How can I help an individual whose bank is writing to them at my address

Question

Over 10 years ago, the previous owners of my house moved away. They didn't leave us a forwarding address and aren't in the phone book. This time every year I get a letter from a bank addressed to each of their children; clearly the parents forget to change the addresses on the children's accounts. I don't open them but return it to the sender unopened with a note stating when they moved out. Without opening the letter it's clearly some form of statement. Despite having done this every time I've received such a letter, they keep coming, clear evidence that no-one pays attention to returned post.

If it was the parents' account I'd be less concerned, but as the children (who I guess would be late teens by now) have been let down I'd be prepared to do make a little effort to help them; they may even be unaware that they have these accounts.

I don't think it's appropriate to try to track down the children myself, and the bank should refuse to discuss anyone else's account with me. So is there anything I can do -- without much effort or being intrusive -- to reunite these kids with their accounts?

Answer 1

I used to work for a bank and this type of thing is quite common - the company I worked for had a policy to handle any mail to any "gone away" customers

These mail items would still be generated but would go to an internal team to deal with inside the bank so the new residents weren't bothered further.

The bank is possibly breaking the Data Protection Act by ignoring your actions as they knowingly hold out of date / incorrect personal information. You may consider writing to complain and that may elicit some kind of remedial action on their part. If you state this has been happening for several years and you are going to advise the Data Commissioner they may sit up and take notice.

The bank will have a variety of methods they can use to try to find the correct address, some will cost money so let them pay for it!

If the threat of reporting them for breaking the DPA doesn't work, the form to raise a complaint with ICO is here:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/report-a-breach/

That might achieve little but it won't do any harm and may make you feel better at least!

Answer 2

Coming back to this after a few years, I can report that going into a branch and speaking to a customer service person* was successful (as suggested in the comments, but not in the answer I accepted). I wrote what little I knew on the outside before my visit, including a mention of the data-protection aspect.

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* It's quite common to be on entering a bank branch in the UK to be greeted by someone competent, who can help with many issues that don't involve handling money. I'm not sure what their employer would call them, but they're distinct from the tellers (which isn't a widely-used term in the UK).