Privacy Policy (Updated July 2026)

  • Your right of access
  • Your right to rectification
  • Your right to erasure
  • Your right to restriction of processing
  • Your right to object to processing
  • Your right to data portability

 

How we will use your personal information

Please read the following section carefully, as it explains what personal data, we collect about you and how we use this information. You have a legal right to submit data privacy complaints directly to us.

This Privacy Policy explains how we process your information and your rights under both the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA’), UK GDPR and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA), including Complaints Procedure relating to data privacy.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it can also cover less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.

Dexter Bell Limited will use your information only to contact you to discuss the provision of debt solutions. Where the service you have requested is provided on our behalf by a third party, we will notify you of that fact. We will treat all your personal information, as defined by the DPA, UK GDPR and DUAA, as confidential (although we reserve the right to disclose this information in the circumstances set out below). We will keep it on a secure server, and we will fully comply with all applicable UK data protection and consumer legislation.

We will not retain your personal information for longer than is necessary for the maintenance of your account, or for legal or regulatory requirements. Where you provide the name(s) or other personal information about family/household members you confirm that you have their consent to do so for the purposes set out in our Privacy Policy.

Any information we collect, and hold is used to help us improve the quality of our service, including electronic call recordings, call transcriptions, scanned documents and secure messages between you and us.

We confirm that any Personal Information that we collect about you, from which we can identify you, is held in accordance with the requirements of the DPA, UK GDPR and DUAA.  We use your information only for the following purposes:

  • Provision of regulated debt counselling and debt adjusting services
  • Provision of financial services and advice
  • Debt administration and factoring
  • Undertaking Know Your Client (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering checks where required.
  • To administer our websites
  • Accounts and records
  • For the prevention and detection of crime and the prosecution of offenders
  • Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations on our own behalf or on behalf of third parties (subject to your explicit consent)

Unless required to do so by law, regulation or contract, we will only collect, use and share information from and about you if we have agreed this with you first. We may discuss data sharing with not-for-profit providers like the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS), where this is in your best interests and consistent with the new recognised legitimate interest provisions in the Data Use and Access Act (DUAA) 2025.

Your Personal Information may be disclosed only with your explicit consent, to reputable third parties (e.g. a DRO provider in England & Wales) who will help process any account you may have with us as part of core service delivery (e.g. a debt advice session). Dexter Bell requires all such third parties to treat your personal data as fully confidential and to fully comply with all applicable UK data protection and consumer legislation from time to time in place.

Marketing

With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your personal data for marketing purposes, which may include contacting you by post, e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp or telephone with information, news, and offers on our products or services. You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. We will always work to fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Legislation and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.  You will always have the opportunity to opt-out or select your contact preferences. We will always obtain your express opt-in consent before sharing your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes and you will be able to opt-out at any time.

You may unsubscribe from our mail, email, telephone, WhatsApp or SMS contact list at any time by replying to a promotional contact with the word “STOP” in the subject line, by emailing us at info@dexterbell.co.uk or by telephoning us on 0161 865 8400.

You should be aware that if we are requested by the police or any other regulatory or government authority investigating suspected illegal activities to provide your Personal Information and/or User Information, we may be legally required to do so.

We use Cookies to personalise your experience and so that you may retrieve your details at any time – if you do not accept Cookies, you may be unable to use these facilities on our website. See our Cookie Policy for further details.

Any changes to this policy will be posted on our website.

When we share your information

We will treat your personal information as private and confidential, but may share it with others and disclose it outside of Dexter Bell if:

  • allowed by the debt management agreement
  • you explicitly consent.
  • HM Revenue & Customs or other authorities require it.
  • the law, regulatory bodies, or the public interest permits or requires it.
  • required by us or others to investigate or prevent crime.
  • required as part of our duty to protect your accounts, for example we are required to disclose your information to the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

The DPA and UK GDPR defines certain information as ‘special category’ or ‘sensitive’ (racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life, criminal proceedings and offences). We may ask you for some ‘sensitive’ details or special category data where you meet our Vulnerable Customer Policy. We will only use this information to provide the service you require, and we will ask for your explicit consent. As a customer, there may be times when you give us sensitive information to enable us to make reasonable adjustments to support you.

We will always ensure your information remains safe and secure. It is important that your personal data is kept accurate and up to date. If any of the personal data we hold about you changes, please keep us informed for as long as we have that data.

The following personal data is collected, held, and processed by Dexter Bell for the purposes of delivering its core services as a regulated debt management firm:

Type of Data

Purpose of Data

Personal details

For example, name and date of birth. To include previous names (e.g. maiden name or name before a Deed Poll change)

Identity information

For example, a copy of a driver’s licence or passport

Addresses

Current and previous, where this relates to credit agreements in the DMP

Contact information

For example; phone, mobile, email. Preferred time to contact and contact method preference

Financial information

Creditor information, including copies of agreements, statement and correspondence. Need to have accurate account numbers. Used to negotiate with creditors and to determine secure and unsecure creditors. This may be supplemented by credit report information to validate balances and the client’s ability to re-finance as a debt solution or be eligible for a form debt solution   

Employment/income information

Including payslips and other income information in scanned format. Sometimes used to determine eligibility/suitability for some formal debt solutions. Basis of employment may be important (e.g. Fixed term contract, zero hour). This may include benefits  

Website usage

Aligned to Cookie Policy

Expenditure information

Non-sensitive data to build the expenditure aspect of a financial statement. This may include medical, transportation and other costs that may relate to an individual in a vulnerable situation

Asset information

Details about assets or capital that may influence the debt solution or creditor negotiation outcomes. This may involve public record searches of Zoopla or Land Registry. Valuation of assets may be applicable for some formal debt solutions 

Sensitive data

Information about physical/mental health, trade union membership (if membership costs apply), vulnerability classifications including victims of domestic violence, coercive and controlling behaviour, financial scams

Household composition

Ages of children to determine budget figures. Number of adults and vehicles to determine budget figures/allowances

Payment information

Bank account details for collecting payments into DMP by a range of payment methods

 

 

Your rights under Data Protection Law

We operate under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA’), the UK GDPR and DUAA.

The DPA and UK GDPR apply to ‘personal data’ that we process, and the data protection principles set out the main responsibilities we are responsible for.

You have a right to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you.

To obtain a copy of the personal information we hold on you, please provide us with your details or ask for a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) form.

Questions regarding this Policy should be directed to:

Data Protection Officer

Email: info@dexterbell.co.uk

Call: 0161 865 8400

Post: 500 Kings Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8JT

We must ensure that personal data shall be:

  • Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
  • Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.
  • Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed.
  • Accurate and where necessary kept up to date.
  • Kept for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed. We operate a data retention policy that ensures we meet this obligation. We only retain personal data for the purposes for which it was collected and for a reasonable period thereafter where there is a legitimate business need or legal obligation to do so.  For details of our current retention policy contact our Data Protection Officer.
  • Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

We ensure lawful processing of personal data by obtaining consent; or where there is a contractual obligation to do so in providing appropriate products and services; or where processing the data is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in providing appropriate products and services. 

In most cases, we process personal data based on your contract (Debt Management Plan) with us.  In other cases, we process personal data only where there are legitimate grounds for so doing.

To meet its Data Protection obligations, we have established comprehensive and proportionate governance measures.

We have our own Data Protection Officer to oversee data protection compliance across Dexter Bell through:

  • Implementing appropriate technical and organisational measures including internal data protection policies, staff training, internal audits of processing activities and reviews of internal HR policies.
  • Maintaining relevant documentation on processing activities.
  • Implementing measures that meet the principles of data protection by design and data protection by default including data minimisation, pseudonymisation, transparency, deploying the most up-to-date data security protocols and using data protection impact assessments across our organisation and in any third-party arrangements.

You have the following specific rights in respect of the personal data we process:

  • The right to be informed about how we use personal data. This Privacy Statement explains who we are; the purposes for which we process personal data and our legitimate interests in so doing; the categories of data we process; third party disclosures; and details of any transfers of personal data outside the UK.
  • The right of access to the personal data we hold. In most cases this will be free of charge and must be provided within one month of receipt.
  • The right to rectification where data are inaccurate or incomplete. In such cases we shall make amendments or additions within one month of your request.
  • The right to erasure of personal data, but only in very specific circumstances, typically where the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected or processed; or, in certain cases where we have relied on consent to process the data, when that consent is withdrawn and there is no other legitimate reason for continuing to process that data; or when the individual objects to the processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing.
  • The right to restrict processing, for example while we are reviewing the accuracy or completeness of data or deciding on whether any request for erasure is valid. In such cases we shall continue to store the data but not process it further until such time as we have resolved the issue.
  • The right to data portability, which, subject to qualifying conditions, allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.
  • The right to object in cases where processing is based on legitimate interests, where Our requirement to process the data is overridden by the rights of the individual concerned; or for the purposes of direct marketing (including profiling); or for processing for purposes of scientific / historical research and statistics, unless this is for necessary for the performance of a public interest task.
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
  • Please contact our Data Protection Officer at info@dexterbell.co.uk for more information about the GDPR and your rights under Data Protection law.

 

Data Privacy Complaints

If you have a complaint about any data protection matter, contact our Data Protection Officer at complaints@dexterbell.co.uk in the first instance. We will handle this under our data privacy complaints policy.    

If you are not satisfied with our response, then contact our supervisory authority for data protection compliance (www.ico.org.uk):

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

how-to-make-a-data-protection-complaint