Can credit cards/banks keep thier own records of debts of a bankrupcy?

chattychappy

Not that it matters, but the first DPA was 1984. (Came into force 1985 as far as I recall.)

chanz4

would you lend someone whom you wrote off money for? I wouldnt

jonesMUFCforever

This thread has been butchered by presumably the admin team - my reply from yesterday has gone along with some other posts by others!

savagej

LTSB certainly do.

Naf

thenudeone wrote: »

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, personal data should only be kept for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which the data was obtained (principle 5)

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/the_principles.aspx

Although the Act does not give a specific time limit, it's clear that data can't be kept forever (unless you still owe them money in which case they are entitled to keep the data).

If they keep data for longer than the 6 year after you have cleared your debt or been declared bankrupt (i.e. the state declares your debt is wiped), you would have good grounds for making a complaint to the ICO.

The data regarding lending you money was obtained with the purpose of deciding whether to offer you any form of credit facility. This would include even the simplest current account (excepting a basic account). The bank would have little difficulty arguing that they are perfectly entitled to keep it up to the 6 years after your last credit facility was fully paid off and closed with them.

I would suggest, OP, that they will likely still have records that you were BR, especially if they were one you had problems with at the time, although not everywhere will refuse you on the grounds of a BR that has now expired on your credit report.

antrobus

thenudeone wrote: »

Although the Act does not give a specific time limit, it's clear that data can't be kept forever (unless you still owe them money in which case they are entitled to keep the data).

If they keep data for longer than the 6 year after you have cleared your debt or been declared bankrupt (i.e. the state declares your debt is wiped), you would have good grounds for making a complaint to the ICO.

I don't understand, I was under the impression that details of personal bankruptcies were published in the London Gazette, so I can't see what difference it would make whether or not a bank kept a record of information that is clearly in the public domain.

thenudeone

antrobus wrote: »

I don't understand, I was under the impression that details of personal bankruptcies were published in the London Gazette, so I can't see what difference it would make whether or not a bank kept a record of information that is clearly in the public domain.

If a bank simply has a copy of the London Gazette and does nothing with it; that is not covered by the DPA because the data is not recorded in an automated way or in a filing system.

If they re-type the data into an automated (or manual) filing system designed to enable them to check whether someone was made bankrupt, it becomes personal data subject to the DPA.

This might help:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/guidance_index/data_protection_and_privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx#personal

izools

After making some queries post my Bankruptcy, I have found that RBS Group keep records for five years and as a result of a loan default my Mother had, Barclays Bank keep records for eight years at least.

Barclaycard, however, seem to have lost all trace of my ever having held an account pretty much immediately and gave me another card already Didn't keep it for over a year, but still.

Home Shop Group (Littlewoods et al) also don't seem to keep records for that long as they, too, gave me another account already. I only applied as an experiment and was immediately approved with £600 limit only a couple of years after my old accounts with them were written into a BR order.

Halifax don't seem to keep many records either, just a couple of months after discharge I was approved for a Easycash account and an Aqua Mastercard (run by Halifax)... but then seeya23 had a DCA letter for a 12 year old debt with HBOS so it seems it varies not just bank to bank, but customer to customer ...

antrobus

thenudeone wrote: »

If a bank simply has a copy of the London Gazette and does nothing with it; that is not covered by the DPA because the data is not recorded in an automated way or in a filing system.

If they re-type the data into an automated (or manual) filing system designed to enable them to check whether someone was made bankrupt, it becomes personal data subject to the DPA.

This might help:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/guidance_index/data_protection_and_privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx#personal

Yes.

I think you'll find that there aren't that many banks who simply have "a copy" any more, this being the 21st century and all that.

See http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/insolvency

Working closely with the Insolvency Service (an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), the London Gazette provides a comprehensive and growing range of services for those who require information on corporate insolvency and personal bankruptcy events ....

....Amongst the organisations who use information directly from the London Gazette are many of the country's the blue chip financial institutions such as credit reference agencies, banking and credit card groups, together with the largest insolvency practitioners and much of the finance industry....

and more importantly

The website, including access to current and past information and the online search facility is free of charge.

Or to put it another way; if you want to check whether someone has been made bankrupt, you just use Google.

As I was saying, the information is in the public domain. Given that the whole point of the Data Protection Act is to protect people's privacy by ensuring that they 'personal data' is kept locked away, doesn't publication in the London Gazette mean that the data has ceased to be personal, and thus the DPA does not apply. Which was my question really.

izools

Since the data is public, surely there would be freedom of information implications, too?

In so far as once the data has been shared publicly, the constraints of the DPA no longer apply and if the london gazette once shared the data publicly, the same data can be obtained from any body holding it without having to follow the limitations set in place by the DPA.