Smile? I'm not smiling...£480.00 to get MY statements!

[lois]

hi there,

I have just been told by Smile that it will cost me £10.00 per statement. So to get a copy of the last 4 years = a total charge of £480.00 for information that relates to me !

Has anyone else has this problem? I'm absolutely spitting mad !

any information/advice would be hugely appreciately. I cannot see this has been covered before, so many many apologies if it has and I have completely missed a thread that has already dealt with this.

[Dammam]

The answer is in the Frequently Asked Questions area.

Q. The trouble is that I don't remember what they have taken from me. I'm not very good with my paper and I don't have my statements any more OR I was troubled about ID theft and I shred my statments after looking at them and therefore do not know the amount I have been charged, how can I find this information?
A. You can apply to your bank for copy statements going over as long as you need. You can make an offical request under the Data Protection Act (199 - you need to make the bank aware that you are making this request under the Data Protection Act. They then have 40 days to comply with the law. If they state that bank statements are not covered under the act, point them at the Durant v FSA case, in which the judge ruled that bank statement information is 'personal' information and thus covered under the Data Protection Act.

Extract:

Provided the information in question can be linked to an identifiable individual the following are also examples of personal data:

+ information about the medical history of an individual;
+ an individual's salary details;
+ information concerning an individual�s tax liabilities;
+ information comprising an individual�s bank statements; and
+ information about individuals� spending preferences.


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Q. My bank wants to charge me for each statement sheet. They want a lot of money - far more than the actual cost of each one. It adds up to a lot of money. What should I do?
A. This has caused a problem for a lot of people. Appy to receive your statements as a data disclosure under the Data Protection Act. You should try this route. It costs only £10. However, an application under the Act may result in the Bank sending you the statements without any further trouble. it is worth also asking the bank to supply you with evidence of manual intervention in any DD refusal or exceeding of overdraft limit. This is bcause the banks sometimes say that these steps need manual intervention and it is this which causes the high charges. However, as far as we know, no bank has yet managed to show that the process is not entirely automated.

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[lois]

hiya
thanks for this. I'm sending the letter with the £10.00 maximum statutory fee.
I just got very cross because when I told the lady that I was applying under the Data Protection Act, she told me that its nothing to do with DPA and Smile allocate their own charges for statements and so the maximum fee £10.00 under the DPA does not apply as far as Smile is concerned.

So, am I right in insisting that I only pay a maximum of £10.00?

sorry and thanks,

[lois]

sorry, i have realised that there is a smile forum that this should have gone in,

please can i transfer this across to the Smile forum where it should have been in the first place - sorry, obviously messed this up now



DONE

[dave]

So the Data Protection Act doesn't apply to Smile?

I wonder if they have some sort of certificate exempting them from UK Law?

As far as I was aware, EVERYONE who operates a business in the UK is bound by UK law.

You don't want statements - you want a list of charges, with figures, dates and description. There is a subtle difference.

If they still refuse, report them to the Information Commissioner.

[lois]

hiya
thanks for transferring this one over,

have sent off my Data Protection Act letter to the Balloon Street address together with a cheque for £10.00 and have requested all statements or list of charges etc from August 2002 to September 2005 (I've got statements from last Sept) and I also added an additional paragraph which says:

May I respectfully draw your attention to the case of Durant v FSA 2003 in this case the judge ruled that bank statement information is indeed personal information and thus covered.

just in case those slippery little suckers try and flog me the old its £10.00 per statement line.

fingers crossed!

[Dave J]

Lois please see my thread my smile journey starts here i'm a little bit further than you but not got the data through yet.

[lois]

thanks dave, just had a look at your thread which is really helpful. I'll keep you posted on how I get on, let me know when you hear back from them, I'd be interested in seeing what they say,


thanks a million,

[lois]

Hiya,

So, I got a reply from Smile this morning which says:

I acknowledge receipt of your request for a copy of the personal data held by this Bank in connection with the above account. Under the Data Protection Act, this is referred to as a Subject Access Request.
I alaos acknowledge receipt of your cheque for £10. Arrangements will now be made for the information requested to be provided within 40 days.

Hoorah - so much for their really unhelpful supervisor at the call centre who informed me I would have to pay £480 this information !

Will keep you posted,

[Carrie]

Not sure how they can charge you, especially to that degree, for your own statements. Surely you shouldn't have to pay to get copies (isn't this another unlawful charge? It doesn't cost £10 to print a statement) afterall, it's your money, your information and you private files. Would they charge you at the doctor's if you demanded your personal file and get away with it? I could be being a bit dim but if it's your information surely you are entiliteled to it free of charge no matter how long ago it relates to!

