Privacy Policy

Welcome to the capitol-loans.ca website (the "Website") operated by Capitol-loans ("we," "us," or "our"). Capitol-loans is a platform dedicated to micro-loan applications in Quebec, used to obtain information about regulated lenders and credit, or to apply for a micro-loan and related financial services (collectively, the "Services"). Our platform does not always act as the lender itself: when you submit an application on our site, it may be forwarded to one or more qualified partner lenders holding a valid license from Quebec's * Consumer Protection Office * (OPC), who will independently assess your eligibility. "Users" and "you" refer to any person who visits or uses our Services or communicates with us.

This privacy policy explains what information is collected, how we use and share that information, and your choices regarding our personal information practices. For the purposes of this policy, "personal information" means any information concerning an identifiable individual, excluding business contact information used to contact a person for purposes related to their employment. You may opt out of any collection, use, disclosure, or other processing that is not reasonably necessary to provide you with what you have requested, or for purposes related to the protection of your rights or ours. To learn how to do so, please consult the section titled "Your Choices."

Brief Summary

Our platform aims to help Quebec residents quickly obtain micro-loans ranging from $100 to $1,500. Applications can be completed online in about 15 minutes, and funds generally arrive within an hour or less, depending on the specific application.

We offer several types of micro-loans—including express, no-credit-check, and guaranteed-approval options—all assessed via Instant Bank Verification (IBV) rather than by checking credit reports from Equifax or TransUnion. Our platform also provides free educational resources regarding how these products work, eligibility requirements, the regulatory framework overseen by the OPC, and your rights as a borrower.

Capitol-loans allow you to apply for these various products by completing our online form. Users can also contact us directly by phone or email with any questions regarding their application.

If you have questions or wish to contact our privacy team, you can email us at info@capitol-loans.ca.

Acceptance of our privacy policy

Before using the Services or submitting personal information to us, please carefully review this privacy policy and contact us if you have any questions. By using the Capitol-loans website or submitting information to us, you agree to the measures and practices described in this policy. If you do not agree to this privacy policy, please do not access the website or use our Services in any way. This privacy policy is incorporated into and subject to our Terms of Use.

The Service is intended for use by users residing in Quebec. If you do not reside in Quebec or Canada, please do not use our Services.

Personal Information Collected

Our primary objective in collecting personal information is to provide the services our users expect, ensure the smooth operation of our platform, and improve the quality of your interactions with us. The types of information we collect are reasonably related to these objectives. You may opt out of this data processing practice regarding any information that is not reasonably related to the reason you contacted us.

Capitol-loans collect only the information necessary to evaluate your application and, where applicable, connect you with a qualified partner lender. Our goal is to minimize intrusiveness while maximizing the protection of your personal information. The type of information collected varies depending on the product requested (express micro-loan, no-credit-check micro-loan, guaranteed-approval micro-loan) and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Key contact information: the information we collect includes your name, email address, phone number, residential address in Quebec, and any other information you choose to provide in order to receive a response to your request.

Financial, employment, and other personal information: when you apply for a micro-loan, we may ask you to provide—and we will collect—the financial information necessary to submit a complete application to qualified partner lenders who may be able to assist you. The financial and other personal information we collect (including your date of birth and IP address) will be used to assess your eligibility and identify partner lenders capable of providing the financial service you are requesting. This includes data obtained through Instant Bank Verification (IBV)—a secure, read-only connection to your bank account that analyzes deposits and transaction history from the past 90 days to confirm the consistency of your income, without allowing us or our IBV partner to execute any transactions on your account. The information provided to us may be shared with other financial partners in order to process your application on your behalf. Such information is disclosed only to partners bound by confidentiality obligations. We make every effort to ensure that your information is protected and that the service providers we work with implement adequate security protocols.

Identity verification information: To prevent fraud and protect your account, we may ask you to confirm your identity—particularly when making an initial request—using a photo ID (such as a driver's license). This helps safeguard your identity and protect your information from unauthorized access.

Communication-related information: We may collect information if you contact us with questions or concerns, or if you voluntarily respond to surveys or requests for feedback. Providing this information is optional. It may relate to your communication preferences and your interest in receiving our promotional campaigns.

Commercial information: We may keep a record of the products you have requested through our Services—such as whether you have previously applied for an express micro-loan or a no-credit-check loan—as well as your repayment history, which may influence the amounts offered in future applications.

Social media information: We maintain accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. When you interact with us on our social media pages, we receive the personal information you choose to provide, such as your contact details.

Technical and Internet activity information: if you use our Service, we (or third-party tracking tools) may automatically record the following information:

Device information: this includes data such as device type, device identifier, IP address, browser type, operating system, duration of use, usage patterns, and unique identifiers for the device you use to access the Service.

