Last updated October 2024.
We understand how important your privacy is and we fully commit to protect your information and keep it safe and secure at all times.
This Privacy Policy aims to explain how we collect, use and store your personal and business information through your use of our website(s) and any information you may provide to us at any time.
Please read this policy carefully, along with our Terms and Conditions and any other documents referred to in this policy.
When we refer to "You" or "Your", we mean you as the potential customer which will include all of your principals, directors, shareholders, employees, and any other sub-contractor affiliated with you.
By using or accessing our Website or our Services, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of information in accordance with this policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time and your continued use of our Website or Services is deemed to be acceptance of such changes, so please check periodically for updates.
Our Website and any services provided by us "Services" may contain links to third party websites that are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We therefore ask you to review the privacy statements of other websites and applications.
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner''s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to deal with your concerns in the first instance.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
If you have any enquiries, please email us at:
Contents of this privacy policy
Our website (merchantloanadvance.co.uk)
Why we collect your information
What communications we will send you
How we collect and use your information
When you complete any application and information forms
When you email, phone, live chat or otherwise
Information we receive from third parties or publicly available sources
If you fail to provide personal data
How do our funding partners use your personal and business data
Do we pass personal data to third parties
Transfer of your information outside the European Union
How you can access and update your information
How to request access to your personal data
How you can request that we stop processing your information
How you can request that we delete the information we hold about you
How you can ask us to rectify your information
How you can request that we stop marketing to you
How long do we keep your information
Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information
Credit checks and potential impact to credit score
Third party websites, change of purpose, changes to this policy and further information
We are Sorodo Limited, and this website (www.merchantloanadvance.co.uk) ("Website") is a trading name of Sorodo Limited. We act as a business finance intermediary and will only collect information necessary to provide this service to you.
In this policy, whenever you see the words "We", "Us" or "Our", it refers to both Sorodo Limited and our trading website www.merchantloanadvance.co.uk.
We respect your right to privacy and will only process your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation which for the purposes of this policy shall mean: (i) unless and until the GDPR is no longer directly applicable in the UK, the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) and any national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK and then (ii) any successor legislation to the GDPR or the Data Protection Act 1998 and other applicable privacy laws.
When you use our Website you do so at your own discretion and provide any personal details requested at your own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations.
To provide our services to you as business finance intermediary we need to collect and process personal and business data about you and, where necessary, disclose such data to a number of third-party lenders to enable them to assess your eligibility and provide you with details of the best possible funding options and services which may be available to you based on your funding option results.
All personal data will be held in strictest confidence and used only for the purposes of providing the service you have requested, subject to certain legal and regulatory exceptions.
From time to time, it may be necessary to undertake a soft credit check for you or other directors/owners from a third party approved credit agency, this will not affect your credit rating, but may help to establish your eligibility and improve the decision making process.
Under GDPR we will ensure that your personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, without adversely affecting your rights. Below is a list of the purposes for which we process your personal data, and the lawful basis on which we carry out such processing:
In some instances, it may be appropriate for us to combine your information with other information that we may be holding about you, such as combining your name with your geographic location or your browsing history.
We will stay in contact with you about your application, which will include emails, text messages and/or phone calls. You can expect the following during your application:
When you submit an application:
A text message will be sent with a six-digit code. This will be used to verify your mobile number.
An email and a text message with the outcome of your funding option results.
If you don't select a lender from your funding option results:
An email and text message reminder about your funding option results. This communication is sent at +1 day from your application date. Opt-out links are provided.
The following communication is only sent if you haven't opted out from the previous reminder:
An email and text message reminder about your funding option results. This communication is sent at +5 days from your application date. Opt-out links are provided.
If you do select a lender from your funding option results:
Phone calls, emails and/or text messages if we need to give you an update regarding your application, such as a lender requiring more information or the outcome of your application. These communications are regarding your business finance application. You can stop these by contacting us.
If you do select a lender from your funding option results, but that lender can't help:
The following communications are only sent if you haven't opted out from the previous reminders and you have at least 1 lender on your funding option results who maybe able to help:
An email message reminder about your funding option results. This communication is sent instantly. Opt-out links are provided.
