browser help function, often found in the menu at the top of the screen.
Third party
We sometimes work with third parties to research certain usage and activities on our website on our behalf. No personal information about you is shared, however in the course of conducting this research these third parties may place a unique cookie on your browser.
Accessibility
Your questions
If you have any questions regarding privacy issues, please call us on 0870 010 0453 for more information. To ensure the accuracy of our conversation and to help us to continually improve our service and in the interest of security, we may monitor and/or record your telephone calls with us.
CN8/0592
