Documents went missing in post - security risk?

doodle2

So I had to send all my proof of ID (and my husband's) to our mortgage provider, the letter was obviously addressed to a financial institution. As well as serveral forms of ID this also included details about our bank account and mortgage. Bascially just about every piece of information you'd ever be asked for to prove who you are and certainly enough to answer a lot of basic ''security check'' type questions that you get asked if you ring your own bank/loan company/use the government gateway etc for anything

This was sent signed for, next day delivery guaranteed by 1pm by Royal Mail.

According to the post office the item was picked up by Royal mail.... but never made it to the first scan point and they could give us no information about what had happened though apparantly from that batch ours was the only item to go missing (or at least reported as missing)

We were going on holiday the next day, and then we realised that letter had not arrived when we called the mortgage company to check.

The matter with our Mortgage company was time sensitive, so we ended up diverting on our way on holiday to somewhere we could get a notarised new copy of the orgininals (lucky we'd only sent copies) which we then sent by courier - and then spend quite a bit of time on holiday on the phone to the post office, Royal Mail, our bank and the mortgage company to try and make sure no one could access our accounts etc. Royal mail weren't any help at all

In the meantime, unbeknown to us apparantly the first evelope has turned up 8 days after it was due , no explanation about where it had been in the meantime - we only knew when we rang the mortgage company to check the second set had arrived , 10 days after the original envelope was sent - and we have no way of really feeling confident say that it hadn't been tampered with, (someone could have taken the documents out and copied them, then re-enveloped them, for example. Royal Mail didn't even let us know it had been found.

At the moment we still have a freeze on our bank account (on the advice of the bank) just in case anyone had opened the letter and tried to move anything around between our bank accounts/mortgage etc.

The Royal mail are offering a ''good will' gesture of £50. for the inconvenience

Now the goodwill gesture doesn't cover the cost of the notary and courier which we had to use to get the second set sent - we also lost money on the 'time sensitive' transaction with mortagage company.

However, my main worry is that potentially someone could have taken our documents out of the system, copied them all and then put them back in, and we'd have no way of knowing (and they could them use our ID for all sorts).

Should be consider getting new , for example passports or just assume that all that had really happened is that they had simply been mislaid ratther than tampered with?

And if so, what is realistic for the Royal Mail to compensate us for?

[Deleted User]

If in doubt register with CIFAS.

But this will add a level of hinderance on your future credit applications

doodle2

Thanks Gary!

I suppose I wonder if I am being over cautious about this?

Ironically it's the second time I've had this happen (last time all my professional quaifications were sent by the issuer to me, and they went missing too and I did end up having to have them re issued, and pay for it too ) - ironically not even in the same county, let alone post office!

It really has made me re-think on using Royal Mail now. Next time I think I will go for courier first up

custardy

doodle2 wrote: »

Thanks Gary!

I suppose I wonder if I am being over cautious about this?

Ironically it's the second time I've had this happen (last time all my professional quaifications were sent by the issuer to me, and they went missing too and I did end up having to have them re issued, and pay for it too ) - ironically not even in the same county, let alone post office!

It really has made me re-think on using Royal Mail now. Next time I think I will go for courier first up

Be realistic. These issues can happen with any carrier.
At a guess,the item was collected and missed at the next point in a bag,large container etc.
This bag container could have been unused fro days. Hence the delay with no update.
Should it happen? no but no service is 100%.
RMs SD service is still a high performing service.