Tweet
On 5 April 2006, the Office of Fair Trading announced that any penalty charge over £12 in a standard credit card contract was likely to be unfair. This led to large numbers of people being advised to ask their credit card providers for information, held as part of their old credit card statements, to find out how many times they have been charged more than £12 so that they can reclaim the difference. You can access more information by visiting the Office of Fair Trading's website. It is important to note that this ruling applies only to credit card charges and not to any other financial services.
The unprecedented demand for access to information held as part of credit card statements is ongoing and many financial institutions are struggling to keep up and supply the information within the 40 days allowed by the Data Protection Act. We are monitoring this closely and are in regular contact with the financial institutions to make sure they are taking action to improve the situation.
When and how to complain
Contrary to popular belief it is not necessary to request the information held on old credit card statements in order to reclaim any unfair penalty charges. The latest advice from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is that consumers wishing to dispute their penalty charges need only provide the financial institution with details of the credit card account and the dates bewteen which the charges were incurred.
The FOS is an independent, free service set up by Parliament to settle disputes between businesses providing financial services and their customers. The FOS is therefore the most appropriate organisation to assist you when seeking to settle disputes about unfair penalty charges with a financial institution. The FOS can be contacted on 0845 080 1800 Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm.
We do however recognise that in pursuing the unfair penalty charges a valid subject access request may already have been made to a financial institution, and although the information requested may not be needed to reclaim any unfair penalty charges, financial institutions are still required to respond to your request.
If you have:
• asked your credit card provider for copies of your statements in writing. Please remember to sign your request,
• paid the fee (if required),
• waited for more than 40 days
and you have not received any response from them, we recommend that you contact them again to find out why. If their response to your further enquiry is unsatisfactory then you can make a data protection complaint using the data protection complaint form.
When you send us your form you must also send us:
• a copy of request for statements,
• copies of any other related letters you have sent to your credit card provider and,
• confirmation of when your cheque or postal order was cashed.
We will not be able to deal with your complaint without this information, and we must stress that we would only be able to consider a complaint about a failed subject access request, it is the FOS that would deal with any dispute over unfair penalty charges.
What will the ICO do?
We do not hold your statements and so we cannot send the information to you. But if it looks like your credit card provider is likely to have breached the requirements of the Data Protection Act by not responding to your request in time, we will write to let them know. We will also instruct them to provide you with the information you are entitled to.
Due to the number of complaints we are receiving about failed subject access requests we are writing to the affected financial institutions on a weekly basis.Where an organisation is persistently failing to comply with the Act, the matter will be considered for regulatory action in line with the Commissioner’s’ 'Strategy for data protection regulatory action'. In such cases, the Commissioner will attempt to resolve the matter by informal regulatory methods but he may use his formal enforcement powers in cases where such informal methods prove unsuccessful.
It is important to bear in mind that any use of the Commissioner’s formal enforcement powers must be proportionate and reasonable.
As a result of complaints we have received, we have actively engaged with a number of financial organisations which are, or have been, experiencing difficulty meeting their subject access obligations as a result of customer demand for bank statements.
Where an organisation has been able to demonstrate to us that appropriate steps are being taken to address the issue, and we are confident that such steps will have a positive impact in delivering compliance with the Act, it is unlikely that we will consider taking more formal action other than a monitoring brief.
We will continue to raise matters in relation to individual complaints which indicate a failure to comply with the subject access requirements of the Act. However, we will only consider enforcement action where the evidence suggests that, despite remedial steps taken by the organisation, there is no clear indication that the organisation is able to satisfy its subject access obligations.
source: Unfair penalty charges
The unprecedented demand for access to information held as part of credit card statements is ongoing and many financial institutions are struggling to keep up and supply the information within the 40 days allowed by the Data Protection Act. We are monitoring this closely and are in regular contact with the financial institutions to make sure they are taking action to improve the situation.
When and how to complain
Contrary to popular belief it is not necessary to request the information held on old credit card statements in order to reclaim any unfair penalty charges. The latest advice from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is that consumers wishing to dispute their penalty charges need only provide the financial institution with details of the credit card account and the dates bewteen which the charges were incurred.
The FOS is an independent, free service set up by Parliament to settle disputes between businesses providing financial services and their customers. The FOS is therefore the most appropriate organisation to assist you when seeking to settle disputes about unfair penalty charges with a financial institution. The FOS can be contacted on 0845 080 1800 Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm.
We do however recognise that in pursuing the unfair penalty charges a valid subject access request may already have been made to a financial institution, and although the information requested may not be needed to reclaim any unfair penalty charges, financial institutions are still required to respond to your request.
If you have:
• asked your credit card provider for copies of your statements in writing. Please remember to sign your request,
• paid the fee (if required),
• waited for more than 40 days
and you have not received any response from them, we recommend that you contact them again to find out why. If their response to your further enquiry is unsatisfactory then you can make a data protection complaint using the data protection complaint form.
When you send us your form you must also send us:
• a copy of request for statements,
• copies of any other related letters you have sent to your credit card provider and,
• confirmation of when your cheque or postal order was cashed.
We will not be able to deal with your complaint without this information, and we must stress that we would only be able to consider a complaint about a failed subject access request, it is the FOS that would deal with any dispute over unfair penalty charges.
What will the ICO do?
We do not hold your statements and so we cannot send the information to you. But if it looks like your credit card provider is likely to have breached the requirements of the Data Protection Act by not responding to your request in time, we will write to let them know. We will also instruct them to provide you with the information you are entitled to.
Due to the number of complaints we are receiving about failed subject access requests we are writing to the affected financial institutions on a weekly basis.Where an organisation is persistently failing to comply with the Act, the matter will be considered for regulatory action in line with the Commissioner’s’ 'Strategy for data protection regulatory action'. In such cases, the Commissioner will attempt to resolve the matter by informal regulatory methods but he may use his formal enforcement powers in cases where such informal methods prove unsuccessful.
It is important to bear in mind that any use of the Commissioner’s formal enforcement powers must be proportionate and reasonable.
As a result of complaints we have received, we have actively engaged with a number of financial organisations which are, or have been, experiencing difficulty meeting their subject access obligations as a result of customer demand for bank statements.
Where an organisation has been able to demonstrate to us that appropriate steps are being taken to address the issue, and we are confident that such steps will have a positive impact in delivering compliance with the Act, it is unlikely that we will consider taking more formal action other than a monitoring brief.
We will continue to raise matters in relation to individual complaints which indicate a failure to comply with the subject access requirements of the Act. However, we will only consider enforcement action where the evidence suggests that, despite remedial steps taken by the organisation, there is no clear indication that the organisation is able to satisfy its subject access obligations.
source: Unfair penalty charges
