Bank Error- financial and emotional impact on debt plan

scared1

Hi
I really need some advice.

Just over a year ago I broke up with my civil partner, who was controlling and abusive towards me. I paid all of the bills, our rent and she worked part time and contributed towards the food.

When we broke up she made all kinds of threats and some of them financial. She said she was taking me to court for half of the house I owned jointly with my parents. We had never lived there and I rented it out and haven't made anything from it and the rent didn't even cover the mortgage.

Now I have found out that despite twice changing my address with my bank- once online and once in branch (after they sent me new cash card to the house were she lives with her new partner (yes she cheated on me too) that they only changed my residential address and and my statements (which were meant to be paperless) have been going to her all along at the old address. So she has had access to all of my financial information, spending, rental income for the past year. (its not a joint account but I know she will have opened it all and had denied all knowledge of any mail going to her).

Because it was an abusive relationship she doesn't know were I live, I've changed my phone numbers and am very distressed about this as she will know were I've shopped etc. I've been in therapy and on medication for anxiety for a year almost as after I left I suffered an emotional breakdown due to the relationship (I won't go into it but it was awful and very distressing).

This is going to sound bad but I've made a complaint to the bank as I'm so upset and afraid and it could have huge ramifications on the divorce settlement. They want to know what kind of settlement I want- I don't know were to begin with what is fair for this amount of distress and the financial impact it could have.

Has anybody been through anything similar or have any advice? I'm on a debt plan so I really can't afford not to pursue this. And they've made several errors and made my anxiety much worse- this is the final nail in the coffin. I've never done anything like this before.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

sourcrates

Hi,

Sorry for all the troubles you are having, quite often banks make mistakes, in your case it looks like a data protection breach.

Now whats done is done, and cant be undone, they have complaints procedures in place to deal with these matters, now its obviously a big deal for you, and very annoying, but in the grand scale of things, its just a technical breach to them, so dont be expecting £1000`s, you might get £200 if your lucky, and an apology, although they are thin on the ground these days, as you didn't suffer any financial loss, they wont give you any more.

If your unhappy with there final response, you can always take your case to the FOS (Financial ombudsman service) who will decide the case on balance of fairness to both sides.

Hope your "debtplan" is with a free provider ?

Fireflyaway

Glad you had the courage to leave and hope you feel better soon. I also found my bank statements going to my old address and like you I had changed it online and over the phone. I'm with Lloyd's. After another call it was changed but no harm done.
I agree with sourcrates that its likely to be a token gesture of £50 or something. No fraud was committed and it was an error at the end of the day. Having read an old similar thread, a few guys on there got £200 but I think it had impacted the credit file.
The important thing is you reported your unhappiness so hopefully that's a learning point for the bank. Had you been single and this happened you wouldn't be so stressed. Its not the banks fault your ex was so bad towards you.
Try and put this behind you.

chevalier

Actually guys i think your are overly minimising this. Would you be saying the same thing if this was a woman whose abusive male partner had had access to all this information?

OP i don't know what they are going to do, but if they have put you at risk of physical harm, or emotional harm then it is far worse than just a data breach in my eyes anyway. And of course she knows exactly what to ask for in the divorces settlement which is also unfair. So yes complain, maybe including medical back up about just WHY this is such a bad thing to have happened.
good luck
chev

sourcrates

chevalier wrote: »

Actually guys i think your are overly minimising this. Would you be saying the same thing if this was a woman whose abusive male partner had had access to all this information?

That thought never entered my head to be honest chev.

You simply cant expect hugh amounts of compensation for what is in effect, a data breach, i realize the impact this has had on the OP, but the most likely scenario is the bank will offer £50, then up it to £100 if she complains, if it went to the ombudsman, she may get up to £500.

OP you can always launch an action through money-claim if you think this warrants more compensation, and you retain the option to do this should you not be happy with the results of the complaints process.