JMio v Clydesdale Bank - LBA Sent

[JMio]

Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank are part of the same group (National Australia Group) so thought I'd post this in here. Mods, please move it/let me know if it's in the wrong place!

8th March - 1st Data Protection Act Letter sent

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27th March - Branch Manager calls, telling me there's a £5 per statement charge for this. After discussion she adv that I need to complete a Data Protection Act Request Form, that contains 'absolutely everything we hold about you, but way more than you're lookinf for'... I duly filled this in & posted it off.

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30th March - Called Contact Centre to confirm letter / form has been received - 'noone at branch available, we'll get them to call you back' No call back received.

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31st March - Called Contact Centre to confirm letter / form has been received - 'noone at branch available, we'll get them to call you back' No call back received.

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3rd April - Called Contact Centre to confirm letter / form has been received - 'noone at branch available, we'll get them to call you back' No call back received.

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4th April - Called Contact Centre to confirm letter / form has been received - 'noone at branch available, we'll get them to call you back' No call back received.

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5th April - Called Contact Centre to confirm letter / form has been received - 'noone at branch available, we'll get them to call you back' Escalated this to Line Manager at Contact Centre.

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6th April - Branch Manager calls me, (no apology for her failure to return my 5 previous calls). Confirmed that Data Protection Act form has been received, and they have 40 days to supply me with the information requested. I agreed this was Ok.

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7th April - Letter received from Branch:

"As per the Data Protection Request Act, and in reference to your original request, if it is purely copy statements that you require then this is not covered under the act, as these are documents that have been issued to you previously.

If you do require copy statements we can arrange this for you at a cost of £5.00/statement.

If you wish to contact the branch on any of the above points please call directly on 0131 456 4501"

Called branch at 4pm to argue this, "Manager busy, will get her to call you back"

No call recieved, so rang again at 4:30, "Manager still unavailable, will call you back in next 5 - 10 mins..." Still waiting for call back

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10th April - After advice on here I'm posting off another Data Protection Act request letter today, pointing out that I am requesting TRANSACTIONS, not CHARGES, and enclosing a £10.00 Postal Order.

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[Bookworm]

Me?

At this point, I would write to say: "Original Data Protection Act sent on x date, you have as of today x days left to comply. Furthermore, if info is even 1 day late in coming, I am making formal complaint to the Information Commissioner. Charge is max £10, as you very well know, stop fobbing me off. I have requested a list of charges and interventions on my account, how you supply is your choice. If you want to send statements, it's up to you, I'm not fussed, as long as I get the relevant info." Phrased better, of course.

I'm concerned about your last sentence: "I am requesting TRANSACTIONS, not CHARGES".
What do you mean by that? Of course, you need to know what charges were made! If you receive a list saying: 10/3, + £20, 11/3, -£35, and it doesn't say what's what, you're going to have a hell of a job knowing what was applied to your account for what.
I hope it was a typo and you meant, you're requesting a list of transactions and charges, not statements.

[diddled]

Dont expect much co-operation from this shower. In 2001 The Banking Ombudsman found several counts of maladministration against Yorkshire Bank, one of the counts related to the manner in which they handled requests for information from the Banking Ombudsman

Responses to Data Protection Act requests that I made to this outfit (YB) produced various replies (Pre the Durant Judgment)
and I quote
"Within the terms of the Act we have 40 days in which to provide you with the information we hold. In order to facilitate this process and ensure you receive the information to meet your request, I would be grateful if you could advice me of your individual requirements. For example duplicate statements, repayments schedules on lending and details of interest paid etc. A £10 fee is payable......"

As this was not the personal information that I was seeking I was advised by the Information Commissioner to re-apply a few months down the line when the 2nd part of the Act relating to manual Information came into force.

This time the bank replied-
"I would advise that the bank has already provided you with all the information that you are entitled to receive. Clearly the bank would not be in a position to release any such document which may prejudice the bank at a later stage"

[JMio]

BookWorm - thanks again for your pointers,

It was indeed a typo, here's what I sent to them this afternoon:

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"Thank you for your letter dated 6th April 2006.

There appears to have been some confusion on your part as to my original request.

I refer you to my original letter to your branch, on the 8th March, which clearly states:

"Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my bank account since the opening date of my Current Account, which I estimate to be around September 2001. Alternatively a complete set of bank statements for that period will be acceptable. “

May I please remind you that under the terms of Section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the ‘1998 Act’), you are obliged to furnish me with this information, within 40 days. To help speed this matter along, please find enclosed the fee of £10.00 with respect to the maximum statuary fee for processing this request.

If you continue to delay in providing me with this information, I will have little alternative than to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner, as already after 2 letters (one of which a form that you sent to me) and 8 phone calls to your branch I am still waiting for a satisfactory response."

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Diddled - I know exactly what you mean, they're easily the worst organisation I've ever had the mispleasure of dealing with. Really can't wait to finally be able to get one back on this barrel of rats!

[JMio]

Quick question:

I failed to send in the payent of £10 along with my 1st letter to them (8th March), will I now have to wait for 40 days from the day they received this £10 or can I have a go at them & push for the original deadline.?

Thanks
James

[crazidiamondxx]

Originally Posted by JMio

Quick question:

I failed to send in the payent of £10 along with my 1st letter to them (8th March), will I now have to wait for 40 days from the day they received this £10 or can I have a go at them & push for the original deadline.?

