Questions and answers

Yes. DrawHawk is free. Every free account gets 5 personal picks by email or on the site, every site we cover with its checks and reviews, alerts, your record and spending limits, and our free monthly DrawHawk draw. If you want more, DrawHawk Plus is £4 a month or £40 a year. It adds free comps from shops, brands and magazines. It also adds picks emails at any hour from 7am to 10pm, up to 5 times a week, extra alerts by email or on your phone, how fast each draw is selling and deeper stats for your record. Your paid picks are the same either way.

Two ways. Some sites pay us a commission when you enter through our link (it never changes our rankings, and we say so on every page where it applies). And from December we sell combined, anonymous market reports to competition sites. Those never include your name, your email or anything about you personally, and every figure covers at least 20 players. You can opt out of the reports in your account.

Legally, UK prize competitions aren't gambling: they're allowed because there's a free way to enter (usually by post) or a skill question. But you're still paying for a chance to win, so treat it like a night out, not a way to make money. Set a budget, and stop if it stops being fun. Our responsible play page has more.

Each morning we take in the live draws from the sites we cover: ticket price, number of tickets, closing time. The odds for one ticket are 1 in the number of tickets. Your odds for your spend are worked out from how many tickets your budget buys. We don't guess: draws with missing or odd-looking numbers are left out.

We're adding sites all the time. Email us at hello@drawhawk.com with the site's name and we'll do everything we can to get it listed. Every site still has to pass our checks before it appears.

Yes. Pick your days and times (8am, midday or 6pm, among others), weekly or twice a week, and change them any time in your account. You can pause for 1, 2 or 4 weeks, or switch picks emails off completely.

We use it to pick draws for you and send your emails. We never sell or share your personal details. We use combined, anonymous figures (groups of 20 or more) in market reports for competition sites, and you can opt out. You can download everything we hold about you, or delete your account, from your account page. The privacy notice has the detail.

Only combined figures, for groups of 20 players or more: things like how many players are interested in cars under £2 a ticket, or how fast draws sell out. Never your name, email, entries or anything that could identify you. If you've opted out of market reports, you're not in them at all.

Every month we give away one prize. Have a DrawHawk account and you're in, every month, automatically, and you can earn up to 10 bonus entries by doing things that help other players, like reviewing a site you've used or confirming a draw result. It never costs anything. The winner is picked with a method anyone can check, and the full terms are on the free draw page.

Go to your account page, choose "Delete my account" and type DELETE to confirm. Your personal data goes straight away. We keep anonymous click counts that can't be linked back to you, and a scrambled (hashed) copy of your email address only if it bounced or complained, so we never email it again.

An optional paid add-on, £4 a month or £40 a year. It adds free comps (free competitions from shops, brands and magazines, checked for scams), extra alerts, draw data and stats. Your picks, every site, the checks and reviews, your record and limits, and our free draw stay free.

Finding free comps, checking every one and clearing out the scams costs us money, so they're part of Plus. Our monthly free draw stays free for everyone.

Yes. Our free draw is free for everyone: have a DrawHawk account and you're in, with the same entries whether you have Plus or not. Paying never adds entries.

No. Your picks are ranked only on prize and odds, within your budget, and the picks engine never knows whether you pay. Same preferences, same picks, free or Plus. Paying never buys a place in them or adds free draw entries.