The banks you can't trust!

We reveal which banks have been a little too irresponsible with your financial details...

I think it’s fair to say that many of us aren’t particularly fond of banks. Rip-off fees, poor customer service and pathetic savings rates are just some of the reasons our bank isn’t generally on our Christmas card list.

And recent research by Which? has highlighted another reason for us to despise lenders, after revealing how regularly they break data protection rules.

Indeed, according to the research, a total of 515 complaints were lodged with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about data protection breaches by eight of Britain’s largest banks and building societies between August 2009 and August 2010 where the ICO thought it was likely they’d broken the rules set out by the Data Protection Act 1998.

So let’s take a closer look.

The biggest offenders

The table below highlights how many data protection breaches the biggest banks and building societies made:

*Including Abbey and Alliance & Leicester.**Halifax/Bank of Scotland.***Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest.****Bradford & Bingley’s savings business is now part of Santander.

So it’s Barclays that’s come out top with a whopping 116 breaches. Perhaps less surprising is that Lloyds TSB isn’t far behind with 114 complaints – after all, this is the bank that received almost 2,000 complaints a day regarding general banking issues in the first half of last year.

And the lender that everyone loves to moan about due to its poor customer service – Santander – came in third with 103 breaches.

According to Which?, over half of the complaints were due to the failure of companies to adequately provide customers with copies of the data held about them. Other potential breaches included banks holding information about customers that wasn’t accurate, failing to follow security measures, and disclosing data to third parties.

Related how-to guide

Complain and get your way

Whoever you want to complain to, make sure you follow these tips.

See the guide

What’s more, the research also revealed that only one in ten people have heard of the ICO to complain to, so if more people knew about it, the number of complaints could be far higher. There’s also no legal obligation for companies to report data protection breaches to their customers or the ICO.

What you can do

This is pretty worrying stuff to say the least. After all, your personal data is, well, personal. So the idea that your privacy could be being compromised is a little unsettling.

So aside from simply never using a bank or demanding to watch your bank’s every move when it comes to your personal data – both of which may be a tad difficult – what can you do about it?

Bank safely online

For a start, with more and more of us now banking online, it’s important to ensure you stay safe. Sadly, banking online doesn’t come without its risks. So make sure you follow these top tips to protect yourself:

• Never follow any links on an email claiming to be from your bank. If you do, you’ll be taken to a fake website with the aim of getting hold of your financial details.
• Remember banks will never email you to ask for personal information, so don’t fall for it.
• Never open an email attachment from an unknown source.
• Report any suspicious emails to reports@banksafeonline.org.uk.
• Always install up-to-date anti-virus software and a personal firewall.
• Install anti-spyware protection.
• Update your internet browser regularly.
• Protect your wireless network from hackers and freeloaders – find out how here.
• Use a spam filter such as Mailwasher to reduce the number of spam emails you receive.
• Always use a strong password for your online accounts – don’t make it something obvious, and use different passwords for different accounts.
• Never write down your passwords or PINs.
• Never leave your PC unattended when you’re logged into an online banking service.
• Only carry out online transactions when the URL bar says ‘https’ and not just ‘http’ as the ‘s’ stands for secure. And make sure the padlock symbol is present.
• Check your bank account regularly for suspicious transactions. If you spot anything, report it to your bank immediately.

Don’t forget that lovemoney.com has its own free online banking service Tracker, which allows you to view all of your accounts in one place and keep an eye on your transactions – and spot any dodgy ones quickly!

Take extra precautions

As well as being careful online, you should also be very careful with any printed bank statements or important documents you receive in the post.

When you no longer need them, ensure you shred them instead of simply throwing them in the bin. This includes anything that has your name and address on it – so utility bills and letters from your doctor and so on should also be shredded.

You should also ensure you inform your bank if you’re moving home so that your statements don’t go to the wrong address.

It’s also worth asking Royal Mail to redirect your post so that if anything did go to your old address it wouldn’t just sit there. Prices start from £8 for one month and go up to £40.85 for 12 months.

Complain

Finally, if you’re not happy with the way your bank has handled your personal data, you have a right to complain.

Firstly, you should tell the organisation involved and see if they resolve the issue.

However, if they are unable to resolve it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO will then look into the issue and if it believes the law has been broken, it will contact the organisation and try to solve the problem. You can find out more about this here.

Note that the ICO doesn’t award compensation – instead, its aim is to ensure the organisation involved changes the way it handles personal data going forward.

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