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Privacy Notice

Last updated: 7/9/2023

At National Debt Relief, we are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Notice outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you interact with our website and services. By using our website, you consent to the practices described in this notice.

This privacy policy will apply to you if you provide your personal information to us, even if you decide not to proceed with any of the services we offer. This privacy policy is also used by all the companies / trading styles within National Debt Relief and our group who provide various debt and insolvency solutions (McCambridge Duffy).

The aim of this policy is to provide a clear understanding of what happens to the information you send to us and how we will use that personal information in providing our advice and services to you including how we protect that information in line with new GDPR legislation.

Information we collect

We may collect various types of information when you use our website, including but not limited to:

  • Personal Information: such as your name, email address, phone number, address, information about your financial situation and other identifiers when you provide them voluntarily.
  • Log Data: including your IP address, browser type, operating system, and other technical information when you visit our website.
  • Cookies and Tracking Technologies: we use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your browsing experience, collect usage data, and improve our services.

How we use your personal information

We can only use your personal information where it falls into one or more of the following categories:

  • To provide and maintain our website and services.
  • To respond to your enquiries and requests and provide advice.
  • To enter into or fulfil a contract that we have with you.
  • You have consented to us using your information.
  • We have a legal or regulatory obligation to do so.
  • To carry out a task which is in the public interest.
  • To protect your vital interests.
  • It is in our legitimate interest to do so and it is not against your rights.

Providing inital advice

We first obtain information about you when you visit our website and contact us for advice on your debts and information on the services we offer. You can contact us either via email, an online form, WhatsApp message or a phone call.

When you make an enquiry with us, we will use your personal information to contact you to discuss your financial situation and provide you with details on any solutions we might be able to offer you. During our initial advice stages, if you cannot provide additional information that is requested, we may not be able to progress with your application or enquiry.

We may use your personal information to contact you in regards to your enquiry and to process any application for a solution. We may contact you by the methods you have provided, for example via phone call, email, text message, communicating via online web chat or in writing/ by post.

After you have requested initial advice and if you decide to proceed with any of the services we offer, the sections below explain how we will process your personal data in order to provide that particular service.

Using our services

Where we are providing you with an Insolvency Solution, such as a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) / Debt Settlement Arrangement (DSA), or any other financial services solution, we will process your personal information to administer the service. This may include contacting you for further information or providing you with updates on the progress of the service we provide to you.

Where we provide ongoing services we will normally require you to agree to the terms and conditions outlined for that solution. The terms and conditions will explain how our service works and where we will be required to utilise your personal information. For instance, if you were entering into an Insolvency solution, we may need to share your information with the creditors or collection agencies involved.

For more information on the terms and conditions of our solutions you can read the Insolvency Solutions section below.

Insolvency solutions

If you enter into an Insolvency Solution with us, such as a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) / Debt Settlement Arrangement (DSA), we will need to use your personal information as follows:

  • Contact details
    Contact details such as your full name, current address and any relevant previous addresses, numbers and email address is required so we can set up and negotiate your proposal between you and your creditors. We also need these details so we can stay in touch with you throughout the term of your solution and keep you updated on progress and contact you when necessary.
  • Call recordings
    We may record calls for monitoring, training and quality assurance purposes and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
  • WhatsApp Message logs
    You may communicate with us via WhatsApp messaging. We may keep a record of your chat history with us which can help us manage your solution.
  • Emails / Text messaging
    We may keep a record of any email / text message correspondence to help us manage your solution.
  • Personal information
    In order to administer your solution, we will require the following personal information: your DOB, gender, previous names, living arrangements, employment details, marital status, details of any dependants. We require this information so that we can determine if an Insolvency Solution is an appropriate option for you and so we can draft and send your proposal to creditors. Once you enter into an Insolvency Solution we will need this information to manage your arrangement and consider your circumstances and any changes that might take place throughout its duration.
  • Identification check
    We will use your personal information to authenticate your identity in order to comply with anti-money laundering legislation.
  • Financial information
    In order to draft your Insolvency proposal and send it to creditors, we will require the following financial information: Bank / building society information, details of your creditors / collection agencies including account numbers, reference numbers, statements, balances and payment information and also details of any assets you may have. When you enter into an Insolvency Solution we require this information so that we can manage your arrangement, collect payments and negotiate / administer payments to creditors.
  • Income and expenses
    We will need details of your personal financial status including all sources of household income and expenses. This information allows us to determine what you can afford to pay into your solution and to ensure that we set the correct level of payments for both you and your creditors.
  • Special Category data
    In some situations we may need to collect special category information; however we will not do this without first obtaining your consent at the time. We will only need this information, where it is necessary and in relation to the running of your Insolvency Solution.
  • Creditor reference agency data
    We may ask for consent to perform a credit check on your behalf which will supply us with information on your financial situation and creditor information.

