Terms of Use

1. Introduction & Agreement

Welcome to Padlock. By accessing or using our website, web application, or household bill monitoring services (“Padlock” or the “Service”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use the Service.

Padlock provides automated household bill monitoring, document analysis, regional benchmark comparisons, and supplier switching support, starting with energy bills and expanding across household services.

2. Account Creation & Acceptable Use

To access full features, you must create a Padlock account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete household information (including your name, email address, property details, and postcode).

• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.
• You must use Padlock only for your own personal or household bill management.
• You must not attempt to reverse engineer, probe, scan, overload, or disrupt any portion of the Service or its underlying database systems.
• You must not upload fraudulent, unlawful, or malicious files.

3. Bill Analysis & Document Extraction

Padlock allows you to upload energy bills (PDFs, images, or manual inputs) for document reading and data extraction.

• Automated Extraction: We extract key bill parameters including supplier name, tariff name, rates (unit rates and standing charges in pence), annual consumption (kWh), contract start/end dates, and exit fees.
• No Fabrication: If a document is missing required data points, Padlock flags those fields as unverified or missing rather than inventing values.
• User Responsibility for Verification: AI document extraction is an automated aid. You remain solely responsible for reviewing and confirming all extracted figures before relying on calculations or initiating switches.

4. Market Comparison & Benchmark Information

Padlock presents energy cost comparisons using regional regulatory benchmark data and live market provider feeds:

• Ofgem Benchmarks: Where regulatory benchmark rates are presented (such as Ofgem Price Cap estimates), they are explicitly labeled as “OFGEM BENCHMARK” or “Ofgem benchmark”. Benchmarks provide a regional reference cost based on standard consumption and are not live commercial supplier quotes.
• Market Availability: Live commercial deals depend on third-party provider integration and availability in your PES distribution region. In environments where live provider feeds are unconfigured or unavailable, Padlock presents regional Ofgem benchmark rates and strictly avoids generating mock supplier tariffs.

5. Recommendations & Savings Estimates

Padlock evaluates deals using a deterministic calculation engine based on pure integer-pence arithmetic.

• Non-Guaranteed Estimates: All savings calculations (“Estimated potential saving: £XXX”) are projections based on your stated or extracted annual usage (kWh), unit rates, standing charges, and applicable exit fees.
• No Guaranteed Savings: Actual annual costs may vary depending on actual future energy consumption, weather patterns, tariff rate revisions, billing period changes, or supplier terms. Savings figures are informative estimates, not guaranteed financial returns.
• Neutral Ranking: Recommendations are ranked purely on net financial benefit, contract duration, exit fee impact, and confidence level. Commercial commission does not influence tariff ranking or status outcomes.

6. Supplier Switching & Third-Party Providers

Padlock facilitates energy supplier switches when explicitly requested by you.

• Explicit Approval Required: Padlock never switches your energy supplier without your explicit instruction and submission confirmation.
• Third-Party Contracts: When you request a switch, your new energy contract is executed directly with the chosen energy supplier. Padlock is not a party to your energy supply agreement.
• Cooling-off & Direct Debit: Switching applications are subject to the new supplier's credit checks, terms, statutory 14-day cooling-off period, and Direct Debit setup requirements.

7. Commission Disclosure & Commercial Transparency

Padlock is committed to complete commercial transparency:

Our recommendation algorithms evaluate deals without bias, placing consumer savings ahead of commercial commission.

8. Disclaimers & Limitations of Liability

• “As Is” Service: Padlock is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.
• No Financial or Regulatory Advice: Information provided by Padlock is for general household bill management and monitoring purposes and does not constitute regulated financial, legal, or tax advice.
• Limitation of Liability: To the maximum extent permitted by UK law, Padlock and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or loss of savings, arising from your reliance on extracted bill figures, market benchmark data, recommendation calculations, or third-party supplier switches.

9. Termination & Changes to Terms

You may stop using Padlock at any time and may permanently delete your account and all stored documents via your Account Settings.

We reserve the right to update or modify these Terms of Use at any time to reflect updates to our service, changes in energy market regulations, or statutory legal requirements. Continued use of Padlock following any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.