Security and privacy
Web security is very important to us, so we take great care to protect you. Please see below for details of how you can also help to guard yourself against online fraud.
Keep yourself safe online
- Never reveal your password to anyone or write it down
- Don’t use a password that could be easily guessed by someone else
- Change your password immediately if you suspect someone else could know it
- Log off when you’ve completed your transaction
- Keep your PC updated with current anti-virus software and the latest browser versions
- Don’t send us any confidential account information by email
- Treat emails you receive with caution. Remember that we’ll never ask you to disclose your personal or account information to us by email
- We recommend that you regularly visit the http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk website to keep up-to-date with tips to protect yourself from the latest scams
Your Username and Password
On registering a Cashplus account with us, you’ll have a username and password which must be used in order to access certain restricted parts of the website. Your username and password are used by us to identify you, so they’re very important. You’re responsible for all information posted on the website by anyone using your username and password. Any breach of security of a username and password should be notified to us immediately.
We recommend you also read our guidelines on keeping your Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard® safe
Our system security
- Our systems operate on 128-bit secure encryption. Look for the yellow padlock symbol in your browser status bar
- A team of independent security experts regularly tests our website
- Your session will time out if you don’t use your keyboard for more than 15 minutes
- Your Cashplus Account Members’ log-in will be locked out after three failed access attempts. You’ll need to contact us to reset your account
- We’ll verify your identity before disclosing confidential information over the phone or resetting your password
- We don’t guarantee the website will be fault free and don’t accept liability for any errors or omissions
All forms and online account pages, i.e. those pages that show your information, use 128-bit encryption. Encryption makes your information unreadable to anyone who might intercept it. In addition, a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is used to connect your browser to our secure servers.
The latest browsers support 128-bit encryption. Older browsers (such as Internet explorer 5.0) support lower levels of encryption (40-bit or 56-bit) but they still remain extremely secure.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
A "Secure Socket Layer" is a commonly used method of managing the security of messages transmitted across the Internet and is used by us to connect your computer to our secure server. You can tell that SSL is in use if you are using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator when a small padlock icon appears on your browser status bar. If you have problems getting to secure mode, install one of the latest browsers and try the website again.
Which browser do I need to view this website?
Our website has been designed to work with a variety of the latest browsers on either Apple Macintosh computers or Windows based PCs.
If you’re using an older browser such as Internet Explorer 3, Opera 3 and 4, you’ll be able to view the information pages, but you may not be able to apply for a card or access your account information. To make an application online we recommend that you upgrade to the latest versions.
Need to change your screen resolution?
We recommend viewing this website with a screen resolution of 1024x768 or above.
Do you need plug-ins?
"Plug-ins" are additional software programs required by some websites to make them work properly. An example is Flash Player from Adobe. Our website doesn’t need any plug-ins to work effectively.
Having difficulty accessing your account from work?
Most organisations have what is known as a "firewall" to protect their networks and their computers. A firewall is a secure server through which all communication passes and which protects the organisation's computers from unauthorised access by filtering the information getting in and out. Depending on how the firewall is set up, access to another secure server may be denied.
If you’re having problems accessing your account from work but can access it from home with no difficulties, check with your IT department to see if a firewall is in place that may be affecting access to our website and how this has been set up.
Use of email
Please note that ordinary email is not secure.
Please don’t send us any confidential information via email. We’ll only use email to send you account information, such as your account balance and transaction information or special offers, if you’ve given your consent. We won’t use e-mail to send other confidential personal information to you. We can’t accept any responsibility for the unauthorised access by a third party and/or the corruption of data being sent by individuals to APS. It’s our policy that if any of our customers are victims of unauthorised access to their accounts, and provided that you have not breached our security procedures, acted fraudulently or without reasonable care, we’ll cover any direct financial loss which you may have suffered.
We’ll never send emails to you requesting security or any other confidential information. Don’t reply to any such emails or disclose any personal information. If you think you’ve received a fraudulent email that’s designed to look as if it was sent from us, forward the entire email including the header and footer to fraud@apsgroup.com then delete it from your email account.
Use of cookies
What we use cookies for:
Internet cookies are common and don’t harm your system. They are small text files placed on your computer by a web browser, which has been sent to you by a web server. They just store or gather website information. It’s essentially an 'identification card' relating to you. They help you do things online, like remembering your logon details so you don't have to re-enter them when revisiting a website.
We use cookies to:
- Gather customer journey information across our website
- Ensure your privacy in our secure websites
- Store login details for our secure websites
- Temporarily store details input into our calculators, tools, illustrations and demonstrations
- Store details of your marketing, product and business unit preferences to improve our targeting and enhance your journey through our websites
- Evaluate our website’s advertising and promotional effectiveness
We use both our own and our partner companies' cookies to support these activities. We don't use cookies to track people's Internet usage after leaving our websites and we don't store personal information in them that others could read and understand. We won’t sell or distribute cookie information without your prior consent.
You can disable cookies from your computer system by following the instructions at www.allaboutcookies.org but if you don’t accept incoming cookies, the performance of our website on your system may not be to the full standard, or our website may not serve you at all.
Services that need enabled cookies:
Some of our services require cookies in your browser to view and use them and to protect your financial and personal information such as www.Cashplus.co.uk. This website uses cookies to enable information about you and your preferences to be stored and to prevent unauthorised access to your account online. If you’re accessing your Cashplus account, we need cookies to be used to ensure that your data is secure. If you reject cookies, you won’t be able to use the Cashplus service.
Phishing
Some customers may receive an email claiming to be from APS, AFL with a link to what appears to be our, AFL's website, where they are prompted to enter their personal and account details. APS is in no way involved with this email and the website does not belong to us, AFL. APS will never send emails to its customers requesting security or any other confidential information. Don’t reply to any such emails or disclose any personal information in these websites. If you think you’ve received a fraudulent email that looks like it is from APS or AFL, forward the entire email including the header and footer to fraud@apsgroup.com and then delete it from your email account.
Personal Information
Data Protection:
When you apply for a product or service from us (or another party), you’ll be asked for personal information that’s needed to process your application. The information that you provide will only be used for the purposes described at the time of your application and where applicable in the terms and conditions that apply to the relevant product or service.
We’ll also collect, store and process your personal information on the APS computers to; (a) personalise aspects of our overall service to you; or (b) communicate with you; or (c) learn from the way you use and manage your account(s), for example from the transactions you make and from the payments which are made to your account; or (d) We may retain information about you and your account for up to 6 years after your account is closed. We will use your personal information to manage your account(s), and provide our services, for assessment and analysis (including credit and/or behaviour scoring, market and product analysis), and to develop and improve our services to you. If you don’t want to receive information about our products and services, please write to Customer Services at PO Box 466, Salford, M50 2XU or by emailing us at info@apsgroup.com. We won’t disclose any such information outside of APS except:
- To fraud prevention agencies and other organisations who may use the information to prevent fraud and money laundering
- To persons acting as our agents under a strict code of confidentiality
- To anyone to whom we transfer or may transfer our rights and duties under our terms and conditions with you
- As required by law or regulation
If we transfer your information to a service provider or agent in another country outside the European Union, we’ll make sure that the service provider or agent agrees to apply the same levels of protection as we’re required to apply to personal information held in the UK, and to use your information only for the purpose of providing the service to us.