1. Who we are
Nesto Mortgages Ltd, trading as Equiclear, operates the website at equiclear.uk. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 14964264, and our registered office is Amtri House, Hulley Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2NE. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller under registration reference ZB595538.
We are the data controller for the information you give us through this website. We are an introducer only: we do not give financial advice or lend money. When you submit an enquiry, we pass your details to a mortgage broker authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). From that point the broker is a separate data controller and handles your information under their own privacy policy, which they will provide to you.
2. Information we collect
Information you give us when you submit an enquiry: your name, telephone number, email address and postcode, and details of your situation such as your approximate unsecured debt, property value, mortgage balance, current mortgage deal and any credit issues. We ask for only what a broker needs to understand your enquiry.
Information we collect automatically when you use the website: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and how you interact with them. Analytics and marketing data is collected only if you accept those cookies. See section 8.
Information from correspondence if you email or write to us.
3. How we use your information
- To pass your enquiry to an FCA authorised mortgage broker who can give you regulated advice.
- To contact you about your enquiry, including to confirm that it has been received and passed on.
- To respond to questions and requests you send us.
- To measure how the website is used and to improve it, where you have accepted analytics cookies.
- To measure the effectiveness of our advertising, where you have accepted marketing cookies.
- To tell Meta when an enquiry has been submitted, so we can measure which of our adverts lead to enquiries (see section 5).
- To detect and prevent fraud or misuse of the website, and to meet our legal obligations.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions about you.
4. Our lawful bases
- Consent. When you submit the enquiry form you ask us to share your details with a broker. You can withdraw that consent at any time by emailing us, although this will not affect anything the broker has already done.
- Consent for analytics and marketing cookies, given through the cookie banner.
- Legitimate interests. Running and securing the website, keeping records of introductions, improving our service, and measuring which of our adverts lead to enquiries. We balance these interests against your rights, and you can object at any time.
- Legal obligation. Where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.
5. Who we share it with
- The FCA authorised broker we introduce you to, so that they can contact you and advise you.
- Service providers who help us run the website and handle enquiries, for example our hosting provider, the form provider and, with your consent, analytics and advertising platforms. They act on our instructions and may not use your information for their own purposes.
- Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram. When you submit the enquiry form, our form provider tells Meta Platforms Ireland Limited that an enquiry was made, along with your email address and phone number in a scrambled (hashed) form and technical details such as your IP address and browser. Meta uses this to measure and improve our adverts. This happens whether or not you accept cookies, because it is sent from the form provider's servers rather than set in your browser. You can object at any time by emailing contact@nesto.co.uk.
- Regulators, law enforcement or courts where we are legally required to share information.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not pass your enquiry to more than one broker.
6. Credit searches
By clicking "Submit", you ask Equiclear to pass your details to an FCA authorised mortgage broker. You also agree to the broker carrying out a soft credit search when it receives your enquiry, so that the quotes it gives you are more accurate. However, not all brokers will carry out a soft search. Equiclear does not carry out credit searches.
The FCA authorised broker your details are passed on to may use Valid8 IP Ltd to run the soft search. A soft search is visible only to you and the broker. It does not affect your credit score and cannot be seen by other lenders. The broker is responsible for the search and carries it out under its own privacy notice. Valid8 IP Ltd uses your data only to obtain credit report information, as set out in its Privacy Policy.
If you later apply for a loan or mortgage, the lender will carry out a full credit search, which is recorded on your file.
7. How long we keep it
- Enquiries that are not passed to a broker: deleted after 90 days.
- Enquiries that are passed to a broker: kept for up to 12 months so that we can manage the introduction and any questions about it, then deleted.
- Email correspondence: kept for as long as needed to deal with your question, and then for up to 12 months.
- Analytics and advertising data: kept in line with the retention settings of the platform concerned. See our Cookie Policy.
We may keep information for longer where the law requires it or where it is needed to deal with a complaint or legal claim.
8. Cookies and analytics
Essential cookies that make the website work are always set. Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel are used only if you click Accept on the cookie banner, and you can change that choice at any time. Our Cookie Policy lists every cookie we use, how long it lasts and how to change your settings.
9. Where your information is stored
Your enquiry is stored by us and our service providers in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. Some providers, including Google and Meta, may process analytics or advertising data in the United States. Where that happens, transfers are protected by safeguards recognised under UK data protection law, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.
10. Keeping it secure
The website is served over HTTPS, so information you submit is encrypted in transit. Access to enquiries is limited to the people who need it to handle them. No system is completely secure, so please do not send us sensitive information, such as full bank details, by email or through the form.
11. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Erase your information in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer needed or where you withdraw consent.
- Restrict or object to how we use it.
- Port the information you gave us to another organisation in a usable format.
- Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is our lawful basis.
To exercise any of these rights, email contact@nesto.co.uk. We will respond within one month. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. Where we have already passed your enquiry to a broker, we will tell them about your request, but you may also need to contact them directly about the information they hold.
12. Marketing
We do not send marketing emails or newsletters. Any contact from us is about the enquiry you submitted. If you agreed to marketing cookies, you may see our adverts on other platforms based on your visit; you can stop this by changing your cookie settings.
13. Children
This website is intended for UK homeowners aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has submitted an enquiry, please tell us and we will delete it.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Significant changes will be highlighted on this page.
15. Contact and complaints
Questions about this policy or about your information can be sent to contact@nesto.co.uk or to Nesto Mortgages Ltd, Amtri House, Hulley Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 2NE.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so that we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.