Moores2525 v BarclayCard **SETTLED IN FULL**

moores2525 · 21st April 2006, 00:05

Hi there,

I sent the standard Data Protection Act letter to Barclaycard on 11/04/06. I wrote:

"Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my bank account since September 1997. Alternatively a complete set of bank statements for that period will be acceptable.

Additionally where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you.

If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.

I enclose the statutory fee of £5. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me then I shall be reclaiming them and also reclaiming the enclosed £5 Data Protection Act disclosure fee."

Sure enough, today I received my statements in a big brown envelope.....only going back to May 2004. They've cashed my £5 cheque though!

"Further to your request for personal data held by Barclaycard, please find enclosed a copy of the relevant information from May 2004.

Statements that are prior to this date are not held on a computer system or a structured relevant filing system and therefore, they do not fall under the Data Protection Act 1998. They can be obtained from our Customer Services Dept at a cost of £3 per statement."

Included in the package are printouts including details of number of late payments - 17 and number of second payments late - 3 and account status details relating back to 1997. What can I do from here in order to obtain the full statement details back six years or to 1997? I guess from the number of late payments, knowing the late payment fee (£20) I can calculate an estimated claim but should I do this or send another letter to Barclaycard demanding the rest of the statements?

thanks,
Stewart

jonni2bad · 21st April 2006, 01:20

Naughty naughty........

Use THIS template from the Abbey forum, and just change the wording from "because any earlier information has been archived onto microfiche" to something like "because this data is not held on a computer system"

If they still feel like avoiding the issue, wait until the 40th day and make an official complaint to the I.C's Office.

They are, in effect, just trying to put you off.

moores2525 · 21st April 2006, 17:17

Thanks Jonni, I've sent the letter to them and waiting for a reply...

moores2525 · 21st April 2006, 17:18

p.s. I'm also a Forest fan!

jonni2bad · 21st April 2006, 20:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by moores2525

p.s. I'm also a Forest fan!

Ahhh, so it's YOU - I've always wondered who the other one was !

moores2525 · 13th May 2006, 18:46

Hi All,

Around a month ago I sent a Data Protection Act request to BarclayCard using the standard DPA template and in return received a letter saying that they could only provide me with details from May 2004 due to Microfiche and enclosed was the now legendary 'Useless' computer printout.

The printout revealed on page 5 that I'd missing one payment x17, two payments x3 and three payments x2. (so 22 charges in total x£20? Or maybe more??)

I wrote back to them using the standard second letter telling them that I required full details on my account from 1997 and not just from May 2004, referred them to Smith vs Lloyds TSB (2005) and told them they had 26 days left to provide the details.

Today I received a further reply from BarclayCard, saying that they will not provide such details as not on a "relevant filing system" . They deny that other customers have received this data under Data Protection Act request and say I can pay £3 per statement to receive them.

The problem I have is how to proceed from here. I have the computer printout but it is not conclusive. I could do the following:

a) Use the computer printout to estimate the charges (22 x £20?) and send them the Letter Before Action at the end of the Data Protection Act period

b) Wait until the end of the Data Protection Act period and report them to Information Commissioner or raise an N1 with the County Court

c) Pay £3 per statement for copy statements and get the information I need to claim off them and then charge them for the statements

Problem is that 6 years worth of statements will probably cost quite a bit......

d) Send them the Non-Data Protection Act Compliance letter at the end of the DPA period. (which I believe ends on 22/05)

Has anyone else experienced these issues and what do you think is the best way to proceed?

rogerebaker · 14th May 2006, 05:03

Im at exactly the same stage. I think I will probably claim what I know and include a Data Protection Act non complience when it comes to moneyclaim and just go through the process again with the earlier charges if there are any.

Ive got 8 on the go at the moment so Im in no rush but interested to know what you decide.

kaz · 24th May 2006, 09:43

Hi,

I am at the same stage also, What does anyone suggest we do here? I feel at a stand still with this mob.

Kaz

coffindodger · 25th May 2006, 10:17

It would appear to me that if they can provide statements for £3 a copy then they can provide the same statements under the Data Protection Act.

I would wait the 40 days and report them to the Information Commissioner
Brian

moores2525 · 28th May 2006, 18:45

The latest news - I sent them the following letter:

LETTER BEFORE ACTION
Section 7 – Data Protection Act 1998

Dear Ms. Hilton,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXX

I am in receipt of the documents that you have supplied in response to my Data Protection Act information request dated 11 April 2006. The disclosure of personal data is incomplete in that at least the following documents are missing:

1) You have failed to provide a complete list of transactions and charges. All you have sent is a computer printout with no mention of dates at which charges had been applied, or how much were the individual charges.
2) You have provided no notes, or documents relating to instances of personal human intervention, nor confirmed that any did indeed take place at any time.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, it is just an example of some of the information I am missing.

You have stated that statements prior to June 2004 are manually stored on microfiche and do not fall within the Data Subject Access provisions. Section 1 (1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 states:
"any set of information relating to individuals to the extent that, although the information is not processed by means of equipment operating automatically in response to instructions given for that purpose, the set is structured either by reference to the individual or to criteria relating to individuals, in such a way that specific information relating to a particular individual is readily accessible".
Furthermore, recent communication with the Information Commissioner’s office has brought further clarification:
“(…) if the information is filed by account number this information would be considered to form part of a relevant filing system as it would be similar to searching a computer data base for a specific account number.”

Since you have informed me that I can obtain additional copy statements from your Customer Services, there can be no doubt that the information IS readily accessible, IS filed in a relevant filing system, and therefore DOES fall within DSA provisions.

The time for compliance with my request has now expired. If you do not comply fully with my Subject Access Request within 7 days, I shall apply to the County Court for an order together with damages at the discretion of the court under s.7(9) Data Protection Act 1998.

Yours sincerely,

S Moore

************

and yesterday I received the following reply:

Dear Mr Moore

Data Protection Act 1998 - SUbject Access Request

Thank you for your recent letter dated 22 May 2006. With regard to your request that we provide a computer print out of transactions on your account to date we are unable to provide the information requested. Our computer systems do not permit us to print such historic data. Neither do our computer systems allow us to search for and identify individual charges applied to an account. It is therefore not possible to provide you with a print out of such charges. I would also add that Barclaycard did not introduce default charges on its accounts until mid-2001. The printout that has been provided to you contains the information that we currently have recorded relating to charges on your account.

As explained previously copy statements held prior to May 2004 are stored on microfiche. The statements copied onto the microfiche in date order and more than one customer statement may be held on an individual film of microfiche. These statements are not stored by reference to account number of customer name and are not "readily accessible" within the meaning of the Data Protection Act. These statements are therefore not retained in a relevant filing system and therefore do not fall within the class of documents to be produced pursuant to a subject access request.

Accordingly we are unable to disclose any further statement documentation to you pursuant to your request under the Data Protection Act. As previously advised you may contact the Customer Services team for copy statements. There is a standard charge of £3 per copy statement.

Barclaycard is not attempting to obstruct or delay you. We are however ensuring that all subject access requests made to Barclaycard are dealt with in the same way, whether or not they relate to default fees, so that all requests are processed fairly and properly. Barclaycard have made it clear to customers for many years that copy statements held on microfiche are not required to be produced pursuant to a subject access request.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss the above issues further.

Yours Sincerely

Simon Walker
Head of Data Protection & Legal Counsel

********************

From here I think I will report them to the Information Commissioner and raise a Moneyclaim based on the number of charges stated on the crap computer printout they sent me originally - something like 17 fees x £20 I guess? I'm not prepared to pay them £3 per statement for copy statements.

Can anyone give me any advise how to proceed please? Has anyone else received the same letter?

thanks,
Stewart

alanfromderby · 28th May 2006, 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by moores2525

From here I think I will report them to the Information Commissioner and raise a Moneyclaim based on the number of charges stated on the crap computer printout they sent me originally -

Can anyone give me any advise how to proceed please? Has anyone else received the same letter?

thanks,
Stewart

A little confused with your comment asking advice as to how to proceed.

As you sent the Data Protection Act - Letter Before Action, then you have no choice but to proceed to a County Court claim. It is no point whatsoever threatening action, if you have no intention of carrying it through.

Incidentally, a CC action under the Data Protection Act cannot be done through moneyclaim - these claims have to be issued through the court.

moores2525 · 28th May 2006, 21:14

Fair point - N1 form it is then!

marksteps · 31st May 2006, 17:22

So when you sent the Data Protection Act letter of you included £10... for which you got how many real statements and how much worth of crappy printouts?

Doing mine tomorrow...

moores2525 · 31st May 2006, 23:41

Yep I included £10 and got back around 30 pages of computer printout - of which one page contained a total of the number of payments I had missed once (17), the number of payments I had missed twice (3) and some other details. No specific dates or charge amounts though...

brandedcentaur · 2nd June 2006, 17:55

Following this thread with great interest as I have been throught the same rubbish (received insufficient statements - wrote back - received nonsense about microfilche).

Speaking for myself, I intend to smack these people (& any other banks that do not co-operate) with an N1. The court will see throught their little delaying ploy for what it is - AND that I have tried to be reasonable whereas THEY have dragged their heels at every step of the way!

Capt_Crackers · 7th June 2006, 13:17

I have also received incomplete statements from May 2004 only and the ubiquitous printout, and was glad to see mention of this "payments missed" section on it which I hadn't noticed on page 5 - handy! Thought it might need pointing out however that this section may not estimate your total charges, as Barclaycard also sting you with a seperate "Exceeded Limit" charge (£24) if your account balance goes over your credit limit (usually due to their charges of course!), which they have certainly whacked me with a fair number of times.

I've been unable to locate a figure for occurrences of this anywhere on this rambling printout, except for the number during the past 12 months on page 4 (3 times, personally) - anyone else found a total during account history for this?

Capt_Crackers · 7th June 2006, 15:03

Aha! Found it!!

If any Barclaycard holders have been charged 'Exceeded Limit' fees and want to attempt to estimate the number using the garbled printout BC seem to be issuing as standard, I believe I may have found relating data for this on Page 23 onwards - "Credit Limit Details" - this section lists a number of "Account Status Codes" which would seem to reference occurrences of the account being suspended, and therefore some of these will be instances of the account being overlimit. It's not exactly specific, but as they're not willing to provide the proper information I requested then they'll just have to lump it!!

Anyway, hope this is of use to some of you.

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