Bank Mis-placed my form. I want to know where it is :/

[JaneyMary]

Hi All

I applied to have my mortgage term extended because I was struggling with payments etc etc. So at the beginning of last August I completed a Standard Financial Statement and handed it in. We were told that wed hear in 2 weeks.
3 weeks later, I started phoning the bank but the woman were dealing with didn't return our calls/emails. it was like she dropped off the face of the planet. I didn't want to rock the boat too much because I really needed to have my mortgage repayments reduced.
Eventually another woman from a different branch rang us, and she said she would chase up the form. But to no avail, so she accepted our photocopy once we resigned it. That was mid November, by the time it was all sorted it was January and i was heavily overdrawn .
Recently I went into the bank and was speaking to the manager about a different issue. I mentioned to her that I would like to know where my original form was and that I had concerns that all of my personal and financial information was on the form. She said she'd phone me and would get onto it straight away.
Again after 3 weeks of hearing nothing, I rang her. She stuttered and stammered, said she'd put a tracker on the form. I explained again that I was very concerned as to the where abouts of my information. She said that it would not have gone outside of the bank nationally as they have an internal post system. I said that I had been waiting 3 weeks already and she basically said she was busy. (now that really irked me) That was over a week ago and I have still heard nothing.
I've looked up the data protection act and the complaints procedure but am unsure of which way to proceed. Can anyone please offer me some advice?
Many Thanks

 

[thedaddyman]

All of the banks have internal post systems. There are couriers which pick up the mail and any paper lodgements from a branch on a nightly basis and bring it to a mail room in Dublin. They then do deliveries back to the branch in the wee hours of the morning. These are not DHL style couriers, for the most part these are dedicated vans carrying nothing but work for the banks. They don't use An Post for things like this.

Given the volume of paper generated in banking, it does happen that things get lost. No consolation for yourself but it can happen. Depending on the bank in question, the original may have been scanned into an image and workflow system for someone elsewhere to work on it. If it was, it may be possible that the original will then have been sent off-site to an off-site storage company or may have been destroyed.

I suggest the following

• Raise a formal complaint following the banks complaints procedure, that way you have the issue in writing with them
• Ask the bank do they scan documents into an image and workflow archive and if so, has anyone looked there for it
• I presume that you still have your original issue to be resolved. You may have to refill out the form and submit it but suggest you ask that in the circumstances, your request get's treated as a high priority issue

The bank's response may then guide you as to your next action

If you have a concern around the security of your banking details then you should ask your bank to close your account and transfer everything to a new account, again, asking for it to be prioritized and ask that it be done at no cost to yourself

 

[JaneyMary]

Thanks thedaddyman, I'll follow the banks complaints procedure and see where that takes me.

 

[Gerry Canning]

Thanks thedaddyman, I'll follow the banks complaints procedure and see where that takes me.

janeyMary.

I would be slow to clog up the Bank with your complaint for the following reasons.

I assume your main issue is to get your mortgage sorted.

Use them misplacing your form (as per the daddyman) that you in fairness NOW need to be prioritzed.

Forms do go missing and within Banking it seems to happen too much.
I would not worry too much about where you original is hidden. Very probably on some Bank clerks desk.!
Think about your form in this way,
Even if someone got their (improper) hands on it , do you see them even having an interest in it?

I would use the (loss) as a lever to have them review your account.

When Mortgage gets resolved you can still chase up their error.

Also, even if you raise concerns on lost form etc , it will at best mean Mr Bank gets tut-tutted at , matters will still remain the same and it wastes YOUR time.