How did my bank get my new address?

colsten

WibblyGirly wrote: »

Maybe I'm slightly panicking that the cheque isn't legit :rotfl:

Why would you panic, if only slightly, that the cheque isn't legit?

jonesMUFCforever

The compensation should be tax fee - it is the interest paid to you that should be taxed.

OceanSound

WibblyGirly wrote: »

It could be that they send the letter to my old address and the letting agent sent this back to them with my new address so they've reprinted the whole thing...

This is only a likely scenario for marketing mail. For any changes to account related personal details. e.g. name, address, phone number, banks follow a certain protocol. Go through security questions if done via phone. Halifax is particularly strict becuase I had to fill out a form and send it via post to change address (i.e. it cannot be done via online banking). Some banks allow it through online banking. e.g.Nationwide.

Best placed to put in a subject access request (SAR) to halifax ask for all your data or ask for particular data relating to change of address. e.g. actual addresses, dates/time when they were done, what method (phone, post, any other method (electoral register - unlikely)). I'd go for the latter method and ask for particular data because otherwise they tend to send a bundle of data albeit a selection of what they may deem 'relevant' (in which case you may need to reply and ask for particular bits).

The SAR is free of charge now (after GDPR came in to effect). Halifax has to respond within one calendar month. PM me if you want a template SAR letter (I did it about two years ago and received a bundle of pages. pretty useful data).

BTW, yes, it may seem to anyone that I'm a bit like the scotsman who turns-up at each and every supermaket check-out saying 'that's legal tender' whenever someone hands a scottish note to the cashier'. Yes, anything SAR related on these forums, I'm there!. You can count on it.

fun4everyone wrote: »

Interesting. I moved a few years ago and put a royal mail redirect on. When I called Sky a month or two later they mysteriously had my new address without me informing them. I always wondered how they managed it, but figured perhaps they got the info from the bank that my DD is taken from. What you say could answer that mystery!

I think this applies only for direct marketing mail. Royal Mail redirect service cannot write to your bank and tell the bank to change your address for your account related mail.

WibblyGirly

Thank you for all the responses! I did not set up a redirect ( I never have when moving as most things are online now so few paper statements arrive).

Colsten, I worried a bit as sometimes things are too good to be true! £250 landing on my doorstep is one of them

It is the compensation interest that has been taxed. I'm not going to challenge it though, I didn't expect any of this money so it's a nice bonus and will be going straight into my LISA once cleared.

Oceansound, thank you for this! I think a SAR will be the way forward to get to the bottom of it purely to settle my own curiosity in how they got my address. Also thank you for your generous offer of the template letter however I handle SAR requests within my job so I should be able to write my own!

noh

OceanSound wrote: »

..........

BTW, yes, it may seem to anyone that I'm a bit like the scotsman who turns-up at each and every supermaket check-out saying 'that's legal tender' whenever someone hands a scottish note to the cashier'. Yes, anything SAR related on these forums, I'm there!. You can count on it......

That Scotsman would be wrong!
https://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknotes/legal-position.html

Thrugelmir

WibblyGirly wrote: »

I did update the electoral role, however not from my last address but from the one before that!

The bank will still be able to identify you.

OceanSound

noh wrote: »

That Scotsman would be wrong!
https://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknotes/legal-position.html

See: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/scottish-bank-notes-legal-tender-13717631

So shops can refuse any note? Then what does legal tender actually mean?

Really, it has little meaning as a phrase in relation to everyday shopping.

The term relates to settling debts, and means a creditor can not sue a debtor for non-payment if the party who owes the money supplies the right amount in any form of legal tender.

BTW, my point is the presence of the scotsman, not whether he is right or wrong.

Novice_investor101

They probably used a tracing service to find you in order to get your cheque sent out to you. This could have been matched against your credit files also to make sure it was you & not someone else with the same name.

Pretty standard procedures for financial institutions to find customers they've lost contact with.

OceanSound

I recently received a compensation cheque from Barclays. For that I had to contact them and provide my address.

Very much doubt a bank would go to all that hassle/cost of using a tracing service to pay you compensation. If you owe them money, then that's a different story.

Novice_investor101

They very much have to go to the hassle& expense of finding people they owe money to - whether it is compensation, money that belongs to the customer or a lost pension. They can't just keep it without demonstrating that they've at least tried to pay it to its rightful owner.
It will be an expense that is already costed into their operating model.