Terms of Use

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1 Residence

Dunfermline Building Society ("the Society") is based in Scotland. The products and services described in this website are available to UK residents only. Some products are available to expatriates who are currently resident outside the UK. Some products and services may not be available to all UK residents and you should check the terms and conditions carefully. If in doubt please ask us. The Society offers mortgage facilities for properties in Scotland and England, although special arrangements may be made for existing borrowers in Northern Ireland and to existing borrowers moving to Northern Ireland.

2 Your use of this Website

The Society takes all reasonable care to ensure that the information set out in this website is accurate, up to date and complies with the relevant UK legislation and regulations as at the date of issue. To the extent permissible by law, the Society excludes liability for any inaccuracies, errors or omissions contained in this website (or for any changes made to the content of this website by unauthorised third parties) and for any use that you make of the information contained in this website. If you intend to rely upon any information presented on this website you are responsible for checking it's validity and accuracy and making sure it meets your individual specific requirements.

The Society accepts no responsibility for the content of any sites which can be accessed by hypertext link from these pages or for these sites not being available at all times. The Society does not make any recommendation or endorsement in connection with any products or services referred to in any third party websites.

The contents of this website and the products and services referred to in it are subject to withdrawal or variation without notice. The Society may suspend access to the website without notice for any reason. The Society reserves the right to suspend or withdraw access to the pages of this site without notice at any time and accepts no responsibility for these pages not being available at all times. If you require any further guidance on the accuracy and currency of any information you should contact us directly.

By accessing this website you shall be deemed to have accepted, and agreed to be bound by these Terms of Use which shall be governed by the laws of Scotland and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts.

Nothing on the pages of this site shall be deemed to constitute mortgage, investment or financial advice. You should contact us directly should you require the assistance of our personal Mortgage or Investment Advisers.

3 Identity Theft

The Home Office has launched a website offering advice on how to protect yourself against identity theft and what to do if you think you have been a victim. For informative and impartial advice on identity theft visit the website.

The FSA has issued a consumer leaflet - 'proving your identity' which includes an explanation of why the Society, and other financial institutions, are required to obtain evidence of identity for all new customers and what identity theft is.

4 Identification

Under regulations for prevention of financial crime and money laundering, we have a responsibility to verify the identity of each applicant before opening a new account. To do this, we may use an electronic verification system. In completing an application document you are agreeing to be electronically identified. The information you give us when you apply is checked against records held by credit reference agencies. Such searches are not seen by lenders or used to assess your ability to obtain credit. The Agencies will keep a record of the search on your file, whether your application proceeds or not. Electronic identification is a safe and accurate way of confirming your identity and usually avoids the need for you to supply us with any paper documents. However, if we cannot verify your identity and address by this method (for example if you are not listed on the electoral roll or you have recently moved house) we will ask you to provide paper documentation instead.

If you are an existing customer of Dunfermline Direct, you will also need to tell us the number of your existing nominated account with us.

5 Protecting Your Accounts

What you can do to protect your accounts.

Keeping us up-to-date

Please contact us as soon as soon as possible when you change your:

Name;
Address;
Telephone Number; or
E-mail address (if this is how we communicate with you).

We will advise you of what we require to amend our records. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept any change of address requests by e-mail for security reasons.

Taking Care

The care of your passbook, cards, PINs and other security information is essential to help prevent fraud and protect your accounts. Please make sure you follow the advice given below:

Do not allow anyone else to use your card, PIN password or other security information.
If you change your PIN you should choose your new PIN carefully.
Always learn your PIN, password and other security information, and destroy the notice as soon as you receive it.
Never write down or record your PIN, password or other security information.
Always take reasonable steps to keep your card safe and your PIN, password and other security information secret at all times.
Keep your card receipts safe and dispose of them carefully.
Never give your account details or security information to anyone unless you know who they are and why they need them.

6 Investment Accounts

The Society offers investment accounts for operation through our network of branches, and telephone-operated investment accounts through Dunfermline Direct.

7 Cooling-off Period

Occasionally, you may change your mind after you have opened an account. The cooling off period is the 14 days from the day you open your account (and excludes public holidays). If you close your account within the cooling off period, we will pay you the interest due at the then current rate from the day after you open your account up to and including the day that you close your account. During the cooling off period, we will ignore any notice period normally needed and you will not have to pay any penalty interest. The cooling-off period does not apply to fixed interest rate accounts.

ISAs

The cooling off period does apply to ISAs. If you decide to close your ISA account within the cooling off period, you need to write and tell us and we need to have received your letter telling us that you want to close the account within the cooling off period. Gross interest will be paid from the day after you open your account up to and including the day your account is closed. If you close the account within the cooling off period, you can open another Cash ISA within the same tax year (although this will depend on your overall subscriptions into Cash and Stocks and Shares ISAs). If you close your account after the cooling off period, you cannot open another Cash ISA until the next tax year.

8 Assignation of Windfalls to Charity

Dunfermline Building Society wishes to avoid further disruption to our business caused by speculators. All new customers opening share accounts are therefore required to agree to assign any windfall benefits to which they may become entitled on a conversion or take-over of the Society. The assignation will be in favour of the Charities Aid Foundation and the agreement will be for a period of five years. Please refer to the application form for the full terms and conditions of the agreement.

9 Financial Services Compensation Scheme

We are a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Payments under this scheme are limited to a maximum of £50,000 of an investor’s total shares and/or deposits. Most investors are covered including individuals and small firms. Although most shares and deposits in UK Building Societies are denominated in Sterling, the Euro and other European Economic Area currencies are also covered.

10 Lost LINK Cards

You should let us know immediately when someone else knows your PIN, password or other security information or if you lose your LINK ATM card (cashcard). Please contact any of the Society's branches or telephone the LINK Helpdesk on 01383 627735 or 01383 627736 giving your name and account number. If your call is outside normal office hours please call 0845 704 5111.

11 Complaints

At Dunfermline Building Society we are committed to providing quality products and services to all our customers. We constantly monitor the way we work to ensure we maintain high standards and identify areas for improvement

However, things can go wrong. If you do have a problem, then we would like to hear about it. We aim to deal with your complaint sympathetically and we will do our best to resolve your problem as quickly as possible. Complaints we cannot settle may be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

This leaflet sets out our procedures if you have a complaint.

How we deal with your complaint

If you have a problem, you can contact us in one of several ways:

Visit your nearest Dunfermline Building Society branch
Telephone our Contact Centre Team on 0845 345 04 09
You can also write to us at one of the following addresses (to help us deal with your complaint effectively, please select the area most relevant to your complaint):

For complaints about any aspect of investment administration please write to us at:
Dunfermline Building Society – Savings & Investment Team
PO Box 29216
DUNFERMLINE
KY1 2BZ

For complaints about any aspect of mortgage or insurance administration please write to us at:
Dunfermline Building Society - Mortgage & Insurance Administration team
PO Box 1015
NORTHAMPTON
NN3 0DJ

For complaints about any aspects of potential mis-selling or if your complaint is regarding a regulated investment product, please write to us at:
Dunfermline Building Society Member Services
Kings Park Road
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6NW

Your complaint will be handled by, or referred to, a member of staff who has appropriate experience and is authorised to resolve the complaint.

Our commitment to you:

These guidelines have been produced as an easy guide on how we will deal with your complaint, in the event that our service falls short of your expectations.

We will try to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible where an investigation is not required, this will normally be by the close of business on the next working day following receipt.
Regrettably some complaints take longer to investigate and resolve and if it is not possible to resolve within this time, then we will ensure that we send you a letter acknowledging your complaint within five working days of receiving it. Our letter will tell you the name of the person dealing with your complaint and included with it will be a copy of this leaflet.
In most cases you will receive a response within 4 weeks of us initially receiving your complaint. However, in the unlikely event that we are unable to provide a response within 4 weeks, we will write to you with an update, explaining the reasons for the delay, along with details of when you can expect to receive our response. Following this we will write to you again with our findings.
Should you indicate to us that you remain dissatisfied following receipt of our response, the matter will be investigated further and you will be provided with our Final Response.
If you still remain dissatisfied or in the unlikely event of us not issuing our Final Response within 8 weeks, you have the option to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

At this point our Internal Complaints Procedure is considered to have been exhausted. Should you now wish to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (which must take place within 6 months of receiving our Final Response), please find below the relevant contact details:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR.
Telephone 0845 080 1800
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

It is important to remember that you will need to complete our Internal Complaints Procedure before the Ombudsman will review your concerns.
However, we believe that we should be able to resolve any issues without reference to a third party.

Complaints we cannot settle may be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Dunfermline Building Society is a trading division of Nationwide Building Society which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority under registration number 106078. Credit facilities other than regulated mortgages are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Head Office: Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon, Wiltshire SN38 1NW.

12 Copyright and Trademark

Copyright in the pages of this site, in the screens displaying the pages and in the information and material contained therein and their arrangement is owned by Dunfermline Building Society, unless otherwise indicated.

Dunfermline Building Society and Flag Logo, Dunfermline Scotland's Building Society and Flag Logo and Hi Society are trademarks of Dunfermline Building Society. The Society may also claim trade mark and service mark rights in other marks contained within the pages of this site.

Reproduction of these pages in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Dunfermline Building Society is strictly prohibited unless for private, non-commercial viewing purposes.

13 Liability

The Society does not accept any liability for indirect or consequential damage including (without limitation) loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business and/or goods, loss of goodwill, loss of use and/or opportunity, loss and/or corruption of data and/or other information, downtime and/or the cost of obtaining substitute products or services.

The Society takes reasonable care to ensure this website is free from viruses, bugs or other software or programs that may damage the operation of your computer. However, the Society cannot guarantee this and does not accept liability if this happens.

14 Indemnity

You agree to reimburse the Society in full should it suffer any loss of damage or incur any costs because you use this website for illegal, immoral or improper purposes.

15 Data Protection Act (1998)

Use of Personal Data

The Data Protection Act (1998) places duties upon users of personal information held both manually and on computer. This Act sets out certain principles which cover how information is obtained, stored and disclosed. The first principle states that information must be obtained fairly. The Data Protection Commissioner feels that information is only obtained fairly if the person providing the information is told about any way in which it may be used which he/she might not expect. The reason for this is to enable people to decide if they wish to disclose information. When you open an investment or mortgage account with the Society there will be a Data Protection section on the application form which will explain what the Society will do with the personal information you have completed on the form. When you sign the form you are consenting to this.

What does the Society use the personal data for?

You can see details of the purposes for which we hold information and the people and bodies to whom we may disclose it in the Register of Data Users and Computer Bureaux. This register can be inspected free of charge and is kept by the Information Commissioner at:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone 01625 545745

Some of these purposes may not be entirely clear to you and examples follow:

Protection

Information on an account may also be used to help prevent crime and to help us trace those responsible. The Society is required to hold some information to comply with the Financial Services Authority Anti-Money Laundering Regulations.

Marketing

The information which you give us is very helpful. One way it is used which you may not anticipate is in order that we advise you about services that you might find useful. This might be advice about new types of accounts or other services that we provide. When you open your account we will ask you to confirm whether you want this information.

Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies

When you open a mortgage account with the Society, you disclose certain information which we store on our manual and computer records. Although most of the information comes from you, some of it we obtain from other sources such as credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies.

When you apply for a mortgage account, we carry out a check with a fraud prevention agency and a credit reference agency. The agency will record such a check. If you open an account we may give information about you and how you conduct your account to the credit reference agency. This information is used to help in making decisions on credit. You have a right to this information by contacting the credit reference agency.

If false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified we will record this and details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies. Law enforcement agencies may access and use this information. The Society and other organisations may also access, use and search the records held by Fraud Prevention Agencies to help prevent fraud and money laundering including when checking details on applications for credit, credit related or other credit facilities.

Please contact us if you want to receive details of the relevant Credit Reference Agencies or Fraud Prevention Agencies we use.

Law

We may also be required like other financial institutions by law, to give the Inland Revenue information about an account and interest paid on it. Your account may from time to time be audited or reviewed by the Inland Revenue. We may also be obliged by law to provide other parties or bodies with information about you and your account.

Audit

Information is held about you and your accounts after the accounts have been closed. This is necessary to comply with a number of legal obligations and for audit and inspection purposes. It also helps us to respond to customer enquiries which may arise.

Council of Mortgage Lenders Possessions Register

The Society may give information held about you and your accounts to the Council of Mortgage Lenders Possessions Register.

The Society hopes that you have found this brief explanation helpful. Should you wish to know what information the Society holds about you, please ask at your local branch for a subject access form and on payment of £10, the information will be provided within 40 days. You may also wish to look at the Information Commissioner’s website at http://www.ico.gov.uk.

16 Governing Law

Our relationship with you will be governed by the Law of Scotland. Other law may apply to the terms of the particular product (for example, English law applies to English mortgages). Please read individual terms for individual products. The Society will communicate with you in English. All communications with us may be monitored/recorded to improve the quality of our service and for your protection and security.

17 Mortgage Accounts Tariff

Click here to download the Society's Mortgage Tariff.

18 Investment Accounts Tariff

Click here to download the Society's Investment Tariff.

19 European Code of Conduct

The Society is a member of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The CML has signed up to the European Code of Conduct on behalf of its members. Information on the Code of Conduct can be found by here.

20 General

If any of the clauses of these terms is found to be legally invalid it will be deleted. The terms and conditions shall continue to bind the parties if it is capable of continuing in existence without the unfair term.

The information contained within these pages is correct at 24/04/08 16:54, though subject to change at any time.

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