If at any time you have any changes in circumstances to the information we hold on you during the term of your arrangement, you must inform us immediately.

Sharing of data in an Insolvency solution

We will need to share some of your information with external parties who are involved in your Insolvency Arrangement. These are:

  • The Insolvency Service of Ireland
    You are required to make an application to the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) when seeking to enter into a PIA /DSA. The application requires a completed Prescribed Financial Statement (PFS) which includes your name, gender, DOB, address and household composition. It will also include your income, expenditure, assets and liabilities. The ISI requires this information in order to consider and progress your PIA / DSA application.
    If your PIA/DSA proposal is accepted then details about you and your arrangement will be recorded on the Insolvency Register which is accessible public information.
  • Courts Service of Ireland
    You are required to make an application to Court when seeking to enter into a PIA / DSA. The Court will review your completed PFS in consideration of approving a Protective Certificate (PC) which is required in order to progress your PIA / DSA application. If your PC is approved then details about you and your application will be recorded on the Insolvency Register which is accessible public information.
  • Your creditors and their representatives
    This includes creditors, their agents, debt collectors, bailiffs and any solicitors who are involved in your arrangement. This is necessary to allow us to provide the service and also ensures that we comply with regulatory obligations.
  • Solicitors:
    We may from time to time need to instruct solicitors to assist with the administration of your plan or to assist us with legal, regulatory and contractual obligations.
  • IT and software providers
    We need to use third party software to help manage the solutions we offer and to contain the information we hold. These include:
    Apogee Corporation: Our external IT service management company
    Hubspot CRM - A customer relationship management system used when you first contact us seeking advice for financial difficulties.
    File Invite Limited - A secure document upload portal used where you can upload documents relating to your enquiry or service.
    Turnkey Group Limited - A case management system we use for our IVAs
    Therefore: A secure document management system for storing files and documentation.
    ACT from Swiftpage ACT! LLC - A customer relationship management system we use to manage our contact information during initial stages
    Bottomline Technologies – A payment processor that we use to process payments
    Global Iris payments – For processing card payments
    Valid8 IP Ltd: For credit searches.
    LexisNexis: For identification checks.
    Communication providers – We utilise platforms such as Zoom, Circleloop, Cm.com / WhatsApp, and World Text to communicate with you.
    Website and hosting companies – Hosting Ireland and SendGrid are used to operate and maintain our website and emails. Mailchimp may be used to reach out to you for any updates during your plan.
    Heyflow - Used for creating and maintaining forms on our website.
    Finvence – Used for reviewing Bank statements.
    Xodo Sign (Previously Eversign) and Docusign - We use these platforms to process contracts and paperwork for debt management arrangements that require your electronic signature.

These external companies help us to provide and maintain an efficient service to you. We have contracts in place with relevant providers to ensure that they comply with their own Data Protection Obligations and ensure that they have appropriate security measures in place.

Other external parties

We may also share your personal information where we have your consent to do so, or where we are required to do so under a legal or regulatory obligation, for example where we are required to do so by a court order, the police, local authorities or the courts. We might share some of your information with the emergency services if you are in any immediate danger.

How long we may hold data

If you do not proceed with any solution, your personal information will normally be deleted after 12 months unless otherwise agreed with you. You have a right to view, amend or request deletion of the information that we hold on you sooner if you wish. You can request this in writing via email or by post.

If you enter into an Insolvency solution, we will keep your information on file to ensure that we provide you with our service and that we comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. Your information will be stored for 10 years from the date of completion of your solution or from the date when your solution is terminated and you no longer use our service. We cannot delete this data sooner if you request us to do so, because we are required to keep it by law. We will delete your data after this 10 year period.

After the 10 year time period we will delete the information or keep data in an anonymous format so that it cannot be connected back to you.

Special Category Information

Data protection defines some personal information as “special categories of data”. This includes information about physical or mental health, sexual life, religious beliefs, race or ethnic origin, political opinions, trade union membership or biometric data. This information may be necessary to collect when understanding the reason for your financial circumstances, or where it may help us to provide a better service to you. For example, a period of ill health could have caused you to fall behind with your regular payments to your creditors.

