Telecontacting Calls

gandalf16

Hi MSE's

This is my first post & I'm hoping I've got it in the right place.
My wife received a call on Thursday from my Bank Halifax.
The girl calling asked for me & was told that I wasn't in, she then proceeded to ask "is that Catherine" to which my wife replied yes.

The girl then said she'd noticed on our Direct Debits that we were paying a mortgage & could she beat our mortgage with Northern Rock.

From my reckoning this call is all wrong on 3 issues.

1) I believe that it's not allowed for a Bank to contact a customer for a mortgage without prior arrangement (in effect cold calling)

2) I know that it's improper to use a customers Direct Debits for Marketing purposes

3)The caller proceeded to disclose a relationship with Northern Rock without first verifiying that she was speaking to the correct person.

I've written a letter of complaint to the Manager & got a reply basically saying he's spoken to the girl in question who can't remember the call & any time he's observed her she always verifies the customer.
He also states that the call was made as we have preferences showing they are allowed to contact us & makes no reference to the fact that our Direct Debit information was used to try & generate potential business.

Can anyone confirm my thoughts that there was wrongdoing on this call as his flippant reply has made me want to use the Ombudsman

rb10

Agree that they should have verified her before discussing account details.

However, any company is permitted to phone any of their customers, unless the customer has requested otherwise, so unless you've previously requested that they don't contact you by phone, then you don't have a leg to stand on here.

Also, why shouldn't they use your direct debits to decide what products to offer you? If you have a mortgage with Northern Rock, but little disposable income, then you'd probably prefer them to talk to you about mortgages than about investments, as you never know, it could be of use to you.

Why is a bank looking at information that they hold about you any different to anyone else? If Orange phoned me up to try to sell me a different contract for my phone, I'd prefer that they have some idea of my monthly usage first, so that they don't try to sell me something inappropriate.

You have taken the correct course of action - a written complaint - and received a decent answer in response. The Financial Ombudsman won't be able to do anything, not that there's anything else to be done.