Employers name/number

regularsaver1

but if you provide the wrong telephone number?

PBA

The company doesn't have to give anything away under the data protection act. They just might call and ask to speak to you. I've certainly seen account get approved only to be shut down by the fraud dept a week later when they've called the employers number and been told they've never heard of the customer.

cw635

It really is just to check that you work there. I used to answer the phones at a job and quite often people would just phone up and ask to speak to so and so and when I said that I'd put them through they said it was ok and say goodbye! They never said it was a CC company but it happened so many times I guessed it was something like that.

l_m_g

its got nothing to do with checking if you work there or not - CC and other financial companies merely check electoral poll and credit reference bureau. the only reason they have this information is in case you default so they can contact you at your place of work.

olly300

Captain_Caveman wrote: »

Now i can't see why, as i thought under the data protection act (1998?) that the employer couldn't release any infomation about you. So what use would it be to the bank/credit card provider?

.

Not strictly true.

The Data Protection Act 1998 prevents the employer giving companies your personal details i.e. address, telephone number, NI unless you specifically indicated that the employer can. (You may have signed away this right in your employment contract.)

Therefore the credit card company (or any other company/ person in the world) can phone up and ask to speak to you at your employer's address, but they are not allowed to phone up your employer and ask for your home address or home phone number.

cw635

l_m_g wrote: »

its got nothing to do with checking if you work there or not - CC and other financial companies merely check electoral poll and credit reference bureau. the only reason they have this information is in case you default so they can contact you at your place of work.

And how do they know those contact details are correct unless they try them out...

moneyuser

When I applied for a Virgin Card a couple of years ago they rang me at work to "confirm details" and then tried to sell me payment protection. :mad: