Saturday 12 September 2009

Those damn banks

Ok, so far be it from me to take the mickey out of some other poor sap's misfortune......

http://bit.ly/1gqU3w

This story from the BBC news website, about some poor woman who accidentally sent £2000 to someone by mistake, when she wanted to transfer it to her savings account, well it raises some pointers, and like pretty much everything in life, I find myself unable to resist the temptation to comment.

There's no redress with the bank, because it was her mistake, made when she was using their internet banking website. There's nothing that the banking ombudsman can do, because they are there to regulate the banks, not the actions of their customers.

The bank can't disclose the details of the person she sent the money to, under the data protection act. This means that the poor woman can't claim the money back from them through the small claims courts.

Who has someone's bank details stored on their computer without attaching a name to them in the first place ? Surely that would be common sense... (sorry that phrase again).

'I'm not a dizzy person, I'm not an idiot' she says. You don't have to be a card carrying moron to do stupid things. We all do it. I know I do. I just don't think it's anyone else's fault when I do. (I've accepted my fallibility - see).

It's sad that she's lost the money, but let us not forget, it was her that lost the money. If she had sent a cheque in the post to an old friend, at their address, only to find out that they had in fact moved, and someone else, with the same name had cashed that cheque, would it be any different ? You wouldn't be able to complain to the post office for (god forbid) delivering the letter.

The real thing that disturbs me, is that she works for one of the high st banks. Does this mean she is less or more careful with other people's money than she is with her own ? Because the banks will happily tell you these things 'don't' or 'can't' happen.

Well tada ! Newsflash ! It doesn't matter how good your computer system is, if the person inputing the data, or clicking the mouse, doesn't actually read what it is they are clicking 'ok' to.

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