Security and Privacy

Data Protection Statement

This site is provided by Abbey National plc. This is our Privacy Statement. It explains how this site obtains, uses and keeps safe information about you. We may share information with our group of companies and with other companies acting on our behalf, who may be located in other countries. If we do so, we will ensure that your information is used only in accordance with our instructions and our own strict internal confidentiality policies. If any of these companies are located overseas, we will ensure that your information is given the same levels of protection as required under the UK Data Protection Act. We (Abbey) may change the content or services found on this website at any time without notice, and consequently our privacy policy may change at any time in the future. You agree to revisit this page regularly and your continued access to or use of the website will mean that you agree to the changes.

Personal Information

Your personal information may be collected via our website in two ways: webserver logs; and the entering of email addresses and names. If you submit your details in the "Add your story" section, we will use your information to contact you and if agreed, will publish your experiences and photograph on the site. In addition, we (Abbey) would like to use your information to email you details of First Time Buyer communications. (When deciding whether to provide you with details of a credit product, we (Abbey) may search the files of credit reference agencies. A record of this search will not be made available to other lenders who search your file.)

If you want to receive First Time Buyer communications, you can indicate this when you submit your story in the "Add your story" section.

If you would like to see what records we hold about you, an information sheet explaining your rights is available from any of our branches.

Third Parties and Cookies

We (Abbey) use independent companies to measure and analyse how people use this website. They use cookies to gather and collate information such as the number of pages viewed on the site, the number of visitors and common ways of arriving at or leaving the site. Doing this enables us to keep our content and navigation fresh and useful.

We don't and won't link any information collected by these outside agencies with any personal information collected about you on the website.

What's in a cookie?

A cookie is a small file that can be saved onto your computer when you visit a website. We use them to monitor visits to areas of our website. Abbey's site-tracking cookies don't contain name or address information, but they do contain...

  • A uniquely generated random number - so that we differentiate one visitor from another.
  • The date and time of your last visit to the website.

We use two main types of cookie:

  • Permanent cookies : These are the ones stored on your computer to track repeat visits and where you've been on the site.
  • Temporary cookies : These are used to make sure that services like e-banking work properly. When you close your browser down they are deleted from your computer.

Your web browser lets you turn off both permanent and temporary cookies. However, if you do disable cookies you might not be able to use some of the services on this website.

If you want to turn off cookies on your browser, follow the instructions below and select the 'disable/reject' options at the end.

If you've turned off cookies on your browser but want to turn them back on again follow these simple steps (specific to your browser version) and then choose 'accept'.

Microsoft Internet Explorer v5

To enable cookies using Internet Explorer v5:

  1. Click on the 'Tools' menu.
  2. Select 'Internet Options'.
  3. Click on the 'Security' tab. and choose the 'Custom Level' button.
  4. Find the cookies option and enable both types, 'stored...' (Permanent cookies) and 'per session...' (Temporary cookies).

Microsoft Internet Explorer v6

To enable cookies using Internet Explorer v6:

  1. Click on the 'Tools' menu.
  2. Select 'Internet Options'.
  3. Click on the 'Privacy' tab and choose the 'Advanced options' button , .
  4. Check the 'Override automatic cookie handling' tick-box.
  5. Enable the 'First party' cookies by choosing the 'Accept' or 'Prompt' option.
  6. Enable the 'Third party' cookies by choosing the 'Accept' or 'Prompt' option.

Netscape Navigator v4 and above

To enable cookies using Netscape v4 and above:

  1. Click on 'Edit' on the menu bar and select 'Preferences... ',
  2. Choose the 'Advanced' category,
  3. Choose the 'Accept all cookies' option and click OK to confirm.

Legal statement about this Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement is not designed to form a legally binding contract between Abbey and users of our website or online services. Instead it's a guide to our online protection standards - although of course we do consider it of utmost importance to abide by the principles stated here.