Sunshine v Woolwich

[sunshine23]

Sent a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to woolwich on 5th Jan2007,
got reply from Barclays today, me thinks this was quick!

they say, as requested my schedule of charges will be sent to me shortly, and as there will be no charge for this service, they return my cheq.

nxt bit is beyond my english comprehension and i quote,

"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 context of managing day to day transactions arising from out of order accounts, the Bank does not hold information you have requested in a form that would be covered by the Data Protection Act. Whilst aggregated information is retained for statistical purposes, this would not be covered by a s.7 Data Protection Act 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 provisions of the DPA, is in no way an admission that there was no such manual intervention."

from Peter Townsend, Manager
Barclays Data Protection
Radbroke Hall
Knutsford
Cheshire
WA16 9EU

1. Does anyone know if i need to question this?
2. I wrote to woolwich giving two account numbers and one mortgage account, they have only included the two account numbers in their reply.
3. I have a Barclays current account which i would prefer not to lose, does anyone know, if i go after the Woolwich, will it jepardise my Barclays Current A/c?

[pjdavies2000]

1 - No need to question it - it is standard response. Basically, the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter you sent asked for them to send you all info on you relating to bank charges. They are saying, no we don't have to do that as we don't hold your information in that way, we only clump the stats together for our use, which isn't actually info about you, but what we will send is all your bank statements and if you really can be bothered then please scroll through them all and do what you will. We also don't have to show any manual intervention on your account because we don't store that info on your file, and if we do, we don't store it in a form that you can ask for because it isn't covered under the Data Protection Act. although just because we don't send you any info doesn't mean we haven't got any, so don't try and hold that one against us!

2 - I'm not sure if the mortgage would be from a different place, so you may get that info through seperately, although a phonecall would probably help clear it up and speed up it's retrieval

3 - I haven't heard of any Barclays accounts being closed, although it is suggested you set up a parachute account just in case. However, whilst the account/s is in dispute they cannot close it, and even then they must give 30 days notice. Those that have had bank accounts closed have been done so on a technicality and have been frowned upon, so I think this has become less and less likely.

Peter

[paddym]

Just a standard reply no need to concern yourself however what i would say is give mr Townsend a little phone call just to be sure that he includes your mortgage details in with the rest of the data because i know from reading some threads and my own personal experiance that the woolwich or barclays ( all the same ) can drag their feet and whenever the data comes through the mortgage details have been missing so a little phone call to mr Townsend will clarify your position and he will know exactly what information you require his number should be on the letter you received back from him and he is alright to speak to nothing ventured nothing gained good luck !

[sunshine23]

Thanks for your replies and help so far, they are really appreciated.

I have now recieved the Woolwich mortgage statments, showing 4 misc debit charges of £27.50, and 4 arrears charges of £40. each,
Having read various threads, I understand I can claim these back, using the standard form letter,

Is it my choice to add interest?

What can i do about the final repayment charge of £275.00?
If i am not able to reclaim it, would it seem reasonable to ask for a breakdown of how that particular amount was arrived at?