Legal Information
This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the legal terms and conditions which you may make using our website availablecar.com (“our site”), whether as a guest or a registered user. Please read this information carefully before you start to use the site. By using our site, you agree that you accept these terms of use and abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using our site.
Privacy Policy
Please see our Privacy Policy
Information about us
Available Car is a site operated by Available Car Limited (“We”). We are family-owned used car retailer, and one of the UK’s leading used car supermarket groups in the East Midlands. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 04318082 and have our registered office at Station Road, Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2NL. Our VAT number is GB 785771475. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for the purpose of insurance mediation activity FRN309871. Available Car Limited are licensed Credit Brokers.
The business operates one of the UK's most popular online motor car dealership websites from two vast retail locations. Two are based in the East Midlands. Each supermarket offers over 30 exciting used car brands, which retail between £6,000 to £36000 and each one comes with the unique AvailableCar Price Promise and the AvailableCar Provenance schemes. Every vehicle is checked and prepared to the highest standards, offering exceptional value for money.
AvailableCar prides itself on working hard to deliver outstanding customer service to every customer, pioneering a non-motor trade retail concept, which is not to sell cars to customers, it is simply to help them to buy.
The two Car Supermarket sites are located at:
CASTLE DONINGTON
This is the original Available Car site, which opened in January 2002 and extends to four buildings on 12.5 acres. It has in excess of 50,000 square feet of showroom and preparation centres. This head office site currently employs 244 and has the capacity to stock for sale 1,450 cars.
SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD
This site opened in April 2007 and is a two-part site with two buildings on 9 acres and 69,500 square feet of showroom and preparation centres. The site currently employs 151 and has the capacity to stock for sale 1,050 cars.
Disclaimer
Available Car Limited offers the details of vehicles in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of any information including Fitted Extra information supplied by 3rd party providers. Therefore, all customers are advised to view vehicles at our showrooms and with the help of our advisers, ensure their specific requirements are met before purchase. All used car prices exclude Road Fund License and E&OE. Car savings are taken from CAP Guide. Available Car Limited, Registered Office, Station Road, Castle Donington, DE74 2NL. Registered in England and Wales No. 4318082, VAT Registration No. 785771475. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for the purpose of insurance mediation activity FRN309871. AvailableCar are licensed Credit brokers, written Quotations are available on request subject to status. 18 years old or over. Calls may be recorded for training purposes.
Finance
Available Car Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA No. 309871).
Available Car is a credit broker and not a lender. We can introduce you to a limited number of carefully selected lenders and their finance products, which may have different interest rates and charges. We are not an independent financial advisor; but we will provide details of products available from lenders that we work with, but no advice or recommendation will be made.
We work on a credit score-based model where your credit score determines the best rate we can offer you from our panel of lenders. We will make you aware of all of our lenders offers during your Available Car Journey as the best APR might not always work out the best monthly payment and you must decide whether the finance product is right for you.
As disclosed in our Initial Disclosure Document (IDD) we do not charge you a fee for our services. Whichever lender we introduce you to, we will receive commission from them (either a fixed fee or a fixed percentage of the amount you borrow). The lenders we work with could pay commission at different rates. However, the amount of commission that we receive from a lender will not change your quoted monthly payment to that lender under your credit agreement. The APR (Annual Percentage Rate) for your finance agreement is pre-determined based on the contractual agreement between the finance provider and Available Car Ltd meaning it’s fixed as part of this offer and cannot be changed. We will ask you to sign a consent form to make sure we have explained and answered any questions you have on our commission and the products we have offered you.
At Available Car we pride ourselves on offering fair value across all our cars, finance and value added products. We are working on showing the amount of commission earned in our digital offering clearly and transparently. While we develop this, should you have any questions regarding our finance commissions prior to discussing finance, please talk to one of our Available Car team and we will be happy to help. Rest assured we will explain this throughout your car buying journey to give you peace of mind and confidence to buy your next car from a family run business.
Application for finance is subject to status and approval by the Lender and is only available to UK residents aged 18 and over. We will arrange a soft search of your credit file. The soft search will provide us with a credit score that will determine the interest rate and lender that we will use for your finance application. A soft search will show on your credit file but not be visible to other lenders and it will not affect their lending decisions. The soft search does not confirm that you will get finance.
Any lenders we use will conduct a full credit search to decide if they can offer you the finance. This search will show on your credit file and will be seen by other lenders. If the first lender is not able to offer you finance, we will try our other lenders, each of which may record a search on your credit file.
