wendy and keith v The Woolwich

[wendyandkeith]

I sent off my Data Protection Act request 2nd October, it was signed for on 5th October... Today we received 2 seperate letters, 1 from woolwich and 1 from barclays... First letter from woolwich says that they are hoping to deal with my issues by 6th Nov. The 2nd from barclays wasnt quite as straight forward, the first part was, it just stated that they received it, that it was currently being handled by woolwich and returning our fee and doing the request on complimentary grounds, the 2nd part was very different...

"As regards your mention of "manual intervention", the Data Protection Act does not oblige the Bank to comment about internal policies and procedures. Furthermore, in the context of managing day to day transactions arising from out of order accounts, the Bank does not hold the information you requested in a form that would be covered by the DPA. Whilst aggregated information is retained for statistical purposes, this would not constitute "personal data" under the DPA and therefore would not be covered by a s.7 DPA subject access request. For the avoidance of doubt, the fact that we do not generally record information in a way that is caught by the


Yours sincerely

Peter Townsend"

So who knows what its caught by? The letter is worded EXACTLY like that. So where do we go from here? Are they right or wrong? Do we just accept it or is there something we should do?

Thanks

[Niklowe]

They are using the same arguement that Abbey are using, in that archived material on microfiche is not "a relevant filing system" under the data protection act. We are waiting for a ruling on this in the near future.

However you can use what info on charges that you have at hand and make an estimated claim. The banks will have to get the info in order to contest a figure you have given.

[wendyandkeith]

What is meant my manual intervention anyway? So i can make a claim on the basis of any information they give me?

[essjaysea]

The question about manual intervention is put to the bank in order to get them to admit one way or another, whether any manual intervention has in fact taken place.

If they confirm that there has been no MI, then they are admitting by implication that all the charges have in fact been computer generated, and that the cost to them will have been approx 50p rather than the 30 pounds they have been charging.

This information will support your claim that the charges are disproportionate, and therefore unlawful.

But The Woolwich generally respond by saying that this information is not covered by the Data Protection Act, and refuse to give a definitive answer either way.

My thoughts are that, as all of these cases have so far been settled prior to a hearing, there doesn't seem to be much point in challenging them on this.

[paddym]

Wendy thats just a standard letter i recieved same myself just carry on with your claim as you intended to do nothing has changed !

[e28bigalbexley]

Me too i got the bog standard print out probably out of the same printer that does the "we will charge your account £35.00 on...."

[sjc1985]

Got a list of charges today, what do I send to the bank as a breakdown of charges?

[frenchieboy]

Ditto we received it as well, just carried on with LBA

[wendyandkeith]

The entry "sjc1985" was us, our daughter hadnt signed out of hers, on the first preliminary letter it states that a breakdown of charges is included, what is a breakdown of charges and how do I do it?

[e28bigalbexley]

Hi
you need to go through all you statements and find each charge and then go into the bank templates libary and use the spreadsheet as instructed, DO NOT use the 8% sheet on page 2 (labeled 8%) until you go to court.
Moreover read through the various threads concerning the woolwich, if your not sure I would spend the weekend at least reading the FAQS ect, until you feel able to continue. People will always help but alot of the groundwork needs to be done by yourselves.
In the end its very satisfying.

Alan.

[wendyandkeith]

We have read through the faq's were just a bit unsure as to what exactly a schedule of charges needs to be... would a plain list with dates and amounts do?

[essjaysea]

Basically the schedule of charges is a list showing the details of the charge, the amount and the date applied to the account.

[wendyandkeith]

So would it be suitable to re-send what they sent me? They sent me a list date by date of every charge applied to my account... I read somewhere about a spreadsheet, does it have to be done on a spreadsheet?

[essjaysea]

No, you dont have to use the spreadsheet, but it is a useful tool, as it works out the 8% statutory interest that you can apply when you file your court claim. Try the link below

http://www.cag-files.co.uk/barracad/...arges-calc.xls

[wendyandkeith]

So what is my best option? to put into a spreadsheet now and keep the spreadsheet for when I have to apply for the 8%? Sorry if seem bit thick but dont know what were doing even though we have read the faq's etc

[sparklydayz]

Just enter the amounts etc into the spreadsheet but ignore the interest bit. When you come to file your court claim you can then fill in the interest column.