Privacy Policy

Effective · Last updated

1. Who we are

This policy describes how Carlos Catala DBA Houston Credit Builders.com, trading as Houston Credit Builders, handles personal information. Our business address is 12430 Grant Rd, Ste D, Cypress, TX 77429-7911.

We are a credit services organization registered with the Texas Secretary of State. Because of the work we do, we are treated as a financial institution under federal privacy law, and this policy is written to sit alongside the privacy notice you receive if and when you become a client.

“We,” “us,” and “our” mean Houston Credit Builders. “You” means anyone who uses this website or contacts us through it.

2. What we collect

We collect only what we need to answer you and, if you decide to work with us, to do the work.

When you fill out the consultation form

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your phone number, if you choose to give it
• Whatever you write in the message box, which typically includes details about your credit situation
• The fact that you ticked the consent box, and when

The message box asks what is going on with your credit. People often use it to describe debts, collections, missed payments, or other financial difficulty. Please share only what you are comfortable sharing at this stage. You do not need to include account numbers, your Social Security number, or your date of birth to request a consultation, and we ask that you do not put them in the form.

When you talk to us

• What you tell us during the free consultation about your credit, your goals, and your circumstances
• Notes we take so we can follow up properly

If you become a client

Work beyond the free consultation requires more information, and we collect it under a separate written agreement that tells you exactly what is needed and why. That can include identifying information, your credit reports, and correspondence with credit bureaus, creditors, and furnishers.

Automatically, when you visit this site

Our hosting provider records standard server information such as your IP address, browser type, the pages you requested, and the time of the request. This is used to keep the site running and secure. We do not use it to build a profile of you.

3. Where it comes from

Almost everything we hold comes directly from you: from the form, from the consultation call, or from documents you choose to send us. If you become a client, we may also receive information from the credit bureaus and from creditors and furnishers in the course of the work, always with your authorization and under the written agreement.

We do not buy lead lists, and we do not obtain your credit information before you have asked us to.

4. How we use it

• To respond to your enquiry and schedule your free consultation
• To have that consultation with you and follow up on it
• To provide the services you sign up for, if you sign up
• To keep records we are required by law to keep, including records of the consent you gave us
• To keep the website and our systems secure, and to prevent fraud and abuse
• To meet our legal and regulatory obligations

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for their own advertising or marketing.

5. Who we share it with

We share your information only in these situations:

• Service providers who run our systems. These are our website host (Netlify), the service that delivers consultation-form messages to our inbox (Resend), and Microsoft, whose encrypted software we use to store client records. These providers handle the information only to deliver their service to us, and they are not permitted to use it for anything else.
• Credit bureaus, creditors, and furnishers, where doing the work you have hired us to do requires it, and with your authorization.
• Professional advisers, such as our attorney or accountant, where they need it to advise us.
• Regulators, courts, and law enforcement, where the law requires us to produce it or where it is necessary to establish or defend a legal claim.

That is the complete list. If it ever needs to change, this policy changes with it.

6. How long we keep it

If you become a client, we keep the information related to your agreement for as long as the agreement is in force. Within one working week after it ends, we securely dispose of that information. The only exception is records the law requires us to keep, such as the consent record described in section 9. We keep those only for as long as the law requires, and we dispose of them after that.

If you contact us but do not become a client, we may keep your enquiry and our notes from any consultation for up to one year, so that we can pick up where we left off if you come back to us. After that, we securely dispose of it.

When the retention period ends, we securely dispose of the information. If you ask us to delete your information sooner, we will do so unless we are required to keep it, in which case we will tell you what we are keeping and why.

7. How we protect it

We maintain a written information security program appropriate to our size and to the sensitivity of what we hold. In practice that means access to your information is limited to people who need it to do the work, systems are protected by strong authentication, information is encrypted in transit, client records are stored in encrypted software provided by Microsoft, and we review these safeguards periodically.

No method of transmitting information over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot promise absolute security. If a breach affecting your information does occur, we will notify you as required by law.

8. Your choices and your rights

You can ask us to:

• Tell you what personal information we hold about you
• Give you a copy of it
• Correct it if it is wrong
• Delete it, subject to records we are legally required to keep
• Stop contacting you, at any time and for any reason

Send any of these requests to . We will confirm we have received it and respond within the time the law allows. We will not charge you for making a request, and we will not treat you differently for having made one.

Texas residents have rights under the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, including the right to appeal if we refuse a request. If we refuse, we will tell you how to appeal. You may also contact the Office of the Texas Attorney General.

9. Calls and text messages

If you give us your phone number and tick the consent box on the contact form, you are agreeing that we may call or text you about your enquiry. Our whole process starts with a phone call, so this is how we reach you.

• Consent is not a condition of purchasing anything from us.
• Message and data rates may apply.
• You can withdraw consent at any time by telling us on a call, replying STOP to a text, or emailing . Withdrawing consent will not affect anything we have already done, and it will not stop us replying to an enquiry you have already sent.

We keep a record of the consent you gave, including the wording you were shown and the date and time, because we are required to.

10. Cookies and analytics

This site does not set advertising or tracking cookies, and it does not run third-party analytics or advertising scripts. Nothing here follows you across other websites.

11. Children

Our services are for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us information, contact and we will delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. If a change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will tell you directly.

13. How to reach us

Questions about this policy, or about anything on this page, go to .

Carlos Catala DBA Houston Credit Builders.com
12430 Grant Rd, Ste D, Cypress, TX 77429-7911