My husband is having a battle with Halifax (now HBOS), he has served a SARN on them on the 17th December 2001, and had a reply on Christmas Eve, they have asked him to fill in a form declaring which information he requires but they have not included the form (is this just a delaying tactic), they have also stated that if he no longer has an account with them that the information he requires may have been deleted as with the rules of Data Protection, could anyone please tell me how long they have to hold information for, and as this case has not been settled yet surely the information will still be available.

Any help

Thanks

Christine

-- Christine Singleton (Middleforth1@aol.com), January 01, 2002

Answers

If you want the best advice about the DPA and SARN's then you can always ring the IC help line on 01625-545700. Ask for the consumer help desk and they are quite helpful. But there are times when you have to ask the right question of the IC to get the right response.

Here are my totally unqualified opinion to your DPA questions;

No form enclosed; I think this is just an admin error by HBOS, telephone them and ask for the form.

Account closed; It is worth sending a written response on this. My advice would be to send them copies of recent HBOS letters that have reference numbers and account numbers. State that you require all information about this account and reference number.

Take note that the forty day period for HBOS to respond to you restarts if they have cause to write to you about your SARN request. The SARN submission date then becomes the day that your response to their questions is received.

I'm not sure about how long account information must be held by a bank after an account is closed. It used to be common practive to keep such information for six years but there have been a number of minor changes to the banking act and financial services act relating to money laundering and the Data Protection Act, which may require account information to be kept longer now. The Data Protection Act is much more concerned about the security and destruction of your account data, not how long the information is kept for.

I'd suggest asking HBOS how long they would normally keep your account data after an account is closed, then check with the IC telephone help line if you consider this to be unreasonable.

Good Luck.

-- anon (i.hate.abbey.national@another.com), January 01, 2002.