Tracing Lost Bankers Draft

duffymoon_2

I received a bankers draft from my father in 2003 which from searching my records doesnt appear if it was payed into my account.The Alliance and Leicester who issued the draft are saying it cant be traced as he has closed his account with them and they cant conduct a search of his records without an account number,he has destroyed his old bank books.The draft was for quite a substantial amount of money and what is annoying me is that surely it would have shown up in the A&L records that the draft hadnt been cashed as it were and they should have tried to contact him to advise him of this.Is there any means of tracing closed accounts without account numbers? any help appreciated.

gt94sss2

If your father were to send A&L a request under the [SIZE=-1]Data Protection Act 1998, A&L would then have to send copies of all "personal data"/information they hold on him

It could be a lot of information - copies of all his statement etc. The account number should not be needed - his name and addresses where he has liven in the past should be enough.

A&L are only allowed to charge a maximum of £10 for requests under the Data Protection Act (enclose a cheque with the request) though I believe they can legally take 40 days to respond to such a request.

You/your father would then need to go through all this information yourself.

Use the contact details given here

Regards
Sunil
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duffymoon_2

Thanks for the advice,I did as you suggested but unfortunately only received information on a live account my father has with A&L.There was nothing on the account that was closed which is where the information that i require is.Is there anything else I could try?

gt94sss2

My understanding of the Data Protection Act is that A&L should have provided you with all their records relating to your father - including his old account even though you don't have the account number.. so it sounds as if A&L have provided you/your father with incomplete information.

However, I am not an expert on the DPA - however, the people you will find in the forums on the Consumer Action Group are - so I suggest you ask there to confirm.

Please do update this thread with the answer

Regards
Sunil

jonesMUFCforever

I think you are approaching this from the wrong end.

If A&L have issued a draft then it will be outstanding in their books.
Write to their head office with full details of amount, payee's name, date and if possible which branch issued the draft.

Give them some time to investigate and details should come to light.

Mikeyorks

ejones999 wrote: »

If A&L have issued a draft then it will be outstanding in their books.

Nice thinking .... exactly right. If a Draft goes AWOL I don't think they ever (try to) complete the circle.

duffymoon_2

I have contacted my local A&L branch who have confirmed that they make no effort to return money to accounts if a draft is lost or goes AWOL.It seems it is placed in a kind of lost monies fund.Seems scandalous to me!

jonesMUFCforever

They may make no effort to trace monies for AWOL drafts but it certainly does not mean that they can keep the money.
I would forget about the local branch and contact the Head Office as advised in post#5 from a month ago.

duffymoon_2

Contacted A&L head office about my query and after around ten weeks received a reply saying that they are not willing to investigate further unless i can supply account numbers,date drafts were issued theres nothing they can do.It stinks!! it must show upsomewhere that the drafts weremnt cashed.Im at my wits end with it.Anything else anyone can suggest

jonesMUFCforever

duffymoon wrote: »

Contacted A&L head office about my query and after around ten weeks received a reply saying that they are not willing to investigate further unless i can supply account numbers,date drafts were issued theres nothing they can do.It stinks!! it must show upsomewhere that the drafts weremnt cashed.Im at my wits end with it.Anything else anyone can suggest

I think you have done well to get this far.
Look at it this way to them this is a complete waste of time - you might have cashed the draft or not - it is not A&L 's fault that you cannot remember.
They will probably have have tens of thousands of drafts issued - if you cannot pinpoint the information requested I think they would be justified in making a charge for looking this up.
Would you be willing to pay £25 per hour + VAT?

PBA

Similar to the OP's query, I've been asked this week about a cashiers cheque issued in 2003 which we can't find records of. I know that the rules are that all transactional data needs to be kept for 6 years, but was wondering if anyone knows how long this rule has been in place for.