Abbey telephone banking complaint

millymoomoo_2

Hello everybody! Sorry it's a long one!
I originally posted this on the consumer thread but this one seems more active!

I would just like to have a bit of a vent about Abbey National.
Thursday night my partner used Abbey telephone banking to transfer money to my account. We both have Abbey accounts but the only thing that links them is our address. We do this on a regular basis and have not had problems before.

The transfer went through fine, however, the woman then revealed my account balance to my partner. This in itself isn't a problem as it's our money in there and he already knew how much was in there because it's for all of our bills. My problem is that this is a breach of security because ,as i put above, the only link between these accounts is our address. The only information he has to give to transfer in to my account is easily found on my card or cheques. He did not have to answer any security questions.

He didn't say anything to the woman about this at the time because it didn't register with him that she shouldn't have told him! Over a month ago he asked about registering to be able to have his account online. Nothing had turned up in the post for him so he asked the same woman to resend the information out. I tried to log on to my Abbey account online friday morning and couldn't sign in. I panicked because I thought I must have got a keylogger or something! So I phoned Abbey technical support (who were great) and it took a while but it turns out that the woman from thursday night had reregistered my account instead of my partners. This means that my online account is now disabled while I wait for them to send out new details! Again, to do this, he was asked no security questions!

So, basically Abbey revealed my balance to somebody other than me and reregistered my online account with no authorization from me!

The lady from technical support was shocked about this and told me it should not have happened. I would like to write a letter of complaint but don't know where to send it or how strongly to word it. Does anybody have any suggestions/advice or am I going OTT!

Thank you and sorry it's so long!

_Andy_

I think the key thing to remember when registering a complaint is, what outcome do you want? Without this the complaint can't really be settled.

So for example, are you just wanting an apology, or do you feel you deserve compensation? If so, how much?

Clearly they have breached both their own procedures and DPA.

When writing a letter of complaint, I think it best to structure it as follows -

1) What has happened (including dates, etc.)

2) Why you're not happy with that (without being emotive or insulting)

3) What you want done about it.

In terms of where to send it you need to ring the company and ask.

millymoomoo_2

Thankyou Andy,
I'm not very good at complaining, didn't even know where to start! I'm not really looking for compensation just an apology. So I'll get started now!

_Andy_

You're welcome, feel free to PM me if you want any input on the letter

YorkshireBoy

millymoomoo wrote:

...don't know where to send it...

The best place to look is the provider website...

Complaints Department
Abbey
PO BOX 5129
Milton Keynes
MK9 2YN

http://www.abbey.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?c=GSInformacion&cid=564085054880064&pagename=Abbey%2FGSInformacion%2FGS_DetallePie

Their complaints procedure recommends that you first contact the department you have the issue with. However, for such a blatant breach of the DPA, I'd personally go straight for the letter to the above address.

millymoomoo_2

Brilliant thanks!

Mikeyorks

Rarely use telephone banking ... as it's such a pain compared to online. But had occasion to access my wife's account a few days ago .. to sort out a bill payment where she'd inadvertently put a delay on the BACS submission.

The whole dialogue right up to the operator was via IVR - which meant account and security details were all keyed. Including the bit that said 'press 1 if you are the account holder'. Whereupon I (lied and) pressed '1' !!

If your OH has accessed your account in a similar sort of manner - I'm sure you wouldn't complain? It's unclear in your OP - does one assume he was / intending 'pushing' the money from his own account? Despite it sounds the operator was working from your account, which puzzles me as she had no reason to access it in order to effect a transfer??

millymoomoo_2

Hi, I can't understand it either.
When he phones the only time he has to press a button is to get to the department concerned. The only security questions he was asked were to access his account. The only information he had to give to transfer money to my account was the 16 digit card number and my name. For her to tell him the balance in my account she must have accessed it herself without my authorization!

sammy115

It sounds to me that when Mikeyworks rings Abbey he presses the number for telephone banking which takes your through the IVR and you have to input numbers. I think Millymoomoo OH pressed 5 for the option to speak to an operator. Only my opinion having used Abbey for many years until falling out with them pretty badly over the last 12 months!!!!

Mikeyorks

No it wasn't Abbey I was using. But it's the first time I've used telephone 'banking' in ages - and it struck me as a bit odd that I could get right into the account. It used, I'm sure, to terminate short of the account - then you got an operator for the security questions. However - not much different to my accessing her online account?

But it just created the question, in my mind, relating to the OP - as to why the operator would access the 'target' account. Absolutely no need to do so. I'm sure that isn't in their script for internal transfers - so why in this case. It just kind of begged the question (now answered?) as to which account was accessed initially.

AndyR_3

[QUOTE=Mikeyorks
But it just created the question, in my mind, relating to the OP - as to why the operator would access the 'target' account. Absolutely no need to do so. I'm sure that isn't in their script for internal transfers - so why in this case. It just kind of begged the question (now answered?) as to which account was accessed initially.[/QUOTE]


The OP says her partner gave her 16 digit card number, so the operator would have needed to access the card details in order to find the OP's account number. Even if the account number was given, it is still good practice to access the account to make sure the number quoted is correct and valid.