How long does a bank remember bad debt?

[Deleted User]

Willing2Learn wrote: »

(e) kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed

That's the key bit (for the purposes of this discussion).

If they say (for example) - "we will keep a permanent record of anyone who has failed to pay back more than £10k, so that we can ensure we properly understand the risk of such customers should they ever reapply, as our business model is only to take on low risk customers" - that might be considered reasonable.

But as I say, it depends on the business, the data, and the usage. It's not reasonable for Tesco to keep a record of your last purchase
6 years ago if you never shopped there since, because it's not relevant or particular useful.

However, it could be reasonable for LandRover to keep details of your purchase from that long ago, because car purchases have a much lower frequency and they could legitimately try to sell you another one years down the line.

spingoblin

Dont know about NatWest but Barclays do forget (At least in my case). I defaulted on a Barclaycard in 2007 owing several thousand, I transferred all my banking to LloydsTSB around the same time and the Barclaycard default dropped off in 2013 - the debt had been sold by Barclaycard in about 2008/9 and passed between different debt collectors.

Fast forward to 2017 and I applied and got a new Barclaycard, although the rest of my banking remains at TSB.

[Deleted User]

kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed

Or put another way; "..... you can keep it for as long as you like without having to give any reason or justification".


GDPR (and its predecessor) - shot through with exemptions, waffle, opaqueness and ambiguity. Nothing has changed, except you now don't have to pay for a SAR.


In the absence of any specific rules, GDPR allows organisations to keep any data they have about you indefinitely. End of story.

Thrugelmir

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Just wondering how long they hold a bad debt against you and when will it be forgotten.

From a business perspective probably forever. Much as if you lent a mate £20 who never paid you back. You'd never lend any amount ever again. Relationships are built on trust. Banks have no need to worry about a relatively few customers when millions of people require banking facilities.

Totally logical. As gives the defaulter a wake up call. Nor are they likely to default on someone else.

[Deleted User]

spingoblin wrote: »

Dont know about NatWest but Barclays do forget (At least in my case). I defaulted on a Barclaycard in 2007 owing several thousand, I transferred all my banking to LloydsTSB around the same time and the Barclaycard default dropped off in 2013 - the debt had been sold by Barclaycard in about 2008/9 and passed between different debt collectors.

Fast forward to 2017 and I applied and got a new Barclaycard, although the rest of my banking remains at TSB.

The debt could still be collected using a “set-off”

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/setting-off/

EachPenny

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

Or put another way; "..... you can keep it for as long as you like without having to give any reason or justification".
...
In the absence of any specific rules, GDPR allows organisations to keep any data they have about you indefinitely. End of story.

You missed some essential points of zx81's previous post:-

Deleted_User wrote: »

Indefinitely, but it needs a stated reason and needs to justify that timescale.

If a bank states that it will keep information x for the purpose of y indefinitely, then it that can be justified, that's what they do.

But it can't just say 'we'll keep everything forever, just in case'.

eskbanker

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

In the absence of any specific rules, GDPR allows organisations to keep any data they have about you indefinitely. End of story.

In addition to the above rebuttals of your rant, I'd point out that it's obviously inappropriate for specific rules to be set at (inter)national legislation level but that the key point is that businesses do have to have justifiable data retention policies.

Of course these will vary widely between businesses - I did some work for an organisation that had a perfectly legitimate data retention policy of a hundred years for certain data, but that's somewhat unlikely to be typical!

Obviously regulated industries are more likely to have prescribed retention policies and hence the FCA specifies time periods for some (but not all) record types, at pages such as https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/SYSC/Sch/1/1.html

John_G_Jones

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Oh yeah - I fully appreciate that banks have the right to set the criteria and policies for deciding who is or is not eligible to be a customer. I was hoping that someone in MSE-land can tell me how many years they look back at. I am assuming it is not a lifetime exclusion and that there is a policy setting out the timescale.

It definitely can be a lifetime exclusion. Information can be kept for as long as it is reasonably necessary, and it’s easy to justify that being forever if you still owe them money.

Did you pay it back or do you still owe it.

Willing2Learn

John_G_Jones wrote: »

Did you pay it back or do you still owe it.

I paid it back. I was in hospital when I defaulted and repaid the money at the first opportunity when I received a lumpsum payment for my illness.

John_G_Jones

Willing2Learn wrote: »

I paid it back. I was in hospital when I defaulted and repaid the money at the first opportunity when I received a lumpsum payment for my illness.

OK, good, that at least helped your credit file immediately.

It’s possible that they will not blanket exclude you forever, and you could send a polite email or letter asking if they would reconsider given the circumstances, but they very likely have a decision making process that excludes for certain flags and u fortunately having defaulted in the past really could be a lifetime refusal.