Cookie Policy
How this independent editorial review site uses cookies, and how you can control them.
Partner's licencesA cookie in practice
When you open a page on this site and your browser remembers that you have already closed the notice about cookies, that small stored preference is a cookie at work. It is not a program, not a profile of you, and not something that runs on your device after you leave. It is a short piece of text that a website asks your browser to keep and to send back on later requests, so that the site can recognise the same browser and behave consistently.
Generalising from that example: a cookie is a small file, tied to a domain, with a name, a value and an expiry. Some expire when you close the browser, others persist for a set period. This site uses a small number of them, and the sections below explain what each kind does and how long it lives.
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies make the site work. They carry your cookie choices, keep a page session stable while you read, and help protect forms on the site from misuse. Without them, parts of the site would not function, and the cookie notice would reappear on every page.
Strictly necessary cookies are set by this site itself. They are not used to build advertising profiles and are not shared for marketing. Because they are required for the site to operate, they are placed without a separate consent step, but you can still block them in your browser as described below; doing so may break parts of the site.
Their lifetime is short. Session cookies last until you close the browser. The cookie that records your choices lasts up to twelve months, so that the notice does not return on every visit.
Measurement and analytics
This site uses analytics cookies to understand which pages readers open, how they arrive, and where they leave. The purpose is editorial: to see which reviews and explanations are useful, which pages are hard to find, and where the site is slow or broken. The data is read in aggregate, not to identify you personally.
Analytics cookies set by third-party services are placed only after you accept them through the cookie notice. If you decline, the site still works and no analytics cookies are set. These cookies typically live for up to twenty-four months, depending on the service, and are refreshed when you return.
We do not use analytics to sell advertising or to build cross-site profiles for marketing.
Cookies set by third parties
Some cookies on this site come from third parties rather than from the site itself. These may include the analytics provider described above and, where a page embeds a video or a document, the service that supplies it. A third-party cookie is tied to the domain of that provider, not to this site, and the provider's own cookie policy governs how it is used.
We do not control the setting of third-party cookies and cannot read them. We choose providers with care, but we do not name them here because the list can change. Where a third-party cookie is not strictly necessary, it is placed only after you accept the relevant category in the cookie notice.
Third-party cookies usually live for between a single session and twenty-four months, depending on the provider and the purpose.
How to control cookies
You can accept, decline or change your choices at any time through the cookie notice on this site. Declining non-essential cookies does not block your access to the reviews. You can also control cookies in your browser: most browsers let you view stored cookies, delete them, block them for specific sites, or block third-party cookies entirely. The help pages of your browser explain where these settings are.
If you block all cookies, including strictly necessary ones, some parts of the site may not work as intended, and your cookie choices will not be remembered. Clearing cookies in your browser removes the choices stored there, and the notice will appear again on your next visit.
This site does not provide financial services, accounts, deposits or advice, and it is not the broker it reviews. Questions about cookies can be sent through the contact form on this site.
Changes to this policy
This policy is reviewed when the site's cookie use changes, for example when an analytics service is replaced or a new embed is added. The current version is always published on this page, and the date of the last update is shown at the top.
If a change affects which cookies are set or how long they live, the cookie notice will be updated at the same time, and your choices will be requested again where the law requires it. Continued use of the site after an update means you accept the revised policy, but you can change your cookie choices at any time as described above.
