Privacy policy

Last updated: 12 October 2026

This policy explains how Marlin Credit (Pty) Ltd (“Marlin Credit”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, shares and protects personal information, as the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) requires. It applies to this website, to applications sent through it, and to the information we receive when you phone, WhatsApp or email us.

1. Who we are

Marlin Credit (Pty) Ltd is the responsible party for your personal information. Our details are:

Our Information Officer deals with privacy questions and requests. You can reach the Information Officer here:

• Email: info@marlincredit.co.za (write “For the attention of the Information Officer” in the subject line)
• Telephone: 021 949 0930
• Address: 17 Victoria Road, Oakdale, Bellville 7530

2. The personal information we collect

When you apply on this website

The application form on our apply page has two steps. Step 1 asks for:

• your first name and last name;
• your mobile number, and an alternate number if you want to give one;
• your email address;
• your province; and
• the type of loan you are interested in.

It also asks a simple sum, so we can tell people from automated spam. Step 2 asks for your South African ID number and the lump-sum amount you expect, and lets you upload a copy of your ID and proof of your expected payout. It also asks how you heard about us. You can skip step 2 and give us this information later.

While we assess and arrange your loan

To assess your application we ask for documents such as:

• A copy of your ID
• Your pension or provident fund benefit statement
• Your most recent payslip
• Your last two months' bank statements confirming a severance package or medical disability (if relevant)
• A letter of severance from your employer (if relevant)
• For a divorce pension claim: your divorce agreement and marriage certificate

We also hold the results of your credit check and affordability assessment, your quote and loan agreement, information about the guarantee or life insurance your loan requires, and the records of the money we pay you and the repayment we receive.

When you contact us

When you phone, WhatsApp or email us, we keep your contact details and what you tell us, so that we can help you and keep a record of your enquiry.

When you visit this website

Like any website, this site receives technical information from your browser, such as your IP address and browser type, so that pages can be delivered to you. With your permission only, it also uses analytics and advertising cookies. Our cookie policy lists exactly what is stored and why.

Special personal information

Some information can reveal details about your health, for example if your payout is a medical boarding or disability payout, or if a document you send mentions a medical condition. POPIA calls this special personal information. We process it only as POPIA permits and only for assessing and administering your loan. Nothing you put in your application or documents is sent to our analytics or advertising providers.

Some documents also contain information about other people, such as a divorce agreement. Please send us only what we ask for.

3. Why we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry and phone you about it;
• verify your identity and the information you give us, including your expected payout;
• run a credit check and the affordability assessment that the National Credit Act requires before we may grant credit;
• prepare your quote and loan agreement, pay out your loan and receive your repayment;
• arrange the guarantee or life insurance that your loan requires;
• keep the records the law requires and meet our other legal and regulatory obligations;
• deal with any complaint or dispute;
• understand which of our marketing works (from your answer to “how did you hear about us”); and
• with your permission, understand how this website is used and measure our advertising (see our cookie policy).

4. Do you have to give us your information?

No one has to apply for a loan. If you do, the fields marked with an asterisk (*) on the application form are needed to send it: without them we can't contact you or process your enquiry. Step 2 of the form and the document uploads are optional when you first apply.

Before we can grant a loan, the National Credit Act requires us to assess whether you can afford it. If you don't give us the information and documents we need for that assessment and to verify your application, we can't grant the loan.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal information only as far as needed for the purposes above, with:

• Service providers who process information for us, under POPIA's rules for operators: our website host (Vercel), the provider of the client management system that receives your application (the form on our apply page sends your details straight into it), and, only if you allow analytics or advertising cookies, Google (Google Analytics) and Meta (Facebook and Instagram). We never send Google or Meta your name, contact details, ID number, documents or anything you type into the application form.
• Credit bureaux, for your credit check.
• People who can confirm your information, such as your employer or the fund or institution that will pay your lump sum.
• The provider of the guarantee or life insurance that your loan requires.
• Banks, to pay out your loan and receive your repayment.
• Other parties involved in arranging or administering your loan, where you have agreed or the law allows it.
• Regulators, courts and law-enforcement authorities, where the law requires it.
• Our auditors and professional advisers, who must keep it confidential.

6. Information sent outside South Africa

Some of our service providers process information outside South Africa. These include our website host and, if you allow analytics or advertising cookies, Google and Meta. We transfer personal information outside South Africa only as section 72 of POPIA allows: for example, where the recipient is bound by law, binding corporate rules or an agreement that gives the information adequate protection, or where you agree to the transfer.

Each of these providers explains its own practices: Vercel, Google (including how Google uses information from sites that use its services) and Meta.

7. How long we keep it

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, or for as long as the law requires us to keep it, for example the records that credit and tax laws require. After that we delete or destroy it, or remove the details that identify you.

8. How we protect it

We take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to prevent the loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of personal information, and unlawful access to or processing of it. This means that we take reasonable measures to:

• identify reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to the personal information we hold;
• establish and maintain appropriate safeguards against those risks;
• regularly check that the safeguards are working; and
• update the safeguards in response to new risks or weaknesses.

This website is served only over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Our service providers must protect the information they process for us. If we believe that someone without authority has accessed or acquired your personal information, we will tell you and the Information Regulator, as POPIA requires.

9. Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask us to confirm, free of charge, whether we hold personal information about you;
• ask for a record or description of the personal information we hold about you, including who has had access to it. A prescribed fee may apply, and if it does we will give you a written estimate first;
• ask us to correct or delete personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained, or to destroy or delete a record we may no longer keep;
• object, on reasonable grounds, to our processing of your personal information;
• object at any time to the use of your personal information for direct marketing;
• withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on your consent (this does not affect what we did before);
• not be subject, in the circumstances POPIA sets out, to a decision based solely on automated processing; and
• complain to the Information Regulator.

To use any of these rights, contact our Information Officer (see section 1). We will ask you for proof of identity before we act on a request, so that we never give your information to someone else. You may use the Information Regulator's forms if you wish: Form 1 (objection) and Form 2 (correction or deletion). Requests for records can also be made under our PAIA manual.

Sometimes we may not be able to give you access to information, for example where it would reveal another person's personal information or breach a duty of confidentiality, or we may need to keep information that the law requires us to hold. If so, we will tell you why.

10. Direct marketing

We send marketing by email, SMS or other electronic means only if you have agreed to it or, if you are our client, about our own similar products and services. Every marketing message tells you who it is from and how to stop receiving them, free of charge. You can also ask us to stop at any time by emailing info@marlincredit.co.za or phoning us on 021 949 0930.

11. Cookies

This website uses strictly necessary cookies and browser storage to work. It uses analytics and advertising cookies only if you allow them, and you can change your choice at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page. See our cookie policy.

12. Other websites and WhatsApp

This website links to other websites and services, for example WhatsApp and the regulators' websites. They have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for how they handle your information. If you message us on WhatsApp, WhatsApp processes that conversation under its own privacy policy.

13. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices or the law change. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed, and the updated version replaces all earlier versions.

14. Questions and complaints

Please contact our Information Officer with any question or concern about your personal information (see section 1). You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator:

• Website: inforegulator.org.za
• Complaints about how your personal information is handled: lodge them on the Regulator's eServices Portal (you first register a user profile there)
• General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
• Telephone: 010 023 5200 · Toll free: 0800 017 160
• Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191

Our complaints page explains how to raise any other concern with us.