Received someone elses letter by mistake

w00519772

I make regular overpayments on my mortgage. My mortgage provider write to me every month to tell me that my latest payment was received and applied.

I recently received this months letter, which also included a letter to someone else who had made an overpayment. The sender has obviously printed both letters to be sent and included the other letter with mine by mistake. This letter is for someone I do not know and contains:

1) Name
2) Address
3) Mortgage Account Number
4) Balance left to pay
5) Schedule of payments over the next three months
6) Overpayment limit for this year
7) Overpayments made this year

I am debating what I do about it. I believe there are three options:

1) Make the mortgage provider know and leave it at that.
2) Make the mortgage provider know and then report it to the Information Commissioner.
3) Just throw the letter away and forget it.

I am debating what to do. Do I have a responsibility to report this to the Information Commissioner? What should I do?

BoGoF

Mistakes happen....number 1 and move on.

Thrugelmir

Forward the letter onto the correct receipient. No need to do anything further. Letters will be enveloped by machine. Just one of those things that happemn occassionally.

dunstonh

2) Make the mortgage provider know and then report it to the Information Commissioner.

The IC will just let the lender know that they have to take care. this is not widespread abuse but a systems error with a tiny margin of error.

So, if you want to waste your time for no reason, this is the option for you. Otherwise, common sense is option 1.

Do I have a responsibility to report this to the Information Commissioner?

No. Plus its not abuse of data that they need to spend their resources on. You would just be wasting their time (of course, they would never say that but using resources on this would mean less resources spent on abuse).

bengalknights

I would do option 1 then in the envelope it was sent it do a RTS back to them

w00519772

I chose option one and contacted the bank last week and read the letter to them. Then destroyed the letter.

A complaints manager contacted me today and acknowledged there was a "very serious security breach". She asked me what it would take to resolve the complaint?! She said she wanted to offer financial compensation and asked what it would take. I said I would think about it.

What is reasonable here? I believe I would be charged £50 if I made a mistake and defaulted on my mortgage.

What is a reasonable figure? I did not suffer financially as a result of this. I m just annoyed it has happened (I wander who they have sent my details to?).

HappyHarry

Maybe a contribution to a debt charity of your choice?

ACG

I know this will probably come across rude, but we are all adults...

How will them paying you £50 make it any better?

TrickyDicky101

Any sympathy goes right out the window with your last post OP. Nice.

w00519772

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

Any sympathy goes right out the window with your last post OP. Nice.

I am just saying that the bank contacted me and asked what it would take to resolve the issue. I was not expecting this.

I realise that everyone (including me) makes mistakes. I don't want to be unreasonable, however I don't want to be a doormat either. If I am advised on here to do nothing then that is what I will do. Based on the responses since my last post I think I will just call them and ask for the "case" to be closed. I have not suffered any financial losses whatsoever as a result of this.

I guess that if I did not pay my mortgage on time then the bank would argue that they have lost out financially so in hindsight that was not a good comparison. Apologies for that.

ACG

HappyHarry raises a good idea, ask them to bung £50 to a charity?