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Privacy Policy — Lending Buddies

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: August 4, 2026

Lending Buddies LLC ("Lending Buddies," "we," "us," or "our") operates a free, online lead-generation and matching service that connects consumers with participating independent lenders and financial service providers. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal and financial information when you use our website and submit a request for financing options.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Information

When you use our matching service, we may collect identifying details that allow us and our network lenders to contact you and verify your identity, including:

  • Full legal name
  • Residential address and ZIP code
  • Email address
  • Telephone number(s)
  • Date of birth
  • Social Security Number (SSN) — collected only when required by a participating lender to complete a formal application

1.2 Financial Information

To match you with suitable financing options, we and our network lenders may request and evaluate financial details such as:

  • Employment status and income
  • Employer name and contact information
  • Banking details (account and routing numbers, where required by a lender)
  • Requested loan amount and preferred repayment term
  • Existing debt obligations and monthly housing payment

1.3 Technical and Usage Information

We automatically collect non-identifying technical data when you visit our site, including your IP address, browser type and version, device identifiers, operating system, referring URL, pages viewed, time spent on each page, and interaction events. This information is used for analytics, security, fraud prevention, and service improvement.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Process your request and match you with participating lenders in our network;
  • Facilitate communication between you and those lenders;
  • Verify your identity and assess eligibility for financing offers;
  • Respond to your inquiries and provide customer support;
  • Detect, prevent, and investigate fraud or misuse of our service;
  • Comply with applicable federal and state legal and regulatory obligations;
  • Improve our website, matching algorithm, and overall user experience.

3. How We Share Your Information

3.1 Sharing with Network Lenders

Lending Buddies is not a lender. When you submit a request, we share the personal and financial information you provide with one or more participating independent lenders in our network so they can evaluate your request and, if eligible, present you with a financing offer. Each lender makes its own credit and underwriting decisions independently. Once your information is transmitted to a lender, that lender's privacy policy governs how it uses and protects your data. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any lender you choose to work with.

3.2 Service Providers

We engage trusted third-party service providers to perform functions on our behalf, such as web hosting, data analytics, cloud storage, email delivery, and customer support. These providers access your information only as necessary to perform their duties and are contractually bound to protect its confidentiality.

3.3 Legal Disclosures

We may disclose your information when required by law, court order, or government regulation, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, safety, or property, or those of our users or others.

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience and collect usage data. The specific tools we use include:

  • Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Collects aggregated usage statistics such as page views, session duration, and traffic sources to help us understand how visitors use the site.
  • Google Tag Manager (GTM): Manages the deployment of analytics and marketing tags without requiring direct code changes.
  • Advertising Pixels: We may use third-party advertising pixels (such as Meta Pixel or Google Ads tag) to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and deliver relevant content to prospective users.
  • Essential Cookies: These are necessary for the website to function and cannot be disabled. They enable core functionality such as security and session continuity.

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect some features of the website. For details on how Google uses data when you use our site, see Google's Privacy & Terms.

5. Soft Credit Checks

When you submit a request through Lending Buddies, participating lenders may retrieve information about you from consumer reporting agencies such as Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. For pre-qualification and matching purposes, this is typically a soft credit inquiry, which does not affect your credit score. If you choose to proceed with a specific lender's offer, that lender may initiate a hard credit inquiry as part of a formal application, which may affect your credit score. You will be notified before any hard inquiry is performed.

6. Data Security and Encryption

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect your personal and financial information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using 256-bit TLS (Transport Layer Security) — the same level of encryption trusted by major financial institutions. Data at rest within our infrastructure and that of our service providers is also encrypted. Despite our efforts, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Compliance

If you are a California resident, you have specific rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

  • Right to Know: You may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources, the business purpose, and the third parties to whom we have disclosed it.
  • Right to Delete: You may request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain legal exceptions.
  • Right to Correct: You may request correction of inaccurate personal information.
  • Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: We do not sell your personal information for monetary consideration. However, we may "share" your information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes. You may opt out of such sharing by visiting our Do Not Sell My Info page.
  • Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

To exercise any of these rights, submit a request through our Do Not Sell My Info page or email us at support@ilendingbuddies.com. We will verify your identity before processing your request and respond within 45 days, as required by law.

8. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Lead data submitted to our network lenders is retained according to each lender's own retention policy.

9. Children's Privacy

Our service is not directed to individuals under 18 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.

10. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers offer a "Do Not Track" signal. Our website does not currently respond to such signals, as there is no universally accepted standard for how websites should interpret them. We continue to monitor industry developments in this area.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: