Please note that Van Compare is a trading name of VCIL Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and our FSA reference number is 513256. Our permitted business is the dealing in and arranging of contracts of general insurance. In this privacy policy references to 'we', 'us' and 'our' refer to Van Compare, a trading name of VCIL Limited and references to 'our Website' or 'the Website' refer to www.vancompare.com and secure.vancompare.com. Our privacy policy relates to VCIL Limited company number 6837377 whose registered office is at 2 Denmark Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4DA, UK and our Website.
VCIL Limited's commitment to privacy Your right to privacy is important to us and we are committed to protecting the privacy of those using our Website and the confidentiality of personal information which our users provide to us.
We are fully registered as a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act 1998 and ensure that we comply with the Act in all our dealings with your personal data. Our privacy policy is compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 and other applicable laws and we are committed to a self-assessment procedure. Further information on the Act can be found at www.ico.gov.uk.
You can access our Website and browse some areas without disclosing your personal data.
We automatically log personal data by recording your IP Address, a string of numbers which is sometimes unique to your computer, when you request any pages or components on our Website. We do so for the purposes of technical administration and monitoring usage of our website. We also record other information regarding your web browser and operating system for statistical purposes.
We may use the information we collect in the ways set out below:
Use of Cookies
We use cookies for collecting user information from the site. Please note that the Website will not function if you have disabled the cookies. Cookies are messages given to a web browser by a web server. The message is then stored by the browser in a text file called cookie.txt. Each time the browser requests a page from the server, this message is sent back. A cookie's main objective is to identify users and personalise their visit by customising web pages for them, for example by welcoming them by name the next time they visit the site. A site using cookies will usually invite you to provide personal information such as your name, your email address and interests. We may use cookies to store information such as your user identification number to allow us to identify whether you have registered to use particular parts of the Website which you are using. We will only use cookies from your cookie file placed there through your web browser's interaction with the Website.
Collection and use of Personal Information:
When you register and/or use this Website, we will ask you to provide certain information, such as your contact details and demographic information. When you take out a chargeable service with us, we will also retain billing data in relation to you. We will store this billing data and use it to contact you, provide you with details of services and otherwise for the normal use and improvement of the Website, unless you have asked us not to do so. We may use your email address to send you information which we think that may be of interest to you. You will be asked to opt in to receive such emails by indicating in a box at the point on the site where personal data is collected.
Your information may also be used:
For customer services, marketing (including customer profiling), offering renewals, research and statistical purposes, and crime prevention; and To manage your insurance policy, which will include both underwriting and claim handling.
For these purposes we may disclose information to other interested third parties, for example insurers, other intermediaries, uninsured loss recovery agencies; regulatory authorities for the purposes of monitoring and/or enforcing compliance with any regulatory rules/codes, other third parties involved (directly or indirectly) in your insurance, and agents (including claims handling agencies) who provide services on our behalf. If you give us information about another person, in doing so you confirm that they have given you permission to provide it to us, that we have authority to process their personal data (including any sensitive personal data) and also that you have told them who we are and what we will use their data for. We may also need to disclose personal data to a third party so that the service you requested can be provided. It may also be necessary to transfer it to countries outside the European Economic Area.
Documents received by us are filed electronically. We may check information provided or received and we may also undertake credit searches and additional fraud searches. We may also pass information about you to credit reference agencies and premium finance providers in connection with the assessment of your financial standing generally and, in particular, where you have requested a premium instalment plan. This may include details of your payment record with us. We have obligations under money laundering legislation to check the identity of users of the Website and may need to make enquires and obtain information from you for that purpose. You confirm that all the information you supply is accurate and that we may pass on such information as we consider necessary to comply with any legal/reporting enquiries. You agree that we may disclose to the FSA and to any other regulatory authority to which we may be subject or to any person empowered to require such information by or under any legal enactment any information they may reasonably request or require relating to you or, if relevant, any other person about whom you have provided us with information or any claims you have made. Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register (CUE), run by Insurance Database Services Ltd, the Hunter Database, run by MCL Software Ltd., and the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register (MIAFTR), run by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). We, and your insurer, may search these registers as this helps us to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. We may also undertake credit searches and additional fraud searches. Under the conditions of your policy you must tell us about any incident (such as an accident or theft) which may or may not give rise to a claim. When you tell us about an incident we will pass information relating to it to the registers.
