Sue bank over lost account?
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There’s more than a statute of limitations, there are instructions to banks to destroy records when they are no longer needed.Reed_Richards wrote: »The problem with any "lost" bank account must be proving that you didn't withdraw the money (or transfer it elsewhere). It's an act of faith when you deposit money with a bank that the bank will keep good enough records so that they know when your money has been deposited-to and withdrawn-from your account and will report this information honestly. Is there a "statute of limitations" meaning that banks are not obliged to keep records for longer than a certain period of time? Because if not and it you have printed proof that your Tessa existed I cannot see that Santander have a leg to stand on and how the Ombudsman could have found in their favour.
We have quarterly online training in all of our policies and guidelines, and data detention & handling is a frequent one. Every piece of data has an expiry date associated with it, and it is irretrievably destroyed when it hits that date.
If you search on this site you’ll see why; people get quite upset if a bank retains their records once they feel that they should not.0 -
There is no statue of limitations for fund on deposit. The Bank should always keep your money and its record of who the money belongs to indefinitely. Banks do have the concept of dormant account, and in the UK after 15 years, the money might be passed to the Reclaim Fund for use, but your bank can always get it back from the Reclaim Fund if you come forward to claim it.
Therefore Banks can under the Data Protection Act and GDPR retain your name, and any information that they can justify as needing to identify you (e.g. date of birth and last known address) indefinitely if they are holding your money on deposit. If you have closed the account, then your details should be removed once there is no possibility of a complaint arising from the account. The statue of limitations on legal claims kicks in here.The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.0 -
Thankyou for your replies, in answer to some of your questions, I have a paying in book and a deposit slip from 1999.
I did make an initial enquiry with the ombudsman but whilst waiting for Santander getting the statements back to me and also not realizing there was a time critical part to their work, the ombudsman said I was basically too long getting the details and was time barred!
Santander claim that the tessa was converted or paid into an isa but can show no evidence or details about which account if it existed.0 -
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TESSAs ceased to exist around 2000 so two decades or so. Bit of a long time to wait I think
It was 1999 and a long term investment, I initially tried to sort this about five years ago. Fifteen years after the deposit. Had pretty much written it off as I'm getting nowhere but was recently suggested to me that I take the court route0 -
But the trouble is that these only prove that it did exist, not that it does, a crucial distinction when considering embarking on an evidence-based process.squeekswhenwalking wrote: »
One avenue potentially worth pursuing, if not done yet, is to send Santander a Subject Access Request seeking all the personal data they have about you, and in particular all accounts you've held for which they still have records.0 -
Didn't National and Provincial cease to exist in 1996?squeekswhenwalking wrote: »It was 1999 and a long term investment, I initially tried to sort this about five years ago. Fifteen years after the deposit. Had pretty much written it off as I'm getting nowhere but was recently suggested to me that I take the court route
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_%26_Provincial_Building_Society
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/big-bang-for-two-building-societies-1307977.html
There has been a previous thread about a missing National and Provincial TESSA, but the OP in that thread never came back with an update and hasn't been active since:-
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4112427
You say "Santander claim that the tessa was converted or paid into an isa but can show no evidence or details about which account if it existed.", but earlier in the thread said "...however they just sent me all of the ISA statements...".
So you do have (or had) an ISA with Santander - was this active in the relevant time-period and which bank/building society did you open that one with?
You need to be clearer whether it is a lost account, or just 'lost' money."In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"0 -
squeekswhenwalking wrote: »Only the paying in slip and bank book
What happended to the annual account statements?
When did you last receive one?0
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