Barclays Bank

[frankiechill]

Hi

Having looked into reclaiming my bank charges last year and having purchased the labels and and small claims kit via your site i have finally put the wheels in motion. I am now confused as after sending my bank my subject access request I have received a letter from them basically saying they are "not under any obligationto present information accoring to any particular format, therefore my request to assemble a schedule of charges is turned aside". They also go on to mention that the DPA does not oblige the bank to comment about internal policies and procedures. They then go on to say that they will provide copy of my statements on a complimentary basis and returned my £10 cheque! I am really confused - does this mean that i will get the information they refused free?? and has anyone else had the same letter from them, as i have also wrote a letter for my husband and son so they can also reclaim their charges.

[bottomburp]

deleted

[UmbraFeles]

I got exactly the same letter today. It also stated that all information requested prior to 2000 was not held in standard electronic format. I will still be sticking to my 40 day time limit though.

I think they're wising up to requests and trying to get away with giving as little information as they can.

 

 

 

In their letter it also says:

"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 have requested in a form that would be convered by the Data Protection Act. Whilst aggregated information is retained for statistical purposes, this would not constitute "personal data" under the Data Protection Act 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 provisions of the DPA, is in no way an admission that there was no such manual intervention."

I'm wondering what the format that they hold statistics is - whether they have account numbers or whether they just have a total for each month? I suppose we'll never know as it appears that they don't have to provide information if there is a possibility it might incriminate them. If they have account numbers or personal details in the statistics then they should provide this information. I think we're being fobbed off.

 

I helped my partner's brother claim nearly £4000 back from Halifax in January (they offered just over £3000 to begin with but we started court proceedings and they panicked ) and thought I'd have a go at getting my charges back from Barclays which I incurred whilst I was a student. I'm really mad with the fact that just because they have access to your funds, they can take whatever money they feel like. If a lawful company wants money from you to cover the cost of any charges the company has received, they have to give you a breakdown of the charges. So the bank should only be able to claim these charges if it provides a breakdown of the costs incurred. They should also not just be able to help themselves to the money in your account, as if I or another company did that to someone who owed them money, I would be taken to court for theft. Why do the banks think they're above the law?

[frankiechill]

Our letters are identical, im allowing them the 40 days which will take the 3 of us to the 16th March, i'm just praying that they provide us with the full information as someone has told me that the law is changing in March due to the banks fighting back - just my luck!

 

Thanks for letting me know that you go the same - did they attach your £10 cheque with the letter?

[UmbraFeles]

I'm allowing the 40 days as well which will take me to the 17th of March.

 

I wasn't aware that the law was changing but I can't see them letting companies hold any data they like on us without letting us see whether it's correct or not. UK law is ruled over by the EU and thus by their 1995 Data Protection Directive guichett - 31995L0046 -. Therefore, regardless of what the UK rules say, the EU can override any laws which contradict the original ruling.

Have you got any information on the intended change?

The Council of Europe also have an interesting section on Data Protection default.

 

The law cannot be applied retrospectively, and I think that because we've already sent our SARs, any future rulings which could affect SARs will not be applied to us. I could be wrong though - I did 'A' Level Law but it was a few years ago and doesn't really go 'in depth' so I'm a bit rusty!

 

Yep, they attached my £10 cheque to the letter. It says elsewhere on the site that they don't have to provide all of the information you request if they don't charge for it and you can't complain unless you've paid.

[frankiechill]

Hello

I am making 3 claims to Barclays myself, hubby + son. My son and me have had a partial repayment offered which i have informed them that i would only accept their offer as a partial claim but required the outstanding amounts re-imbursed, my husbands letter was however very different they have apologised that he has had reason to complain and informed him that they would respond to his letter by 21 April, given the information i hae read on this site they have only until 21st March to respond. Since i informed Barclays that we would accept their offer of a partial claim and they had until 21 March to reimburse the remaining charges I will have to send them a LBA tomorrow. My husband called Barclays this evening and he was told that there was no legal obligation whatsoever for them to respond to his request - am i therefore right in believing that i will be sending them 3 LBA tomorrow?? Any advice is greatly appreciated, i am happy to carry out my threats and take this all the way as between the 3 of us they owe us in excess of an £2,500 and i made the mistake of working out what we couldnt claim which is over £3,000!!! Please advice me