Privacy statement

Privacy policy

Towergate Partnership along with its subsidiary companies believes in protecting the personal information that you provide us with. We are committed to complying with the following seven principles:

What personal information we collect about you
Who is collecting this personal information
How the information we collect about you is used
With whom might the information be shared
What choices we provide you with regarding the collection, use and distribution of the information
The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under the control of Towergate
How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information

If you have any queries regarding this statement, you should first contact Towergate by email. If you do not receive a reply within two working days, telephone us on 0844 892 1500.

The Principles
We collect and process personal information from you at various stages throughout our website, for reasons including answering your enquiries, ensuring that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer, to notify you about changes to our websites (including services and products), providing you with quotations, and carrying out our obligations from any contracts entered into between you and us. We also collect and process details of your visits to our site and the resources that you access

At each stage, you will be able to see what information we ask from you, such as your name and contact details, and information relating to your specific enquiry. If you contact us other than via our website, we may keep a record of that correspondence.

Towergate Partnership is made up of a number of companies who themselves are Data Controllers, namely Towergate Underwriting Group Limited and Towergate Financial Group Limited, all of whom collects information about you.

The information we collect about you is used solely for the purposes for which it was provided. We will only use it for additional purposes (such as marketing) if we have received your prior consent to do so.

The information you provide us with may be shared with employees throughout the Towergate Group, in order to deal with your enquiry or request.  Otherwise we will not share your personal information with other companies within the Towergate Partnership unless you specifically authorise us to do so.

We will not share your information with any third parties other than when we are legally obliged to do so, such as for fraud prevention purposes

It is entirely up to you as to whether or not you choose to provide us with any personal information. If you choose not to, we simply may not be able to assist you.

We will not sell your information to any third party, unless Towergate or one of its Subsidiary Companies is sold itself.

When you enter personal details on our website, you will be entering these details within a secure environment.

We use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encrypted at 128bit to protect the details you send us. We use the BT Trustwise Secure Site Program.

In most web browsers, a padlock symbol appears at the bottom right, indicating when you are in a secure environment. Also, the 'http:' at the beginning of the website address changes to 'https:' with the 's' indicating that you are in a secure environment
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right, for a fee (up to £10), to ask us for a copy of the information we hold on you, and to have any inaccuracies corrected or removed.

To do this, please either contact us by email, telephone our Customer Relations Department on 0844 892 1500, or write to us at:

Customer Relations Department
Towergate Partnership
Towergate House
Eclipse Park
Sittingbourne Road
Maidstone
Kent ME14 3EN

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets
- If Towergate (or any of its subsidiary companies) or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Terms and Conditions (as defined below) and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Towergate (or any of its subsidiary companies), our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction

Where we store your Personal Data
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the provision of information you have requested. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access

IP Addresses and Cookies
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration

We may use 'cookies' to monitor how people use our site. Most websites use cookies. They help us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our website so we can develop and improve the design, layout and function of the sites. We may, for example, use cookies to store registration information so that you do not have to provide it to us on subsequent visits

A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer's hard drive which records how you have used a website. This means that when you go back to that website, it can give you tailored options based on the information it has stored about your last visit

If you do not want us to use cookies in your browser, you can normally set your browser to reject cookies or to tell you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. However, you may not be able to use some of the products or services on our website without cookies

For information about how to disable cookies in your browser please visit the www.aboutcookies.org website.

We use cookies on our websites. Cookies are small data files that your browser places on your computer or device. A cookie itself does not contain or collect information. However, when it is read by a server via a web browser it can help a website deliver a more user-friendly service – for example, remembering your user settings. Below is a table of all cookies on this website:

Cookie Type Cookie Name Cookie Purpose
Session & Typo3 Content Management Cookie Session & fe_typo_user We use session cookies to record an individual users preferences that the user has specified, so that each time the user returns their preferences remain. Commonly this would be language settings, shopping carts, anything where you have indicated a preference. Where forms are used on the site, we hold the information in a session cookie so that we can improve the user experience on the site. Should a user, for example, forget to fill in parts of a form when submitting a form, we can auto-fill the values for those fields that have been filled in, thereby reducing the amount of fields a user needs to amend. This information is stored only in your browser and is destroyed once your browser is closed.
Google Analytics __utmz __utmc __utmb __utma These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site for you. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.

We use third party companies as suppliers for some of our functions. Their use of the data is controlled by our contract with them and they are only allowed to use the data strictly for the purpose we have stated .e.g. the data is not used in connection with data from other companies and we are not tracking user behavior outside our own sites.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies. You can prevent cookies from being stored on your computer or device by setting your browser to not accept cookies. Some browsers provide a mode where cookies are always deleted after a visit. 

The exact instructions for this can be found in the manual for your browser. You can delete cookies already on your computer or device at any time. If you choose not to accept cookies at all, you can still visit our website, however we cannot guarantee an optimum experience without cookies.

Concerns or Queries

If you have any other concerns or queries, then we would be delighted to be able to help you. Simply contact us by one of the above options, and we shall endeavour to resolve your query as swiftly and efficiently as possible

In addition to this privacy policy, we have a 'Terms & Conditions' policy relating to the usage of our website. This can be viewed by clicking on 'Terms & Conditions'

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

Terms & conditions

Your initial mortgage consultation is obligation free. There will be a minimum fee for our mortgage service of £450, of which £150 is payable when you apply, and we will retain the commission from the mortgage lender. Alternatively, you can choose the fee only option which is typically 0.65% of the amount borrowed. The precise amount will depend on your circumstances and mortgage loan amount, and will be discussed and agreed before you make a mortgage application.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY DEBT SECURED ON IT

Legals

John Charcol is a trading style of Towergate Financial (West) Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; our registration number is 147692. John Charcol Associates LLP is an appointed representative of Towergate Financial (West) Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.  Registered office: Towergate House, Eclipse Park, Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 3EN. Registered in England No: 02292688.  This mortgage site is only directed at persons within the UK.   The FCA does not regulate some investment mortgage contracts.  Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring. Max call charge from a BT landline is 3.9p per minute. Calls from other networks may vary.