Where we need to collect and process this type of information provided by you, you give your explicit consent for us and any other third party mentioned in this privacy policy to process this special category information as set out in this privacy policy, unless we have a legal obligation to process this information regardless.
Any personal information about you relating to criminal convictions or offences may only be used by us when authorised by law.

Information about other people

If you provide personal information about other people, for example, a partner or a carer, you must do so with the permission of the other person. If you enter into a joint application or solution with another person, (for example if you have joint debts and you enter into an interlocking PIA/DSA) your personal information and any information about the service provided to you will be shared with the other person.

We will use the personal information about the other person in the ways as described in this privacy policy.

How we collect your information

We collect your information in a number of ways:

  • When you contact us about the services we offer, either by phone, email, forms on our website, social media channels or WhatsApp messaging.
  • Information received from a third party such as a creditor providing information on an account you hold with them, or where you have previously agreed for your information to be shared with us, for example  if you have been introduced to us by another company.
  • From reviews you have left on online websites such as on TrustPilot website or on social media.
  • When we contact you to request up to date information in regards to a service we provide and so we can meet legal and regulatory obligations.
  • Where you have given permission for your information to be provided to us.

Websites and Marketing

To help us understand you better and provide you with information about other products which may be suitable and relevant, we will use your personal information to create a profile of you and your circumstances. This allows us to provide more relevant, accurate and tailored services to you. For example, we may assess your income and expenditure to determine whether you would be eligible for a debt solution through us. We believe we have a legitimate interest to do this and that it is not against your rights.

However, if you don’t want us to profile your personal information this way, to then better enable us to tailor any marketing communications to you, you can contact us to let us know that you wish for your personal data not to be used in this way.

Reviews and Market research

Where we have a copy of your personal information we may contact you to ask you to provide a review about the services you’ve received or where we are carrying out market research which may help us design future products and services or to help improve our current services. Although this information would really help us, you are not required to provide us with this information unless you are happy to. We consider that this is in our legitimate interests to contact you in this way for market research purposes.

Legal and Regulatory obligations

We are required to process your personal information where we have a legal or regulatory obligation to do so, for example, to adhere to anti-money laundering or our regulatory obligations.

Responding to complaints or enquiries

If you make an enquiry or complaint with us, we will use your personal information to investigate the complaint and deal with your enquiry. We have a legal and regulatory obligation to deal with your complaint appropriately in accordance with our complaints procedure.

Internal analysis

As part of our legitimate interest to develop our business and our services we will use your personal information to assess our performance as a business and for quality assurance and statistical analysis. We will use as little personal data as we can to achieve this. We may also share this analysis with third parties who provide us with services and where we have a contractual obligation to do so.

Who we may share your information with

We may also share your personal information with the following organisations

  • IT service providers who provide IT platforms and other IT services
  • Payment service providers that process transactions for us (eg debit and card transactions)
  • Communication providers eg telephone line providers, email, text service providers
  • Advertisers and social media companies such as facebook, Google and twitter for our social media accounts where you can contact us and we can reply
  • Third parties who may have introduced you to our services

These companies help us to provide our services to you. We will have a contract in place with any provider who directly provides us with such direct services to ensure that they comply with their data protection obligations and ensure that they have appropriate security measures in place.
We may also share your personal information where we have your consent to do so or where we’re required to do so under a legal or regulatory obligation or court order, such as the police, local authorities or the courts.

Fraud prevention agencies

The personal information we have collected from you may be shared with law enforcement agencies and fraud prevention agencies that will use it to prevent fraud, money-laundering (such as Lexis Nexis) and terrorist financing and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance or employment. Further details of how your information is used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found by contacting us or email our Data Protection Officer at dpo@mccambridgeduffy.com

Social media

We use publicly available social media platforms to promote our services, to provide updates and to share any news or promotional updates. We may collect personal information from these social media platforms, for example, if you post a message to our Facebook page. By providing any of your information to us through these platforms you should be aware that:

  • the social media web pages are publicly available and you must not provide any personal or special category information on our pages that are accessible to the public, such as your account information. We may ask you for your account information via a private message to identify you and to service any request you make; and
  • each social media platform will process any personal information you provide through the platform and will be processed in accordance with its own privacy policy. The privacy policies are available to view on each social media platform.

