A&L making up own rules with SAR....

[Bradders33]

Hi All,

 

Having successfully taken Halifax to court I am now embarking on A&L, I first of all tried to get to view my statements on-line (Only have 2.5 years worth.) but they said that they cannot do that, but if I want statements I can have them sent out at £5 a statement!!!!!!

 

So instead I said that I would request is as a Subject Access Request instead for £10, they said fine. (Obviously thought they could scare me off with the £5 statements.)

 

I sent the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter a week ago, it was signed for next day and in the letter I said to take the statatory £10 direct from my a/c.

 

Money still not been taken, so I call them today and ask what is happening, they said they haven't had my letter (They have, it's been signed for.) and that when they do finally get my letter that they will send me a loads of forms out to fill in for my statement request!! And to send a £10 CHEQUE back with forms, they won't take from my a/c they say.

 

I know that if I am going down the £5 a statement route that they say you have to fill out various forms, but surely my letter is enough for my request....

 

Just smacks to me of delaying tactics.

 

I rang Complaints Management in Bootle and they said they would email the relevant department and ask them to look at my request today, but they may want me to fill out further forms with may take 7-10 days..... Arrrrrrrgh!

 

What can I do? I don't want this dragging out. I'm going round in circles.

 

Bradders. x

 

PS: Hubby is taking Lloyds to court tonight!

[Glenn UK]

1st things first

 

if you used the SAr template from the library and offered payment 9ie authorised them to chareg your account) then i think the SAR has been served and the date they received it is the date from which their 40days starts.

 

The Act doesnt specify how the payment must be made, onmly that the SAR must be in writing and the approrpirate fee must be paid.

 

If tyou have offered it and authorised them to take the moeny from yuor account then there is no reason for them to refuse such a request, or at least not to delay the request.

 

Re asking you to fill in forms, the DPA is quite specific about the form of the SAR and if you have used the library template then you do not need to fill in any forms to apply.

 

However, the DPA does allow data controllers to satisfy themselves that you are who you say you are ie ask you for some form of ID.

 

from what you say you are using an active account and using your normal address for communication and indeed they are happy to respond to your request.

 

They cannot therefore accede to written requests to carry out management of your account say change of address or contact details and the use the same address to ascertain who you are.

 

In reality of course if they decide to be awkward of course the could refuse to supply the data unless you fill out their forms and leave you to either take them to court or complain to the ico.

 

What i would do is when they respond is supply the information they have asked for and confrim when the original SAR was filed and remind them thay have 40days to comply.

 

incidentally the DPA doesnt qualify whether a request to ascertain your id should 're-start' the 40 day time period or not.

 

since it doesnt state it then as far as i can tell then they have to still comply with the 40days.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[matt-man]

Hi Bradders,

 

I'm just posting off my SAR today. So will watch with interest, good luck! You'll see from my thread i did things a bit back to front so i'm going to start from the beginning again and send off all the templates from this site!

[winnie1]

Hi there

Yep me too, just completed the template letter and will be sent recorded delivery tomorrow, good to read the possible problems ahead and how to fight them, its good to know someone is at the same stage as me, lets keep each other informed. Good Luck!

[jansus]

I have today received the questionaire mentioned.just two pages - basically a check on who you are etc and asking to send the £10.00

 

unfortunately already sent this by recorded delivery with the letter and they dont seemed to have acknowledged this - so I am sure I have more problems sorting this out - luckily I photocopied cheque before posting it!

 

jansus

[Bradders33]

1st things first

 

if you used the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) template from the library and offered payment 9ie authorised them to chareg your account) then i think the SAR has been served and the date they received it is the date from which their 40days starts.

 

The Act doesnt specify how the payment must be made, onmly that the SAR must be in writing and the approrpirate fee must be paid.

 

If tyou have offered it and authorised them to take the moeny from yuor account then there is no reason for them to refuse such a request, or at least not to delay the request.

 

Re asking you to fill in forms, the Data Protection Act is quite specific about the form of the SAR and if you have used the library template then you do not need to fill in any forms to apply.

 

However, the DPA does allow data controllers to satisfy themselves that you are who you say you are ie ask you for some form of ID.

 

from what you say you are using an active account and using your normal address for communication and indeed they are happy to respond to your request.

 

They cannot therefore accede to written requests to carry out management of your account say change of address or contact details and the use the same address to ascertain who you are.

 

In reality of course if they decide to be awkward of course the could refuse to supply the data unless you fill out their forms and leave you to either take them to court or complain to the Information Commissioners Office.

 

What i would do is when they respond is supply the information they have asked for and confrim when the original SAR was filed and remind them thay have 40days to comply.

 

incidentally the DPA doesnt qualify whether a request to ascertain your id should 're-start' the 40 day time period or not.

 

since it doesnt state it then as far as i can tell then they have to still comply with the 40days.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

 

Thanks for that Glenn, since I last spoke to them someone has called me back and confirmed that my letter will suffice after all and my statements will be with me within the 40 days.

[Bradders33]

Matt, Winnie, Jansus... Good luck and keep me posted.... It's much easier now I have won against Halifax, but the waiting's a bummer!

[winnie1]

Well what a surprise, A & L sent a letter to say that they had no record of the account number i had quoted, and the account number they quoted wasn't even mine!!! So i've written back basically saying why are you using this account number, and they've now have 31 days left to comply. Will also send this recorded delivery. Hey ho!!

[Bradders33]

Well what a surprise, A & L sent a letter to say that they had no record of the account number i had quoted, and the account number they quoted wasn't even mine!!! So i've written back basically saying why are you using this account number, and they've now have 31 days left to comply. Will also send this recorded delivery. Hey ho!!

 

Oh dear poor you.

 

I have heard nada from them, they have not taken my tenner either, they have until 24th March to respond.

[matt-man]

Hi Winnie

 

Just a thought, you know A & L account numbers are a bit odd, i.e you add numbers when quoting DD info etc then remove at other times etc, you did quote the right number didn't you? If you look about you'll see i used to work for them and this did confuse things for me at times, although it sounds like someone was being lazy as you requested SAR so they should be pumping your name into the computer and not just your account number!

[matt-man]

No response to my SAR yet!

[noisypinkbubble]

They cashed the cheque for my SR on the 22nd January and I've heard nothing yet. No forms to fill in, no correspondence whatsoever. I think they are stalling in case there's some kind of ruling in the next month or so.

 

I reckon it's 40 days TOMORROW. What would you advise my next step be should I receive nothing before Monday (giving them postage time)?

[matt-man]

Hi Noisy

 

I would just fill out the LBA about failure to provide information.

 

You can find it at

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/6986-data-protection-act-non.html

[matt-man]

You want template 3

[noisypinkbubble]

Thanks Matt-man