Bank has no details of past Burtons PPI

douguk46

Hi, I had a Burton's store card when I was a student from 1989 to 1993 and had to take out a PPI on it so that card application would be approved. I have contacted Santander , who have taken over the Burton's store card, but they don't hold any information that I had one as it's too long ago. Is this worth pursuing or should I just give up?

amersall

Due to the year and neither you or the Bank have any info, then I personally would give up, I doubt any info would be found from 20 years ago.

dazza12

Although this is a long time ago, Santander will always refer to the six year limit and claim no records exist beyond this.

In practice however various divisions of Santander hold historical records for a considerable time beyond this. GE/Santander Cards kept historical records for 20-30 years as a matter of course, mostly on microfiche (this included Welbeck, First Personal and GE and parts of Lombard) in a record system that the ICO deems to be a 'relevant filing system'. Similarly, Abbey kept microfiche back as far as 1964, and records on film as far back as the mid 1920s(!). On a worldwide basis the Santander group use Iron Mountain to archive older data and an exercise is currently in place to add these sources to this resource.

My own SAR was dismissed by them stating that they didn't hold any records beyond 6 years. Apart from this letter, this was all I initially received from my SAR. Which is odd, as I have an active Current Account and Savings account with Santander which their extensive search didn't seem to find. A couple of follow up letters later and a complaint was registered with the ICO. Within a few days, 3 agreements from 1990, one from 1993, 1995 and 1998 were supplied. Followed up by another letter 3 days later advising that no agreements could be found. And I'm still waiting for the current/savings account data to arrive.

It appears that Santander will only provide all data when challenged. A number of people have had success with old documentation by taking Santander to court to enforce compliance. In most cases Santander back down and supply all available data once a hearing date has been agreed.

It's up to you how you wish to proceed with this. Getting Santander to supply information can involve a lot of work and some expense (court costs, time, paper and ink) and a lot of admin (research, form filling, letter writing etc.).

Unless you were a high spender on your Burtons card and know you had PPI it may not be worth the time, effort and expense of pursuing this.

An alternative may be to approach Genworth, who were the insurer that the various guises of GE over the years used. Genworth are very good at retaining records and may be able to provide you with this information. In any event, these are the people who will ultimately be responsible for redress if your complaint is upheld.

magpiecottage

dazza12 wrote: »

In practice however various divisions of Santander hold historical records for a considerable time beyond this. GE/Santander Cards kept historical records for 20-30 years as a matter of course, mostly on microfiche (this included Welbeck, First Personal and GE and parts of Lombard) in a record system that the ICO deems to be a 'relevant filing system'. Similarly, Abbey kept microfiche back as far as 1964, and records on film as far back as the mid 1920s(!). On a worldwide basis the Santander group use Iron Mountain to archive older data and an exercise is currently in place to add these sources to this resource.

That may (or may not) be so but does not mean it is in a "relevant filing system". Typically michrofiche is filed in account number order so unless you can provide the account number your details will not be found.

An alternative may be to approach Genworth, who were the insurer that the various guises of GE over the years used. Genworth are very good at retaining records and may be able to provide you with this information. In any event, these are the people who will ultimately be responsible for redress if your complaint is upheld.

They may be the insurer but they did not sell the policy - so they would not be responsible for paying redress.

That would be who sold it (Burton), not the lender. Even if it was the lender, FOS jurisdiction would be dependent on whether the original lender was subject to the Banking or Building Societies Ombudsman Schemes at the time. GE wasn't.

dazza12

magpiecottage wrote: »

That may (or may not) be so but does not mean it is in a "relevant filing system". Typically michrofiche is filed in account number order so unless you can provide the account number your details will not be found.

GE (and their predecessors) archive systems have been deemed by the ICO to be a relevant filing system, in that a competant temp would be able to locate a customer's records within a reasonable time.

magpiecottage wrote: »

They may be the insurer but they did not sell the policy - so they would not be responsible for paying redress.

That would be who sold it (Burton), not the lender. Even if it was the lender, FOS jurisdiction would be dependent on whether the original lender was subject to the Banking or Building Societies Ombudsman Schemes at the time. GE wasn't.

Within the last few months, Genworth have accepted responsibility for the sales of the policy and are paying redress if a complaint is successful. However, Santander are to be approached initially, who will not uphold. If referred to the FOS, they will then provide you with Genworth's details - Genworth won't intervene unless it's been shown that you've already exhausted these avenues.

I've not got the full details at the moment, but I believe this is regarding their membership of the FLA, whose code also covered these sales.

Some successes:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4218731

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4488909