Closed bank accounts and data retention - what are the facts?

jfh7gwa

This morning I had the oddest experience at the bank, and I'm not sure if i was being unreasonable, or not!

Basically, husband and I have a joint account that I've been meaning to close for years; done.

After closing it as a passing remark to the cashier as I got my receipt, I asked if they would remove most of the data about the account from the systems... right? (I didn't say it, but I basically don't want to continue to get email spam from them, and I don't really want e.g. to be approached in a year with promotional material saying to come back to them, which I think is quite a normal desire?).

I clarified this because she didn't seem to understand my question i.e. do they retain data that is over and above the legal requirement (they have to keep some records for 6 years, legally, I just don't know the details of what type of data, since I don't work in a bank )... and if the answer is yes, can I ask for those "optional" bits of data to be deleted, please?

The cashier had no idea what data was retained about the account once it's closed. She offered to clarify it with the branch manager; manager didn't know either. She suggested I give Customer Services a call - so I did from her branch phone. They didn't know, but the lady on the other end did say not to worry about my query because "only people within the bank can access it"; I explained that wasn't really answering my question. She gave me the number of the data protection team at the bank; the woman that picked up the phone didn't know either. She passed me to her supervisor - who literally said "I don't really understand what you're asking", despite me being fairly articulate IRL and a native English speaker (no regional dialect).

!!!!!!? I had to explain it about 3 or 4 times before she "got" it. anyway, she had no idea what data was retained, or if i had the option to request some of the non-legally-required stuff to be deleted. She went away to ask someone else; after 23 minutes on hold, I hung up and walked out of the branch.

is it really so odd for a customer to:

1) Ask this sort of thing when I close a bank account? It was an off the cuff remark but I actually got concerned about their level of cluelessness the more no one seemed able to answer myquestion.

2) Ask if anyone here knows what the answer is? I still seem to be able to log into internet banking, for example. I assume there is something in their IT systems that will just clean up my account and close it off... I mean, doesn't it impact your credit score if you've got lots of dormant accounts which haven't properly been closed?!

3) Surely someone, somewhere, at a national bank should know the answer to this sort of query, or am I expecting too much?!

opinions4u

1) Yes, it is an unusual question. Don't expect customer facing staff to be experts on the complex legal requirements of the DPA, which is a legislative nightmare alongside other requirements place upon financial institutions, some of which comes from Europe and the USA. Staff in branch / call centre have an interaction with the DPA that is basically limited to ensuring they identify that the person they are disclosing data to is entitled to it.

2) Closed / dormant accounts in credit won't damage your credit report.

3) As various investigatory authorities, not least relating to Money Laundering, may obtain a court order to obtain details of transactions on closed accounts, I'm not sure what data could legally be deleted before a period of 6 years is up. If my memory is correct, the Data Protection Registrar lost a key court case on this subject around 1989 and banks have little choice but to hold records electronically for longer than 6 years. (quite happy to be corrected on this).

jfh7gwa

opinions4u wrote: »

1) Yes, it is an unusual question. Don't expect customer facing staff to be experts on the complex legal requirements of the DPA, which is a legislative nightmare alongside other requirements place upon financial institutions, some of which comes from Europe and the USA. Staff in branch / call centre have an interaction with the DPA that is basically limited to ensuring they identify that the person they are disclosing data to is entitled to it.

fair enough. but i seemed to know more about the DPA requirements than the staff - I assumed this is a fairly usual query re: closing accounts, but perhaps not then

opinions4u wrote: »

2) Closed / dormant accounts in credit won't damage your credit report.

This one was at zero since i drew the cash out as part of the closing process. it hasn't ever had any charges against it. but good to know that "good" old accounts wouldn't affect it then. i'd read that accounts with overdrafts (which this one did have) would be seen on your credit report - as in,it's debt that's available to you. and since i have no use for this account, i did wonder if it was a bad thing to keep it open.

opinions4u wrote: »

3) As various investigatory authorities, not least relating to Money Laundering, may obtain a court order to obtain details of transactions on closed accounts, I'm not sure what data could legally be deleted before a period of 6 years is up. If my memory is correct, the Data Protection Registrar lost a key court case on this subject around 1989 and banks have little choice but to hold records electronically for longer than 6 years. (quite happy to be corrected on this).

Oh yes, i made that totally clear - it's absolutely cool for them to keep legally required info on me at the bank. I had assumed the six year rule was related to fraud or some other serious issue.

I suppose what stunned me was the attitude that I was odd for querying what "extra"/optional data is stored, and that no one seemed to know even at more specific teams of the bank. Totally cool to keep needed info.. but not cool to not be able to find out what that data is, or what else there is. I'd sort of assumed they'd offer to track down someone and write with details - i don't expect this answer off the top of someone's tongue if i'm being honest. but the inability to track that person or even that team down in an hour's visit to the bank was a bit alarming.

I'd just assumed the bank would be !!!! hot on this sort of stuff, esp. when it came to a really straightforward account closure (no complications such as payments being in dispute, or anything like that).

Perhaps I'm also miffed that I've previously been a good customer of the bank (for a good ten years before the account went unused for some year - I moved house and there's no branch near me) and I've always previously found them to be fine/helpful, ownership of problems and all that stuff. Not this time!:rotfl:

jonesMUFCforever

Why pick on the bank? Do you ask the same every time you switch energy suppliers for instance? Mobile phone contracts perhaps?

Chrisblue1962

"...Why pick on the bank? Do you ask the same every time you switch energy suppliers for instance? Mobile phone contracts perhaps?.."

Maybe we should all be more prudent exactly what data we give out, to whom we give data and how we allow them to use it, including retention? :think:...after all, your data belongs to you!

stclair

Would it not be better to direct the questions to the ICO or to the Data Protection Manager of the company concerned

https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

Pandini

jfh7gwa wrote: »

The cashier had no idea what data was retained about the account once it's closed. She offered to clarify it with the branch manager; manager didn't know either. She suggested I give Customer Services a call

Love the fact that neither the cashier nor the manager consider that their jobs may be in "Customer Services"!

The manager should have offered to find out and get back to you within a few days. That's Customer Service!

opinions4u

Pandini wrote: »

Love the fact that neither the cashier nor the manager consider that their jobs may be in "Customer Services"!

The manager should have offered to find out and get back to you within a few days. That's Customer Service!

You're probably right, but they may have taken the pragmatic view that the customer could get hold of the answer faster themselves.

I'm not saying that's right, but with 600 customers a day wandering through the branch and none of them ever asking tihs sort of question it was certainly an unusual situation.

Personally I'd have referred the customer to the bank's web site for more information rather than directing the question to a call centre agent who would have a similar lack of knowledge.

http://www.halifax.co.uk/securityandprivacy/privacy.asp?pagetabs=0

There's even a data protection address to contact in the link to a PDF leaflet from there.

opinions4u

Pandini wrote: »

Love the fact that neither the cashier nor the manager consider that their jobs may be in "Customer Services"!

The manager should have offered to find out and get back to you within a few days. That's Customer Service!

You're probably right, but they may have taken the pragmatic view that the customer could get hold of the answer faster themselves.

I'm not saying that's right, but with 600 customers a day wandering through a typical branch and none of them ever asking this sort of question it was certainly an unusual situation.

Personally I'd have referred the customer to the bank's web site for more information rather than directing the question to a call centre agent who would have a similar lack of knowledge.

http://www.halifax.co.uk/securityandprivacy/privacy.asp?pagetabs=0

There's even a data protection address to contact in the link to a PDF leaflet from there.

MoneySaverLog

jfh7gwa wrote: »

I suppose what stunned me was the attitude that I was odd for querying what "extra"/optional data is stored, and that no one seemed to know even at more specific teams of the bank. Totally cool to keep needed info.. but not cool to not be able to find out what that data is, or what else there is. I'd sort of assumed they'd offer to track down someone and write with details - i don't expect this answer off the top of someone's tongue if i'm being honest. but the inability to track that person or even that team down in an hour's visit to the bank was a bit alarming.

I'd just assumed the bank would be !!!! hot on this sort of stuff, esp. when it came to a really straightforward account closure (no complications such as payments being in dispute, or anything like that).

Perhaps I'm also miffed that I've previously been a good customer of the bank (for a good ten years before the account went unused for some year - I moved house and there's no branch near me) and I've always previously found them to be fine/helpful, ownership of problems and all that stuff. Not this time!:rotfl:

Send them a Subject Access Request under the data protection act to their Data Controller asking for ALL INFORMATION HELD AND STORED OFFLINE and they will be forced to tell you this, and cost them alot more in administration than the maximum £10 they can charge you :rotfl:

whitewater_2

In all my years working in a bank no one has ever asked that, so id have been stumped myself.

I would however have found out just to satisfy my own curiousity