Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Mortgage Affordability (“we”, “our”, “us”) is the data controller responsible for your personal data. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Our ICO registration number is ZC076800.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us at [email protected].

2. What Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Account information — email address and password (encrypted) when you create an account
• Income data — salary, bonus, overtime, commission, and other income details you provide
• Property details — property value, deposit amount, and mortgage term preferences
• Financial commitments — monthly outgoings you declare such as credit card payments, loans, and childcare costs
• Payment information — collected only if you buy an optional paid product (such as the full property report); processed securely by Stripe; we do not store your card details. The affordability check itself is free
• Usage data — pages visited, features used, and technical information such as browser type and IP address
• Advertising click identifier — only if you reach us by clicking one of our Google ads: the click reference Google adds to the link (gclid, gbraid or wbraid). It is kept in a cookie for up to 90 days and, if you run an affordability check, stored with that check

Saved check progress: if you ask us to save an unfinished affordability check, we store your answers keyed to your email address for up to 30 days so we can send you a one-time resume link. We use this email for nothing else unless you separately opt in to marketing. Saved progress is deleted when it expires.

Security checks. When you start an affordability check, Cloudflare Turnstile runs a check in your browser to confirm that a person, not an automated program, is using the calculator. Cloudflare processes technical information about your browser and connection to do this. We also use a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address to limit how many checks can be run from one connection. We don't store your IP address itself for this.

Check records. Each time a check runs we keep a record for service improvement, statistics and to prevent misuse: when it ran, which page it started on, the type of mortgage and case (for example buy-to-let or shared ownership), whether it was a joint application and whether you told us about adverse credit, your browser type, the result as a band (for example £200,000–£225,000), and scrambled (hashed) versions of your IP address and, if you're signed in, your email address. Each record is linked to your account or session and to the check it belongs to. The scrambled IP address changes every month, so it can't be matched from one month to the next; the scrambled email address doesn't change. These records are pseudonymised, not anonymous, and we keep them for 13 months.

Checks without an email address. If you run a check without giving us your email address, we keep your answers and your results on our servers for up to 30 days, so you can come back and see them again. They are linked to an anonymous sign-in: an account identifier with no name or email address, kept in your browser. We delete your answers and results when they expire, unless you book a call with us in the meantime, in which case we keep the check, and the anonymous sign-in itself is deleted after 30 days. The same applies whether your check is for a residential mortgage or a buy-to-let mortgage.

Emailing your results. If you ask us to email your results and we don't already have an account for that address, we create one and save a copy of your results to it. Sending the email does not sign you in: to see your results, follow the log-in link in the email and sign in with that address; if the account doesn't have a password yet, the email also includes a link to set one. If that address already has an account with us, we don't create a new one, change its details or save your results to it: the email carries your results as a PDF and tells you how to keep them, which is to log in and run the check again, when those results are saved to your account automatically. The one exception is an account that an earlier results email created and that nobody has used yet: we save a copy of your results to it straight away, as we would for a new account, because only whoever reads that inbox can get into it. No link in the email signs you in directly. You can also choose, on the same form, to receive guides and updates by email and to ask for a mortgage adviser to contact you — both optional. When we create a new account for the address, we record both answers against it when you send the email, before we've confirmed the address is really yours. If the address already had an account, we don't record either answer against it. If you ask for an adviser to contact you, we pass that request on to an adviser marked as not yet confirmed, because we won't have verified that the email address is yours. These rules are the same for a buy-to-let check.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• To check your mortgage affordability across UK lenders using the financial details you provide
• To generate your personalised affordability report and PDF download
• To process payments for optional paid products (such as the full property report) via our payment provider, Stripe
• To manage your account and save your results
• To improve our service through anonymised, aggregated usage analytics
• If you arrived from one of our Google ads, to measure whether that ad led to a completed check or application by reporting the ad's click reference and the date of the outcome back to Google Ads. We do not send Google your name, email address or financial details
• To respond to your enquiries and provide customer support
• Where you have given us your consent, to send you mortgage guidance, tips and service updates by email. Separately, and only if you have ticked the specific option to do so, to have a mortgage adviser contact you about your mortgage options. These are optional, are never a condition of using the service, and you can withdraw your consent at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us at [email protected].
• If you ask us to let you know when mortgage advice becomes available on this site, we store the email address you give us, the page you asked from, and the date, so that we can contact you once that service launches. We do not offer mortgage advice today. That address is not added to any other mailing list and is not shared with anyone else. Ask us to remove it at any time at [email protected].
• Where you have consented to marketing emails, to measure whether those emails are useful: they contain a small tracking image and links that pass through our own server, so we can count opens and clicks per email. We use this only in aggregate to improve what we send; the links carry no name or email address, and no data is shared with advertising networks. Unsubscribing stops the emails and the measurement with them.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases under the UK GDPR:

• Contract performance — processing is necessary to provide you with the affordability checking service you have requested
• Legitimate interest — we have a legitimate interest in improving our service through anonymised analytics, in measuring whether our advertising works (the Google Ads click reference described above), in keeping the service secure and preventing misuse (for example rate limiting and bot checks) and in producing statistics about how the calculator is used
• Consent — where you have given consent for specific processing activities, such as marketing communications

5. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. Your data may be shared in the following limited circumstances:

• Lender affordability checks — your income and financial details are submitted to lender affordability calculators to generate your results. No personally identifiable information (such as your name or email) is shared with lenders.
• Payment processing — Stripe processes your payment information securely under their own privacy policy
• Hosting and infrastructure — Google Cloud Platform hosts our service under appropriate data processing agreements
• Advertising measurement — if you arrived from one of our Google ads, the ad's click reference and the date of a resulting check or application may be reported to Google Ads, which processes it under its own privacy policy. No name, email address or financial details are included
• Cloudflare, Inc. — website security and network protection, including bot checks (Turnstile)
• Legal requirements — if required by law, regulation, or legal process

6. Your Rights Under GDPR

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure — request deletion of your personal data
• Right to data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Right to object — object to processing based on legitimate interest
• Right to restrict processing — request that we limit how we use your data

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Cookies

We use the following types of cookies:

• Essential cookies — required for the service to function, including authentication and session management
• Analytics cookies — help us understand how visitors use our service so we can improve it. These cookies collect anonymised information only.
• Advertising measurement cookie — set only when you arrive by clicking one of our Google ads. It holds that ad's click reference for up to 90 days so we can tell whether the ad led to a check or application

We do not use remarketing cookies or third-party advertising scripts, and we do not sell cookie data. Full details are in our Cookie Policy.

8. Data Retention

We retain your account data and affordability results for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, all associated data will be removed within 30 days.

Check records: 13 months.

A temporary copy of your results, so we can resend them if your connection drops: up to 30 minutes after a check.

Checks run without an email address, and the results we hold so we can email them to you: 30 days.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us:

Email: [email protected]

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.