A couple of weeks back, whilst doing some on-line banking, I noticed Lloyds were doing a new car finance system. In idle interest, I clicked through to the loan calculator only to be greeted with the message "You are not eligible for this service" and giving links to the credit reference agencies. Now, I know my Experian score is around 980 ex 999 and marked as "Excellent" so I called the bank who said there was no reason they could see why I shouldn't be eligible even to LOOK at the numbers let alone apply. So I raised a complaint, assuming it was a fault.

Today the bank came back to say that the system was correct. They couldn't tell me why though but suggested I send them my credit report. This I did - showing the "Excellent" rating. They said there must be something in the way I run my accounts (outside the bank) that is causing it. I responded that surely that was part of the "Excellent" rating.

They kept saying that they weren't privy to the information against which the computer said 'No". I countered that surely SOMEONE could look at it else how would they know there wasn't a fault. They kept saying they couldn't do that.

What's the situation with this? Can I make a request under the DPA or some such to get clarity on this? If I can't find out what the problem is, how can I fix it?

I would make a Subject Access Request to Lloyds, it will cost you a maximum of £10 and they will then have to provide all the information they hold about you.

"What information is an individual entitled to?
Subject access is most often used by individuals who want to see a copy of the information an organisation holds about them. However, subject access goes further than this and an individual is entitled to be:
• told whether any personal data is being processed;
• given a description of the personal data, the reasons it is being processed, and whether it will be given to any other organisations or people;
• given a copy of the personal data; and
• given details of the source of the data (where this is available).
An individual can also request information about the reasoning behind any automated decisions taken about him or her, such
as a computer-generated decision to grant or deny credit, or an assessment of performance at work (except where this information is a trade secret).
Subject access provides a right for the requester to see their own personal data, rather than a right to see copies of documents that contain their personal data. Often, the easiest way to provide the relevant information is to supply copies of original documents, but you are not obliged to do this." SAR info

I would also ask for a copy of their official complaints policy and state that once that has been dealt with that you intend to complain to the Ombudsman.

It does sound a perverse decision.


https://www.lloydsbank.com/insurance/privacy-policy.asp


DSAR Unit
Lloyds Bank
Customer Service Recovery
Charlton Place, C57
Andover, SP10 1RE



Dear Sir or Madam
Subject access request



Please supply me with any information Lloyds Bank holds about me as I am entitled to under the Data Protection Act 1998.

I am particularly interested in information covering;
Current Account XXXXXXX
Credit Card Account xxxxxxxxx


However please do not restrict the search for information held to those accounts as I would like to receive everything you hold that relates to me personally.

My previous address was: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My previous name was: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If you need any more information from me please let me know as soon as possible. I have enclosed a cheque/postal order for £10 to cover the statutory fee.


It may be helpful for you to know that a request for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 should be responded to within 40 days.


If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at ico.org.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.


Yours faithfully

Thanks, CC, I will give that a go

Save the ten squid and go get a cheaper loan from someone else

I don't need the loan but I do need my bank not to fork me about.

The ironic thing is the spiel says that, as my bank, they know me and won't leave a credit report footprint - what nonsense!

What a total mess our banking/financial systems are:

It all started with MasterCard telling my CC company that my card details were compromised. To cut a long story short my CC company cancelled my old card and, with it, my direct debit. They then proceeded to try to call on that DD.

They then contacted me to say my payment hadn't been made. I suggested that it was their mistake which they confirmed. They said they'd make sure I had no credit report issues.

I then got an alert (from my bank service) to say my credit report had a missed payment. This was my CC company!

My CC company then confirmed they had sorted it.

I tried to confirm through my bank's alert service it was fixed but they had changed provider and could no longer tell me.

Next my bank told me I couldn't see the loan calculator due to issues with my credit report. But refused to confirm what it was (as above)

By this time I'm travelling - I tried to access my CallCredit report directly but was refused access because I was outside the UK (despite being a UK resident) claiming protection under DPA. I finally got past that to discover that there was STILL a late payment market from the CC company on my report (that only shows on my CallCredit report and neither Experian or Equifax). I sent CallCredit evidence of the CC cock-up so they've now removed the marker.

I now need to see if that resolves the bank issue though I have issued the request as per CharlieC's advice.

What a bloody mess though. If I'd been trying to buy a house I'd have been going mental at all of this.

One of the funniest bits was that CallCredit tried to tell me that I couldn't access their service because .co.uk domains can't be accessed outside the UK!!!

The credit card company have so far only offered me £50 for all of this trouble! I have an FOS complaint in against them.

What a PITA. Hope it's all sorted soon.

Blimey Rich, what a mess!

Your experian score means zilch to a bank.

They like to target things to certain groups and you might live in the wrong area, be the wrong age, have an existing loan or have too much debt vs income or maybe your living room hall is the wrong shade of magnolia

Banks do their own credit scoring and they just use the data from experian. They also pre-approve segment of their customers, their failure is showing you the loan offer.

Dont take it personally, banks are under no obligation to offer you a loan even if you have a platinum plated credit score.

If you want to know about banking rules, watch the movie 'The Big Short' New release. Bunch of crooks

That will just make him very angry

I have no problem with the bank offering me a loan or not - I'd just like to understand their reasoning. Instead I'll just take my business (everything) to a better bank. What really bugs me is the shambles in what is supposed to be a regulated business. Regulated? Too funny!

