i've been going through a couple of old bill and finance agreements today and i have come across a document with old bank account number on. if memory serves me right it was with the rbos a joint account with o/h and a heck of a lot of charges on it. trouble is that the document was dated october 1999. if i wrote a sar to the bank would they give me statement dating back to when the accout was opened. as i'm not sure when that account was closed?

They can only give you statements as far back as they hold - there is a difference.

However, in response to your SAR, RBS will send you statements going back no further than 6 years to see if they can get away with it. The limitations act does not have any bearing on DPA requests and therefore they are required to supply you with statements as far back as they hold. That might not necessarily be as far back as 1999 but if they fail to give you anything further than 6 years, ask for them to confirm (in writing) that this is all the data they hold, that they do not hold statements for any longer than 6 years.

If they don't confirm and you think they may have data back further, you would then be in a position to file for non-disclosure but that would only be on the basis that they haven't supplied you with the correct info.

rang rbos today to see what info they had on this old account. branch could't tell me any thing as she said acc was closed asnd she couldn't say when. then said she would put a request in for statements to see what would come back and that i would have to pick them up from the branch with id as moved house since that acc was being operated. rang customer support and she told me the same. also told me that they wouldn't request statement for more that 6 years as this was the max amount that i could claim for. advise please

That's not true. Whilst you can only claim back 6 years - and that is open for debate there are others who are claiming back further - the Data Protection Act states they must supply you with ALL data they hold on you REGARDLESS of how far back it goes.

As I said previously, the limitations act DOES NOT have any relevance to your request and furthermore, it doesn't matter what you are going to do with the statements, they have to supply you with everything they hold.

Back on the phone I think (though I would suggest you only use the phone to obtain your account number, once you have located this, get an SAR in).

I agree with T4FF, they are either ill informed or trying to avoid giving you more info so you can claim for more.

thanxs for advise. sar in the post on mon.

had a phone call from rbos today she has the statements from march 01 to april 02( when the account was closed). low and behold there are 1660 in charges the statements start from no 48 so there are 47 other statments somwhere. would an sar get them for me.

They can only give you statements as far back as they hold - there is a difference.

 

However, in response to your SAR, RBS will send you statements going back no further than 6 years to see if they can get away with it. The limitations act does not have any bearing on DPA requests and therefore they are required to supply you with statements as far back as they hold. That might not necessarily be as far back as 1999 but if they fail to give you anything further than 6 years, ask for them to confirm (in writing) that this is all the data they hold, that they do not hold statements for any longer than 6 years.

 

If they don't confirm and you think they may have data back further, you would then be in a position to file for non-disclosure but that would only be on the basis that they haven't supplied you with the correct info.

I've answered this above. It might - it depends on how far back RBS state they hold statements. If they say they don't hold statements for longer than 6 years, then get them to confirm this in writing and also why and how they were destroyed.