These include: Black Horse Finance, Santander Consumer Finance, Startline Motor Finance and Evolution Funding (Broker). No fee is charged for our services.
Competitive finance options
Simple, low-rate finance options. As a reputable used car retailer, we offer our Customers very competitive finance options.
Our 9.9% APR Representative gives our Customers peace of mind that they are receiving a fair finance rate, when purchasing with us.
Insurances/Warranties/Cosmetic Care Suite/
We work with Assurant ‘Group’ formally known as ‘The Warranty Group’ to provide our customers with market leading Insurance/Warranties/Cosmetic Care Suite cover. Assurant pay us commission for introducing you.
Standards of Preparation and Condition of the Car
At Available Car, every car regardless of age, mileage, cost or condition goes through a cosmetic and mechanical inspections (including service and MOT if applicable) by our team of professionals, in our own workshops, before it goes on sale.
Our unique Available Car Provenance guarantees our customers the highest-level quality used cars, all prepared to main dealer standards.
WARRANTIES/COMPANY LIABILITIES
Except in so far as liability may be placed upon the Company by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997, or in respect of a vehicle subject to a manufacturer's Warranty or other written warranty, no warranty is given or implied as to the quality of goods or services or their fitness for any particular purpose, whether known to the Company or not. The Company will, however, without prejudice to its right hereunder, correct all faults in goods or services carried out by the Company and occurring by reason of the Company’s defaults or negligence and shown to be such to the Company’s satisfaction.
Subject to clause below, the Company assigns to the customer, the benefits of any applicable manufacturer's warrant for parts fitted to a vehicle in the course of a repair or service. Further, the Company warrants its work free of defects in workmanship for a period of 12 months or 15000 miles, whichever occurs sooner from the date of completion of work
The Company's obligation shall be mitigated or removed if any defect is caused or worsened by any of the following:-
i. Failure to notify the Company of the defect.
ii. Failure to afford the Company opportunity to rectify the problem within a reasonable timescale.
iii. Subjecting the goods to misuse, negligence or accident or using the vehicle for racing, rallying or similar sports.
iv. Installation of a part into the goods not approved by either the manufacturer or the Company, or altering them in a way not approved by either the manufacturer or the Company.
v. Failure to adhere to maintenance instructions regarding the care, treatment or upkeep of the goods, or in failing to have servicing and preventative maintenance carried out as recommended by either the manufacturer or the Company.
DISTANCE SALES
If you buy as a consumer and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 apply, you will have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days subject to the below.
The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you, or a third party on your behalf, collect or take delivery of your vehicle. To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement sent by post or email to our address. If required, you can request a template cancellation notice from us, but it is not obligatory to use this specific template.
To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your clear statement or form confirming your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired. For full details, please refer to our Distance Sales Policy
Complaints Policy
At AvailableCar, we are committed to delivering outstanding customer service!
We want to help, and as quickly as possible, so whether you require assistance with a feature on your car, have experienced an after-sales issue, or would like a praise one of our Available Car Customer Care team members are on hand to assist you.
However, if you feel it is necessary to raise a concern with us, please fill out the online form and one of our dedicated team members will look into your concern and get respond.
How To Contact Us
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to contact us in the event of a complaint. You can contact us using any one of the following methods,
1. By completing our online enquiry form (link)
2. By Telephone to the site you had contact with:
Castle Donington - 0800 996 1052
Sutton In Ashfield - 0800 996 1279
3. Or write to us at Customer Services, Available Car Ltd, Station Road, Castle Donington, DE74 2NL
Our Complaints Process
For complaints regarding a finance agreement or insurance product. We will provide written acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 working days. We will carry out a full investigation in to your complaint and provide a Final or Other Response within eight weeks from the complaint being received, we will write to you with the outcome of the investigation outlining our reasons for making our decision. If for any reason we cannot complete our investigation within an 8-week time limit we will write to you with an explanation for the delay and advise you of an estimated time for our response.
If you are unhappy with our decision and wish to take your complaint further, you can contact the finance/insurance company you have your contracts/policies with and you can also ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to investigate your complaint for you.
The Financial Ombudsman is a free, independent service for resolving disputes between customers and financial services institutions. You will need to contact them within 6 months of our final response letter – and they will ask to see the letter as summary of our investigation of your complaint.
You can find more information at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or they can be contacted using the following numbers
From a UK landline: 0800 023 4567
From a UK mobile: 0300 123 9123
Calls to 0800 numbers are free when calling from a UK landline. 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call and are included in inclusive minutes for mobiles. Charges may apply when calling from abroad.
