Terms of Use

[Your use of this Website] [The Banking Code]

email your comments and feedback on the website by clicking here

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 Financial Advisers.

3 The Banking Code

The Society subscribes to the Banking Code. This is a voluntary code which sets standards of good banking practice for financial institutions to follow when they are dealing with personal customers in the United Kingdom. It provides valuable protection for customers and explains how financial institutions are expected to deal with you day-to-day and whenever you have financial difficulties. We recommend that you read it in conjunction with the 'Investment Handbook', available from branches or by calling Dunfermline Direct on 0845 336688†, and the Investment Tariff below. Copies of the Code are available free from any of our Branches or by calling Dunfermline Direct on 0845 336688†, or you may prefer to visit the Banking Code website. Copies of the Banking Code in alternative formats such as Audio, Braille and Large Print are also available. We'll be delighted to help if you need any explanation of the content of the Code.

4 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 click here to 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. Click here to download this leaflet.

5 Identification

If you wish to open an account you will need to let us have suitable identification to verify your name and address, unless you are an existing customer with the Society. Further identification will be needed if your existing investment is with Dunfermline Direct. Please contact us for further details. Click here to obtain a list of documents that can be used to verify your name and address. Please note that where a document appears on both lists it cannot be used to verify both your name and address. It can only be used to verify either your name or address.

There are additional requirements where accounts are opened by post. For further details, please contact us or refer to our leaflet "ID Requirements for Postal Accounts”, which is available from any of our branches.

6 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.

7 Investment Accounts

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

8 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.

9 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.

10 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 £35,000 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.

11 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.

12 Complaints

We are committed to providing our members with the best possible service and we want to hear from you if things go wrong.

Stage One:
It is always best to resolve any difficulties at a local level. The first step is to contact your local branch, our Dunfermline Direct team or the Head Office department you have been dealing with. We will do all that we can to resolve matters speedily. We find that the majority of cases are sorted out this way, quickly and effectively.

Stage Two:
If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, details will automatically be passed to our Compliance Department, who will ensure your complaint is acknowledged in writing within 5 business days. Included with the acknowledgement will be a copy of a leaflet, which sets out our Complaints Procedure. We will ensure a full investigation into the facts is carried out and we will tell you who will be handling this. Following our investigations we will send you a final response from the Society. We will seek to do this within 4 weeks of receiving your complaint. If this has not been possible, we will explain to you at this 4-week stage why we have not been able to achieve this. We will also tell you when we expect to be able to provide you with our final response. This must be done within 8 weeks from the time we receive your complaint.

Stage Three:
If we have not been able to provide a final response within this 8-week timescale, we will tell you the reasons for the delay and let you know when we expect to do this. At this stage you can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We will however ask you if you would allow us more time to complete our investigations.

Complaints that we cannot settle may be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You must refer matters to this service no later than 6 months from the date of the Society’s final response to you. Leaflets on this service are available from any of our branches or from Head Office.

Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SR
Phone 020 7964 1000
email enquiries@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Note
If your complaint relates to an investment, such as an endowment, pension or other long term investment, your complaint may be subject to a different process. In these circumstances, it is best that you write to the Society’s Compliance Department in the first instance at the address below. They will explain to you how the matter will be dealt with and let you know the timescales involved.

Dunfermline Building Society
Caledonia House
Carnegie Avenue
Dunfermline
KY11 8PJ
Phone 01383 627727

We are Members of the following organisations and associations:
The Council of Mortgage Lenders
The Building Societies Association
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme
LINK.

13 Copyright and Trademark

Copyright © Dunfermline Building Society 2001-2007. All rights reserved.

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.

14 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.

15 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.

16 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.

The Society introduces only to the Norwich Union Marketing Group (NU). In certain circumstances and with your express consent, information about you may be passed to Norwich Union, who provide life assurance, pensions and investments which you may from time to time require. You may find that they contact you about their group’s various services.

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 www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. 

17 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.

18 Mortgage Accounts Tariff

Click here to download the Society's Mortgage Tariff. 

19 Investment Accounts Tariff

Click here to download the Society's Investment Tariff. 

20 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 clicking here. 

21 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.