Security

We take the protection of personal information very seriously and we will maintain appropriate measures to maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information you have provided. Such measures include:

  • Company security policies and standards
  • staff security awareness
  • role based and access control systems to prevent unauthorised access to the information
  • encryption and anonymisation technology
  • anti-malware technologies
  • security monitoring
  • security testing
  • secure archiving and deletion
  • compliance with industry regulation and legislation

How we may contact you about the services we provide

To help us keep you up to date about the services we provide to you and to ensure that you are kept fully informed we may contact you by letter, telephone, email, text, push notifications, social media or may send you messages by any online customer platforms or other electronic means.

If you do not want to be contacted in a particular way then you can request this at any time, but if we are providing a service to you, we do need to be able to send you communications. This can often be due to a legal or regulatory requirement.

It is important that you keep us up to date when you change your contact details to ensure that we use your up to date contact information.

Your rights

Access to your personal information

You have the right to request from us a copy of the personal information that we may hold about you. This is often called a “Data Subject Access Request”. You can request this information in writing via email or by post.

Before providing this information to you or to another person or company where you have requested this personal information to be sent to, we may ask for proof of identity or ask sufficient questions to enable us to locate the information and ensure that we’re only providing it where you have given your agreement.

Right to have your personal information corrected

If the personal information we hold about you is incorrect you have the right to request that we correct this.

Right to stop or limit the processing of the data we carry out

You may request that your personal information is deleted or that we stop processing the information if we’re no longer entitled to process it. There may be occasions where we are unable to delete the data due to our legal or regulatory obligations. We will however discuss this with you if you request for your information to be deleted.

Portability
In some cases you may be able to request for your information to be provided to you or to another company in a format that can be processed electronically by you or the other company. If you want to request this you’ll need to contact us.

How long we keep your personal information

Whilst you continue to be our customer, we will keep a record of your personal information to ensure that we provide you with the best service possible and where we’re required to keep your personal information to meet our legal and regulatory obligations. The service specific information above sets out how long your personal information will normally be kept for.

If you do not go ahead with any service offered by the Group, your personal information will normally be deleted after 2 years unless we have another reason to keep your data, for example, if you have given your consent to receive marketing or promotional messages from us.

How we may contact you about other services we offer

If you have provided us with your consent or where we are legally entitled to do so, we may contact you to let you know about other services that we provide which we think you may be interested or that may benefit you. We may do this through post, emails, text messages, telephone, push notifications, social media or other electronic means.

You can easily let us know at any time if you would no longer like to receive these messages. You can contact us using the details below, emailing our Data Protection Officer at or unsubscribing using the link or information within the message.

Other types of advertising

When you visit our website or similar websites Google may use our advertisements promoting our products and services which may appear on other third party websites you visit across the internet for remarketing purposes, including cross-device remarketing. Google and other third parties will use cookies to tailor advertisements for website users based on their previous visit to our website. More information about cookies can be found below.

We do not have any control over the advertisements you see on other third party websites however you can request to opt out or customise these advertisements by using the Google Ads Preference Manager

Recording calls

We record some of the telephone calls you make to us or we make to you or any other third party. This is for training, monitoring and quality purposes and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations. Some telephone calls may be observed by staff for training and development purposes.

We may keep a copy of the telephone calls for up to 6 years from the date the telephone call was made or longer if we are required to do so by our regulators.

If you do not proceed with any of the services that we offer, call recordings will normally be deleted after 12 months unless otherwise agreed with you. You have a right to request deletion sooner if you wish. You can request this in writing via email or by post.

Contact us

If you have any questions or queries about this Privacy Policy or how we use your personal information you can contact us or our Data Protection Officer using the address or email below:

Post:
National Debt Relief / McCambridge Duffy
Suite 6, Spencer House
High Road
Letterkenny
County Donegal
F92 V8XC

Email:

If you are not happy with how we process your personal information you should contact us in the first instance. If you’re not happy with how we have dealt with your complaint you have the right to lodge a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner. You can find their details on their website at https://www.dataprotection.ie/

Links to other websites

This privacy policy covers information that is collected from this website only. We may link to other websites that are not covered by this policy. If you click on a link that takes you to a third party website that is not ours we will not be responsible for how they use your personal data. You should read its own privacy policy to understand how they may use your personal data.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any updates to this privacy policy will be found on this page. If we make any important or significant changes to the way we may collect and use your personal information we will endeavour to notify you of this change.


Cookie Policy

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous identifier that is sent to your browser from a website's computer and stored on your computer's hard drive. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent by other sites.

