Your choices
Cookies policy.
What cookies therealdebtguy.com sets, what third parties may set when you use our services, and how to manage your preferences. Plain English.
What cookies are.
Cookies are small text files that a website places on your device (phone, tablet, or computer) so it can remember things about your visit. Some cookies are set by the site you're on (first-party cookies), and some are set by other services embedded in the page, such as a payment provider or an analytics tool (third-party cookies).
Cookies can also be short-lived (session cookies, deleted when you close your browser) or longer-lived (persistent cookies, kept for a set period). Similar technologies like local storage, pixels, and fingerprinting perform related functions and are covered by the same rules as cookies under UK law.
Under the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the UK GDPR, we can only place non-essential cookies on your device with your consent, and we have to tell you what each one does.
What we set on this site.
Two things get stored on your device when you use therealdebtguy.com: a small consent record that remembers your cookie choice, and (only if you accept) Google Analytics 4 cookies. Everything is listed below by name, purpose, and lifetime.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
trdgConsent |
Local storage (not a cookie) | Records your Accept or Reject choice from the cookie banner so we don't ask again on every page. Contains only your choice, a timestamp, and a version number. | Until you clear your browser storage, or until we bump the policy version and ask again. |
_ga |
Analytics cookie (Google Analytics 4) | Distinguishes one visitor from another so we can count unique users and measure how the site is performing. Only set if you click Accept. | 2 years from your last visit. |
_ga_BQW492RN6K |
Analytics cookie (Google Analytics 4) | Persists session state for our specific GA4 property so page views in a single visit are grouped as one session. Only set if you click Accept. | 2 years from your last visit. |
How Google Analytics is configured.
- Off by default. The tag loads on every page but sends nothing until you click Accept. We use Google Consent Mode v2 to enforce this at the browser level.
- Cookieless when rejected. If you click Reject or your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we set zero cookies and Google receives only anonymous, aggregate pings with no personal identifiers.
- IP anonymisation. Your IP address is truncated before Google stores it. We can't tie visits to a specific address.
- No advertising signals. Ad storage, ad personalisation, and ad user data are all set to denied. We don't run remarketing and we don't share your data with Google's advertising products.
- Change your mind any time. The Cookie preferences link in the footer re-opens the banner.
Cookie categories.
The UK regulator groups cookies into four categories. Here's what each one means and where we stand today.
-
Strictly necessary In use
Cookies (or equivalent local storage) that are essential to make the site work: remembering your cookie choice, keeping form sessions alive, or keeping you signed in to an account. These don't need your consent because without them the site couldn't do what you asked it to do.
Today: we store your consent choice (
trdgConsent) in your browser's local storage. See section 2 for detail. -
Functional None set today
Cookies that improve the experience without being essential: remembering your language preference, layout choices, or which sections of a page you had open. These need your consent.
Today: we set none.
-
Analytics In use with consent
Cookies that help us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it. These need your consent.
Today: Google Analytics 4 is installed. It sets two cookies (
_gaand_ga_BQW492RN6K, both 2-year lifetime) only if you click Accept. If you reject or ignore the banner, no analytics cookies are set. See section 2 for full detail on how it's configured. -
Marketing and advertising None set today, none planned
Cookies used to build a profile of you across websites and show you targeted advertising. These need your consent.
Today: we set none, and we have no plans to. TRDG doesn't run retargeting ads, and we don't sell or share your data with advertising networks.
Third-party cookies.
When you use certain features on therealdebtguy.com, you're handed off to another service, and that service sets its own cookies on your device. These aren't ours. They're set by the third party under their own privacy and cookies policies. You should know about them because they wouldn't happen without the service being embedded on our site.
| Service | When it runs | What cookies it may set | Their policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Every page load. Vercel hosts the site and may set a small number of infrastructure cookies for security (bot protection) and performance (edge routing). | Session and short-lived security cookies. No personal profiling. | Vercel privacy |
| Stripe | When you click a Buy button and are taken to buy.stripe.com to pay. Also runs on our thank-you and upload pages after payment. |
__stripe_mid, __stripe_sid, and related. Used for fraud prevention and to keep your checkout session working. Strictly necessary to process a payment. |
Stripe cookies |
| Tally | On any page that embeds a form: Contact, the Letter Audit upload form after checkout, and the Full Support enquiry form. | Session cookies to keep your form entries alive if you refresh, plus limited technical cookies. No advertising cookies. | Tally privacy |
| Mailchimp | When you submit the newsletter signup form. The form posts to Mailchimp, and any Mailchimp cookies are set on their confirmation page, not ours. | Mailchimp's own cookies once you land on their subscribe-success page. We don't embed Mailchimp scripts on our site. | Mailchimp (Intuit) privacy |
| Facebook (Meta) | When you're taken from Community or the Community welcome page to the private Facebook group. All Facebook cookies are set once you're on facebook.com, not while you're on our site. | Facebook sets its full range of authentication, security, and personalisation cookies once you're on their platform. We don't run the Meta Pixel and we don't send Facebook any information about your visit to our site. | Facebook cookies |
| Zoom | When you join a Clarity Call or Private Call and open the Zoom link. | Zoom's session, security, and preference cookies, set on zoom.us once you join. | Zoom cookies |
| Google (fonts) | On every page. We load the Manrope typeface from Google Fonts. | Google Fonts is a font-delivery service. It doesn't set cookies for tracking or advertising, but Google logs the IP address of the request per its font-serving terms. | Google Fonts privacy |
Third-party services are listed in section 4 of our Privacy Policy along with what data they process and where they're based.
Managing your choices.
You have full control over the cookies stored on your device.
Cookie preferences on this site.
When we add non-essential cookies (analytics), a cookie banner will appear on your first visit. You'll be able to Accept or Reject non-essential cookies with equal weight, and change your mind later using the Cookie preferences link in the footer.
Browser controls.
Every modern browser lets you view, block, and delete cookies. Blocking all cookies can break parts of some websites (including payment on Stripe), so most browsers offer settings to block only third-party cookies or clear cookies when you close the browser.
- Google Chrome
- Mozilla Firefox
- Apple Safari (desktop)
- Apple Safari (iPhone / iPad)
- Microsoft Edge
- Opera
Third-party opt-outs.
You can also opt out of certain third-party tracking at the source:
- Google Analytics: install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to stop Google Analytics data collection across every site you visit.
- Advertising networks (industry-wide): Your Online Choices (UK) lets you opt out of interest-based advertising from most major networks.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control.
Some browsers send a Do Not Track (DNT) header or a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal telling websites you don't want to be tracked. There's no legal standard for how sites should respond, but our approach is straightforward.
- Today: no tracking happens on this site regardless of the signal.
- When analytics is switched on: if your browser sends a GPC signal, we'll treat that as a rejection of non-essential cookies and won't load analytics, even without a click on the banner.
Changes to this notice.
If we start setting new cookies, or if we add a service that sets its own cookies, we'll update this page and increment the version number at the top before those cookies go live. Material changes (a new cookie category, a change of processor) will also be flagged in the cookie banner on your next visit so you can review your choices.
We keep an internal changelog of every material update; ask us at info@therealdebtguy.com if you want a copy.
Contact and complaints.
If you have a question about cookies or how we handle your data:
- Email: info@therealdebtguy.com
- Post: The Real Debt Guy, PO Box 480, Sevenoaks, TN13 9JY
If you're not satisfied with how we've handled your query, you can complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
- Our ICO registration: ZB169848 (Mm Corp Limited)
Full data details
What personal data we collect, why, who we share it with, and how long we keep it is set out in full in our Privacy Policy. This page covers only cookies and similar technologies.