Bank changed my address 5 months ago without my permission

ilovebakeoff

Hi
I'm new to all of this but I am so angry about something that has just happened and I wondered if anyone else has had a similar thing. I left my 1st husband about 11 years ago, we had a joint account and I also had a sole account with Lloyds bank. It was not an amicable split and there was alot of upset ongoing several years. I moved back to my mums address and I believe he may have temporarily had his bank statements sent to his mums address. I changed my sole account to my parents address. I found a new partner and have been living at this address for probably 10 years now and changed my bank details to reflect this. I have been recieving mail from Lloyds at this address for years. I have today been handed by my ex mother in law a letter from Lloyds bank with my name and her address on it also my account number sort code. (It was unopened but she did say that she had redirected other ones previously). I called Lloyds to be told that they have her address on their system for all of my accounts and that it was changed April this year. They also tried to suggest that I might have done it!!!!! I can't think of anything worse and I'm sure that she wasn't all that happy either. They are now looking into how it was changed and why (It's definately their mistake) but I am so upset. I spent over 2 hours on the phone trying to get to the bottom of it, my 9 year old daughter overheard me mentioning an ex mother in law, something I did not want her to know about (certainly not yet anyway) and is now asking questions. My ex has friends/family that work in my local branch and I just don't know if somebody has been meddling with my account. I am so angry and I don't know what to do or how far to take this. I feel that my privacy has been breached in the worst possible way but not only that it has caused a lot of personal upset due to the nature of where the post went. Please advise

PeacefulWaters

What do you want to achieve as an end result?

xylophone

Was the joint account also with Lloyds? What happened to it after you and your husband parted?

Tigsteroonie

Lloyds are investigating. I'd wait and see what they say before deciding what to do next.

ilovebakeoff

The thing is I don't really know what I want from this. I guess an investigation as to how it has happened to see if there has been foul play. Theres nothing they can do that will make me feel any better, going between angry and upset at the moment. I just can't see how this could happen so long after, they didn't revert to my parents address which was the one i resided at prior to my current address.
The day I left, I left everything behind. One of the first things he said was that he was taking my name off the joint account (I was added to his sole account making it a joint one) which I thought was fair enough as he had held this account since he was 16 or something. Although he temporarily had his statements going to his mums, he too lives elsewhere now anyway and I would think it very unlikely that he still has his post going there. How long does time have to pass when you can finally try to forget things and not be linked to somebody. Some people may just see this as a clerical error but it cuts much deeper than that in this instance

Archi_Bald

ilovebakeoff wrote: »

One of the first things he said was that he was taking my name off the joint account

Did you check that he actually did that? Have you checked your CRA files to see whether you still have a financial association with him? It is disconcerting that this caught up with you after such a long time but your name might never have come off the account.

Your rights & duties for joint account holders at Lloyds are contained in their T&Cs: http://www.lloydsbank.com/assets/media/pdfs/banking_with_us/personal_banking_terms_and_conditions_from14August2013.pdf

JuicyJesus

He wouldn't be able to take your name off the joint account without, at a bare minimum, you signing to relinquish your rights to it; if the bank allowed you to be taken off it at all, since some banks do not allow a conversion from joint to sole.

I would, as well as pursuing your complaint, chase up the possibility of removing your name for certain, or closing the account entirely (which you may well be able to do alone). Old joint accounts can have a nasty sting in the tail, especially if one or the other person gets into difficulty.

ilovebakeoff

Yes they are investigating, I just hope it's honest. Whilst on the phone to them, after they had just confirmed that the wrong address is on all of my accounts they then said that it's ok though as nothing has ever been posted to it. I replied "I am holding something now which has obviously been posted to it", "I'll just put you on hold..."

ilovebakeoff

No, I don't recall ever signing anything. To be honest it was an awful few months and I can't really remember much of what was going on. His mum worked at the bank and as far as I know he did do that. I'm sure that when we divorced and it became final all finances and everything after that point were square. (I have remarried and havae a new name now).

ilovebakeoff

Also, if the joint account still stood and was filtering through, maybe triggered by a change of address, the fact is that I have never recieved anything ever in his name at this address. Would it only work one way? I will double check their records on that but when discussing my accounts with them that would have been an easy answer surely. They did not at any time refer to a joint account just my accounts as they are.

mgdavid

Am I alone in finding it odd that you kept accounts at a branch where you knew a member of the ex's family worked at?
Call me an old cynic (I am) but I would have opened a new account at a different bank / branch and moved across to it over a convenient period, then closed the old account.