How do banks find out your new address?

[TheLightSideOfTheMoon]

I left a DV situation and have been living a few towns over from where I was.

The only person I gave my address to is my adult DS.

Today I got a letter from Lloyds Bank. I have an old (and probably empty) savings account with them.

The letter was just a circular telling me about upcoming changes. I’d forgotten about so it’s not like I’d been in regular contact with Lloyds and I hadn’t told them I’d moved.

They gave no real reason to write to me so it’s not like they’ve sent numerous letters that I’ve ignored.

Can they just find me like that? I am registered here for council tax/electoral role purposes. Do they use that?

I’m scared that my ex has my address. He has been making efforts to track me down.

Someone please reassure me.

Gosh I don't know the answer to this OP, but I can see why you're concerned.

Someone else might know, but if not could you potentially ring them up and ask them? And then if no luck do a (limited so it's not too difficult for them, if you wanted) subject access request.

Do you have any other accounts that you have updated in the Lloyds Banking Group? So Halifax, Scottish Widows etc? When I updated one of my accounts, it did all of them within the group

Electoral roll is available to anyone. This is known as the open register.

you can register to vote but opt out of being on the open register.

https://www.gov.uk/electoral-register/opt-out-of-the-open-register

It’s probably through your credit file, which will be linked to the electoral roll. I’m not in finance so guessing a little here, but being on the electoral roll is really important for your credit rating. I don’t think that just anyone can look at your credit file, I have run credit checks many years ago when I worked in recruitment, I think we had to have permission from the person and it cost money to run the check. I can’t remember what info we got, we were looking for CCJ or bankruptcy.

There is a public version of the electoral roll, that companies can pay for, you can remove yourself from that there’s a tick box on the form.

I was interested so looked up credit files, looks like your ex would not be able to access this at least. Details here https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/guides/who-has-access.html

Why would getting a letter form the bank make you worry your ex had your address? It’s very unlikely to be linked. I think as a pp mentioned you might have an account with one of the companies in Lloyds group which has led to the change. They would have no reason to look you up on the electoral register.

Have you redirected your mail with Royal Mail? When you do so there’s a tick box where you can opt in or opt out of Royal Mail informing the senders of your new address; what did you tick there? Did you register as a victim of DV with Royal Mail when you set up the redirect?

As per advice from PPs above but also, in your situation, I'd phone them and make them aware of your tricky circumstances so that they don't inadvertently give out your info.

They would do a search akin to a credit check on you and obtain your up to date details.

I got a letter out of the blue from Halifax about six months ago about an old account I’d not touched for 15 years, I’d only ever had that account with them I have no idea how they found me!

I don’t think this means your ex can find you though, the bank won’t pass on your details to anyone else.

A bank would never change your address without your authority and request and they will not disclose to anyone. You can call them to tell them about the DV and extra precautions will be taken. Do you bank with Halifax or bank of Scotland? If so, that could be the reason as they recently updated their app and branches so you can view and access your accounts across the three brands