Help | Site Map

Branch Locator | Contact Us | Legal Information

Home
Loans
Insurance
Credit Card

Legal Information

Personal Loan

All personal loan applicants must be 21 years of age or over and in receipt of a regular income. Loans for business and timeshare purposes are excluded. Loans and interest rates are subject to status. We may use a credit scoring or another automated decision making system. The interest rates at which we lend will reflect our assessment of your personal circumstances and/or your credit score and your desired loan amount. To ensure that our staff provide you with the highest level of service we may from time to time monitor or record telephone calls.

Household Bank is a trading name of HFC Bank Limited, which is a member of the HSBC Group. HFC Bank Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered Office: North Street, Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 4TD. Registered in England No. 1117305.

About Household Bank

Household Bank is a trading name of HFC Bank Limited, which is a member of the HSBC Group. The HSBC group has more than 90 million customers, making it one of the largest banks in the world.
HFC Bank Ltd is also the provider of the marbles and GM credit cards. Over 2.5 million people in the UK carry one of our credit cards. We also provide personal loan facilities for over 3.5 million people throughout the UK.
We've got the experience and the expertise to ensure that you always get the help and service you need. We are members of the British Bankers' Association, Finance & Leasing Association and Financial Ombudsman Service. We subscribe to the Banking Code of Practice and the Finance & Leasing Association Code of Practice. These codes are available on the British Bankers' Association and Financial & Leasing Association websites. HFC Bank has undertaken to comply with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) Code of Practice for the Selling of General Insurance and is designated as a Company Agent, for which the companies it represents accept responsibility. A copy of the Code is available on request.
At Household Bank we have developed a reputation for a quick and thorough response to your queries and we welcome the opportunity to address any issues you may have. We treat each complaint seriously in order to resolve any issues as quickly as possible, but there may be instances where we can not reach an agreeable solution. If your complaint has not been resolved once you have exhausted our internal complaints procedure you may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service who will be able to offer you free and independent advice.
For further details regarding our complaints procedure and details of the Financial Ombudsman Service please contact your local branch on 0800 863 863.

Credit Terms

Written quotations of our credit terms are available on request from Household Bank, 120 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2QZ.
Household Bank is a trading name of HFC Bank Limited. HFC Bank Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Registered Office: North Street, Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 4TD.
Registered in England No: 1117305.

Website Terms of Use

Unless otherwise specified, this Web Site is directed solely at those who access this Site from the UK. HFC does not make any representation that any product or service referred to in the materials on this Web Site are appropriate for use, or available in other locations. Those who choose to access this site from other locations are responsible for compliance with local laws if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

This site is optimised for JavaScript enabled browsers. If you do not have a browser that supports JavaScript, functionality of this site will be severely limited.

Certain links, including hypertext links, in our site will take you outside our site. Links are provided for your convenience and inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement or approval by us of the linked site, its operator or content. We are not responsible for the content of any website outside our site.

HFC Bank Limited is providing this site on an "as is" basis and makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this site or its contents and disclaims all such representations and warranties. In addition, HFC Bank Limited makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the information and related graphics published in this site. The information contained in this site may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. All liability of HFC Bank Limited howsoever arising for any such inaccuracies or errors is expressly excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Neither HFC Bank Limited nor any of its Directors, employees or other representatives will be liable for loss or damage arising out of or in connection with the use of this site. This is a comprehensive limitation of liability that applies to all damages of any kind, including (without limitation) compensatory, direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of data, income or profit, loss of or damage to property and claims of third parties.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, none of the exclusions and limitations on this site are intended to limit any rights you may have as a consumer under common law or other statutory rights which may not be excluded or in any way exclude or limit HFC Bank Limited's liability to you for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or that of our employees or agents.

BROWSER UPGRADE RECOMMENDATION: Netscape Navigator versions 4.05 and earlier plus Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 for Macintosh include a security component which expired at the end of 1999. If you use one of these browsers, you may receive warning messages when connecting to certain secure web sites such as ours. These messages may indicate that your connection cannot be verified, because your security component has expired. Household Bank recommends that users of either of these browsers upgrade their browser as soon as possible in order to avoid such warning messages.

Your Privacy

We know that privacy is important to you. You don't want your personal details available to other people. And you certainly don't want anyone else knowing your financial information.
We make sure we collect and retain your details responsibly. Click on the points below to find out more.

We collect your details responsibly
We keep your details responsibly
Our employees cannot easily access your details
We have appropriate security in place
We limit disclosure of your details to third parties
We require others to maintain confidentiality

We collect your details responsibly

When we collect information from you, we will tell you what we intend to use it for. We collect information from you that will help us conduct your account, manage our business and provide you with the quality of service and products that you expect. We will only request information that is relevant. We don't collect any details to identify you unless you fill in an online application, questionnaire or e-mail. We do collect non-personal data about visitors to our website. This helps us measure how many people visit the site, and identify any improvements we can make.
Back to top

We keep your details responsibly

We strive to keep details that are accurate and up to date. Our procedures ensure that we will correct any inaccurate or incomplete information as quickly as possible.

Our employees cannot easily access your details

Our procedures and security controls limit employee access to customer information. The only employees who can see your details do so for business reasons. Everyone who works for us knows just how important it is to maintain confidentiality at all times.

We have appropriate security in place

Our up-to-the-minute security standards and procedures prevent unauthorised access to your details.

We limit disclosure of your details to third parties

We only reveal your details or information about your transactions to third parties if:

It is necessary for the performance of your Agreement with us, for example to complete a transaction;
You have given your consent;
It is otherwise required or permitted by law.

In particular, you are entitled to require us, by giving notice in writing, to stop contacting you or giving your details to others for direct marketing purposes.

We require others to maintain confidentiality

If we disclose your details to a service bureau, other businesses, or subsidiaries of HFC Bank Ltd, we ask them to uphold our privacy principles, so that total confidentiality is guaranteed.

Complaints Procedure

At HFC Bank, we aim to provide the highest standards of service and care to our customers.
Our staff are trained to do this, and are committed to providing you with the best possible service at all times. Even the best organisations sometimes make mistakes, and if we do, or we fail to meet your expectations in some other way, we want the opportunity to put things right as quickly as we can. We operate a simple complaints procedure, which aims to resolve any problem quickly and effectively. In addition, HFC Bank subscribes to the Banking Code (www.bankingcode.org.uk), as well as being a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service (www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk) and the Finance and Leasing Association (www.fla.org.uk).

Service Expectations

We are aware that on rare occasions things can go wrong and when this is the case we want to resolve the problem for you as quickly as possible. If you have a problem with your account, please contact your local branch where we will help to resolve the situation to your satisfaction.

If you feel that you have a complaint that has not been resolved to your satisfaction, please let us know. Within 5 days of our receiving details of your complaint, we will

write to you to acknowledge our receipt of your complaint,
tell you the name and job title of the person handling the complaint and
give you details of our internal complaint handling procedures.

The only time we will not do this is where your complaint to us is resolved by the close of business on the next working day following our receipt of your complaint.

Within 4 weeks of our receipt of your complaint, if it is not resolved, we will either send you a response explaining why we have not yet been able to resolve the complaint and when we expect to be able to do so or give you our final response to your complaint.

In all cases we will, within 8 weeks of receiving your complaint:

send you our final response to the complaint, which will include an explanation of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if you are dissatisfied with our response. We will include a copy of the Ombudsman's explanatory leaflet telling you how to complain to him; or
send to you a further holding response explaining why we are still not in a position to provide a final response to you and when we expect to be able to do so. We will also, with this letter, tell you that you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are dissatisfied with our action and give you a copy of the Ombudsman's explanatory leaflet telling you how to complain to him.

The only time we will not do this is if, within 8 weeks of our receiving your complaint, we have sent you a response which:

offers you redress or rejects the complaint, and gives valid reasons for our doing so;
informs you how to pursue your complaint with us if you remain dissatisfied;
refers to the ultimate availability of the Financial Ombudsman Service if you remain dissatisfied with our response; and
indicates that we will regard the complaint as closed if we do not receive a reply from you within 8 weeks.

We will consider your complaint to be closed when we have issued a final response to you or where you have indicated in writing that you accept the response we have issued to you or where we have written to you giving the information which is required and you have not responded to us within 8 weeks.

A copy of our Internal Complaints Procedures, the Banking Code, the Finance & Leasing Association Code and details of the Financial Ombudsman scheme can be obtained on request from your local branch or Customer Services if required.

Privacy Statement

Privacy

This Privacy Statement sets out our current policies about how your personal and financial information is dealt with and demonstrates our commitment to your financial privacy. We may change the content or services found on our Site at any time without notice, and consequently our privacy policy may change at any time in the future. You agree to revisit this page regularly and your continued access to or use of this Site will mean that you agree to any changes.

Public areas

When using the public portion of the Site you are not required to provide us with any personal information and we do not monitor or collect any personally identifiable information from you on your use of the public portions of the Site. We may track the number of users who visit areas of the Site, but this tracking will not identify you. We may also record the location of your computer on the Internet for systems administration and trouble-shooting purposes and to report aggregate information.

Personal information

If you provide us with certain up-to-date data about yourself, such as applying for a loan, we will handle that data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. We maintain strict security standards and procedures to prevent unauthorised access to your data by anyone, including our staff. We use secure technologies including data encryption, firewalls and server authentication to protect the security of your data. All our Group companies, staff and third parties who provide our support services are required to observe our privacy standards and allow us to audit them for compliance.

This site uses Cookies. What are cookies?

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk for record keeping purposes. Cookies can make the Internet more useful by storing information about your preferences on particular sites and enabling website owners to provide more useful features to their users.

Our cookies contain no name or address information or any information that will enable anyone to contact you via telephone, email or any other means.

Most web browsers are initially set to accept cookies but if you prefer you can set your browser to disable cookies or inform you when they are set. However, given that we may sometimes use cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of our website if you disable them.

Our web pages use tracking technology to enable us to count users who have visited certain pages on our website. We do not use tracking data to access your personal information and it is simply a tool we use to analyse which web pages customers' view, in an aggregated manner. If you prefer us not to collect any such information, simply set your browser to disable cookies.
Information on how to disable cookies can be obtained by referring to your Browser help function, often found in the menu at the top of the screen.

Third party

We sometimes work with third parties to research certain usage and activities on our website on our behalf. No personal information about you is shared, however in the course of conducting this research these third parties may place a unique cookie on your browser.

Your questions

If you have any questions regarding privacy issues, please email us or visit any of our branches for more information. To ensure the accuracy of our conversation and to help us to continually improve our service and in the interest of security, we may monitor and/or record your telephone calls with us.