Would IBU to tape someone elses bank statement...

[BoomBoomsCousin]

...to the bank's door and tell them to change the address?

I know I would really but I am sick of this. We moved in three years ago and passed on post for the first year to the estate agent. For the last two years I've been putting it back in the post box marked "No longer at this address" (and "please remove from database" for the last year). A couple of them are still turning up. I cracked today and opened one and called the bank. But after 20 minutes on the phone talking to a customer service rep I gave up. The customer service agent seemed to think she was doing me a huge favour and I should be happy to hang around a lot.

Eventually, after suggesting I send the letters back marked "not at this address" despite me telling her I'd been doing that and talking to a colleague a couple of times, she said she needed to fill out a "very long" form. I gave her the account name, sort code and account number but when she started asking for the address I asked if there was much more and she said "erm, yes". So I told her she had the account name, number and sort code and they ought to be able to work it out from there. She said she couldn't access the information so I got a bit frustrated and said I didn't have time to be their database for them but if I got another statement I would tape it to the local branch door on a Friday night.

This is really just a rant about Kafkaesque customer service bureaucracy and I do not really intend to expose someone's bank details to the whole of my town. But AIBU to think Barclay's suck in this instance (not to mention the person we bought our house from, who can't be arsed to update their details after 3 years)?

[superbagpuss]

we have recieved something looking official in the post for the previous tennant for the last 8 years!

As it is illegal to open another persons post we mark as not at address and post back - sometime it comes straight back to us again

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Thankfully it's not criminal to open someone else's post. Only to open it with bad intent.

[CumbrianExile]

I totally get where you are coming from. I just bin stuff now (been here nearly 10 years!). Saves the stress a little!

[superbagpuss]

boomboom - thats interesting to know - so we could open the post and talk to whoever is sending it?

[Azquilith]

We still get threatening letters for unpaid debt of previous tenant and bailiffs. So I open post to try and circumvent the latter. Was so gutted once to see it was a several hundred pound rebate cheque from the inland revenue. If only they'd left a forwarding address.

[InfinitySeven]

Yes Super.

BoomBoom Have you tried writing or emailing or tweeting the bank?

[FryOneFatManic]

As it is illegal to open another persons post

Not this again! No, it is NOT illegal to open someone else's post, only if you do so with the intent to harm or defraud, etc. Opening a letter to reconcile someone with their post by looking for an address, etc, is perfectly permissible.

[APlaceInTheWinter]

I feel your pain. We have this same problem. I have phoned. I have written to them. I have posted the statements back with 'not at this address' on it. I have pointed out that if someone was planning on defrauding the bank then having the wrong address/the wrong name might be the place where they would start . . . all to no avail.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

I haven't Infinity. I don't think I can be bothered now, I thought a quick phone call would fix things. Though tweeting would be interesting - could I suggest they change things as quickly as possible and tweet all the details....

I shall either go Cumbrian's route or write "HAS NOT LIVED HERE FOR YEARS" and chuck it into the (open) bank branch when I'm in town (clearly I still feel like making a point to them!)

[Floggingmolly]

I'm still getting someone else's dividend cheques after living here for 14 years. The previous owners were here for 7 years; they've never heard of him either...
The bank Do Not Want To Know. Various muppets have explained to me that unless I can provide them with a new address, they're legally bound to keep sending correspondence to me. I've quoted the Data Protection Act to them, but still the letters come.
I wonder could I have him declared legally dead????

[Gruntfuttock]

Why are banks so pig-headed? It reminds me of the numerous times we hear of banks refusing to close the account of someone who's died, because they insist that they need to speak to the account holder. No amount of repeating "But he/she is dead" makes any difference.

[APlaceInTheWinter]

Companies House is the same. We get mail for a company registered at our address. We tell them that it isn't here. That the Director died and the company closed. They can't remove the address unless the Director tells them. You know, the Director who is dead

[Immovableobject]

We moved in to our house 18 months ago, it had previously been owned by the same family for 75 years and we still manage to get post for completely random people nobody has heard of! The postie is used to getting them handed back now...
At my old house I got the previous's bank post for years after moving in, they even opened a new account on my address 6 months after moving out; I called the bank and got nowhere until the police ended up involved after I accidentally on-purpose binned a debit card and somebody found and used it

[BoomBoomsCousin]

That's ridiculous APlace. Have they no procedure at all for the situation?

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Immovable you would think the bank would be bothered they had the wrong address wouldn't you?

I sort of understand some of the random ones if they are one offs. People make mistakes typing out addresses, especially if they are taking them down over the phone. And I'm sure some people just make them up if they are worried about getting junk mail. But the companies should be obliged to stop sending it when they get the mail returned!

[Tobyjugg]

We had this with a building society when we moved in to our current house. I finally sent them a registered letter, referring to previous correspondence saying these people no longer lived here and all future letters would be binned.

Didn't stop immediately, but after about 3 months we got no more.

[APlaceInTheWinter]

BoomBoom you'd think they'd have a procedure but apparently not, because the man was sole Director so there is no other Director to update the system! I have emailed, written, telephoned, spoke to a supervisor,etc.

I also pointed out that surely they should have a procedue to remove details because people do die and because people could give the incorrect address either in error or on purpose. I'd have thought they'd have had a responsibility to ensure they had the correct address before registering companies, but, again, apparently not.

[Immovableobject]

Boom you would, wouldn't you? I had the whole 'this can have no legitimate basis' conversation with them and then they carried on sending the stuff to me. I could have had a mega shopping spree then feigned ignorance (pre chip n pin days) It only stopped after it became a police matter and I had to do a formal statement and everything
I was a bit twitchy as the landlord in my previous place hadn't payed his mortgage - sometimes opening the offending post is a really good idea, as otherwise we would have had no heads-up to the impending repo!

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Immovable.

[Worksallhours]

We have a massive problem with this, and fear that the previous owners are, in fact, using their old address (now ours) for dubious means.

In the past 18 months, we have received numerous DVLA letters about vehicles still registered to our address, despite contacting the DVLA and saying the owners no longer live here. We've had a debt collector round from a well-known machinery business. We get bank statements for loans, accounts, letters from school etc ... at least two to six official letters arrive for them daily.

Everything goes back "return to sender" but, if the situation does not stop soon, we are thinking of contacting the police for advice. I suspect the former owners are delaying changing the registration address for their vehicles for as long as they can (which includes heavy machinery etc, which should never have been registered to a domestic address in the first place) because it makes the insurance cheaper, and for their financial accounts etc because their current address is "off grid".

One way, possibly, would be to contact the national police identity theft hotline and see what they say, making sure to tell them that Barclays refuse to sort the problem. The issue for you here is that if a bank account is still registered at your address (and thus on their credit details), someone can order a product online, get it delivered to your address, intercept it at the gate or door, and never pay for it -- you would then have a mission trying to prove that it was not you purchasing the product fraudulently.

I would also double-check your credit report to make sure there is no association between you and this other person.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

That's really worrying Work. I take it you don't know the old residents' new address?

I'm certain that isn't what's happening here. The statement I opened today seems to be for one of the children - she apparently gets a £10 a week allowance and is a much better saver than I was! It's only a quarterly statement, so we would have had 12 at most in the time we've been here. Most of the others have stopped and we haven't had any "new" ones so they aren't opening new things using our address or getting into trouble.

[Wishtoremainunknown]

That's shit if the bank. But it's not the advisors fault - they have to stick to procedures - if she took that long she's probably new. They only get a few weeks training and speaking to a colleague actually means "I've no idea I will have to ask my supervisor."
Staff turn over is so high at those places you'd be lucky to speak to anyone who has been doing the job longer than a year.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

I don't think anyone is blaming the advisr Wish. Her idea that changing the address was some kind of big favour to me rather than a favour to their customer who hasn't updated their details but nevertheless is a source of income for the bank, was annoying but that's also down to hiring and training I think.

[Wishtoremainunknown]

I was just trying to say- it's more the people in charge at fault. But it seems you already agree