Some one using my address for bank accounts

warby68

If someone has bothered to set up Royal Mail's redirect, they probably intend doing the right thing in time, as the service has a cost and the !!!!less tend not to bother. I'm aware I'm generalizing but its probably a reasonable one.

I kept our redirect going for quite a while and just changed things gradually - some things only generate an annual letter/reminder. People sometimes don't change the address with umpteen providers until they have a 'permanent' new one as well to avoid doing it multiple times.

My husband recently discovered he never cancelled a recurring authority to Private Eye so our buyers have had about 4 years delivered for free (whether they liked it or not lol).

We still get the odd item for previous owners, 7 years later. I've given up forwarding or returning to sender. They go in the bin.

Pincher

I think there are certain categories of mail which cannot be re-directed. Things like voting forms come to mind. I expect credit cards shouldn't be diverted either.

On the other hand, I have to put letters in other people's letter box, sometimes totally different street, but same house number, but usually just next door.

They are only human. At least the post turns up somewhere.
Remember the postman who just dumped the post in his flat for years, because he was too lazy to deliver them?

The annoying thing is, some of these companies have several computers, for different departments, and it is obvious that when I change my details online, it doesn't cascade to the other systems. So, I think I have manually changed everything, but some things still get to the old address.

You can't catch everything.

robatwork

antrobus wrote: »

No, because the sun will have gone supernova and wiped out life on Earth long before we get to the end of time.

Happy Sunday everybody!

EachPenny

eDicky wrote: »

All such letters are printed and mailed out by computerised systems, and there's probably no way of stopping it until the account holder gets their details updated with the bank and it is successfully entered in the system. Until then, they will keep coming ..

I'm sure they could find a way, the bank could just tell the computer to stop sending mail to that address, much the same as they do when they encourage customers to go paperless. I can see the bank may have a dilemma in accepting change of address details from someone who is not the customer, but equally if they are informed that a data subject's address is inaccurate then how long can they go on using that inaccurate address for?

antrobus wrote: »

Because it's often the case that the person who has marked the letters "moved away, probably no longer in UK" is non other than the Mr XYZ in question.

Of course. But isn't that scenario even worse? The credit card company is writing to a customer who is claiming not to live at his registered address any more. Shouldn't that ring a few alarm bells and at some point trigger checks to determine whether the customer has actually gone, or is just hiding from the debt? The banks have an obligation to verify identity and prevent fraud and money laundering - if a customer has 'vanished' possibly overseas, and the bank know about it, then shouldn't they take action?

antrobus wrote: »

No, because the sun will have gone supernova and wiped out life on Earth long before we get to the end of time.

Fair point But the computer will probably continue churning out the letters with nobody left to stop it

The only possible rational explanation I can think of is if the bank eventually want to take action to recover the debt they will need a last known address to write to. If they accept that someone no longer lives at a particular address then can they still use that as a last known address? Maybe it is in their interests to not know that someone has moved away?

dggar

EachPenny wrote: »

...... I can see the bank may have a dilemma in accepting change of address details from someone who is not the customer, but equally if they are informed that a data subject's address is inaccurate then how long can they go on using that inaccurate address for?.......

There are 2 contradictory statements here.


I can see the bank may have a dilemma in accepting change of address details from someone who is not the customer, but equally if they are informed (by someone who is not the customer) that a data subject's address is inaccurate then how long can they go on using that inaccurate address for?.......

EachPenny

dggar wrote: »

There are 2 contradictory statements here.

In what way is that contradictory?

It is one thing for someone other than the customer to inform the bank that the customer now lives at this new address (a positive change only the customer or authorised person can request). It is a different thing for someone other than the customer to say this person definitely doesn't live here any more.

It is a subtle difference which not everybody will see. A bank which continues to send personal information to an address it has been told the person doesn't live at may be facilitating fraud, and/or is possibly putting its customer at risk of fraud themselves.

All I'm saying is banks shouldn't keep sending letters to the same address without investigating why they have been returned, or why some unknown person is claiming the customer doesn't live there anymore.

eDicky

EachPenny wrote: »

I'm sure they could find a way, the bank could just tell the computer to stop sending mail to that address, much the same as they do when they encourage customers to go paperless.

Possibly, but unless the customer themselves opt to go paperless, I tend to think that a financial institution's system will have the need to send out mail... to somewhere... and continue mailing to the known address until it's changed....

By the way, we don't know that a debt is being chased in this instance.

Robisere

p00hsticks wrote: »

You say that as soon as you notified the banks that the previous tenant no longer lived there the mails stopped ? So it sounds in your case that the previous tenant rather than the organisations is really the one at fault and had never bothered to advise then that they'd moved or get a formal Royal Mail redirection set up.

Quite so, but no help to the next tenant who receives all the unwanted mail.

I do understand redirection, btw. When I left my old home for another county in 2000, I printed a few Avery labels with "MOVED: PLEASE REDIRECT" above the new address. The couple who bought our old house, sent on every letter.

datlex

dggar wrote: »

Something like:---
"Dear occupier, can you tell us whether our customer, Mr XYZ, still lives there?"


I don't think so.

I actually has a letter addressed to occupier asking just that from local water company so does happen.

scott_lithgows

Royal Mail will do redirections for up to 4 years now,your postman is under orders from above to deliver everything to the address shown.

If the redirection finishes,you will then get all his mail thro your door-it doesn't take a genius to work out which ones have replacement debit/credit cards in them.Do NOT forward them on,they will soon get their mail sent to the correct address