[lois]

i think what is annoying with Smile and this is my current beef, is that when I requested the Data Protection Act information, i was told by a call centre staff member that i would be charged £10 per statement so going back 6 years would cost me something in the region of £480.00.

I told him that I thought he was incorrect, and he checked with his supervisor (I have her name!) and she told him (which, love him, he had the nasty task of telling me in return because she wouldn't speak to me on the phone !) that the Data Protection Act does not apply to Smile and that their charges stand at £10 per statement.

Suffice to say, I wrote to them and have received a letter this morning saying that the information requested in my Data Protection Act letter will be provided within 40 days.

I wouldn't mind, but it seems to me that the supervisor in question, must be giving out that information to other customers and I bet other people have been put off requesting the information because of the incorrect response from some Smile staff. Its just basic data protection information and I feel that, somebody in her position as supervisor, Smile (as her employer) should make sure their staff know the Data Protection Act law.

I work for an international law firm and do company/commercial and corporate work (which includes financial and banking law) and I have to know the fundamental basics and if I didn't, my boss would be asking me why or would make sure that I did know. I wouldn't be able to give good client service if I didn't know the basics.

sorry, I'm rambling now I know, it just makes me cross when you are given incorrect information. Its just great that I stumbled across this website where I can get information and people help and assist one another otherwise, I would have been lost.

[Carrie]

I'm can totally understand your frustration with people like the ones you've had to deal with. My boss would be the same too, i'm responsible for 12 people in my job and its my responsibility to know what i'm talking about after all if i were to give out incorrect information it could create big problems with customers. Also, if it's someting that i'm not sure on i would never take a guess at it. I would always check my facts before giving an answer and that is what would be expected of me.

[lois]

UPDATE

Can you believe these jokers?! honestly, they really try my patience.

I have been totting up how much they have charged me and each month for the last 6 months or so, they have charged me £50.00, being £25.00 for overlimit, and £25.00 late payment fee ... i mean, I would be overlimit if they didn't keep darn well charging me everything two seconds !!!

So, I have my spreadsheet, and I've done my initial letter. Then, imagine my surprise when I get a letter through last week, (they've not bothered replying to my initial letter mind you and they've had 20 days to do that), saying that they want my credit card back and they've put me in default all because I owe £23.00 in arrears ???!!! I mean, hello, mcfly?!

So have sent an incredibly stroppy letter to their Head of Debt Management, Mr Stephen Mound (who by the way, doesn't even both to sign his own letters!) stating that if they do put me in default, then I'll go to court to get it removed and perhaps they'd like to respond to my letters before they start threatening me!

Anyway, now I've finished my rant (sorry about that!), have sent LBA, they've got till 23 June to cough up or MCOL here I come!!

xx

[lois]

Hiy guys

have been away for the last few weeks but thought I would post you an update regarding the wonderful Smile bank ...

After sending my LBA, and hearing nothing from Smile, I filed my claim form in the sum of £567.00. I got back from holiday to a letter from the lovely Stephen Mound saying that they had defaulted me and charged me a further £60.00 in administration costs! Suffice to say, that I immediately lodged my claim for the amount of £647.23 inc court costs, interest and unlawful charges plus the further £60.00 that they had charged me).

I telephoned Smile on the afternoon of 22 June and spoke to a lovely lady about the matter. She said she was sorry (aren't they always), I said that I did not understand how they could put me in default when I was corresponding with them over my account. She told me that these letters are generated automatically and thats why this has happened (despite a note being on my file that I had written to them, twice!). So, she checked my account and said that Smile had credited me with £350.00 on 21 June. I told her that it was too late as I had already filed my claim (earlier in the morning of 22 June).

I told her that the claim was filed because Smile had not written back to me, and that because Smile decided to block my account, I was unable to log into my account and read any messages!

She said that the account was now unblocked so I could read my messages, (a bit late now!) but I asked her to make a note that I had called.

So, they sent me a message on 23 June saying that they have credited me a further £35.00 and I've sent them a message back saying thanks, and I accept the payment but on condition that this is a partial settlement and that I shall continue to pursue my claim for the remaining amount.

my god, WHY do they make it so difficult?! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH !

Anyone else had anything similar?

hope you are well and yours claims are progressing relatively smoothy!

lois xx