Capital One messing me about

djn23

Hi,

I first wrote to Capital One in November 2012, asking for information regarding any credit cards that I may have had with them in the past (I didn't know about SAR at the time). I knew that I used to have a credit card with them and that it probably had PPI, but didn't have any documentation to prove it.

The first response that I received was dated 14/02/13, and this was the letter telling me that they are dealing with it and it may 10 weeks or longer till I get another response from them. I eventually received another response dated 24/04/2013 telling me that I had paid a grand total of £12.92 in premiums, giving me a redress payment of £24.56 with interest added on etc.

Whilst waiting for the above response, I found an old statement for a credit card that I had with them dated 15 Sept 1998, and it had a PPI payment of £15.60 for that month alone, so I knew that their redress figure was incorrect. I then phoned up to query this amount and the bloke that I spoke to agreed with me and said they would need to investigate further and let me know the outcome.

After about 2 months of waiting I phoned them again to find out what is going on. The person that I spoke to had no knowledge of my last phone call, and told me again that they would look into it and get back to me in due course. Then after another 2-3 months of waiting, I phoned again and spoke to a Woman in an overseas call centre, who again had no knowledge of my previous calls. She was at first making out that because the account was so old that they hadn't got the information, but later said that she could access the account info. and told me that I took it out in May 1998. She also told me that I would need to send a £10 cheque to get that information myself.

I then sent them a full SAR letter, plus a £10 cheque on 12/09/2013. I received a reply from them dated 21/10/2013, but it was just some letter on about their entitlement to offset any refund if I have failed to make any payments or my account is over the credit limit. They did not send me any account details as I requested, but did cash my £10 cheque:mad:

I phoned them again today, and they admitted that I should have been sent the information and that I will receive it within 7 working days.

What should I do now, wait and see, or make a complaint to the Information Commissioner because they have failed to comply with my request within the 40 days, but cashed the £10 cheque that I sent them?

-taff

The ICO will just amke them comply with the SAR and they've had just over 40 days so no need to go apocalyptic on their a*se just yet. Give them another week, then write and tell them if they don't comply, you'll complain to the ICO.


Phoning, not writing, follow ups to complaints is never a good idea because you have no record.

djn23

Thanks for the reply,

I think that you are right and I will give them the 7 days to see if they actually do what they say they are going to do for a change.

It is just annoying that they continually make promises to look into my complaint, then completely disregard it, and then when I go down the official route and send them an SAR (which was quite clearly an SAR and couldn't be mistaken for anything else), they cash my £10 cheque, but still don't do what they are supposed to do.

I think that their policy must be to mess people about as much as possible so that they will get fed-up and give up on their claim.

I will see what happens in the next 7 days!

[Deleted User]

djn23 wrote: »

I think that their policy must be to mess people about as much as possible so that they will get fed-up and give up on their claim.

The problem you have is that Cap One have already dealt with your original complaint based on the information they have available to them. Sending them a SAR because you found a statement from fifteen years ago is not likely to yield any further information than they provided initially.
It's fine to be concerned and irritated that they haven't quickly responded to your SAR, but I wouldn't be counting any chickens based on what this SAR might contain...

djn23

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

The problem you have is that Cap One have already dealt with your original complaint based on the information they have available to them. Sending them a SAR because you found a statement from fifteen years ago is not likely to yield any further information than they provided initially.
It's fine to be concerned and irritated that they haven't quickly responded to your SAR, but I wouldn't be counting any chickens based on what this SAR might contain...

I don't quite agree with that, because they told me that they have still got details of the account and knew when I first took out the credit card, so I don't understand how they concluded that the total PPI premiums that I had paid was £12.92 when the amount on that one statement was for £15.60. She also told me that the account was taken out in May 1998 and my statement was for September 1998 - so that is at least 4 month's of PPI payments.

I am pretty confident that I had the card for at least 12 months because, like many other people, I used to switch to get zero interest, so I wouldn't have only had it for a few months.

[Deleted User]

djn23 wrote: »

they told me that they have still got details of the account and knew when I first took out the credit card, so I don't understand how they concluded that the total PPI premiums that I had paid was £12.92

Probably because details older than six years may no longer be part of their archive. They can certainly see the date you opened the account, but that doesn't mean they have details of every transaction made fifteen years ago.

djn23 wrote: »

the account was taken out in May 1998 and my statement was for September 1998 - so that is at least 4 month's of PPI payments.

You only paid PPI in months when your account had a balance, so it's possible (although unlikely) that the £15.60 on your statement was your only payment.

djn23 wrote: »

I am pretty confident that I had the card for at least 12 months because, like many other people, I used to switch to get zero interest, so I wouldn't have only had it for a few months.

This is not proof, of course.

As I said, don't be holding out too much hope that your SAR will provide the details you crave. Banks routinely destroy records older than six years, especially on closed accounts.

dunstonh

I don't quite agree with that, because they told me that they have still got details of the account and knew when I first took out the credit card

I used to work for a bank. You could tell who had a bank account from the number going back to the 50s. You could tell what type account it was and if a loan, if it had PPI or not. However, you couldnt tell what transactions occured on the account as statements would be archived or destroyed depending on timescale. A lot of card providers only hold a running 6 years worth of statements.

so I don't understand how they concluded that the total PPI premiums that I had paid was £12.92 when the amount on that one statement was for £15.60. She also told me that the account was taken out in May 1998 and my statement was for September 1998 - so that is at least 4 month's of PPI payments.

They can use your statements if they no longer have them.

[Deleted User]

dunstonh wrote: »

They can use your statements if they no longer have them.

While this is true, the OP appears to have only one statement which shows a payment of £15.60. Since the Bank have already offered £12.92, I don't think that one statement is going to make much difference.

djn23

You both could be right, but I will not give up my pursuit until I realise that I can't do any more.

Like I said, I am pretty confident that I had the card for at least a year, and the balance on the statement that I have was approximately £2500. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have paid it off in a couple of months, so I would have paid PPI premiums for the duration of the account being active.

It all depends whether they do still have details regarding PPI payments on this account. I will be annoyed if they don't because I was told that I should request the information on the account and pay the £10 fee (which they have cashed), so for them to turn around and say sorry we have no records seems to be a very unethical way of dealing with past customers.

I know that I am not talking about a huge payout here anyway, but it is just the fact that they have messed me about so much. I did do a similar request to Barclaycard regarding one of the cards that I had with them and even though they admitted that they no longer had records of the PPI payments made, they gave me a £500 payment as a gesture of goodwill.

Anyway, I will see what happens and post back any updates.

[Deleted User]

djn23 wrote: »

I will be annoyed if they don't because I was told that I should request the information on the account and pay the £10 fee (which they have cashed), so for them to turn around and say sorry we have no records seems to be a very unethical way of dealing with past customers.

You make it sound as if this is some kindly service they offer to customers old and new!
The only reason the Banks provide details they have kept on file is because the law requires them to.
It is general policy to destroy information older than six years, particularly for those customers who no longer hold an account. This won't prevent them from easily finding out the start date of your account if you provide the account number because (as Dunstonh says above) this information is embedded in the number.

In addition, they have done nothing wrong by cashing your cheque as long as they provide whatever information they still hold on file for you. If this turns out to be next to nothing then it is still not "unethical" conduct! You are paying £10 for someone to search through old files and send whatever they find. Even if they find nothing of use to you, they have still performed the search you paid for.

djn23 wrote: »

I did do a similar request to Barclaycard regarding one of the cards that I had with them and even though they admitted that they no longer had records of the PPI payments made, they gave me a £500 payment as a gesture of goodwill.

This does explain your pursuit of the paltry amount (at most) you are ever likely to get in redress. However, you really shouldn't expect a £500 goodwill payment from every lender you ever had!

djn23

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

In addition, they have done nothing wrong by cashing your cheque as long as they provide whatever information they still hold on file for you. If this turns out to be next to nothing then it is still not "unethical" conduct! You are paying £10 for someone to search through old files and send whatever they find. Even if they find nothing of use to you, they have still performed the search you paid for.
This does explain your pursuit of the paltry amount (at most) you are ever likely to get in redress. However, you really shouldn't expect a £500 goodwill payment from every lender you ever had!

So, you are saying, even if they know that they no longer have any useful records of the account, it is acceptable practice to tell me that they have and advise me to write a letter to request that information and send them a £10 cheque. (don't forget that they have cashed the cheque, but not even supplied me with the information that I asked for)

It may be only a few hundred quid at best, but in my opinion - it is worth trying for if I get a result.