Barclaycard DPA & Microfiche Issue

[simonjohn]

This post may be long, so please bare with me, but I think you will find it both relevant and usefull.

 

 

In 1998 I was defaulted by barclaycard due to penalty charges applied to the account and they subsequently sold the debt onto a DCA sometime around the middle of 1998.

 

In 2004 the default came off my credit file and the debt was statute barred.

 

Now, in february 2006 I applied for a credit card with l.p.f which is underwritten by barclaycard, which at the time I didn't know.

 

About 9 days after the application I recieved a letter from barclaycard which said:

 

"Thank you for your recent application for a l.p.f card, unfortunatly on this occasion we are not able to offer you a card at this time as our records show that you have previously held a barclaycard product to which you did not maintain the terms and conditions of".

 

I really didn't think much of it at the time, however after reading the numerous posts on here about banks and credit card companies stalling on DPA requests and hiding behind the microfiche arguement that data over 2 years is stored on.

 

My points are:

 

1) If data over 2 years is stored on microfiche and does not form part of a relevent filling system How come it only took them 9 days to find such info.

 

2)If they can acssess such info within 9 days why can't they do it, within this time frame under a subject accssess request

[alanfromderby]

I think you would find that they keep a list of customers who have defaulted on their accounts for quite a few years. This would be easy to do, and would be held on computer. This is totally different to the extremely high volume of daily transactions, which would take up a massive amount of storage space, and clutter up their systems.

 

I would expect a bank to keep records such as this for a lengthy period of time - far longer than they are obliged to keep transactional information.

[simonjohn]

I think you would find that they keep a list of customers who have defaulted on their accounts for quite a few years.

 

Really, I was under the impresion that they can only keep data for as long as is necesary.

 

 

This would be easy to do, and would be held on computer.

 

so surely this is availlable under subject accsess, which I requested in 2005 and they said that they dont hold data on me !!!!!!

 

This is totally different to the extremely high volume of daily transactions, which would take up a massive amount of storage space, and clutter up their systems.

 

If this is the case, then why are people from here who have been defaulted having so many problems with their subject accsess requests, and for those who have been succsessful in their requests, such data is not shown on their accsess request ?

 

I would expect a bank to keep records such as this for a lengthy period of time - far longer than they are obliged to keep transactional information.

 

I thought that data controllers can only hold such data for as long as is leaglly nescessary

[absolutefox]

I have just received a reply from Barclaycard for my Subject Acess Request under the DPA and they are requesting the statutory fee of £10 before releasing the information BUT they have said

"....Please note statements that are prior to May 2004 are not held on a computer system or a structured relevant filing system and therefore, they do not fall under the Data Protection Act 1998. They can be obtained from our Customer Services Dept at a cost of £3 per statement."

I am sure this is untrue and that any information held about a person which can be used to identify them is deemed as being included under the Data Protection Act 1998. Can anyone clarify that this is just a ruse to try and put me off requesting such info @ £3 a pop for each statement?

 

Thanks x

[simonjohn]

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