For all other complaints please contact the General Manager within the branch where your vehicle was purchased.
Governance and Compliance
Tax Strategy
GRAHAM BELL / AVAILABLE CAR LTD ANNUAL TAX STRATEGY
This tax strategy is in respect of Graham Bell Holdings Ltd and its wholly owned subsidiaries Graham Bell Ltd, Available Car Ltd and Available Vehicles Ltd (dormant).
This document sets out the group’s attitude towards tax risk and includes the following:
· How we manage our tax risks
· Our attitude towards tax planning
· Our specific tax risk show we
work with HMRC
This document complies with the requirements of Finance Act 2016 Schedule 19.
HOW WE MANAGE OUR TAX RISKS
The group aims to operate with integrity and transparency, to comply with the intent of Parliament as far as the tax regulations are concerned, pay all liabilities on time and file all returns within the required time limits.
· The day-to-day reporting is dealt with by suitably qualified members of the Finance department who will consult with external consultants or tax advisors where appropriate and in particular on anything that is outside of normal operations.
· The Group aims to identify inherent risk factors but given the complex nature of the organisation, singular transactions follow step by step procedures. Any risk factors relate to the volume of transactions and management of this process. Reporting functions are therefore managed through the finance team involving consistency of approach, stable staffing structure, management, and reporting procedures.
· The responsibility for the tax affairs of the Group rests with the Directors who in turn delegate day to day management of the Groups tax affairs to relevant members of the finance team.
OUR ATTITUDE TO TAX PLANNING
The Group only engages in planning that reflects the genuine economic nature of the circumstances and will never act in a way that we believe could be considered inconsistent with our understanding of the intent of Parliament or which could be contrary to any anti-abuse legislation.
TAX RISKS
· The level of risk management is set so that the director shareholders are suitably protected as they are not involved in the day to day financial management of the Group. The Group places a lot of emphasise on external advisors to review the corporate compliance of the group together with other taxes as appropriate. The fact that such a high level of review is expected form external sources highlights the stakeholder’s attitude to risk and their aim to comply with tax legislation.
WORKING WITH HMRC
· We aim to engage openly and constructively with HM Revenue & Customs to discuss tax planning strategies, risks and significant transactions relating to our tax affairs. Where necessary we will seek formal or informal clearance from HMRC on tax positions where there may be uncertainty and engage in open dialogue with our dedicated CRM.
· We will seek to resolve any issues before returns are filed and to make fair and accurate disclosures in tax returns, reports or other documents required to be submitted to HMRC.
· We will aim to work proactively with HMRC and to adhere to timescales to resolve any tax disputes but where recourse is required to the Tribunal, we will maintain a professional working relationship throughout the process.
Gender Pay Gap
https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/EmployerReport/CqNV2BQb/2023
Hourly pay gap
In this organisation, women earn 89p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay. Their median hourly pay is 11.2% lower than men’s.
When comparing mean (average) hourly pay, women’s mean hourly pay is 13.5% lower than men’s.
The percentage of women in each pay quarter
In this organisation, women occupy 11% of the highest paid jobs and 24% of the lowest paid jobs.
Upper hourly pay quarter (highest paid)
11% of the upper hourly pay quarter (highest paid) are women
89% of the upper hourly pay quarter (highest paid) are men
Upper middle hourly pay quarter
13% of the upper middle hourly pay quarter are women
87% of the upper middle hourly pay quarter are men
Lower middle hourly pay quarter
27% of the lower middle hourly pay quarter are women
73% of the lower middle hourly pay quarter are men
Lower hourly pay quarter (lowest paid)
24% of the lower hourly pay quarter (lowest paid) are women
76% of the lower hourly pay quarter (lowest paid) are men
Bonus pay gap
In this organisation, women earn 85p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median bonus pay. Their median bonus pay is 14.6% lower than men’s.
When comparing mean (average) bonus pay, women’s mean bonus pay is 34.9% lower than men’s.
Who's received bonus pay
31.9% of women
41.8% of men
Modern Slavery Act 2015 Statement
Our commitment to fighting modern slavery
Available Car Limited recognises that only the best and most successful organisations will prosper in the long term if they meet the objectives of their stakeholders, including guests, suppliers, employees, local communities, investors, governments and other regulators and stakeholders. The Available Car Group, therefore, promotes best practice and complies with all applicable laws, statutes and regulations in force including but not limited to the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This statement is in respect of Graham Bell Holdings Ltd (The Group) and its wholly owned subsidiaries Graham Bell Ltd, Available Car Ltd and Available Vehicles Ltd (dormant).
The Group has taken and is continuing to take, to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.
Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. The Group has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.
Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing policy. We operate a whistleblowing policy so that all employees know that they can raise concerns about how colleagues are being treated, or practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals.
Michael Bell
CEO/Director
Terms of Use
This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website availablecar.com (“our site”), whether as a guest or a registered user. Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using our site, you agree that you accept these terms of use and abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using our site.
Privacy Policy
Please see our Privacy Policy.
Information about us
Availablecar.com is a site operated by Available Car Limited (“We”). We are family-owned used car retailer, and one of the UK’s leading used car supermarket groups in the East Midlands. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 04318082 and have our registered office at Station Road, Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2NL. Our VAT number is GB 785771475.
The business operates one of the UK's most popular online clicks and mortar car dealership websites from two vast retail locations, both based in the East Midlands. Each supermarket offers over 30 exciting used car brands, which usually retail between £6,000 to £36,000 and each one comes with the unique Available Car Price Promise and the Available Car Provenance schemes. Every vehicle is checked and prepared to the highest standards, offering exceptional value for money.
Available Car prides itself on working hard to deliver outstanding customer service to every customer, pioneering a non-motor trade retail concept, which is not to sell cars to customers, it is simply to help them to buy.
The two Car Supermarket sites are located at:
CASTLE DONINGTON
This is the original Available Car site, which opened in January 2002 and extends to four buildings on 12.5 acres. It has in excess of 50,000 square feet of showroom and preparation centres. This head office site currently employs 244 and has the capacity to stock for sale 1,450 cars.
SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD
This site opened in April 2007 and is a two-part site with two buildings on 9 acres and 69,500 square feet of showroom and preparation centres. The site currently employs 151 and has the capacity to stock for sale 1,050 cars.
Accessing our site
Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice (see below). We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.
From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our entire site, to users who have registered with us.
You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.
Intellectual property rights
This website is published by Available Car Limited. All website design, text, graphics, the typographical arrangement thereof, and all other material on this website is copyright of Available Car Limited unless otherwise stated.
Permission is hereby granted to electronically copy and to print hard copy portions of this website for the sole purpose of using this as an information resource for Available Car Limited products. Any other use of materials on this website, including reproduction for purposes other than the above, modification, distribution or republication without the prior written permission of Available Car Limited is prohibited.
The trademarks, logos and service marks shown on this website, unless otherwise specified, are the trademarks of Available Car Limited. No rights are granted to use any of them in any manner whatsoever.
Product specification
Whilst we make every effort to ensure the information displayed on our website is accurate, some information is time sensitive and some information is supplied by 3rd parties and as such we cannot be held liable for the accuracy of this information. If you require any specific details, please consult the Available Car Limited. Some illustrations in this website do not necessarily reflect the car that may be available.
Please check model availability and full specification details with a member of the Available Cars sales team prior to ordering.
Pricing
Our site contains a large number of used car stock, and it is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the products listed may be incorrectly priced. Always finalise prices with a member of the AvailableCar’s sales team.
Reliance on information posted
Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents. We are not liable for any action you may take as a result of relying on such information or advice nor for any loss or damage suffered by you as a result of you taking such action.
Our site changes regularly
We aim to update our site regularly and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.
Availability of our site
We cannot guarantee that our site will always be accessible due to the nature of the internet, as our site may be unavailable or suspended to allow for repairs, maintenance or the introduction of new facilities or services.
Emails and Information sent to us
Any email or attachment sent to us will not be encrypted and we therefore do not accept any liability if emails sent by you are compromised (including, but not limited, to their security or confidentiality). We do not, to the extent permitted by law, accept any liability as set out above for any external compromise of any security and/or confidentiality in relation to transmissions sent by email.
Information about you and your visits to our site
We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
Viruses, Hacking and other offences
You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.
By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities, and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.
Linking to our site
You must not create links to any part of our site without our prior permission. If you wish to request such permission, please email us. Linked web sites whether permitted or not do not have implied affiliation with our site.
Copyright
All rights, including copyright and database right, on our site and its contents, are owned by Available Car limited, or otherwise used by Available Car limited as permitted by applicable law or the copyright holder. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast or transmit any text, images, graphic, logo, button, icon, image and their selection and arrangement thereof, and any underlying source code and software, for any commercial or public purpose without prior written permission from the copyright holder.
you may not adapt, alter or create any of the material or information in this site or use it for any other purpose other than for your personal non-commercial use. You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes.
