Cookies

Protecting and managing your online privacy

We are committed to protecting you and any data (anonymous or otherwise) that we collect about you online. This section tells you how we use cookies, why, and how this allows us to improve our service. It also tells you how you can manage what cookies are stored on your device. We call it our “Cookies Policy”.

By using our websites (through any device) you agree that this Cookies Policy applies to that use in addition to any other terms and conditions which may apply.

We reserve the right to make changes to our Cookies Policy. Any such changes shall appear here and become effective immediately. Your continued use of our websites is taken as meaning that you agree to any such changes.

What is a cookie?

Cookies are files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to the device you use when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies do lots of different and useful jobs, such as remembering your preferences, and generally improving your online experience.

There are different types of cookies. They all work in the same way, but have minor differences:
 

Session cookies

Session cookies last only for the duration of your visit and are deleted when you close your browser. These facilitate various tasks such as allowing a website to identify that a user of a particular device is navigating from page to page, supporting website security or basic functionality.

Many of the cookies we use are session cookies. For example, they help us to ensure the security of a login session while you move between pages or service within our site.

Our session cookies used for security are designed to be very difficult to read, change, access or use except by us. They contain no personal information that can be used to identify an individual.

Persistent cookies

Persistent cookies last after you have closed your browser, and allow a website to remember your actions and preferences. For example if you choose to let a website remember your login email address then it stores it in such a cookie, or for security an internal id that can be looked up to retrieve your email address, this saves your actual address being stored and rather a random id such as b23c3b874f which is meaningless to anyone but us.

For full details about our cookies, we’ve put together a list of the cookies we use.

First and third party cookies

Whether a cookie is a first or third party cookie depends on which website the cookie comes from. First party cookies are those set by or on behalf of the website visited. All other cookies are third party cookies. We use both first party and third party cookies, which you can read more about in our list of the cookies that we use.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, and ensuring the security of your online banking experience. Without these cookies services you have asked for, such as login areas, cannot be provided. These cookies don’t gather information about you for the purposes of marketing.

Performance cookies

These cookies collect information about how visitors use a web site, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don't collect information that identifies a visitor although they may collect the IP address of the device used to access the site.  All information these cookies collect is anonymous and is only used to improve how a website works. By using our websites you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device, however you can block these cookies using your browser settings. For more information on how to do this you may wish to watch one of our short video guides which explain how this is done in popular web browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari).

Functionality cookies

These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name), recently view items, previous pages visited to help you quickly go back. The information these cookies collect is anonymised (i.e. it does not contain your name, address, account details, etc.) and they do not track your browsing activity across other websites. By using our websites you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device, however you can block these cookies using your browser settings. For more information on how to do this you may wish to watch one of our short video guides which explain how this is done in popular web browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari).

Targeting cookies

These cookies collect several pieces of information about your browsing habits. They are usually placed by advertising networks. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as media publishers.

These organisations do this in order to provide you with targeted adverts more relevant to you and your interests. This type of advertising is called online behavioural advertising and those companies providing this advertising are working with the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau to deliver more information to consumers.

To highlight this information, publishers of advertising will, in the future, look to place an icon in the top right hand corner of an advert. This icon when clicked, will take you through to the website your online choices where there is more help and guidance. If we were to use any any advertising networks we would only use advertising networks which are signed up to the IASH code of conduct for the placement of adverts. This code requires members to have their processes audited by a third party to ensure compliance.  For more information on IASH please go to http://www.iash.org.uk.

By using our websites you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device, however you can block these cookies using your browser settings. For more information on how to do this you may wish to watch one of our short video guides which explain how this is done in popular web browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari).

Cookies we use

Below is a full list of the cookies we use along with a description of what they are used for, and whether they are ‘first’ or ‘third’ party. Where a cookie is a third party cookie, please visit the providers’ website for more information.

APSESSION

This cookie is used to keep the connection between your browser and our servers as you move around our website. It uses a randomly generated identifier and does not contain any personal information other than your IP address. This is a first party cookie.

ASP.net_sessionID

This cookie is used for storing your session ID which is used to identify the customer. Session ID is then used to store the customers data for 15 minutes so they do not have to rekey information when navigating between pages.

cMsgStatus

This cookie is used for your preference to Accept and hide the popup notification we display regarding this policy. We display the notification to comply with the EU Cookie directive as off May 2012. Without this cookie you would see the notification even if you were to accept it.

 _Utma

 The _utma cookie is part of Google analytics, and is primarily used to track visits to any site which uses Google analytics. _utma stores the number of visits made from your device, the time of the first visit, the previous visit, and the current visit. This cookie does not contain any personal information other than the IP address of your device. This is a third party cookie.
 

 _Utmb

 The _utmb cookie is part of Google analytics. __utmb and __utmc are used to check approximately how long you stay on any site which uses Google analytics: when a visit starts, and approximately ends. This cookie does not contain any personal information other than the IP address of your device. This is a third party cookie.
 

 _Utmc

 The _utmc cookie is part of Google analytics. __utmb and __utmc are used to check approximately how long you stay on any site which uses Google analytics: when a visit starts, and approximately ends. This cookie does not contain any personal information other than the IP address of your device. This is a third party cookie.
 

 _Utmv

 The _utmv cookie is part of Google analytics. It contains no specific customer data other than the IP address of your device, but is used to record Custom variables for segmentation. This is a third party cookie.
 

 __atuvc

 The __atuvc cookie is created and read by our social share button 3rd party plugin provided by AddThis.com in order to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before their share count cache is updated. No data from that cookie is sent back to AddThis and removing it when disabling cookies would cause unexpected behavior for users.

What if I don't want to accept cookies?

If you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by any website, you should do this through the browser settings for each browser you use, on each device you use to access the Internet. Please be aware that some of our services, for example secured login areas, will not function if your browser does not accept cookies. However, you can allow cookies from specific websites by making them “trusted websites” in your Internet browser. For more information on how to do this you may wish to watch one of our short video guides which explain how this is done in popular web browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari).

Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.allaboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wider variety of browsers.