Home privacy and security
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Introduction
We recognise our responsibility to treat the information we obtain about you with care. Please take a few minutes to read this section carefully as it contains important information relating to the details that you've given or should give to us. It explains how we may use your details and tells you about the systems we have in place that allow us to detect and prevent fraudulent applications and claims. The savings that we make help us to keep premiums as low as possible. You should show this notice to anyone covered under your insurance policy.
We use personal information about you to provide you with a quote. Some of the personal information we ask you to provide may be sensitive.
We will use your data for statistical analysis and in the administration of your policy if you decide to buy.
Fraud prevention and detection
To keep our premiums as low as possible, we participate in a number of insurance industry initiatives to prevent and detect crime. As a valued customer, we think you'll appreciate the steps we're taking to provide the best insurance cover.
To prevent and detect fraud we may at any time:
- Share information about you and your claim with other organisations and public bodies including the police
- Check and/or file your details with fraud prevention agencies and databases, and if you give false or inaccurate information and we identify fraud, we'll record this. We and other organisations may also use and search these agencies and databases from the UK and other countries to:
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- Help make decisions about the provision and administration of insurance, credit and related services for you and other members of your household;
- Trace debtors or beneficiaries, recover debt, prevent fraud, and to manage your accounts or insurance policies; or
- Check your identity or prevent money laundering, unless you give us other satisfactory proof of identity
- Check details of job applicants and employees
- Undertake credit searches and additional fraud searches
If you would like to receive further details of the databases we access or contribute to, please write to the Data Protection Officer, esure, The Observatory, Reigate, RH2 0SG or email us at DPO@esure.com. To prevent fraud and to ensure that any payments or refunds can be paid to you, we keep your credit/debit card details for the duration of your policy. By providing your details, you consent to us doing this.
Home Insurance
If you have chosen family legal protection or home emergency cover with your home insurance policy, your details will be passed to DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited and if you have chosen pest cover, your details will be passed to Capita Commercial Insurance Services Limited to enable them to provide the cover. They may also use your information to make similar fraud prevention and detection checks to those described above.
Claims
Under the conditions of your policy you must tell us about any insurance related incidents (such as fire, water damage, theft or an accident) whether or not they will give rise to a claim. When you tell us about an incident, we'll pass information relating to it to a database. We may search these databases when you apply for insurance, in the event of any incident or claim, or at renewal to validate your claims history or that of any other person or property likely to be involved in the policy or claim.
If you make a claim we may need to give information about you and your policy to other people such as suppliers, investigators and loss adjusters. They'll only use the information to help us with your claim.
Information on products and services
We, and our agents worldwide, will hold and use the information you've given us to provide the insurance services you asked for and for statistical analysis. Your information will always be protected by strict security and will only be used by our agents in accordance with our instructions. We may contact you by post, email, phone or SMS to keep you informed about other products and services offered by Halifax and Bank of Scotland group companies and for market research purposes, unless you've chosen not to receive such communications. If you would prefer us not to contact you, and haven't previously told us, please write to the Data Protection Officer, esure, The Observatory, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0SG or email us at DPO@esure.com, including your policy number or your name, address and date of birth.
You have the right to ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you in our records. You'll need to pay a small fee for this information. You have the right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in your information.
Renewal Information
Before the renewal date of your policy, we will provide you with details of the terms on which your policy may be renewed. If we are unable to offer a policy, we will let you know and you may be provided with details of the terms on which your cover will continue via another insurer in our group (We are part of the Halifax and Bank Of Scotland group). By taking out this policy you agree to allow a change of your insurer at renewal.
If you pay your premium by direct debit, your existing policy may be automatically renewed or your cover may continue to be provided through another insurer. You will be notified of this before your policy expires and you will be given details of the renewal times including any change in your policy cover. If you do not wish to renew your policy, you should tell us before your renewal date. If you do not tell us and your policy is renewed, we will continue to make deductions from your bank account for the new premium. If your insurer changes at renewal, we will ask you to sign a new direct debit form.
Compensation arrangements
esure Insurance Limited is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). In the unlikely event that any firm providing insurance goes out of business or into liquidation, you may be entitled to compensation from the scheme.
Generally the FSCS may arrange to transfer a policy to another insurer, provide a new policy or, if these actions are not possible, provide compensation. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS at 7th Floor Lloyds Chambers, Portsoken Street, London, E1 8BN. Tel: 020 7892 7300 or www.fscs.org.uk.
Regulatory status
esure Home insurance is arranged and administered by esure Services Limited (no. 2135610) and is underwritten by esure Insurance Limited (no. 3885534), both are part of the Halifax and Bank of Scotland group. esure Services Limited and esure Insurance Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and are entered in the FSA register, number 312063 and 203350 respectively. The name, address and regulatory status can be checked by visiting the FSA website www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by calling the FSA on 0845 606 1234.
The registered office for both companies is The Observatory, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0SG
Telephone calls
We may record telephone conversations to offer you additional security, resolve complaints and improve our service standards. Conversations may also be monitored for staff training purposes.
Security
We believe that security is of the utmost importance to our customers, and we have what we believe are the most secure systems on the market.
We use the latest encryption technology, SSL or Secure Socket Layer, which protects your payment details and all your personal information. We're also registered with Verisign, a leading internet security company. To verify the site security, click on the Verisign logo below and this will immediately display our registration certificate. This is proof of our commitment to ensuring your security.
If you pay for your policy by credit card (but not by debit card), then you will also have the additional protection of the Consumer Credit Act. Your maximum liability on your credit card is £50 in the event that it's lost or stolen or used fraudulently and your liability stops as soon as you notify the credit card company that the card has been lost or stolen or used fraudulently.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files, which are placed on your computer. We use sessional and persistent cookies to help us to enhance the level of service we provide to you. We use these cookies to record the areas of the site you visit and the length of time you spend viewing them. This allows us to continually improve your experience on the site. The cookies don't identify a user by name. Your browser keeps track of sessional cookies as long as it's running, but deletes them when it's shut down.
We use up to 45 day persistent cookies if you come to our site from an affiliate site, as a means of tracking the effectiveness of our online advertising. These cookies don't identify a user by name, and are only used to record what site you came from and whether you return to the site within 45 days.
If you object to a cookie being placed on your computer, please adjust your browser to let you know when a cookie is issued or you can choose to have them disabled (although this will prevent us from providing you with a quote), though we may still use your personal data for statistical analysis and, if you decide to buy, in the administration of your policy. Please refer to the website www.aboutcookies.org/ for more detailed instructions on how to control or delete cookies.