Cookie Policy

Here at the Melton Building Society (the Melton) we think you’ll find our Cookie Policy ful-filling and you won’t think its crumby at all.

The Melton uses technology which collects and retrieves information from your computer, smartphone or tablet’s browser when you visit and use our digital services (e.g. our websites). They can be cookies, or similar technologies such as pixels, tags or web beacons. As this technology is widely known as cookies, we’ll refer to them all as that in this policy.

Some of these cookies are necessary to make an online service work, but for others we need your consent before we can collect information. If you decide to consent to these optional cookies, you can change your settings at any time.

This page is to let you know about how, why and when we use cookies.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of information contained within the pages on our websites, our apps and emails and are placed on your computer, smartphone or tablet. There are four different types of cookies:

• Session Cookie – these are set to collect and send information to us for the length of time your browser is open on our website or app
• Persistent Cookie – these stay on your device for longer to help us identify your device in the future and allow a user’s actions to be remembered. They each have their own timeframe for staying on your device.
• First Party Cookie – these are placed on your device directly by us (a first party cookie)
• Third Party Cookie – these are placed by a third party, such as an ad network, social media platform or search engine. It may result in additional cookies being set by that third party for their purposes.

Cookies and the Data they Collect.

Depending on whether we have the permission to do so and the digital service you are using, we will use cookies to collect and retrieve the following:

• Unique values so that our digital services know that they are talking to your device
• The time and date that a device has used our websites or apps, the content that you viewed and how you reached us (e.g. via a search engine)
• The type of device you are using (e.g. a tablet or a computer)
• The brand of device or browser (e.g. Apple, Android, Safari, Edge)
• Inputs made and values submitted
• General geographical location that people access from (e.g. city/town)
• Your settings for our site
• Identifiers such as Customer Number, Application Number, Device ID or IP Address that may allow the information collected to be linked to an individual

Where cookies collect information, which may be used to identify you, it will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Please be assured that none of our cookies will collect or store any secure information about you (e.g. your password(s) or memorable data).

How do We Use Cookies?

Essential cookies

These are the cookies which make our websites work and keep you safe by:

• Keeping your browsing sessions private
• Allowing you to complete an application form
• Making your time on our digital services run smoothly and securely
• Remembering your device when using our banking app to ensure member security
• Letting us know whether cookies will work on your device
• Ensuring we apply your preferences consistently

Whilst our Cookie preferences centre won’t allow you to stop these cookies, your browser may. If your browser settings prevent these cookies we can’t guarantee or predict how our websites will perform during your visit, and you won’t be able to use any secure parts of the website. We may also use these cookies to understand whether you intended to access our digital services if you clicked on a link from a partner website.

Cookies to help us improve our website

These cookies help us to gain insight and improve how we do things by:

• Understanding how our users engage with our digital services (e.g. how you move through our website pages) and what technology they use (e.g. do more people use their phone than a computer)
• Measuring and understanding the performance of our digital services and their content to continuously make improvements
• Testing different versions of our digital services with different user groups to understand which is more favourable
• Linking interactions online with activity via our other channels (e.g. branch and telephone) to ensure we make the user’s online experience easier
• Analysing individual and aggregated browsing actions and patterns (e.g. links that are clicked on and) to better understand our users
• Informing our digital strategy
• Completing activities required as part of our terms and conditions with our trusted partners (e.g. paying our partners for content they have displayed on our behalf, based on actions taken on our digital services).

Customisation cookies

These cookies help personalise your experience by:

• Remembering information such as your username when you log into certain pages
• Managing when our online surveys are presented
• Understanding when you may find it useful to start a live chat with us and making our live chat functionality work
• Customising how we display information online, based on what we learn about our users and their experience.

Targeting cookies

These cookies help us target our advertising and tailor our marketing both online and via other channels, so it is as relevant and helpful as possible by:

• Sharing or highlighting specific content to you on our digital services
• Displaying our adverts on other companies’ digital services based on the content you have viewed on our digital services
• Ensuring you are shown our marketing at an appropriate time
• Informing our marketing strategy by understanding how you interact with our online adverts

What cookies do we use?

Setting your cookies preference

You can manage your cookie settings at any time.

In addition, however, most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings.

You can also choose to:

• Opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites by visiting here
• Turn off targeting cookies from specific companies by visiting here