The following communication is only sent if you haven't opted out from the previous reminders:
An email message reminder about your funding option results. This communication is sent at +2 days. Opt-out links are provided.
The following communication is only sent if you haven't opted out from the previous reminders:
An email message reminder about your funding option results. This communication is sent at +5 days. Opt-out links are provided.
We collect your personal and business data in the following ways:
By visiting our Website, we collect data relating to your browsing activity, including but not limited to:
The data we collect from your browsing activity is passed on to third party companies for analytical purposes only. The service provided by the third parties allows us to evaluate how visitors use our Website and this information is used to help us improve our website and our visitor’s browsing experience. All of our third-party analytics companies will not share your information or be able to identify you with any other data held by them.
By completing our information and application forms on our Website, we will ask for the following information to be completed by yourself:
We will also collect the following information automatically when you apply. The information collected will be used for fraud prevention::
We may collect information such as your first name, last name, email address and phone number. We may also request other information from you that is relevant to your application if you are an existing customer.
Telephone calls you make to us may be recorded and used for training purposes or to meet our regulatory requirements. Any information provided during the call will be used and held in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Policy.
We only collect personal and business information to provide our services to you and to enable us to evaluate potential eligibility for third party lenders. For details of lenders we work with, please see our 'Our funding partners' list below.
We may receive personal and business data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we, or our group companies, operate or the other services we provide. We work closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, service providers, advertising networks, analytics providers, and search information providers) and may receive information about you from them. This may be combined with other information you provide to us, as described above.
We collect personal information about website usage through cookies (please see our Cookie Policy) and server logs, which track the IP addresses of users visiting our site(s) and the pages they visit.
We are an approved agent and enlist the services of an Account Information Services Provider called TrueLayer Limited (TrueLayer) to establish a connection between your bank accounts and us. Upon consent, you agree that Sorodo Limited and TrueLayer Limited may process, share, aggregate and/or analyse information from your linked account(s) which enables us to showcase your account information and transactions. This information will be shared with the lender(s) you select from your results page. Please rest assured that all of your information is safeguarded through encryption and security measures.
By consenting to using the Services, you confirm that the bank login credentials you use are your own and you are authorised to use the credentials to connect your Payment Account(s).
We are responsible for retrieving and storing your Account Information safe and securely but not for the content of your Account Information itself, which is the responsibility of your bank.
We are not responsible for any harm, damage or loss to you arising from, or relating to hacking, tampering or unauthorised access to your Account Information that is not within our reasonable control. If you suspect that somebody else has access to your banking credentials and is fraudulently using them, you must contact your bank immediately or TrueLayer Limited by email at security@truelayer.com.
TrueLayer Limited (TrueLayer) is subject to UK and EU data protection laws and is required to treat your data in accordance with those laws, as well as TrueLayer’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. TrueLayer is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (Firm Reference Number: 901096)
We use systems to make automated decisions based on the personal and business data that you provide to us during the application process. This helps us to make sure our decisions are quick, fair, efficient and correct, based on what we know. These automated decisions can affect the funders who can access your application information.
As those decisions have a legal (or similarly significant effect) on you, you have the right to challenge such decisions under GDPR, requesting human intervention, expressing your own point of view, and obtaining an explanation of the decision from us.
The right described in this section does not apply in the following circumstances:
Here are the types of automated decisions we make:
We have strict filtering in place with our lenders where your application may not be passed onto a funder. For example:
If you choose not to provide the personal information we request, you can still visit some areas of the Website, but you may be unable to access certain options and services that involve interaction or receive our Services. You have the final decision on whether to proceed with any activity that requests personal information, however, you acknowledge this may limit our ability to provide the best possible services to you.
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
We will never share your information for marketing purposes and the information shared will be for the purpose of providing business finance quotes only.
As we are a business finance intermediary, to provide you with business finance quotes we will share your information with the funders listed below. Our funding partners will use your personal and business data to assess and rate your information prior to issuing a quote. Some of our funding partners may search external sources (e.g. UK electoral register, county court judgments, bankruptcy registers) to assess your application for accuracy. Searches of this kind may be recorded by credit agencies, but they won't affect your credit rating. We may also use other third party providers from time to time but where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under the law.
We will only ever share your information if we are satisfied that our funding partners have sufficient measures in place to protect your information in the same way that we do. Anyone who receives information from us has a legal duty to keep it confidential.
We do not allow our third-party service providers or funding partners to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
Our funding partners:
| Lender | ICO Number | Privacy Policy |
|---|---|---|
Liberis (Liberis Limited) |
Z9770715 |
|
Capify (United Kapital Limited) |
Z1824458 |
|
365 Finance (365 Business Finance Limited) |
ZA018910 |
|
YouLend (YouLend Limited) |
ZA291008 |
|
Nucleus Commercial Finance (Nucleus Commercial Finance Ltd) |
ZA009276 |
|
Nationwide Finance (Nationwide Corporate Finance Limited) |
Z8995330 |
|
Iwoca (iwoca Ltd) |
Z3007540 |
|
Fleximize (Fleximize Ltd) |
ZA021338 |
|
Little Business Loans (The Buyback Service Ltd) |
Z3641439 |
|
Ultimate Finance (Ultimate Finance Group Limited) |
Z6851616 |
|
Bibby Financial Services (Bibby Financial Services Ltd) |
Z5320162 |
|
Momenta Finance (Merchant Money Limited) |
Z303864X |
|
Kriya (Kriya Finance Limited) |
Z2715796 |
|
| eCapital Commercial Finance (eCapital Commercial Finance Ltd) | ZA148206 | Privacy Policy |
Newable (Newable Limited) |
Z6663758 |
|
Got Capital (Got Capital Ltd) |
ZA064277 |
|
Time Finance (Time Finance plc) |
Z2070199 |
|
Funding Circle (Funding Circle Limited) |
Z2133885 |
|
Natwest (National Westminster Bank Plc) |
Z4936258 |
|
Close Brothers (Close Brothers Group plc) |
Z7256530 |
|
Credit4 (Credit4 Ltd) |
ZA031162 |
|
Penny (Penny Freedom Ltd) |
ZA553117 |
|
Skipton Business Finance (Skipton Business Finance Ltd) |
Z5660250 |
|
Watts Commercial Finance (Watts Commercial Finance Ltd) |
Z9580475 |
|
The Bridging Group (The Bridging Group Limited) |
ZA471208 |
|
Swiftfund (BizLend LTD) |
ZA495434 |
|
MaxCap (Maximise Capital Ltd) |
ZA767064 |
|
Reward Finance (Reward Finance Group Limited) |
ZA104349 |
|
Outfund (MTL Financial LTD) |
ZA318997 |
|
Swishfund (Swishfund Ltd) |
ZA324089 |
|
Satago (Satago Financial Solutions Limited) |
ZA648043 |
|
Cubefunder (Tallaght Financial Limited) |
Z123456 |
|
Davenham Asset Finance (Davenham Trade Solutions Limited) |
ZA002958 |
|
mcl finance (formerly mycashline) (Merchant Finance London Limited) |
ZA342006 |
|
Starling Bank (Starling Bank Limited) |
ZA087619 |
|
Recognise Bank (Recognise Bank Limited) |
ZA776590 |
|
Muse (Muse Corporation Limited) |
ZA443331 |
|
| Novuna (Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC) | Z5360808 | Privacy Policy |
| Uncapped (Uncapped Ltd) | ZA560860 | Privacy Policy |
| SellersFunding (Sellersfunding Portfolio (Uk) Ltd) | ZA598197 | Privacy Policy |
| Adelpha Capital (Adelpha Capital Ltd) | ZA328152 | Privacy Policy |
| Recap (Retail Capital (UK) Limited) | ZB301544 | Privacy Policy |
| Triver (Triver Ltd) | ZB491972 | Privacy Policy |
| Optimum Finance (Optimum SME Finance Limited) | ZA222451 | Privacy Policy |
| Simply Funded (Morley Capital Limited) | ZB499041 | Privacy Policy |
| Sigma Lending (Sigma Lending Ltd) | ZB611479 | Privacy Policy |
| LendingCrowd (Edinburgh Alternative Finance Limited) | ZA052875 | Privacy Policy |
| White Oak (LDF Operations Limited, LDF Finance No. 1 Limited, LDF Finance No. 2 Limited, LDF Finance No. 3 Limited, White Oak UK No.4 Limited, White Oak UK No.5 Limited, White Oak No.6 Limited, LDF Ops Limited) | Z5056435 ZA026073 ZA041001 ZA041165 ZA520870 ZB147948 ZB147961 Z7782488 |
Privacy Policy |
| Hydr (HN Flow Ltd) | ZB042565 | Privacy Policy |
| Liquid Link (Liquid Friday Limited) | Z1061354 | Privacy Policy |
| BCRS Business Loans (BCRS Business Loans Limited) | Z8573233 | Privacy Policy |
| Bizcap (Finbiz Funding Limited) | ZB638371 | Privacy Policy |
| Tick Tock Advance (Savvy Loan Products Limited) | ZA052861 | Privacy Policy |
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information unless we provide you with advance notice, except for those third parties including our funding partners and TrueLayer Limited, as already identified in this Privacy Policy. The term "outside parties" does not include Sorodo Limited or our website hosting partners, subcontractors and other third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, our third party lenders, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We will not disclose any of your personal or business data to other parties without your permission unless we are legally required to do so by, for example, a court order, for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime, or by a regulator.
We are also allowed to disclose your information in the following cases:
We may exchange information with other organisations, for example, government authorities, law enforcement authorities, tax authorities, regulatory authorities, financial crime and fraud prevention agencies.
Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under GDPR and the law.
We may need to transfer your personal data outside of the European Union in order to provide you with the services and products you require. Some of these countries may not have laws that protect privacy rights as extensively as in the European Union. If we do transfer your personal information to other territories, we will take proper steps to ensure that your information is properly protected and ensure that we will only deal with suppliers outside the EU who are GDPR compliant and have policies in place to protect your data.
By providing us with personal and business data, we will not market to your data unless you explicitly opt-in during the application process. You can opt out with the opt-out link provided via the marketing methods and communications used.
As already indicated above, with your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your data for marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email, phone and/or text message with information, news and offers on our Services if you opt in to do so. We will not, however, send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, as amended in 2004, 2011 and 2015.
In addition, if you don’t want us to use your personal data for any of the other reasons set out in this section, you can let us know at any time by contacting us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk. However, you acknowledge this may limit our ability to provide the best possible services to you.
Under the GDPR, You have the right to:
Please email us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk, or write to us at F.A.O The Data Controller. Sorodo Limited. St Andrews Park, Queens Lane, Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1XB. Alternatively, you can telephone 01244 456 123.
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, commonly referred to as a subject access request or SAR. We will provide this information to you free of charge, but we reserve the right to charge a fee for excessive requests
Please email us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk, or write to us at F.A.O The Data Controller. Sorodo Limited. St Andrews Park, Queens Lane, Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1XB. Alternatively, you can telephone 01244 456 123.
In certain circumstances you can request that we stop processing the information that we hold about you. Where necessary, we will automatically inform any lender(s) of your request.
Please email us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk, or write to us at F.A.O The Data Controller. Sorodo Limited. St Andrews Park, Queens Lane, Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1XB. Alternatively, you can telephone 01244 456 123.
In certain circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records, we may continue to keep your information if we’re entitled or required to retain it for legal or regulatory reasons. If your data has been sent to funders we will automatically notify them of your request.
Please email us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk, or write to us at F.A.O The Data Controller. Sorodo Limited. St Andrews Park, Queens Lane, Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1XB. Alternatively, you can telephone 01244 456 123.
We will only market to you if you have opted in via our application or information form. With all marketing methods, we provide an opt-out link which can be found at the end of the marketing media.
Please email us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk, or write to us at F.A.O The Data Controller. Sorodo Limited. St Andrews Park, Queens Lane, Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1XB. Alternatively, you can telephone 01244 456 123.
