About Our Cookies
Here at Vanquis we realise that many people may not be familiar with cookies and other similar technologies, so we feel it's important to shed some light on what they are and how they're used to help our site visitors understand them a bit more. That way you can make informed decisions about your cookie preferences. Below you'll find a guide to cookies in general, as well as more detail about the cookies used on the Vanquis website.
By now you may already have selected whether you’d like to opt in to cookies or not. Once you've read this information, you can choose to change your decision if you wish.
If you choose to continue to browse our site without making any changes, we’ll assume that you are happy with your original decision and will continue to use the cookies you opted in to throughout your visit.
What is a cookie and why are they used?
A cookie is a small piece of text information that a website transfers to your computer's hard drive so that it can remember you.
The information in a cookie usually includes the name of the website, their ‘duration' or ‘lifetime' (i.e. how long they will remain on your hard drive) and a unique identifier, which is usually a randomly generated number.
Cookies are generally used by most website operators to recognise visitors when they return, to store any preferences expressed by visitors when using the website and help highlight areas for website improvement, all of which is intended to improve the visitor experience.
Should I be worried about cookies?
Many people may be worried that website operators using cookies will be able to personally identify them and/or access their private information stored on their computers hard drive.
This is not the case; cookies, and certainly those set by Vanquis, cannot access any information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive. In addition, the only way a cookie could be used to personally identify you is if you choose to offer up personal information; for example, when you complete an application form.
It is important to note that you should only ever provide your personal information on secure websites that you know you can trust. A quick and easy way to check whether a website is secure is to look out for the padlock symbol. You can be assured that the Vanquis website is secure.
For the most part, the use of cookies is intended to improve a visitor’s experience of a website, either by remembering personal preferences or collecting anonymous statistics that, when analysed, can be used to improve your website experience.
Does the Vanquis website set cookies?
Yes; Vanquis sets ‘session’, ‘persistent’ and ‘third party cookies’. Examples of our purposes for using these are shown below.
Use the Cookie Setting button below to find more detail on cookies. In the Cookie Preference Centre you can update your preferences at any time.
Session Cookies
These are temporary cookies that are only stored on your computer for as long as you're on a particular website. If you close your browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Google Chrome) and end your ‘session', the cookie will automatically be deleted.
Session cookies tend to be used to remember things whilst you're browsing a website. For example, to allow information you've provided on our site to be carried through to other pages so that you don't have to enter the same information repeatedly; for example, when you complete our application form. It is important to note that this information will be automatically deleted when you leave our website.
Session cookies will generally be ‘Strictly Necessary’ or ‘Performance’ cookies to ensure the website functions properly and provides a positive user experience. You cannot opt out of ‘Strictly Necessary Cookies’.
Persistent cookies
Like session cookies, persistent cookies are also used to remember things from when you've been browsing, but because they're still on your computer after you've left a website, they can be used to make sure that when you return what you're seeing is relevant to you. Some examples of how we use persistent cookies are:
- To help us recognise whether you've been to our site before, so that when you return, we can tailor content and advertisements to your preferences and also to make sure we don't repeatedly show you the same advertisements.
- To make sure you're not asked to complete research surveys too frequently and after you've already done so or chosen not.
- To collate anonymous statistics that allow us to understand how visitors use our site. We use this information to help us improve the structure of our website to ultimately improve your experience on it.
Persistent cookies will generally be ‘Performance’ or ‘Functional’ cookies to ensure the website provides a positive user experience.
Third party cookies
These are cookies that are set by or whose information is sent back to a website that is different to the one you're viewing.
These cookies are used for marketing purposes; for instance, to show advertisements for our website on other websites and search engines and to track when people click on them.
For example, search engines like Google often set cookies so they can know where people go after using their website, but the anonymous, statistical information is collected when you've moved onto another website. Alternatively, advertisers often show adverts on sites that aren't their own and use cookies to find out when people are viewing and clicking on them.
These cookies fall into two categories:
Targeting & Advertising Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They can be used and shared by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. This is based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social Media Cookies
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies, you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
Can I delete cookies from my own computer?
Yes; you can delete cookies from your computer by clearing the history from your browser. The way to do this varies depending on which browser you use, but you can find simple step-by-step instructions for many different browser types on the About Cookies website.
You can also amend your settings to control whether or not your browser accepts cookies, but it's worth bearing in mind that many websites rely on cookies to allow them to function properly and choosing to reject cookies may mean you're not able to use all the features you're used to. You can again find information on how to do this on the About Cookies website.
Website Recording
This site uses ContentSquare web analytics service. ContentSquare may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, scrolling activity as well as selected non-personal text you type in this website. This site does not use ContentSquare to collect any personally identifiable information entered in this website. ContentSquare does not track your browsing habits across web sites which do not use ContentSquare services. For more information see Privacy Policy for Information Collected by the ContentSquare Web Analytics Service. We are using the information collected by ContentSquare service to improve our website, make it more user-friendly and monitor that it is performing correctly.
How to disable this:
You can choose to disable the Service at ContentSquare Cookie Policy. Please note that the opt out uses a third-party cookie such that if a Visitor erases their cookies they will need to click the ‘Disable ContentSquare’ option again in order to opt out from being tracked by the Service.