Bank sent card, pin, and details to stranger

joewest439

Hello everyone,

So I've had a nightmare with Permanent TSB in Ireland.
I set up a new account 8 days ago, after waiting a long time for the appointment to do so. Three separate letters have been due to arrive at my address in the post, one with my debit card in it, one with its pin number in it, and one with my IBAN and BIC in it. I went into the branch just now to ask why the big delay, and it turns out they've sent all these things to a complete stranger a few doors down from me. I showed them the proof of address letter that I originally gave them, with my true house number on it, they then admitted it was their mistake.
So now a total randomer has all my bank details. The bank told me it's probably best for me to cancel the entire account altogether, but I am due to be paid in a couple of days and cannot wait ages for a new account to be set up again.
My question is, assuming I recover these letters from my neighbour and they are apparently not tampered with, would it be safe to just cancel the debit card? This would obviously make the card details and the pin useless, but the neighbour may still know the IBAN and BIC number, could they do anything with these?

Also, should I be claiming some sort of compensation from the bank for this bad blunder?

Thanks

Weybridge78

A complaint is most definitely in order.

eskbanker

joewest439 wrote: »

My question is, assuming I recover these letters from my neighbour and they are apparently not tampered with, would it be safe to just cancel the debit card? This would obviously make the card details and the pin useless, but the neighbour may still know the IBAN and BIC number, could they do anything with these?

Also, should I be claiming some sort of compensation from the bank for this bad blunder?

You're assuming that the neighbour hasn't already returned the correspondence addressed to you but at their address, like many/most would/should do!

As the bank have admitted liability, I'd leave it to them to sort out - get your wages paid in to the old account and then transfer funds somewhere else while they set up another account for you, or just open another one elsewhere!

Assuming you live in Ireland, the bank will be operating under Irish data protection legislation - I have no idea how this compares with the UK equivalent but if they've breached this and caused inconvenience then they ought to be willing to offer some sort of goodwill payment to recognise the consequences of their error(s)....