Alliance & Leicester flout Data Protection Act

[jaffacat]

Hi all. Long story so please bear with me!
Towards the end of July I applied for a personal loan with A&L online. I was very careful to read all the info and when it came to the bit where it said that if my application was unsuccessful would it be ok to give my details to other institutions, I ticked the box to say it was not ok.
The day after I applied I checked my credit file online and saw that A&L had done a search on me on the day I applied for the loan - no problem there. But on the day after that, Welcome Financial Services did a credit search as well!
I phoned A&L in a rage and asked what the hell did they think they were doing passing my details to a third party after I had said no. The girl checked the records and said that yes, I had indeed ticked the box and they had made an error passing my details on. She then said that she would remove my name from the system to avoid it being passed on to anyone else. I said that alone wasnt good enough and I wanted the search by WFS removed from my file immediately. She said that the department that dealt with that sort of thing was closed for the day but she would e-mail them the details and make sure they phoned me the next day. Needless to say no-one phoned.
So I sent them a stroppy letter to the complaints department explaining the situation and even threatening them with court action if they didnt remove the search within 7 days. All I got back was a letter saying they were looking into it and they could take upto 56 days to investigate. I gave them until last Thursday when I phoned again to see what the progress was as the search had still not been removed. The girl said she would personally look into it and send me her findings immediately in writing. I havent recieved anything yet and I wont hold my breath.
I`m thinking about sending them an LBA and asking for compensation.
Does anybody have any views on this? I am assuming they have flouted the Data Protection Act - or am I wrong?

[djdave]

They've definately made a boo-boo and I understand your frustration, but I don't understand how you would be entitled to compensation. What loss or damages have you suffered as a result of this?

If they're investigating a complaint, you'll need to exhaust their complaints procedure or wait 8 weeks before escalating the matter to the Financial Ombusdman Service.

[jaffacat]

The loss I have suffered is a reduction in my credit score because of an additional search. My score was 982 out of 1000 before the search and 880 after it!

[djdave]

Ok, so how has that manifested itself into actual financial loss? Have you been refused credit as a result, or had to pay a higher interest rate?

I'm not being difficult, just trying to make you aware of what you'll need to prove in court to obtain compensation.