Usage information: information regarding how you use our Service, such as the pages you view, the features you use, and the time, frequency, and duration of your activities. For the website, we use Google Analytics, an analytics service provided by Google LLC, to facilitate the collection and analysis of this information.

Email interaction information: information may be collected regarding the date and time you open emails we send you or click on links within them.

Certain items of information defined above may be recorded whether or not you submit a service request, provided that users in Quebec are first required to consent to such recording when it is not essential. If you submit a micro-loan application, all information described in this section may be recorded and retained to the extent necessary to properly process your application.

How we collect your information?

Personal information may be collected in various ways, including through our Services.

Generally, you can browse our website without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. If you wish to use our Services, we ask for certain information to provide the expected functionality, verify your identity, and ensure the security of all parties.

We may use the following technologies to collect information:

Cookies—text files stored on your device to identify your browser or to save information and settings that help you navigate efficiently, remember your preferences, and enable certain features. By using our website or Services, you consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies for the purposes outlined in this policy. We may use cookies from platforms such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), and other technology or advertising platforms.

Local storage technologies, such as HTML5, which provide functionality equivalent to cookies but can store larger amounts of data on your device, outside of your browser.

Web beacons (also known as invisible pixels), used to verify whether a webpage or email has been viewed or opened.

Third-party measurement and analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to help us understand and analyze visitor traffic, measure the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and identify areas of our platform requiring improvement. We never explicitly provide third parties with the information we have collected about you for purposes other than those described in this policy.

Social media: if you post a review, leave a comment, or submit personal information on a public forum—such as one of our social media accounts—your communications may be viewable by the public.

You are not required to use our Services if you do not wish to disclose your information.

In compliance with Quebec privacy laws, users in the province of Quebec benefit from a prior consent mechanism regarding cookies, local storage, and other non-essential tracking technologies. Capitol-loans reserves the right to retain cookies and/or other data solely for essential purposes.

How we use personal information?

In general, we use your personal information for the following purposes:

Service provision, including providing, operating, maintaining, and securing our Services. Micro-loan applications are generally assessed automatically within minutes using IBV verification, and users are immediately notified of the outcome of their application.

Communicating with you, including sending updates on administrative matters—such as changes to our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy—and providing user support and responding to your requests, questions, and comments.

Service improvement, including enhancing our platform and creating new features, facilitating and improving future micro-loan applications, personalizing your experience, and creating and drawing insights from aggregated information.

Marketing and advertising, including direct marketing: to send you marketing messages—such as notifications about promotions, offers, and special events—via email, text message, phone call, or other means.

In compliance with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), we may only send direct marketing messages if one of the following two conditions is met (and provided you have not unsubscribed):

You have expressly consented to receive marketing emails by submitting a micro-loan application.

You provided implied consent to receive marketing emails from us at the time of submitting an application. In this case, your authorization expires six months after your application was submitted.

Interest-based advertising: we work with advertising partners—including third-party advertising firms and social media companies—to display advertisements on our Service and on other online services.

Compliance and security: specifically, to comply with applicable laws, legal requests, and judicial proceedings (such as responding to subpoenas or requests from the OPC or other government authorities); to protect our rights, safety, and property, as well as yours or those of others; and to prevent, identify, and deter fraudulent, unauthorized, or illegal activities, including identity theft.

Sharing Personal Information

Capitol-loans limits access to personal information provided by users. Such information is accessible only to team members who require it to fulfill their job responsibilities, including:

• The technical team, for reporting, development, improvement, monitoring, and maintenance of our internal systems.
• The marketing team, for reporting or carrying out marketing-related activities, such as email marketing.
• The legal and privacy team, to handle requests for record deletion or other privacy-related inquiries.
• Data sharing: We do not sell, rent, or license your personal information to third parties, except for the purpose of validating your micro-loan application. This does not, however, authorize third parties to bypass anti-spam laws or send you marketing messages.

Personal information may be accessed by:

Service providers, including partner lenders holding an OPC license, credit advisors, and other financial service providers with whom we collaborate to help users obtain the product they are requesting. For example, when a user submits a micro-loan application, their information may be shared with one or more partner lenders to assess their eligibility.

Loans Canada and its partner lenders: when you submit a loan application on our site, your personal information may be transmitted to Loans Canada and its partner lenders to evaluate your application. This transmission occurs only with your explicit consent, provided by checking the box next to the following text on the application form: "I agree to have my personal information transmitted to Loans Canada and its partner lenders to evaluate my loan application, in accordance with the Privacy Policy."

This box is never pre-checked; you must check it yourself. Until it is checked, the forms submit button remains disabled, and no information is transmitted to Loans Canada or any partner lender. The same consent box applies in the same way on the loan application page (/apply) and on the contact form. Privacy-related questions sent to us simply via email or telephone are not, in themselves, transmitted to our partner lenders.

Technology service providers, including hosting services, email services, our IBV (Instant Bank Verification) provider, advertising and marketing services, payment processors, and analytics services. Commercially reasonable measures are taken to ensure that our providers adhere to the security standards we apply to your personal information.

Professional advisors, such as lawyers and accountants, where necessary to facilitate the services they provide to us.

Parties to a business transaction, such as counterparties and others assisting with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, as well as successors in such a transaction.

Regulatory requirements, when necessary to comply with applicable laws and requirements, including those of the Quebec OPC.

Capitol-loans may disclose your personal information: to any government entity as part of an investigation into our compliance with applicable laws; in response to a court order, subpoena, or other legal proceeding; as required or permitted by applicable law; and in good faith, to protect or defend our rights or those of a third party.

In the circumstances described above, we may be required to share your personal information with or without your consent. In certain circumstances, the law may prohibit us from informing you that your information has been shared in this manner.

Retention of personal information and destruction of information

Personal information is retained until:

We no longer need it to achieve the purposes described in this policy.

The information is no longer reasonably necessary to exercise, defend, or protect our rights, your rights, or the rights of a third party, or to comply with legal requirements.

For users in Quebec, your information is scheduled for automatic deletion from our servers after a reasonable period, unless you have provided explicit marketing consent; in that case, we will retain your basic contact details for as long as your opt-in status remains unchanged.

Data retained by Capitol-loans is securely stored on servers managed by our partner hosting providers. Email marketing data is securely retained and managed by our transactional and marketing email service providers.

If you would like us to delete the data we hold on our servers, please email us at info@capitol-loans.ca.

Children

Our Service is not intended for individuals under the age of 18. Capitol-loans does not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If you have reason to believe that a person under the age of 18 has provided us with personal information through the Service, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Job Applicants

When you apply for a job at Capitol-loans, the information you provide as part of your application is collected. This may include your name, contact details, professional qualifications and skills, educational and employment history, as well as other information that might appear on a résumé or be provided during interviews. We may also conduct background checks and receive information related to them.

We use applicant information to facilitate our recruitment operations and to process job applications. We may also use and disclose applicant information to improve our website, comply with applicable laws, respond to subpoenas, and protect our rights or the rights of others.

Links to Other Websites

The Service may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by Capitol-loans, including social media services and the sites of our partner lenders. Information shared with these third-party sites will be governed by their own privacy policies, not by this policy. Please contact the third-party sites directly for information regarding their privacy practices.

Data Security and Risks

Use of the site is at the user's own risk. Personal information is protected—both online and offline—against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction through commercially reasonable technical, administrative, and organizational measures. All Capitol-loans employees and contractors are expected to respect the confidentiality of personal information.

No Internet or email transmission is completely secure or error-free. You should exercise great caution regarding the information you send us via the Service or by email. We are not responsible for any circumvention of the privacy settings or security measures contained within the Service or on third-party sites. We encourage all users to provide only the information they are comfortable sharing, to remain vigilant against suspicious communications, and to report any suspicious activity to us as soon as possible.

Transfer of Personal Information Outside Canada

When personal information is transmitted or disclosed to a third party outside Canada, your information may be subject to the laws of foreign jurisdictions in connection with data processing or storage. We take diligent steps and implement appropriate safeguards to ensure the protection of your personal information, and we require our third-party service providers and partners to adopt adequate safeguards as well.

Your Choices

Updating or correcting personal information: You may request any updates or corrections necessary to ensure your personal information remains accurate, up-to-date, and complete.

Unsubscribing from marketing communications: You can unsubscribe from marketing communications by following the instructions provided in the marketing emails we send you.

Opting out of information usage practices: Users may opt out of the information processing practices described in this document that are not reasonably necessary to achieve the objectives they have requested.

Limiting online identification:

Blocking cookies: Most browsers allow you to remove or reject cookies—Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari all offer settings for this purpose.

Limiting the use of advertising identifiers: You can limit the use of your advertising identifier through your device settings.

Using privacy-focused plug-ins or browsers: You can prevent our Services from setting cookies by using a privacy-enabled browser or by installing browser plug-ins configured to block third-party cookies.

Industry opt-out options: You may also use the opt-out options provided by the Digital Advertising Alliance or the Network Advertising Initiative.

Do Not Track: We do not respond to "Do Not Track" signals or other similar signals.

Governing Law

This privacy policy and all related matters shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of Quebec and Canada.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

We may modify this privacy policy at any time. An updated version will be posted on this page, and the effective date of the update will be indicated at the top of the policy. If you continue to use our Service after an updated version is posted, you accept the revised version and the practices described therein.

Contact, filing a complaint, and requesting data deletion

If you have questions regarding our privacy policy or our personal information practices, please do not hesitate to contact us at our designated inquiry address:

Service provided in compliance with applicable regulations. No credit decisions are made via this form.

Email: info@capitol-loans.ca

Hours: Monday to Friday: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (ET), Saturday: 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM