Data Protection - Mortgage Letters by Post

FrankRizzo

Hello,

Mortgage companies are obliged to send letters by post e.g. Statements, Bank of England interest changes. Is it really any different from receiving Credit Card statements electronically?

The reason i ask is post delivered by postman can lead to accidentally delivering to the wrong house. This is a human error/accident and think its harsh to punish for a genuine mistake.

I wonder why FCA insist on this and don't give the customer to opt out or receive via e-mail as-long as the customer understands the consequences. It would be more secure not posting and also save the environment.

Any thoughts? or anyone in the industry know of plans to change this?

Thanks!

Brie

I thought that most of the banks gave you a paper only option now.  I know that it's been difficult to get info sometimes where one bank kept insisting that all the info was on my latest statement - but I wasn't getting statements at all (paper or otherwise) because I wasn't using the account so there was nothing for them to report.  

TELLIT01

Probably requires a change in the rules around providing mortgage information.  Banks and building societies would certainly find it cheaper to do electronically and would do so if they were allowed.

FrankRizzo

TELLIT01 said:

Probably requires a change in the rules around providing mortgage information.  Banks and building societies would certainly find it cheaper to do electronically and would do so if they were allowed.

Yeh when it comes to mortgages, its definitely mandatory for them to send by post. Strange though as not sure what the difference is for credit card lending where its not mandatory.

born_again

FrankRizzo said:

Hello,

Mortgage companies are obliged to send letters by post e.g. Statements, Bank of England interest changes. Is it really any different from receiving Credit Card statements electronically?

The reason i ask is post delivered by postman can lead to accidentally delivering to the wrong house. This is a human error/accident and think its harsh to punish for a genuine mistake.

I wonder why FCA insist on this and don't give the customer to opt out or receive via e-mail as-long as the customer understands the consequences. It would be more secure not posting and also save the environment.

Any thoughts? or anyone in the industry know of plans to change this?

Thanks!

Usually because even when a customer opts out, and find a email has gone to spam/junk or they miss it. They still complain.

Emails can be changed (how many people use isp email & change provider & lose the previous email & forget to update it?), if you have a mortgage, your not going to move without the lender knowing about it.

tizerbelle

My mortgage is with HSBC.  I get my annual statement electronically.  I don't get a paper copy.  

jon81uk

FrankRizzo said:

Hello,

Mortgage companies are obliged to send letters by post e.g. Statements, Bank of England interest changes. Is it really any different from receiving Credit Card statements electronically?

The reason i ask is post delivered by postman can lead to accidentally delivering to the wrong house. This is a human error/accident and think its harsh to punish for a genuine mistake.

I wonder why FCA insist on this and don't give the customer to opt out or receive via e-mail as-long as the customer understands the consequences. It would be more secure not posting and also save the environment.

Any thoughts? or anyone in the industry know of plans to change this?

Thanks!

Standard email is no more secure than post.

Thats why banks won't email your statement to you, the email states you have a statement and then you need to log into the website (which is secure) to view the file.

FrankRizzo

tizerbelle said:

My mortgage is with HSBC.  I get my annual statement electronically.  I don't get a paper copy.  

Thats good to know thanks!! Sounds as though its not a mandatory FCA thing then.

FrankRizzo

jon81uk said:

FrankRizzo said:

Hello,

Mortgage companies are obliged to send letters by post e.g. Statements, Bank of England interest changes. Is it really any different from receiving Credit Card statements electronically?

The reason i ask is post delivered by postman can lead to accidentally delivering to the wrong house. This is a human error/accident and think its harsh to punish for a genuine mistake.

I wonder why FCA insist on this and don't give the customer to opt out or receive via e-mail as-long as the customer understands the consequences. It would be more secure not posting and also save the environment.

Any thoughts? or anyone in the industry know of plans to change this?

Thanks!

Standard email is no more secure than post.

Thats why banks won't email your statement to you, the email states you have a statement and then you need to log into the website (which is secure) to view the file.

Yeh not sure why mortgage companies wont facilitate this digital way of working.

born_again

tizerbelle said:

My mortgage is with HSBC.  I get my annual statement electronically.  I don't get a paper copy.  

When you say electronically. Is this via email or do you have to securely login to your HSBC account. Which are totally different processes.
Email as far as banks go is not a secure method to send any account details.

jon81uk

FrankRizzo said:

jon81uk said:

FrankRizzo said:

Hello,

Mortgage companies are obliged to send letters by post e.g. Statements, Bank of England interest changes. Is it really any different from receiving Credit Card statements electronically?

The reason i ask is post delivered by postman can lead to accidentally delivering to the wrong house. This is a human error/accident and think its harsh to punish for a genuine mistake.

I wonder why FCA insist on this and don't give the customer to opt out or receive via e-mail as-long as the customer understands the consequences. It would be more secure not posting and also save the environment.

Any thoughts? or anyone in the industry know of plans to change this?

Thanks!

Standard email is no more secure than post.

Thats why banks won't email your statement to you, the email states you have a statement and then you need to log into the website (which is secure) to view the file.

Yeh not sure why mortgage companies wont facilitate this digital way of working.

Pretty sure I can with Natwest, not logged in for a while though so can’t remember what it offers once logged in, but can find the record of payments and stuff.