We reserve the right to use for its own purposes any material submitted to the site, including text and images, either on the site or in any other form, including for publicity purposes. We reserve the right to monitor submissions to the site and to edit or reject any submissions.
Links from our site
Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.
Jurisdiction and Applicable Law
The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country. These terms of use are governed by English law.
Concerns
if you have any concerns about material which appears on our site, please feel free to write to us or email to:
Simon Proudler
Chief Financial Officer
Station Road
Castle Donington
Derby
DE74 2NL
marketing@availablecar.com
Privacy Policy
1. Available Car Limited
The Available Car Group of Companies – which we will refer to as ‘the Group’ in this document – is made up of two related businesses: Available Car Limited and Graham Bell Holdings Limited. For simplicity throughout this notice, ‘we’ and ‘us’ means the Group. As required through the Data Protection Act 2018, we the ‘group’ are the ‘Data Controller’ when assessing finance, Insurances and Warrantee’s and then the ‘Data Processor’ throughout the agreement stage. We determine the purposes for which the manner of personal data is processed. This means that the data controller exercises overall, control the 'why' and the 'how' of any data processing activity.
2. About this Privacy Notice
This Data Privacy Notice contains key information and is a summarised version of our full Data Privacy policy, which is available upon request.
3. Contract
Where you are providing data to form a ‘Contract’ it is necessary for us to use your information to carry out checks for identity and suitability before we provide those services to you. In these circumstances your data is being processed as it is necessary for the purposes of entering into a contract for services that you have requested.
4. Consent
When collecting your personal data, we will always make it clear to you which data is necessary in connection with your enquiry. We use consent as our legal basis for processing personal data where the processing is conducted in order to send communications to you about our services, to exchange information for aftersales surveys or further marketing purposes. You may withdraw your consent at any time by following the contact instructions at the bottom of this privacy policy.
We would typically use this legal basis for processing your personal data in order to process an application for a vehicle loan or insurances so that you can enter into an agreement with one of our panel of funders.
This legal basis for processing personal data is also used when processing personal data of those who wish to enter into a contract for employment with Available Car Limited.
5. Legal Obligation
There are circumstances when we are compelled by a legal obligation to process certain personal data about individuals. This is typically a legal basis for processing ‘proof of identity’ data when confirming a candidate’s right to work in the UK. This will be relevant to those applicants who have successfully completed the initial stages of the recruitment process.
6. Legitimate Purposes
Data protection law also allows us to use personal information for our genuine and legitimate reasons, as long as we respect your rights and freedoms. Such uses include checks for to prevent fraud and money laundering.
Legitimate interests are also our legal basis when considering the period of time to retain customer records, in order to protect the commercial interest of the company e.g., from suspected fraud or to defend against complaints for negligence.
When we rely on our legitimate interests as the legal basis for processing the information in your personal data, we will carefully consider and balance any possible effect this may have on you and your rights.
7. Secondary Use of your data
Additionally, some of the information that we collect may also help us develop new and improved products and services to meet our customers’ needs. If we use your data for these secondary purposes, then we either obtain your consent for those purposes or anonymise the data so that it no longer contains information that can identify you.
8. How we use your personal data:
We use your data to process any requests or orders you may place on our website or in our showrooms. If we don’t collect your personal data during our interactions with you, we won’t be able to process your requests for keys to our vehicles for security reasons and/or we wouldn’t be able to comply with our legal obligations should you place an order. We also use your data to respond to your queries or complaints. We do this on the basis of our contractual obligations to you, our legal obligations and our legitimate interests in providing you with the best service and understanding how we can improve our service based on your experience. We will also use your interactions for internal reasons, such as ‘internal’ auditing and Training needs. This information will never be shared to third parties unless there is a legal reason for doing so.
9. Keeping your data safe
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, technological and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. It is also a condition of our contracts with any data processors that they and their sub-processors have appropriate security measures in place to protect the data being processed on our behalf.
Our security measures are continually improved in line with technological developments.
10. Direct Marketing
We will only engage with you via direct marketing channels with your legitimate interest rather than express consent to do so. You have the right to stop us using personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels we will always comply with your request.
11. Sharing Personal Data
We may share your data with other companies in our ‘group’ and our Finance and Insurance/Warrantee third party bodies as listed below:
Assurant - (Assurant Group Ltd, Assurant General Insurance Group) Registered Office: Emerald Buildings, Westmere Drive, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 6UN
Branko Limited – Registered office: 4b Victoria Road, Linsdale, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 2NT
Black Horse Limited - Registered office: 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN
Codeweavers Ltd have been appointed as our Data Sub-Processor to act on our behalf, all data is owned by us. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is handed securely and in accordance with your rights, our obligations and Codeweavers Ltd obligations under the data protection laws. Registered office: Unit 16 & 17 Waterfront Wy, Stafford, ST16 2HQ
Evolution Funding Limited – Registered office: Thompson Close, Chesterfield, S41 9AZ
Santander Consumer (UK) Plc – Registered office: 86 Station Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1SR
Startline Motor Finance Limited – Registered office: 6th Floor 60 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0HR
We may sometimes contract with third parties to supply products and services to you on Our behalf. These may include payment processing, delivery of goods, search engine facilities, advertising and marketing. In some cases, the third parties may require access to some/all of your data. 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 may compile statistics about the use of ‘Our Site’ including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales, and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying data, or any anonymised data that can be combined with other data and used to identify you. We may, from time to time, share such data with third parties, such as prospective investors, affiliates, partners and advertisers. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.
In certain circumstances, We may be legally required to share certain data held by Us, which may include your personal data, for example, where We are involved in legal proceedings, where We are complying with legal requirements, under issue of a court order or at the request of a governmental authority.
11. Third Parties
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics, owned by Google, to collect, monitor, and analyse traffic to Our website.
Google collects data about the device you are using, device type, browser information and device
screen size. Google also collects your IP Address which is used to approximate your location.
Google does not share your IP Address with Us, which in turn does not allow Us to identify you as an individual.
For further details on how Google Analytics uses and protects your data, please see Google’s privacy policy here. You may also opt-out of Google Analytics tracking by installing this browser plugin, provided by Google.
12. Types of Data and personal information we collect
We will only collect the minimal amount required to fulfil your request or our legal obligations and our legitimate interests and includes the following:
We currently collect and process the following information:
Vehicle details (for example, vehicle registration and previous owners)
Personal Information (for example, name, address, date of birth, contact details, driving licence and utility bills)
Transactional Information (for example payment transactions, card numbers from you)
Financial Information (for example, back account details, salary information and employment)
Images, Video footage and Audio recordings (for example, CCTV footage around our sites, inbound and outbound calls and images that have been taken for promotional reasons)
Digital Footprint (for example, IP Address, Browser Meta Data, Device Meta Data). This is required for maintaining the security of our systems and to prevent abuse.
Courtesy Car Location Data – details of your travel history or home address will be collected as all our loan cars are fitted with a vehicle tracker device. This is for security purposes and the data will be held for six months.
Courtesy Car Incident Data – details of any car incidents will be recorded as all our loan cars are fitted with a Dash Cam to ensure all incidents are recorded for purposes of insurance and misuse investigations. The data will be stored only if an incident occurs and used purely for these incidents only. All audio functionality is not in operation.
13. How Long We Keep Your Personal Information
Your personal information will in principle be retained no longer than necessary for the aforementioned purposes. This means that your personal information will in principle be retained no longer than 6 years after termination or cancellation of your finance or insurance/warranty cover to respond to questions, complaints or enquiries. However, we may retain your personal information longer if this is required to comply with a law or regulation to which we are subject or necessary for us to protect or exercise our rights, to the extent allowed under applicable data protection law.
14. Your rights
You have the right to your personal data stored by us, as below:
Information: To be informed about the processing being carried out by us.
Access: Subject to certain exemptions, to obtain a copy of the personal data being processed.
Rectification: To have inaccurate data rectified.
Erasure: To have personal data erased upon request, subject to certain exemptions.
Data Portability: In certain circumstances have automated data returned to you, or sent direct to another controller, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
Objection: The absolute right to object to direct marketing and a qualified right to object to processing based on the controller’s legitimate interests, including profiling.
Automated decision-making: Not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing.
15. Contact - Data Protection Officer
We have a ‘Group Compliance Manager’ who is responsible for matters relating to privacy and data protection and can be contacted through the below:
Simon Proudler
Chief Financial Officer
Available Car Limited
simonproudler@availablecar.com
If you submit a request in relation to your data, please specify the nature of your request and specific information. We will endeavour to provide a response to you within 14 working days, however, this may take longer depending on the complexity of your request.
If we do not handle your validated request within 1 month of receipt, then you have the right of referral to the ICO who act as the data protection arbitrator. Details of how to contact the ICO are at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
16. Changes to this privacy notice:
We reserve the right to make changes to this policy at any time as it is likely that we will need to update this notice from time to time. Please make sure you are always familiar with the latest version. Changes to this policy will become fully effective once the revised notice is published on our website. You are welcome to come back and check it whenever you wish.
