Closed bank account but online banking remains open.

peteuk

I closed my back account in Feb 24 with a 7 day switch from Halifax to Lloyds.  However I had an overdraft with Halifax which failed to transfer.   The overdraft was paid in Sept 24.   

At the point of the switch I had no access to my online banking, telephone banking (which can be proven by an ombudsman case which notes talking to customer service was difficult because it didnt recognise the account details) 

In June I received an email advising me of changes to their app, which I have complained about and they have agreed and place a payment of £100 into my LLoyds account.  However during the complaint process they noted that the email was sent because my online account was still open, even though I have not accessed it since Feb 24. 

I class this as a breach of GDPR, as they should have closed the account and the online banking, given the issues I had repaying the overdraft, they have now changed the whole narative around the last 18 months.  

Do I send it to the ombudsman and point this out along with the percieved GDPR breach?  Or just take the £100 and run.  

Emmia

Take the £100.  They emailed you (not a random stranger, your friend, spouse etc.) about an online service that you'd used in the past. Banks have many sources of records and it's possible that the one they use for T&C's was a bit out of date.

Edit: Even though you've closed your account, the bank will still hold records on you, and will refer to them if you want to open another account/ take out a financial product with them in future.

Hopefully it's all fully closed down now?

grumpy_codger

peteuk said:

...
I class this as a breach of GDPR, as they should have closed the account and the online banking...

Can you quote the specific part of GDPR that was breached? 

I'm not implying that this is the case with you, but far too many people refer to 'GDPR' while knowing nothing about it.

Section62

peteuk said:

I closed my back account in Feb 24 with a 7 day switch from Halifax to Lloyds.  However I had an overdraft with Halifax which failed to transfer.   The overdraft was paid in Sept 24.   

At the point of the switch I had no access to my online banking, telephone banking (which can be proven by an ombudsman case which notes talking to customer service was difficult because it didnt recognise the account details) 

In June I received an email advising me of changes to their app, which I have complained about and they have agreed and place a payment of £100 into my LLoyds account.  However during the complaint process they noted that the email was sent because my online account was still open, even though I have not accessed it since Feb 24. 

I class this as a breach of GDPR, as they should have closed the account and the online banking, given the issues I had repaying the overdraft, they have now changed the whole narative around the last 18 months.  

Do I send it to the ombudsman and point this out along with the percieved GDPR breach?  Or just take the £100 and run.  

If your "online account" is just an online banking customer profile then it would probably only be a GDPR breach if their data retention policy had required deletion of the profile in less time.  You'd need to ask Halifax for details of their policy, but at a guess they probably keep customer profiles for a reasonable amount of time in case the customer decides to open new accounts.  If you made a specific request for them to delete the profile and they didn't, in breach of their own policies, then that too could be a GDPR breach.

Banks are allowed to keep information about former customers for a reasonable (or legally required) period of time, which could include things like contact details.  So it appears all that has happened is Halifax have erroneously sent you an email which was no longer applicable to you - that isn't a GDPR breach, so you've probably done well to get £100 out of them, and don't stand to gain much more by making this a FOS or GDPR complaint.

The situation is possibly made slightly more complicated in that Halifax and Lloyds are both part of Lloyds Banking Group, and data-sharing within LBG is allowed.  Since you have a Lloyds account you are still a current LBG customer, and therefore Halifax would have access to your contact details even if all your Halifax accounts and online profile had been deleted.  You may also want to bear in mind that being part of the same company potentially means if you take matters further over Halifax's use of your information it is possible Lloyds might decide they no longer want you as a customer.

Persoanlly, in your I'd think I've done well with the £100 and let matters rest there.

peteuk

grumpy_codger said:

peteuk said:

...
I class this as a breach of GDPR, as they should have closed the account and the online banking...

Can you quote the specific part of GDPR that was breached? 

I'm not implying that this is the case with you, but far too many people refer to 'GDPR' while knowing nothing about it.

I worked in Healthcare and so did yearly GDPR training, will check out the relevant section.

One of my concerns is Halifax can say the account is closed, but then say its not closed months later. 

I got retention of info, but it’s the appropriate use of this, tide into the fact that I was told when I switched my account that i had no access to online/ohone banking.  Yet now they are saying my online banking remained open so therefore they assumed I had access to the app so emailed re the app. 

surreysaver

peteuk said:

grumpy_codger said:

peteuk said:

...
I class this as a breach of GDPR, as they should have closed the account and the online banking...

Can you quote the specific part of GDPR that was breached? 

I'm not implying that this is the case with you, but far too many people refer to 'GDPR' while knowing nothing about it.

I worked in Healthcare and so did yearly GDPR training, will check out the relevant section.

One of my concerns is Halifax can say the account is closed, but then say its not closed months later. 

I got retention of info, but it’s the appropriate use of this, tide into the fact that I was told when I switched my account that i had no access to online/ohone banking.  Yet now they are saying my online banking remained open so therefore they assumed I had access to the app so emailed re the app. 

If you want my opinion about healthcare and GDPR, the NHS picks and chooses which bits of GDPR to use and which bits to ignore. Forgets that the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality also applies.
The NHS also manipulates the definitions of words such as 'consent', 'confidentiality', 'anonymous'.and 'anonymised', as well as keeping the Information Commissioner at arms length.
I wouldn't regard any training you've had from your healthcare employer as complete.