Old Accounts Security

MoveOver

It costs time and money for Businesses to remove your account details from their computers. So many businesses keep the Data. Why is this dangerous for you?

I had an account with a British Utility, just for gas. The service was excellent until I accepted their offer to include Electricity. My meter would be read and three days later I would receive an Invoice based on an Estimated reading. I would telephone in the accurate meter readings and three days later I would receive another Invoice. Usually it would be based on my readings but sometimes it would be estimated again.

Because I had had excellent customer service from the Gas Department I stayed with the Business and hoped that one day the Electricity Department would improve. It didn't. I wrote letters of complaint about the way meter readings were estimated. Nothing was done. I tried to work out how the Business arrived at my Invoice details and noticed that the estimates were based on the previous years. But not the same days.

I checked the previous years for the same dates that they were using and found that those figures were estimated. I had provided accurate meter readings. Their meter reader had provided accurate meter readings, Yet they were still using estimates. I phoned and complained. I received a new Invoice. based on estimated readings. Based on different periods for a previous year. Again I checked and their figures were not the same as my actual records of actual meter readings. I asked how they calculated the Invoices. I found their answer complex and confusing. I was never good at Arithmetic when I was in my teens and I am now retired. So I asked around for someone who could check their figures against previous Invoices? I found nobody. I was advised to hire an Accountant.
Ha! On a pensioners income?

I sought advice from Age Concern. Their (Volunteer) adviser assured me that the Invoice was accurate. I asked how she knew that? She said the Invoice had been checked. I asked who had checked it, as I had only just brought it to her attention and she had not consulted anyone? She replied that the Business would have checked it before sending it to me. I was astounded. I tried to explain to her that if the Invoice was deliberately wrong the Business would naturally not admit it. She offered to phone the Business and ask them to check the Invoice. I declined. I am perfectly capable of making that phone call myself. I would expect the Business to do the same as before, send out a new Invoice based upon last year's estimated readings.

I changed my Supplier, and closed my old (Direct Debit) account.

Almost a year later my Email account was hacked. The criminal then sent a request to the former Utility Business requesting a lost password. The Business sent the password by email. The criminal then went on-line, entered the password, examined all my old Invoices, printed out the last one and used it to try and open a Building Society account in my name. Fortunately I had been unable to delete the compromised Yahoo email account and had been watching it for any activity. I had also paid for Identity Theft protection and they alerted me to the criminal activity.

I phoned the British Utility business and asked them why they had kept all my old business details on their computer? In case I decided to return to them. Why had they provided a password? Because I had requested it. Why was the password sent in an email that was so insecure? The business had always done it that way, there was no other way. I explained that many other businesses reply to a password request by sending a link to their site where - after security checks - the customer could change their password. (They would not provide a password to an account that had been closed two years previously).

I told her of the criminal activity. The Business representative then told me that it was the Customer's responsibility to ensure the safety of their email accounts. If they received a request for a password they would automatically supply it. For the Customers benefit.

I have still not found any unbiased person willing - and able - to check the Gas and Electricity Invoices for accuracy.

spiro

Business retain account details for anything up to 7 years because of financial regulations. Years ago that used to be pipes of paper put onto microfiche now its disk space in a data centre.

Also who are "British Utility" or do you mean a utility company, as in generic?