Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how StudyCreds (“Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, processes, stores, and protects personal information when you use our website https://www.studycreds.com (“Website”) and related services.

This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your sensitive information and how we will deal with it. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act (‘the DPA’) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (‘the GDPR’), sensitive information includes what is defined as your ‘personal data’.

By visiting the ‘Website’, you accept and consent to the practices described in this Privacy Notice, including the processing of your personal data under this lawful basis.

In this Privacy Notice, we seek to abide by the letter and spirit of the guidelines laid out by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office in the document ‘Privacy Notices, Transparency and Control’.

Who We Are

More formally, we are StudyCreds Limited. We are a company registered in England and Wales with Company number 16463079, and our registered office is at Unit 3, Halegrove Court, Cygnet Drive, Stockton-On-Tees, United Kingdom, TS18 3DB.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number 00010213337.

For the purposes of the DPA and in line with the GDPR, StudyCreds Ltd is the Data Controller.  

If you have any concerns about the way we use your information or any questions about this Privacy Notice, please let us know.  We can be contacted via email at [email protected], or you can write to us at the address above.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Policy:

• Personal Data means any information capable of identifying an individual directly or indirectly.

• Sensitive Personal Data includes financial records, identification documents, and credit-related information.

• Information means any Personal Data and Sensitive Personal Data as collected by the Company.

• Processing includes collection, recording, storage, transfer, analysis, or deletion of personal data.

• Services refer to the services of the Company sought by any person 

• Service Providers include partner banks, NBFCs, financial institutions, or vendors assisting in service delivery.

Applicability

This Privacy Policy applies to Visitors of the Website, Students seeking education loan assistance, Parents or co-applicants providing information, Users communicating via email, phone, WhatsApp, or forms. It does not apply to third-party websites linked from our Website.

What we do with your information

We will use your information to:

• Send our newsletter to you and send you information about the services that we offer and other related topics;
• Allow you access to our services through the Website;
• Collect feedback from you about our Website and the services we deliver;
• Send you information about the services we provide by other agreed means.

We compile statistics about user trends on our Website, which are used by third-party organisations to understand how users interact with businesses, brands and one another online and to advise on these matters. These statistics are drawn from a dataset which does not contain any information from which you can be identified.

If you are a registered user of the Website, then any communication will be sent to you on the legal basis of the performance of a contract between you and us.

Information we collect from you

StudyCreds may collect Personal Information Data, Sensitive Personal Data or Information about you from a variety of lawful sources, including but not limited to:

Online and Electronic Interactions

Interactions through our Website, mobile applications, emails, customer-support portals, chatbot tools, SMS communications, WhatsApp or other messaging platforms, and video consultations.

Interactions through our official pages or accounts on third-party social networking platforms.

Targeted Advertising and Marketing Content

Your interaction with advertisements, marketing campaigns, or promotional content provided by our authorised service providers or us on third-party websites, applications, or social media platforms.

Partner Institutions

Information shared by banks, NBFCs, lenders, credit bureaus, universities, or verification agencies in connection with loan applications or counselling services, where lawfully permitted.

Public Sources

Information available in public databases or government portals where access is lawful and necessary for service delivery.

Information you give us

This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our Website or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you request an application for education loans through our Website. We only request from you the minimum data required for you to use our service.

The only information we require from you to sign up to our mailing list will be your email address. If you submit an enquiry to us through the Website, we will ask you for your name, email address and phone number.

Information we collect about you – Whenever you visit our Website, we will automatically collect the following information:

• Technical information - including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
• Information about your visit - this includes the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), pages you have visited, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain page and page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs).
• Information we receive from other sources - This is information we receive about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case, we will have informed you when we collected that data if we intend to share that data internally and combine it with data collected on this Website. We will also tell you for what purpose we will share and combine your data. We are working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, and credit reference agencies). We will notify you when we receive information about you from them and the purposes for which we intend to use that information.

Consent for Collection and Processing

By providing your consent, you expressly acknowledge and agree that the Company may collect, store, process, analyse, and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Such information may include, without limitation:

Identity and Profile Information

• First and last name
• Parents’ names
• Date of birth and gender
• Photographs
• Nationality and location
• Educational qualifications and intended course/university
• Purpose and amount of the loan
• Employment status and employer details
• Contact information
• Marital status
• Residential or property ownership details

(b) KYC Information

Identification documents issued by competent government authorities, including but not limited to:

• Aadhaar Card
• PAN Card
• Passport
• Voter ID
• A driving licence or other legally recognised identification documents are required for verification.

Transaction and Service Information

• Details of services requested, recommended, or availed through the platform
• Loan application details
• Communication history with lenders or counsellors
• Records of payments or service fees

SMS and Communication Data

Where expressly authorised by you, we may access and analyse SMS data solely for purposes of financial verification, including assessing cash flow, credits, income patterns, repayment behaviour, or spending trends. Such access shall be limited, purpose-specific, and subject to your explicit consent.

Where we hold and what we do with your information

The information and content held on our Website is deployed geographically to maximise user experience. All information that could identify individuals within the European Union is stored exclusively within the European Union. We will never share your user information with third parties for promotional purposes.

We may send promotional emails or messages regarding loan offers, study-abroad resources, and partner services. You may opt out at any time using unsubscribe links or contacting us.

We may also disclose your information to third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Notice.

What we do to ensure the security of your personal information

We take the security of your personal data very seriously. Our approach to information security is constantly evolving and continually reviewed.

We have adopted industry best practices from both technological and business process perspectives in order to make the security of your data a key part of the way we do business.

We have policies and practices in place that not only ensure our compliance under the DPA but also the GDPR, including training and adequate procedures put in place for any staff who handle or have access to sensitive information.

Your rights regarding your personal information

We may contact you via email with updates about the services that we offer or any changes that we have made to our Website.

You can opt in or out at any time by clicking the ‘Unsubscribe’ link in our emails.

Our Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates (including, but not limited to, websites on which our service may be advertised). If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites and any services that may be accessible through them have their own privacy policies and that we are not responsible or liable for these policies or for any personal data that may be collected through these websites or services, such as contact and location data. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites or use these services.

Your Rights

You have the right to find out about what information we hold about you. You can exercise that right by contacting us, and we will send you any request for information in a suitable electronic form within 20 working days.  To make a request for information, please contact [email protected], and a member of our team will be in touch.

If your personal data is incorrect, then you have the right to rectify this information and ensure that it is accurate and up to date. If your data is incorrect, please contact us at the email address above, and a member of the team will rectify this on your behalf.

You have the right ‘to be forgotten’ and to have your personal identifiable information permanently deleted from our systems. Again, if you would like to exercise this right then please contact us at [email protected].

There will be no charge made for reasonable electronic access to your information, your right to rectification or for your right to be forgotten from our systems.

How long we hold your information for

At StudyCreds, we have procedures in place to regularly review every 12 months what personal data we hold. If you have not interacted with us or accessed our services during this or the subsequent period, then we will delete your personal data from our systems, but will send you an email first informing you of our intention to do so.  Of course, you have the right to be forgotten at any point and can find out more about this in the ‘Access to Information’ section above.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

Any changes we may make to our Privacy Notice in the future will be posted on this page. The new terms may be displayed on-screen, and you will be required to read and accept them to continue your use of our services.

Our Cookie Policy

If you’d like to manage your use of cookies or completely turn off cookies, then you can find out how to do so by using the link here.  Please note that if you do limit the use of block cookies on our Website, the functionality of both the Website and our services will be affected.

Our Website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website and also allows us to improve our site.  By continuing to browse the Website, you agree and consent to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

As part of our overall approach to privacy and transparency, this section describes what cookies are in the context of our web and mobile interfaces, and what their use means to you. At the end, we've included some links to help you research cookies and their impact, and how you can use your web browser to control the way it manages cookies.

We use the following types of cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies - these are cookies that are required for the operation of our Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Website, use a shopping cart or make use of an e-payment system. 
• Analytical/performance cookies - these allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our Website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. 
• Functionality cookies - these are used to recognise you when you return to our Website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
• Targeting cookies - these cookies record your visit to our Website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose but these cookies will contain no information capable of identifying you personally to us.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use below:

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand general trends about our content and traffic sources; for example, where users come from, which pages are most popular, which sites provide the most traffic, and how our marketing efforts impact the amount of visits we receive.

Google's statement about privacy can be found here.

Twitter button

The Twitter button allows our users to share our platform and services with their followers more easily.

Twitter's privacy policy states they use cookies "to collect additional Website usage data and to improve our Services" – You can read the policy in full here.

Facebook button

We use the Facebook button to allow you to share our platform with your friends and other Facebook users.

Facebook's statement about privacy relating to their Connect feature is here and also here.

Instagram button

We use an Instagram button to allow you to easily follow our Instagram account.  You can find out more about how Instagram handle your personal data by visiting their statement on Privacy here.

More information about cookies

Still don’t know what cookies are?  Then why not follow the link conveniently located here, which provides more information about what they are and how they work.

Children’s Privacy

Our services are not intended for individuals under 18 years without parental or guardian consent. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors.

Contact the Information Commissioner if there is a problem

If you consider we have not addressed your problem, you can contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office for assistance. Further information can be found here.