This Privacy Policy was last modified August 2023.
1. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The FCA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. Use this information to decide if our services are right for you.
2. Whose products we offer
We offer products for:
Mechanical Breakdown, Tyre and Alloy wheel insurance and SMART and Dent Insurance.
Insurer(s)/administrator: London General Insurance Ltd/TWG Services Ltd.
3. What service we will provide you with
We are a credit broker not a lender; we will, as required, assess your needs, and introduce you to a limited number of finance providers who offer a limited range of finance products. We are not an independent financial advisor. We will arrange a soft search of your credit file. The soft search will provide us with a credit score that will determine the interest rate and lender that we will use for your finance application. The soft search will show on your credit file but not be visible to other lenders and it will not affect their lending decisions. The soft search does not confirm that you will get finance.
Any lenders we use will conduct a full credit search to decide if they can offer you the finance. This search will show on your credit file and will be seen by other lenders. If the first lender is not able to offer you finance, we will try our other lenders, each of which may record a search on your credit file.
• Black Horse Finance – privacy notice link: https://www.blackhorse.co.uk/privacy
• Santander Consumer Finance – privacy notice link: https://www.santanderconsumer.co.uk/your-data/privacy-policy/
• Startline Motor Finance – privacy notice link: https://startlinemotorfinance.com/fpn
• Evolution Funding (Broker) – privacy notice link: https://web.evolutionfunding.com/privacy-notice/
We will also, on a non-advised basis, give you all the information necessary to allow you to make an informed decision in relation to the purchase of: Mechanical Breakdown, Tyre and Alloy wheel insurance and SMART and Dent Insurance.
4. What will you have to pay us for our services?
No fee is charged for our services. However, we receive commission at different rates as a fixed percentage of the amount you borrow for introducing you to a lender for finance. The commission that we receive does not affect the amount that you pay to the lender under the credit agreement. For insurance products, we can be paid commission from insurers, which is a percentage of the annual premium.
5. Commission disclosure
Available Car does earn a commission from our finance lenders. We will disclose the amount of commission to you at the earliest opportunity and confirm the amount prior to you concluding the sale.
6. Who regulates us?
Available Car Limited, Station Road, Castle Donington, Derby DE74 2NL are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm reference number 309871) for the purpose of insurance mediation and consumer credit activities. Available Car Limited are a credit broker and not a lender. You can check this on the FCA’s register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk/register or by contacting the FCA on 0800 1116768.
7. Client money
We act as agents for the insurer for the collection of premiums and payment of refunds of premiums. This means that premiums are treated as being received by the insurer when received in our bank account and that any premium refund is treated as received by you when it is actually paid over to you.
8. What to do if you have a complaint
If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:
In writing: Available Car Limited, Station Road, Castle Donington, Derby DE74 2NL
By phone: 01332 817222
By email: marketing@availablecar.com
If we cannot satisfy your complaint, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and we will provide you with information about their service.
For more information, visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.
A full version of our complaints handling procedures is available on request.
9. Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?
We are covered by the FSCS. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim.
Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the first £2,000 and 90% of the remainder of the claim, without any upper limit.
Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
General Data Protection Regulation 25 May 2018
Available Car Limited Privacy Policy
In order to give our customers, the best possible buying experience, we will need to gather certain information. The way in which we use this information may mean that it is necessary for us to share some of your personal data. However, we only share your information where it is lawful for us to do so or where we have your consent. Likewise, if you wish to apply for credit/finance, we will share your information with our preferred finance providers listed in this sheet with your consent.
All our preferred providers of finance and insurance have their own defined privacy policy, and this will be provided to you before the conclusion of the sale/contract. Copies of these policies are available prior to the sale if you wish. Please ask one of our staff.
A full AvailableCar Privacy statement is available to view on-line at availablecar.com/privacy-policy. Alternatively, you may wish to have a paper copy, or an email version can be sent to you before you proceed.
For more information and guidance, the Information Commission Office (ICO) is the supervisory body for the UK that enforces the data protection laws. Its website is www.ico.org.uk.
The reason Available Car offer a ‘Price Promise’ is to guarantee we give the best possible value for money to everyone. We do not operate like ‘other garages’ by inflating the asking price and making customers pay differently, based on aggressive negotiation skills. We only employ Helpers for our teams and not people trained in sales.
• All our products & services are fixed fair prices for all. We do not give discounts or freebies.
• Our vehicles are offered for sale at transaction prices, not negotiation prices. If you find a car within 7 days of vehicle order, we are happy to adjust our price.