Your policy details will be added to the Motor Insurance Database (MID), run by the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB). MID data may be used by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland (DVLNI) for the purpose of Electronic Vehicle Licensing and by the Police to help clarify the driver's use of a motor insurance policy and/or for preventing and detecting crime. If you are involved in an accident, in the UK or abroad, other UK insurers and the Motor Insurers' Bureau may search the MID to obtain relevant policy information. Persons pursuing a claim in respect of a road traffic accident (including citizens of other countries) may also obtain relevant information which is held on the MID. You can find out more about this at www.mib.org.uk on the internet. You should show these notes to anyone insured to drive the vehicle covered under this policy.
Your information may also be used for customer services, marketing (including customer profiling), offering renewals, research and statistical purposes, and crime prevention. We may share your information with our agents or service providers and with third parties with whom we have a business relationship, for the purposes described above. If you give us information about another person, in doing so you confirm that they have given you permission to provide it to us to be able to process their personal data (including any sensitive personal data) and also that you have told them who we are and what we will use their data for, as set out in this notice.
In the case of personal data, with limited exceptions, you have the right to access and if necessary rectify information held about you by formal written application to our Data Protection Officer at VCIL Limited, 2 Denmark Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4DA. We recommend you keep this document safely with your policy and all other documents relating to your insurance. We have shown, within your documentation, the information that you supplied to us, and on which your premium has been calculated. In the event of a claim, or on request, you must be able to substantiate this information, so it is important that you check it, and can agree that it is all correct. If anything is not correct or differs from what you told us, you must contact us immediately, as otherwise your insurance may be rendered invalid, or your insurers entitled to avoid payment of a claim. In particular, you must remember that you have to disclose all material facts to us. Material facts are any facts that are likely to influence an insurer in his acceptance or rejection of your risk. If you are in any doubt as to whether a fact is material or not, you should disclose it. We do our best to protect your personal information including through the use of encryption technology, but we cannot guarantee the security of any data you disclose.
Our Website is not intended or designed to attract children under the age of 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable data from children under the age of 18 years old. If you are under the age of 18 years and would like to ask a question or use this site in any way which requires you to provide your personal information, please get your parent or guardian to use the site on your behalf. This shows our commitment to protect the privacy of children by making reasonable effort to ensure that a parent has authorised the collection of the child's personal data.
We give visitors to our Website the option of using a secure transmission method to send us their personal data. We have implemented security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the personal data that we have under our control from:
All our employees and data processors who have access to, and are associated with, the processing of personal data are obliged to respect the confidentiality of our visitors' personal data. We will ensure that your personal data will not be disclosed to any authorities except if required by law or other regulation.
We add to the data you give us information we obtain from third parties. You have the right to request a copy of any information that we currently hold about you. In order to receive such information please send your contact details, including your name and address, to the following address: VCIL Limited, 2 Denmark Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4DA. Otherwise you can email using our contact us form We will provide you with a readable copy of the personal data which we keep about you within twenty-one days, although we may require proof of your identity. We will provide the information for a charge of £10. We allow you to challenge the data that we hold about you and, where appropriate, you may have the data erased, rectified or amended. We reserve the right to refuse to provide our visitors with a copy of their personal data, but will give reasons for our refusal. We do, however, allow you to challenge our decision to refuse to provide you with a copy of your personal data.
This privacy policy only covers our Website. Any other websites which may be linked to our Website are subject to their own privacy policy, which may differ from ours. Please check their respective websites for their own privacy policies. Our Website does not enable our visitors to communicate with other visitors or post information to be accessed by others.
If you have an enquiry or concern about our privacy policy, please write to VCIL Limited, 2 Denmark Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4DA.