Your instructions for us not to use your information for the purposes of marketing will come into effect within 30 days.
We will only market to you if you have opted in via our application or information form. With all marketing methods, we provide an opt-out link within the marketing media, which is found at the end of the marketing media.
Depending on the type of information that we obtain, the times may vary. However, generally speaking, we will keep the information for as long as it takes us to provide you with the required service.
If you have requested for us not to use your information for the purposes of marketing, this will come into effect, but we may keep your information on record so that we can ensure your preferences are upheld.
The information that you enter on our website will be kept on our records for a minimum of six years from the end of your relationship with us. This is so that we’re able to respond to any queries or complaints that may arise. The information will not be used for any other purpose. By exception we may retain your information for longer periods, for example to comply with a withhold destruction or disposal order from the courts or an investigation by law enforcement agencies or regulators.
We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis and they may be changed from time to time subject to business, legal and regulatory requirements.
We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example FCA regulation and crime prevention). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.
We have implemented various measures to ensure that your information is adequately protected against unauthorised access, use, disclosure and destruction. Please keep in mind that the risk can never be entirely eliminated, however we have taken measures to significantly mitigate and reduce any risks.
We may share your information with third-party service providers to support our internal and business operations. In such cases, service providers may use the information only as necessary to provide the services to us and are contractually required to keep your information confidential and secure.
We work closely with lenders on our approved panel to ensure that collectively we only share information that is essential to provide you with our services. We will inform you when leaving our site that you are visiting an external site which is not operated by us. Any information that you provide thereafter will be governed by the third partys’ own Privacy Policy, it is recommended that you read their privacy policy before using their services.
We shall not be held liable by any Third Party, including you, in any event of unauthorised access, use and/or disclosure of information provided it is not due to gross negligence, wilful misconduct, fraud or bad faith by us.
Security measures adopted by us include:
If we give you a password upon registration on our Website, you must keep it confidential. Please don't share it.
If you suspect access to your account or other security credentials are lost, stolen, used without your authorisation or otherwise compromised, you must contact us immediately. You are also advised to change your password immediately. Any undue delays in notifying us may affect the security of your account and may result in you being responsible for any data breaches and/or financial losses.
We may suspend access to your account if we have reasonable grounds to believe that your login credentials are no longer secure or confidential to you, or that they have been used without your permission or fraudulently.
By giving us your personal data, you agree to this arrangement. We will do what we reasonably can to keep your data secure.
Whilst we do not perform formal full credit checks, we may carry out a soft credit search or identity check on you or other directors/owners with one or more credit reference agencies ("CRAs"). Furthermore, the lender may wish to carry out additional credit checks from a major credit reporting bureau with any personal or business information that may be supplied to them under the provision of our Services to assess your creditworthiness. A missed and/or late payment may affect your credit score.
This information is also accessible from each of the three CRAs – clicking on any of these three links will also take you to the same Credit Reference Agency Information Notice ‘CRAIN’ document:
A cookie is a small file placed on your computer’s hard drive. It enables us to identify your computer as you view different pages on our website and to store your preferences in order to present content, options or functions that are specific to you.
All Cookies used by and on our Website are used in accordance with current English and EU Cookie Law.
Please view our Cookie Policy for further information.
The website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or any other practices of third party websites.
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we originally collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. Any changes will be reflected in this Privacy Policy. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so, and, where necessary obtain your consent.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, and/or where this is required or permitted by law and in accordance with regulatory requirements.
We may update and amend this Privacy Policy from time to time by posting the changes on this page. Any changes will become effective immediately upon posting to our website. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy which may affect your personal data we will provide you with appropriate notice at our discretion.
Your continued use of our website and our services following any changes to this Privacy Policy will mean you accept those changes.
You must be over 18 to submit an application.
By using our Website and by way of acknowledgment, you hereby consent to this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions or queries about this privacy policy, then please email us at compliance@sorodo.co.uk or you can write to us at: Sorodo Limited, St Andrews Park, Queens Lane, Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 1XB.