• Our Ethos is about value for money and being treated fairly.
• We check our prices daily to keep our prices cheaper than our competitors. However, we offer a price match should you find a car cheaper.
We all interpret things differently, so please find a helpful list of what we mean by the terms used in our unique Available Car Price Promise statement!
Equal
When we say equal, we mean exactly ‘the same as’ or ‘equal to’ the car bought in every way (e.g: make, model, specification, including colour, engine, transmission MOT and mileage)
Quality
Meaning that every car is prepared to the same high standard and from a reliable retail outlet including Main Dealers and Car Supermarkets only. We would not consider private sellers, sole traders, “sold as seen” sales or unprepared vehicles.
Main Dealer or other Car Supermarkets
To make our Price Promise completely fair, we only accept cars from Main Dealers (Manufacture supported) or Car Supermarkets (Over 200 cars in stock) which are in-stock and available for sale. The vehicle must be advertised for sale on the supplying dealers website (we will not accept any vehicle that has already been sold). This ensures the cars we are comparing are available for sale, prepared, workshop checked, records are held for service history and number of owners. Mileage - within 1,000 miles of our car. We keep documented evidence for all our Price Checks. We do not charge any fees for the preparation of our cars, if the ‘challenging garage’ does apply additional charges for preparation, transport and/or administration, this will reflect in our agreed price.
Value
The “value” of a car will be altered should there be any differences between certain aspects, including the number of owners, the level of preparation, general condition, service history, keys, specification, optional extras etc. Many factors have to be taken into consideration when buying or selling a vehicle. For example, if a car is registered as a total loss or if there is any detrimental information stored.
Refund The Difference
Any refund that is agreed after the day of collection will be refunded directly to the customer, as named on the invoice. Any price promise completed prior to collection will have the agreed value deducted on the invoice at the point of collection. The route of action will be clearly explained by one of our trained Team Members.
7 Days Of Vehicle Order To be clear,
Available Car grant 7 days from the day the vehicle is ordered and the purchase is agreed. The order date acts as day one of seven. Day one is not the day of collection or the day the balance is paid.
Ultimately, we want our customers to get the best car at the best price from Available Car every time. That’s our Price Promise!
Available Car Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA No. 309871).
Available Car is a credit broker and not a lender. We can introduce you to a limited number of carefully selected lenders and their finance products, which may have different interest rates and charges. We are not an independent financial advisor; but we will provide details of products available from lenders that we work with, but no advice or recommendation will be made.
We work on a credit score-based model where your credit score determines the best rate we can offer you from our panel of lenders. We will make you aware of all of our lenders offers during your Available Car Journey as the best APR might not always work out the best monthly payment and you must decide whether the finance product is right for you.
As disclosed in our Initial Disclosure Document (IDD) we do not charge you a fee for our services. Whichever lender we introduce you to, we will receive commission from them (either a fixed fee or a fixed percentage of the amount you borrow). The lenders we work with could pay commission at different rates. However, the amount of commission that we receive from a lender will not change your quoted monthly payment to that lender under your credit agreement. The APR (Annual Percentage Rate) for your finance agreement is pre-determined based on the contractual agreement between the finance provider and Available Car Ltd meaning it’s fixed as part of this offer and cannot be changed. We will ask you to sign a consent form to make sure we have explained and answered any questions you have on our commission and the products we have offered you.
At Available Car we pride ourselves on offering fair value across all our cars, finance and value added products. We are working on showing the amount of commission earned in our digital offering clearly and transparently. While we develop this, should you have any questions regarding our finance commissions prior to discussing finance, please talk to one of our Available Car team and we will be happy to help. Rest assured we will explain this throughout your car buying journey to give you peace of mind and confidence to buy your next car from a family run business.
Application for finance is subject to status and approval by the Lender and is only available to UK residents aged 18 and over. We will arrange a soft search of your credit file. The soft search will provide us with a credit score that will determine the interest rate and lender that we will use for your finance application. A soft search will show on your credit file but not be visible to other lenders and it will not affect their lending decisions. The soft search does not confirm that you will get finance.
Any lenders we use will conduct a full credit search to decide if they can offer you the finance. This search will show on your credit file and will be seen by other lenders. If the first lender is not able to offer you finance, we will try our other lenders, each of which may record a search on your credit file.
These include: Black Horse Finance, Santander Consumer Finance, Startline Motor Finance and Evolution Funding (Broker). No fee is charged for our services.
For insurance products, we can be paid commission from insurers, which is a percentage of the annual premium.