My Bank is looking at my direct debits with out me knowing?!!

ecoplease

I've received the following email from my Halifax bank, which me and my partner have a joint account with and all our bills are being paid from this including our mortgage:

May I introduce myself, I am the mortgage consultant at your local branch.

I have noticed from your direct debits that you have a Santander mortgage. I would like to see if we can save you money by re-mortgaging with the Halifax as we could possibly offer a better rate than you might have at present.

The Santander's base rate is 4.24 %, which you may or may not be on at present. The Halifax can offer you a rate of 3.54% (loan to value between 0 - 60%) with no fees. As you have your main bank account with us you would also receive a £150 cash back on completion.

I invite you to contact me to have a brief discussion to decide whether a re-mortgage would be viable.

Regards

Is this normal behavours of banks actually going into your account and looking for mortgage payments?????

kingstreet

Yep. When I worked for the RBS 20 years ago they had just introduced Transaction Analysis which allowed them to identify debits and group them to produce a list for marketing purposes.

On a similar note, Nat West phoned me a few weeks ago to tell me BoI was offering me a waived ERP and £1,000 cashback to move my mortgage. I explained the situation to the young fella and he was quite grateful for the full story.

ecoplease

I am not a happy bunny though, is it worth complaining??

kingstreet

Complaining on what grounds?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

No it isn't - you will have signed/ticked/not opted out for such activities ast some point in setting the account up.

P****s me off as well, but not much you can do about it.

Tesco will be in touch shortly !

_Andy_

ecoplease wrote: »

I am not a happy bunny though, is it worth complaining??

this really isn't a big deal, just ring them and opt out of marketing. Job done. You seem to be making a big deal out of nothing

corbyboy

ecoplease wrote: »

I am not a happy bunny though, is it worth complaining??

Why don't you take them up on their offer? Maybe they could save you money.

vacheron

As by definition a banks job is to manage your money and arrange your payments etc to other parties, it would be pretty difficult to pay direct debits etc without giving the bank implied permission to "look at them".

You may be able to argue the case if you have requested them not to approach you with marketing material which is what in essence this is, and seems to be the part you (and probably myself) would have an issue with.

I hardly ever go into my branch, but the last time I did they really pushed their mortgages at me. Perhaps in these uncertain times they see their existing customers as the safest bet to loan to?

dunstonh

When I was in banking 23 years ago we used to check direct debits for marketing purposes. However, I seem to recall that there was a ruling that put an end to that as it was seen as an unfair competitive advantage. It then went stealth (still happened but you wouldnt make reference to it)

The bottom line is that you would have to be pretty anal to make a complaint about this. If you dont want marketing then opt out and you wont get it. To complain about marketing when you have made the decision to not opt out is petty and just creates unnecessary work for something easily resolved.

kingstreet

I have to be honest here and say I'd rather have stuff they've taken the trouble to work out I might need, rather than continually send me rubbish I would have no interest in.

I really look forward to the day they can identify what I do for a living then I might not get junk about mortgages and insurance I wouldn't buy from them in a month of sundays.

Just saying, like.

ecoplease

corbyboy wrote: »

Why don't you take them up on their offer? Maybe they could save you money.

Our intrest rate is 0.8 % above the base rate, i dont think so;)