A friend and myself were saving money in my savings account on a
monthly basis by standing order for a set period of time. Due to
change of circumstances my friend had to stop sending money into my
savings account, and informed his bank to stop the standing order.

After some months he noticed that they were still sending the standing
order (I hadn't noticed as it is in a passbook rather than an online
account). He then rang them up and they admitted they had a record of
him requesting that the standing order be halted. They credited him
with the money they had sent in error.

His bank have now written to me requesting that I send them the money
back, but I am perplexed as to how they have got my address details as
I am not a customer of theirs and my friend has not supplied my
details. I suspect that the building society that I have my savings
account with have supplied my details to my friends bank. Surely they
have no right to pass my details on and should have written to me
themselves?

Have any laws/codes of conduct been broken by my friends bank or indeed
my building society, and if so what, if any, route do I have to
complain?

What do people advise?

ajja wrote:

> His bank have now written to me requesting that I send them the money
> back, but I am perplexed as to how they have got my address details as
> I am not a customer of theirs and my friend has not supplied my
> details. I suspect that the building society that I have my savings
> account with have supplied my details to my friends bank. Surely they
> have no right to pass my details on and should have written to me
> themselves?

I am sure that deep down in their T&C's they can under certain
circumstances. This seems like one of those circumstances.

> Have any laws/codes of conduct been broken by my friends bank or indeed
> my building society, and if so what, if any, route do I have to
> complain?
>
> What do people advise?

Send the money back (you agree it was in error) and move on.

Colin Forrester wrote:
>
> Send the money back (you agree it was in error) and move on.

I have no issue in doing this whatsoever when (and only when) my
building society write to me requesting that I do this. I am not going
to deal with my friend's banking provider as in my view they have no
business in writing to me in the first place as I am not their
customer.

My arrangement is with my building society and not with my friend's
bank. I have had no dealings with them for many years, and have no
intention of starting any dealings with them again.

BTW we're not talking about very much money here, I just object to a
third party writing to me direct.

ajja wrote:
> Colin Forrester wrote:
>> Send the money back (you agree it was in error) and move on.
>
> I have no issue in doing this whatsoever when (and only when) my
> building society write to me requesting that I do this.

OK, I might have misunderstood all the facts.

Write to the other bank telling them to correspond with you through your
building society - pointing out that you have no relationship with them
and no way of knowing that they are not in fact perpetrating a fraud.
This seems the most sensible way forward. Await a letter from your
building society.

You then have to deal with your Building Society about the disclosure of
your personal details - which I suspect they will argue was warranted.
Depending upon the terms and conditions connected to your account you
could dispute this and ultimately take the matter to the Information
Commissioner's Office (http://www.ico.gov.uk/).

Colin Forrester wrote:

> You then have to deal with your Building Society about the disclosure of
> your personal details - which I suspect they will argue was warranted.
> Depending upon the terms and conditions connected to your account you
> could dispute this and ultimately take the matter to the Information
> Commissioner's Office ([..]).

Just spoken to these guys. Seems my building society were in breach,
as were his for writing to me too.

ajja wrote:

> Colin Forrester wrote:
>>
>> Send the money back (you agree it was in error) and move on.
>
> I have no issue in doing this whatsoever when (and only when) my
> building society write to me requesting that I do this.

Your building society has no business asking you to do this.

> I am not going
> to deal with my friend's banking provider as in my view they have no
> business in writing to me in the first place as I am not their
> customer.

I think you are mistaken. That you are not their customer is
irrelevant. The point is that you owe them money (because you owed
it to your friend and they have already reimbursed him) and so they
are perfectly entitled to ask you for it back. They can only ask
*you* for it, they can't ask your building society for it, because
your BS could only act on your instructions.

> My arrangement is with my building society and not with my friend's
> bank. I have had no dealings with them for many years, and have no
> intention of starting any dealings with them again.
>
> BTW we're not talking about very much money here, I just object to a
> third party writing to me direct.

You have no right to object to a creditor writing to you. You do
have a right to object to your building society passing your contact
details to them.

What should have happened is, your friend's bank should have written
to you care of your building society, and your building society should
have forwarded their letter to you.

What you should do now is not pretend the bank haven't got your
address. The damage is done and it's not really the bank's fault.
Just pay them the money and that gets them out of the picture.

Your BS, though, is still very much in the picture and you should
make a formal complaint to them for breach of confidence. I don't
know if it's a Banking Code violation, but it certainly seems as
though it's at least a Data Protection violation.

In message <1159359554.990108.138440>,
ajja writes
[..]
>account with have supplied my details to my friends bank. Surely they
>have no right to pass my details on and should have written to me
>themselves?
>
>Have any laws/codes of conduct been broken by my friends bank or indeed
>my building society, and if so what, if any, route do I have to
>complain?
>
>What do people advise?
>
Your building society most definitely can NOT tell the remitter's bank
anything about you, despite what other posters say. The only occasions
this can be done is when it is in the public interest (i.e. grassing up
a thief), or by court order.

What normally happens in circs like this is that the remitting bank
write you a letter but send it to your bank or b/soc and ask them to
send it in to you. This preserves confidentiality. The other bank are
quite entitled to write to you this way.

Can you look at the letter and see how it was addressed. Is you address
on the letter as well as the envelope? If se then your b/soc must have
disclosed the details UNLESS they are one of those small b/socs who
aren't main clearing agents who maintain an account at the same full
clearing bank as the remitter, in which case it is conceivable, but
unlikely that in effect you both banked at the same place.

Finally, could it be that the remitter wrote your address on the
original standing order instruction but has forgotten.

In message <1159365055.111163.235020>,
ajja writes

> I am not going
>to deal with my friend's banking provider as in my view they have no
>business in writing to me in the first place as I am not their
>customer.

No, they have every right. after all you have got their money.
>
>My arrangement is with my building society and not with my friend's
>bank. I have had no dealings with them for many years, and have no
>intention of starting any dealings with them again.

Ah! Perhaps they know you. Could this be how they got your address, i.e.
they already had it?
>
>BTW we're not talking about very much money here, I just object to a
>third party writing to me direct.
>
Well you are wrong to object. The creditor is perfectly entitled to do
so.

On 27 Sep 2006 05:19:15 -0700, ajja wrote:

>His bank have now written to me requesting that I send them the money
>back, but I am perplexed as to how they have got my address details as
>I am not a customer of theirs and my friend has not supplied my
>details. I suspect that the building society that I have my savings
>account with have supplied my details to my friends bank. Surely they
>have no right to pass my details on and should have written to me
>themselves?

Are you sure your friend's bank actually wrote the address on the
envelope. It would be normal practice for your friend's bank to send
the letter to your bank and ask your bank to forward it on to you.

A more interesting question is whether you can be called on to repay
the money.

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:32:54 GMT, Ronald Raygun
<no.spam> wrote:

>ajja wrote:
>>Your building society has no business asking you to do this.
>>I think you are mistaken. That you are not their customer is
>irrelevant. The point is that you owe them money (because you owed
>it to your friend and they have already reimbursed him) and so they
>are perfectly entitled to ask you for it back. They can only ask
>*you* for it, they can't ask your building society for it, because
>your BS could only act on your instructions.

How can the bank be so sure that he owes money to his friend? What if
he were to claim that money was actually due to him and that his
friend cancelled the standing order without his knowledge?

I don't see how the bank is entitled to make any assumptions about
what money might have been owing between the two friends. The only
thing that is known for certain is that they made a mistake.

Whichever way this is resolved, I hope they are going to let the bank
know that they will be making a charge to cover their costs for their
work involved in sorting out this bank's mistakes.

Chris

I have just spoken with my Building Society and they have had no
contact from my friend's bank whatsoever.

The letter has come direct from his bank, dated the 25th and was
recieved on the 27th. It is interesting that it was addressed to me on
the envelope, but the letter is to me C/o the building society. There
is no way that it got to my Building Society on Tuesday and was posted
out the same day especially as they have confirmed that they have not
had any contact from anyone other than myself regarding this issue.

I have a call into the person that wrote the letter, and I am waiting
him to return it.

x-no-archive: yes

would your address details be on the original standing order form, maybe?

most forms I have ever setup require that info - probably to confirm the
bank details are right, or needed under money laundering laws..?

you could ask for a copy, though as a 3rd party they may get heavy pn your
DPA ass.. pay the money back already.

ajja wrote:
> I have just spoken with my Building Society and they have had no
> contact from my friend's bank whatsoever.
>
> The letter has come direct from his bank, dated the 25th and was
> recieved on the 27th. It is interesting that it was addressed to me on
> the envelope, but the letter is to me C/o the building society. There
> is no way that it got to my Building Society on Tuesday and was posted
> out the same day especially as they have confirmed that they have not
> had any contact from anyone other than myself regarding this issue.
>
> I have a call into the person that wrote the letter, and I am waiting
> him to return it.

Have you considered that your friend may have disclosed your address to
the bank?

Had a call from my building society. They did send forward the letter
to me. I've paid up too.

End.....

In message <1159434710.135162.216830>,
ajja writes
>I have just spoken with my Building Society and they have had no
>contact from my friend's bank whatsoever.
>
>The letter has come direct from his bank, dated the 25th and was
>recieved on the 27th. It is interesting that it was addressed to me on
>the envelope, but the letter is to me C/o the building society. There
>is no way that it got to my Building Society on Tuesday and was posted
>out the same day

why on earth not? In the days when banks were accustomed to forwarding
mail the rules said it HAD to go the same day it was received and it had
to go 1st class.

>especially as they have confirmed that they have not
>had any contact from anyone other than myself regarding this issue.

Your building society wouldnt record it if they were merely forwarding a
letter. Least of all would they know if it was 'regarding this issue'.
If they answered along the lines 'we have had no contact from the
remitting bank about this issue' then that is an answer to the wrong
question.
[..]