DH had his credit card defrauded earlier this year. He was with Lloyds. A couple of weeks later he got a call from a third party to find out his experiences of how the fraud was handled and was he happy with it. DH went NUTS. He had no idea who this company was and he was very concerned about how they got his details. At first he was naturally very worried it was another fraud.
He used to work for a financial company and part of his job was data protection compliance. He asked them again who they were, they said they were doing something on behalf of Lloyds. He challenged them AGAIN saying are you part of Lloyds or a third party. They lied and said they were part of Lloyds but when he pressed them they said they were a company that provided a feedback service for a number of banks and were not part of Lloyds.
Though relieved they were 'legitimate', the reason DH was so pissed was that Lloyds had passed his data on to this company. Data protection law now states is that a company can not just pass your details on to a third party just because you happen to have an account with you. They have to have your EXPLICIT consent detailing the purpose of passing on your details. Since DH has never consent to his details being passed on to a third party for feedback regarding credit card fraud, they had actually broken the law. In total I think he was on the phone over an hour explaining what they had done wrong!!!
How can the average person protect their money when banks are giving out confidential and sensitive data to third parties who call unsolicited. Given that a lot of fraud is currently being done in this fashion its bonkers. How can you tell the difference between whats real and whats a fraud? Banks should not be calling you unsolicited full stop even if its from an inhouse call centre, unless there is a real problem such as a fraud, as it undermines the message never to discuss your banking over the phone unless you are 100% confident you know who are talking to.
After asking for a manager and speaking to a manager a Lloyds, DH got a grovelling letter of apology from them 2 days later saying they would review their policy (and save themselves being investigated by the ICO).
So I have little faith in banks. I think they are poorly training staff and they are deliberately flouting the law it in certain area to improve their business. They get away with it, because they count on the fact that the general public won't question and challenge them.
If you aren't happy with something over the phone, just refuse to talk to them, as you are following their guidance! They'll send you a letter soon enough if its 'a requirement'.
(I guess the feedback that Lloyds got in answer to whether DH was happy about the way the fraud on his credit card was handled was not very!)