Why we use cookies

  • They help improve your experience as a visitor to the site.
    They allow us to tailor your visit and provide more personalised content. You can turn cookies off – this won’t stop a website from working but it might not perform as well as it could, or it may mean you having to do the same thing more than once.
  • They help website owners
    Cookies can tell us information like what search engine you used, how often you visited, how long you spent browsing our website and similar behaviours.

Our Use of Cookies

This website may use a cookie to track individual users on our site and to recognise them should they visit this site on more than one occasion. This does not track or record personal information that could be used to identify you. We use this information for analytical purposes only. Most browsers can be set not to accept cookies within their privacy settings.

The table below explains the cookies we use and why.


Cookie Name

Cookie Description

facebook pixel / cookies

The Facebook pixel is a piece of code on our our website that gathers analytics about a visitors journey on our website, such as IP address, web browser used, page location and visits etc... These analytics may help our social media advertising by understanding the actions people take on our website. You can turn off facebook cookies in your web browser or mobile device or in your facebook account if you do not wish for these cookies to be activated during your visit.

The cookies that facebook use are known as session cookies which are deleted when you close your browser and persistent cookies, which stay on your rbowser until they expire or you delete them.

Hubspot cookies

HubSpot tracks visitors using browser cookies. Every time a visitor lands on our website, HubSpot will check for an existing tracking cookie. If one does not exist, a cookie will be associated with that visitor and will log every page that person visits moving forward. Visitor are anonymously tracked even before they make a website enquiry. If a visitor fills out a form on our website, then Husbpot will associate their page views on our website with that contact based on the cookie.

Google analytics

Google Analytics uses a set of cookies to collect information and report site usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. ‘_ga’, the main cookie used by Google Analytics, enables a service to distinguish one visitor from another and lasts for 2 years. Any site that implements Google Analytics, including Google services, uses the ‘_ga’ cookie. Each ‘_ga’ cookie is unique to the specific property, so it cannot be used to track a given user or browser across unrelated websites.

Google uses cookies for advertising, including serving and rendering ads, personalizing ads (depending on your settings at myadcenter.google.com and adssettings.google.com/partnerads), limiting the number of times an ad is shown to a user, muting ads you have chosen to stop seeing, and measuring the effectiveness of ads.

Statcounter cookies

This cookie holds data on your visits to our websites. We solely use it to determine whether you are a first-time or returning visitor on each website and to estimate your accumulated unique visits per site. No personal information is stored in the cookie.

TrustPilot cookies

These cookies allow us to track visits, traffic sources and clicks so we can measure and improve the performance of our website.

Deletion of cookies

Cookies can be deleted from your computer or mobile device. You can set your browser not to receive cookies in the future. For more information on doing this visit https://www.aboutcookies.org Please note that our Website may not work to its full potential if you disable or delete cookies.

Retargeting

We occasionally use Google for paid advertising. When you visit this site by this channel a cookie is stored on your computer (subject to your privacy settings, as above), which can allow us to re-target you with ads once you leave this site and visit other websites which use Google to display ads. Google calls this retargeting, the more general name is re-marketing. You may opt-out of this method of advertising from Google - visit https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en-US

Log files

Like Cookies, log files allow us to record usage of this site. We use this information for analytical purposes because understanding patterns of user behaviour helps us improve our website. Log files do not contain personal information and they are not used to identify individual patterns of use of the site.

Contact us

We're always happy to discuss any queries. Fill in the form and we'll get back to you soon.

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Debt Settlement Arrangement

Struggling with mortgage payments, arrears or debts? Get a review with one of our advisors.

If you would like a free Insolvency review of your financial situation, fill in the Fact Find form providing as much information as possible and send it through. Our advisors will review your information and get in touch to advise you of all options available.

Open Monday to Friday 8am-8pm

nationaldebtrelief.ie is a trading style of McCambridge Duffy. McCambridge Duffy Limited is a Limited Company registered in Ireland | Registered number 527584 | Registered office Suite 6, Spencer House, High Road, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, F92 V8XC

All our advice is free. A fee is only payable where further services are requested. All fees will be explained in detail and discussed prior to commencement of any debt solution.

Ronan Duffy, Daragh Duffy, Daniel Rule, James Green and Judy Mooney are authorised by the Insolvency Service of Ireland to carry on practice as personal insolvency practitioners. Ronan Duffy, Daniel Rule, James Green and Judy Mooney are authorised to act as insolvency practitioners by Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland.