1. About this Privacy Policy
1.1 This Privacy Policy applies to personal information we collect through our websites, our email newsletter, our courses and communities, and any other interaction you have with Plain English Finance.
1.2 It should be read together with our Website Terms of Use, our Cookies Policy, our Terms of Sale, and (where relevant) our User Content Agreement.
1.3 We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version is always available on our website with the effective date shown at the top. If we make a material change, we will tell you by email (where we hold your email address) or by posting a notice on our website.
2. Who we are - and who is the data controller
2.1 The data controller responsible for your personal information is Plain English Finance Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales.
2.2 Registered office: Stag Gates House, 63/64 The Avenue, Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1XS.
2.3 Company number: 07503422. VAT number: GB207040653.
2.4 We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm Reference Number: 564876.
2.5 We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller.
2.6 You can contact us about anything in this Privacy Policy at [email protected] or in writing at the registered office above.
3. Which websites and services this policy covers
3.1 This policy applies to:
- our main websites - plainenglishfinance.co.uk and plainenglishfinance.com - and any subdomain (such as go.plainenglishfinance.com);
- our email newsletter and any marketing emails we send;
- the Own Your World Mastermind and any related member community;
- the PEF Community (hosted on Discourse); and
- any other product or service we may offer from time to time.
3.2 Our services are intended for people resident in the United Kingdom.
4. Information we collect
We collect information in three broad ways: what you give us, what is collected automatically when you use our websites, and what we receive from third parties.
4.1 Information you give us. Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:
- Contact information - your name, email address, and (where relevant) postal address or phone number;
- Account and application information - information you provide when applying for the Own Your World Mastermind, joining the PEF Community, or setting up an account on our platforms (which may include information about your financial goals, professional background, and reasons for joining);
- Transaction information - records of your purchases from us, including which product or service, the amount paid, and the date. Payment card details are not stored by us; they are handled by our payment providers (see section 8);
- Correspondence - the content of emails, community posts, questions, or messages you send to us or post in our communities;
- Zoom session information - where you take part in a one-to-one Zoom session with Andrew Craig as part of the Mastermind, we may keep brief notes summarising what was discussed and any follow-up agreed.
4.2 Information collected automatically when you use our websites. When you visit our websites, we and our third-party providers automatically collect:
- Technical information - including your IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, and screen resolution;
- Usage information - including the pages you visit, the links you click, the time and duration of your visit, and the site from which you arrived;
- Cookie and similar identifier information - see our separate Cookies Policy for detail.
4.3 Information from third parties. We may receive information about you from:
- our payment providers (for example, confirmation that a payment has been processed);
- our email marketing platform (for example, whether you opened or clicked on our emails);
- our email capture platform (for example, that you have completed a double opt-in and confirmed you want to hear from us);
- publicly available sources (for example, if you post a public comment on our YouTube channel or reply to us on LinkedIn or X).
5. Cookies and similar technologies
Our websites use cookies and similar technologies for functionality, analytics, and marketing. Full details - including which cookies we use, what they do, how long they last, and how you can change your cookie preferences - are set out in our separate Cookies Policy.
6. How we use your information, and our lawful basis for doing so
Under UK data protection law we must have a "lawful basis" for using your information. The main ways we use your information, and the lawful basis for each, are:
6.1 To respond to enquiries and provide support - when you email us or ask us a question. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (running our business and helping our customers).
6.2 To provide our products and services - including the Own Your World Mastermind, the PEF Community, and any related one-to-one sessions. Lawful basis: performance of a contract with you.
6.3 To process payments and keep transaction records - including for accounting, tax and regulatory purposes. Lawful basis: performance of a contract and legal obligation.
6.4 To send you our newsletter and marketing emails - but only after you have completed our double opt-in process and confirmed you want to hear from us. Lawful basis: your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time - see section 7.
6.5 To send you transactional emails - for example, order confirmations, receipts, information about your access to the Mastermind or Community, or important updates to our terms. Lawful basis: performance of a contract or legitimate interests.
6.6 To operate, secure, and improve our websites - including keeping them working properly, preventing fraud and abuse, understanding how people use them, and making them better. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
6.7 To measure the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing - using cookies and pixels described in our Cookies Policy. Lawful basis: your consent (given via our cookie consent banner).
6.8 To comply with our regulatory obligations - including our obligations as an FCA-authorised firm (for example, complaint handling, record-keeping, and financial promotions compliance). Lawful basis: legal obligation.
6.9 To handle any complaint, dispute, or legal claim - including where necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
7. Marketing - and how to unsubscribe
7.1 We use a double opt-in process for our email newsletter. That means when you enter your email address on our website, we send you a confirmation email; you are only added to the list once you click the confirmation link. This is deliberate - we only want to email people who actively want to hear from us.
7.2 Every marketing email we send includes a one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom. You can unsubscribe at any time. It usually takes effect immediately; occasionally, an email already in the send queue may go out shortly after you unsubscribe.
7.3 From time to time we may run specific ad hoc campaigns - for example, to introduce members of our audience to a particular product, event, or (in future) a professional financial adviser. Where such a campaign involves passing your personal details to a third party, we will always ask for your specific consent to that campaign before doing so.
7.4 We do not sell your information to any third party for their own marketing purposes.
8. Who we share your information with
We share your information only with the third parties we need to in order to run our business, and only for the purposes described below.
8.1 Our service providers (data processors). These are companies that process personal information on our behalf, under written contracts that require them to keep it secure and use it only for the purposes we specify:
- Campaign Monitor - our email marketing platform (we use this to send our newsletter and marketing emails);
- Sleeknote - our email capture platform (we use this to run the signup forms on our websites);
- GoHighLevel / LeadConnector - the platform on which some of our landing pages, forms, and (in future) our Own Your World Mastermind checkout are hosted;
- Memberful and Stripe - the payment and membership infrastructure currently used for our PEF Community subscription (Memberful handles the subscription management; Stripe processes the payment);
- PayPal - offered as a payment option where relevant;
- Discourse - the platform hosting our existing PEF Community;
- Skool - the platform we expect to use to host the Own Your World Mastermind community;
- Calendly - used to schedule one-to-one Zoom sessions with Andrew Craig;
- Zoom - used to run the one-to-one sessions themselves;
- Zapier - used to connect certain of the platforms above so that data flows correctly between them;
- our website hosting and IT providers - who provide the servers, backups, and security tooling behind our websites;
- our accountants, auditors, and professional advisers - where relevant to run our business.
8.2 Analytics and advertising providers. Where you have given consent via our cookie banner, we also share limited information (such as your IP address and pages viewed) with:
- Google (Google Analytics 4) - to understand aggregate visitor behaviour on our sites;
- Meta (Facebook Pixel) - to measure the effectiveness of our advertising (should we choose to advertise in future) and, where you visit our sites, to help Meta show you relevant PEF ads on Facebook or Instagram.
Details of what these tools do, and how you can opt out, are set out in our Cookies Policy.
8.3 Other disclosures. We may also share your information:
- with law enforcement, regulators, or other authorities where we are required to do so by law or to comply with regulatory obligations (including our obligations to the Financial Conduct Authority);
- with our professional advisers (for example, lawyers or auditors) where necessary to obtain advice or defend a legal claim;
- with a buyer or successor if we ever sell or transfer all or part of our business;
- with any third party you have specifically consented to us sharing your information with - for example, in a specific ad hoc campaign under section 7.3.
9. International transfers
9.1 Some of the service providers listed in section 8 are based outside the United Kingdom - for example, in the European Economic Area, the United States, or Australia.
9.2 Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected to a standard equivalent to UK law, by relying on one or more of:
- an adequacy decision by the UK Government confirming that the destination country has adequate data protection laws;
- the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses; or
- another lawful transfer mechanism recognised under UK data protection law.
9.3 You can ask us for more information about the transfer safeguards we use by contacting us at [email protected].
10. How long we keep your information
10.1 We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it, and then delete it or securely anonymise it. Broadly:
- Email newsletter subscribers - for as long as you remain subscribed. If you unsubscribe, we keep a suppression record (so we don't accidentally re-email you) but not for active marketing.
- Customers of the Own Your World Mastermind - for as long as you have access to the Mastermind, plus a further period of up to seven years after your access ends, so we can meet our legal, tax, and regulatory record-keeping obligations.
- Community members - for as long as you have an active membership, plus a further period as above for record-keeping.
- Correspondence and enquiries - typically for up to three years, so we have a record of what was said.
- Transaction records - for at least seven years, to meet our legal and tax obligations.
- Website analytics - retention periods are set within the analytics tools themselves (typically 14 months for Google Analytics 4, subject to our configuration).
10.2 We may keep information for longer where we need to, in order to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim.
11. How we keep your information secure
11.1 We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure.
11.2 Our service providers listed in section 8 are all major, established platforms with their own robust security practices, and we require them by contract to safeguard your information.
11.3 No system is 100% secure. If we ever become aware of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and, where required, notify you directly.
12. Your rights
12.1 Under UK data protection law you have the following rights in relation to your personal information. You can exercise any of them by contacting us at [email protected].
- Right of access - you can ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, and to send you a copy.
- Right to rectification - you can ask us to correct any information about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Right to erasure - you can ask us to delete personal information we hold about you, in certain circumstances.
- Right to restrict processing - you can ask us to limit how we use your information, in certain circumstances.
- Right to data portability - you can ask us to send your information to you (or another provider) in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, in certain circumstances.
- Right to object - you can object to us using your information on the basis of legitimate interests, and you can object at any time to direct marketing.
- Right to withdraw consent - where we rely on your consent (for example, for marketing emails or non-essential cookies), you can withdraw it at any time.
- Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling - see section 14 below.
12.2 We will respond to any request within one month. Occasionally we may need to extend this period (by up to a further two months) where a request is particularly complex, and we will let you know if that is the case.
12.3 There is normally no charge for exercising your rights. In limited circumstances (for example, if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive), we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act.
13. Children
13.1 Our websites and services are intended for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
13.2 If you believe we have collected information from someone under 18, please contact us at [email protected] and we will delete it.
14. Automated decision-making, profiling, and AI
14.1 We do not use your personal information to make any automated decision that produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
14.2 Our email marketing platform may segment our audience (for example, by whether you have opened previous emails) so that we can send you more relevant content. This is not the kind of profiling that produces a legal effect on you, and it does not change what products or prices you are offered.
14.3 We do not currently use artificial intelligence tools to process our customers' or subscribers' personal information as part of the running of our business. We may use general-purpose AI tools internally to help us draft or edit content, but we do not systematically feed customer information into those tools. If that ever changes, we will update this policy.
15. Changes to this policy
15.1 We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on our website with the effective date at the top.
15.2 If we make a material change (for example, adding a new category of data sharing), we will tell you by email - where we hold your email address - or by prominently posting a notice on our website before the change takes effect.
16. Complaints and contact
16.1 If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first at [email protected]. We will do our best to resolve them.
16.2 You also have the right to make a complaint to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at any time:
Website: ico.org.uk
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
Address: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
We would appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, but you don't have to contact us first.