Bloody hell I am not surprised you are wanting to sort that out! That's pretty shoddy service.

The bank have come back to me and will be letting me have the data in response to my request by 8 April. They're also still investigating.

I've provided FOS the card company details and now they're following up with them.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to moving banks

I would be interested to hear the outcome, if they cant process data correctly, then there's something wrong especially when it can have a serious impact on people's lives.

Yup - I'll let you know, CC.

I actually mailed my MP to say that financial compliance is still broken

The saga continues. Complained to FOS about the credit card company complaint response and that they were going to only offer me £50 for all of the aggro they've caused me by messing up my credit file.

One word: shocking! Apparently (and I'm due to get this in writing later) there are NO guidelines at all for what compensation a bank should give. It seems to be entirely up to what the individual at FOS thinks is "reasonable". So, despite serial cock-ups (including telling me my credit file was resolved when it wasn't), the FOS person is proposing to accept the credit card company's position. And I have nothing against which to reference it. To go further, I will need to provide phone bills etc etc to prove the out-of-pocket expenses.

The idea that financial services are in any way properly regulated is a joke. Even the FOS guy pointed out that they are funded by the banks. It really is no wonder to me that I get such terrible service from the financial institutions I deal with.

It makes you wonder what model they work to that permits the end result to be such contempt for the customer. I seem to remember that if you complained articulately and with good reason, you generally got some kind of satisfactory result - eventually. Nowadays (perhaps since the advent of the 'poodle' regulators to make it seem as though we are getting listened to), implacable, "what are you going to do about it?" contempt seems to be the brick wall we end up facing.

Having said that, I remember MrsC having a long struggle over a credit rating error caused by BT. Long, long story short, BT awarded her £50 compensation for the aggro they had caused, then pursued her, saying SHE owed THEM the £50!

Hope you get some kind of satisfaction.

Well I'm making progress though it is long and slow.

My Subject Access Request info turned up from the bank - two huge packages of paper!
I rooted through it at the weekend looking for the diamonds amongst the rocks and found a few interesting things especially on the bank's risk data:
- the bank would grant me a credit card with a very healthy limit
- the bank would grant me a personal loan of a good size
- the bank rates me as a pretty low risk on their risk scoring system and would grant me their best rates of interest.

As a reminder, this is against a background of them not even letting me LOOK at the car finance calculator supposedly due to my poor credit rating.

Also on their CRM data I found that I was logged as working for the company I left 15 years ago. Strangely, though, the address of that company was my last company. My income data was very wrong too.

In the file I could find no reference to the data used for the car finance "decision".

I spoke to a helpful guy yesterday who confirmed my understanding of the data I was seeing. He said my employment data should have been regularly updated - he said it was the first thing his system asked me to do upon logging on. He corrected my employment details and income. He has raised another complaint on my behalf on the car finance system because he can't see why it isn't working and agrees with me that the data all points to a system error.

On the issue with the credit card company, I'm making very little progress with FOS. I'm shocked by how poor they are. I'm corresponding with my MP on this and he has written to the Chancellor. Basically the FOS assessor seems to make it up as he goes along.

They only have to provide you with data they hold. So if the "loan decision engine(tm)" spits out a yes/no and doesn't record anything about your personally then they dont need to report it to you.

What I imagine you will see is a note somewhere that MRS was declined a loan for x amount and the reason was y.

If you aren't seeing that then it sounds as though they haven't reported all the data they hold (otherwise how would they know that you been declined a loan).

Yup - as I understand though, I should see the inputs to that process pertinent to me. I don't get to see how the data is used as that can be commercially sensitive. I've seen that for the personal loan process but not the car finance piece. I've asked for it.

Well, the saga continues...

The "very helpful guy" I spoke to 9 days ago seemingly did nothing.

I phoned a week ago and they said that they'd raise a complaint.

Guess what? A week later and nothing.

Another phone call and Lloyds have notes on my file about the call but somehow the Complaints department don't know so nothing has happened.

You couldn't make this up.

They were going to get the same person who looked at the complaint last time to look at it again. WTF? After some guidance from their customer, they're going to get her manager to look at it instead.

Glad I'm broke!

I would change banks. Some will give you cash just for switching.

I will. But I really want to get to the bottom of this particular issue first. I've learned the hard way that ignoring some stuff only means it'll come back and bite you on the butt at a later date.

Why don't you just apply somewhere else and see if you can get a similar loan amount from someone else. If you can then all well and good (just dont take the loan out) if not then you need to find out what is wrong (some loans now allow you to do a soft search for loans which dont get registered and damage your credit history).

There is another thing and that is maybe you are flagged on another system such as experians hunter system. Basically it tries to detect where someone says they have x salary on one application but have said something different on another, but really the most likely problem is that Lloydss IT system is a bit crap.

Yup - I could do that though, like you, I just think Lloyds' IT system is crap and, now I've done all the work, there's part of me that just wants to win the battle with Lloyds as, now, I'm pretty confident I will.

Lloyds have finally backed down, apologised and given me a chunk of money as compensation.

Hope it's not in reddies...

Good for you, Richard. I imagine they're not used to someone being knowledgeable and tenacious!