Thanks
James

I think legally they have 40 days from when you send payment in. I'm sure someone more in the know will clarify this though.
However, I didn't send the payment with my request either (it was before it was added to the template letter) but when I sent them a reminder last week I enclosed the cheque then. So far no-one has contacted me to say the 40 days count down from payment so so far so good. Also when I called network support to speak specifically about the request she didn't mention it either and was happy to stick to the origional request date. Mind you, no-one seems to have a clue as to the date I sent it anyway and they relied on me telling them!
Maybe it will be ok for you too. I'm not saying to argue this point with them, I'm just saying maybe they will overlook the lack of payment. I just stuck to my origional date knowing full well that they could get out of it but they didn't. If you read my thread it seems that all requests are going to network support then refered back to the branch so it may be worth giving network support a call.
I have a name and contact number should you require it

[JMio]

Originally Posted by crazidiamondxx

it seems that all requests are going to network support then refered back to the branch so it may be worth giving network support a call.
I have a name and contact number should you require it

Contact details would be great - yes please.! I'm getting nowhere fast with the Branch Manager (who's getting a letter of complaint sent in about her today as it happens) so any other angles to try will be gladly received.

[crazidiamondxx]

Network support
20 waterloo street
glasgow
g2 6db
dx 500500/box110

tel - 0141 242 4376
Contact Fiona Hutton

She really is lovely and I'm sure will go out of her way to help, she did me :o)

[JMio]

Letter received from the Branch this morning:

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Dear Mr JMio,

I refer to your recent letter dated 10 April 2006 in relation to your request about receiving copy statements under the Data Subject Acess Request.

As you will appreciate, I need to make investigations into the points you have raised. In the meantime I thank you for your patience in this matter and I will contact you as soon as my investigations are complete.

I have enclosed for your information a copy of our internal Complaint Handling Procedures. These procedures confirm how to pursue your complaint and how to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you cannot resolve the matter.

Yours sincerely

Elaine Notman
Manager
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Is that another attempt to fob me off I can smell coming.?

[JMio]

AAARRRGGGH!!!

My head's pounding now!

Spoke to the branch this morning to claify (again!) that I am not requesting statements, I am requesting Transations.

Ended up going round in circles with both the branch & customer relations centre.

Their stance is that they will provide details of my transactions back dated until July 2005 under the Data Protection Act & for the fee of £10 that I've sent in.

All transactions after that they are only prepared to send Copy Statements with a charge of £5 per statement.

I called the above number at Network Support (spoke to a different Fiona) and they are taking the exact same stance as the branch.

Can anyone help me please.? I really don't want it to un the the 40 day deadline & end up being delayed even further.!!

[JMio]

On a slightly lighter note:

My conversation with the woman at Customer Relations (0141 242 4137) raised a smile, after quoting stuff to her from the Information Commissioner website, she went to speak to her line manager & called me back.

Gave me the same spiel about £10 covers up to July 05, then it's £5 a month etc etc...

So I asked to speak to this line manager that had been giving her this information. Needless to say he wasn't available, so I said I'd hold until he came off the call he must be on. "No no, he's in a meeting" so I asked her when he was due to come out of this meeting "I don't know he's been there all day.."

"So, how exactly was it that you managed to speak to him then, what with him being in a meeting all day..?"

"....... silence......"

[diddled]

Telephone Nigel Green at Clydesdale
Telephone number used to be 0141 952 2732, dont know if this number is still current
He is/was NAGE (National Australia Group Europe) senior compliance manager

[crazidiamondxx]

Hi Jmio,
It must be driving you mad! To be honest, what I'd do is write them a letter asking them to clarify their position on the Data Protection Act request. When you receive an answer get straight in touch with the information comissioner. Simple as that. If you have it in writing that they're refusing your request it will stand you in good stead to be able to prove it to the Information Commissioner. Either that or call them again asking them to confirm in writing. Either way they're in the wrong and they know it. I'd be suprised if they refuse you again if you mention reporting them to the Information Commissioner. Remember though, that they aren't calling the shots now, YOU are and remember you have every right to! Get tough and make sure they know you mean business!
Good luck and keep us informed :o)

[pjdudley69]

Originally Posted by crazidiamondxx

Network support
20 waterloo street
glasgow
g2 6db
dx 500500/box110

tel - 0141 242 4376
Contact Fiona Hutton

She really is lovely and I'm sure will go out of her way to help, she did me :o)

It appears that poor Fiona must be having to deal with it all on her own. My letter was from her too - she'll be ready for a holiday by the time us lot have done lol

As far as the details from July 05 are concerned Jmio, I'm sure that if you estimated the amount, i.e the maximum, they will be the first to point out if you've over-estimated.

[JMio]

I've sent a letter to Fiona Hutton as advised to see if she can help in sending me the info.

I'm also thinking of sending in a letter to the Call Centre supervisor I spoke to (Neil McKirdy) to ask for written clarification on their view of the Data Protection Act.

I'll post any / all replies on here as usual.

[JMio]

Copy of letters sent into Clydesdale Bank today:

To Fiona Hutton:

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Dear Fiona Hutton,

SORT CODE: ******
ACCOUNT NUMBER: ********

I write to you in the hope that you will be able to assist me with my request to obtain details of all transactions and charges relating to my account since its opening date, around September 2001.

I originally submitted my request to the Festival Square branch in Edinburgh on the 8th March 2006, and then followed this up with another request accompanied with the £10.00 fee applicable for providing this service (which the branch have confirmed has been received).

Unfortunately, neither the branch nor Customer Relations departments have provided me with any assistance, and after contacting others in a similar situation I have been advised to contact you directly.

I sincerely hope that you are able to help me with this.

Yours faithfully,

JMio