NS&I & Retrieving Bank Statement 2008!

[Digger]

Hi.

I'm aware that Banks are not obliged to keep records of Current Account statements beyond the last 6 or 7 years.

I am trying to trace a NS&I investment account that I am fairly confident I opened in 2008 - but it being 15 years ago & several house moves later, I have lost all trace of the paperwork & the amount invested.

So I spoke with them on the phone a few weeks ago & after providing pertinent info the NS&I gentleman was confident enough to confirm that I am on their system & have some form of product - beyond that, I would need to download a form to fill out to Trace a Lost Account which I have duly done & sent 2 weeks ago.

Today received a response letter from NS&I which states they are unable to trace any investments in my name or address details provided - the same details I gave the chap over the phone - curious.

So today I spoke with them & they will listen to the recording of the original phone call & get back to me . . .


Separately . . . trying to track down any transaction showing an initial investment paid in to the NS&I account, after a couple of similar phone calls to Santander regarding obtaining a statement for the year 2008 after initially saying they cannot pull up any data at all for 2008 (Computer Says No) - I today escalated to see if they are able to pull up the 2008 data from microfiche. This may hit a dead end as only Mortgage data of that vintage is stored on microfiche apparently . . .

Does anyone have any suggestions or relevant advice regarding the above?

At the moment it is just a waiting game so let's see if anything comes from it . . .

[alscar]

Good luck trying to get information out of them.
I held LPA for a relative and needed to trace any investments.
Even though I wrote to them ,sent a copy of the LPA and then when questioned a certified copy they still wouldn't tell me anything.
I then went through their complaints dept who were equally unhelpful and then the CEO route and finally I received a letter saying they could find no trace of any investments.
Of all the various Financial entities I needed to try and trace any monies with, they were by far and away the least helpful.

[Simpo Two]

The enthusiasm for 'paperless' makes me slightly nervous. Whilst pieces of paper can be lost, so can e-mails and PDFs etc, and if banks etc CBA to keep backups for more than a few years, it looks as if increasing numbers of accounts and various investments will simply 'disappear' over time and as holders die and beneficiaries don't know the funds existed. If they are not claimed after X years does the company concerned say 'thanks very much' and add it to their bottom line - or would they be obliged to hand the monies to the Crown? Then again, if they've deleted the records, the money never existed...

[bmwmike]

Simpo Two said:

The enthusiasm for 'paperless' makes me slightly nervous. Whilst pieces of paper can be lost, so can e-mails and PDFs etc, and if banks etc CBA to keep backups for more than a few years, it looks as if increasing numbers of accounts and various investments will simply 'disappear' over time and as holders die and beneficiaries don't know the funds existed. If they are not claimed after X years does the company concerned say 'thanks very much' and add it to their bottom line - or would they be obliged to hand the monies to the Crown? Then again, if they've deleted the records, the money never existed...

concur, and as an aside i have the same concerns about news being in electronic form only with no long term archival. History could be changed just as easily.

[Digger]

You guys aren't particularly filling me with confidence right now!

I will of course keep this updated should any miracles occur . . .

[Dingu]

I am not sure why they (Santander) would retain statements from 2008 on multiple grounds. Both cost and in terms of the proportionality of keeping data that long. I would expect about 7 years to be their limit.

Surprised NS&I failed if you have the same name and DOB! Albeit another poster may provide the clue if they are a bit naff generally.

[rufusgti]

bmwmike said:

concur, and as an aside i have the same concerns about news being in electronic form only with no long term archival. History could be changed just as easily.

That's quite a scary thought.

[popeyewhite]

NS+I proved a nightmare to deal with when I needed to retrieve account information. Letters never arrived/obvs were never sent, depts didn't seem to communicate with each other, complaints were not followed up. A complete shower. In the end I took all investments out and shut every account with them down. Glad to be rid.

[droopsnoot]

Simpo Two said:

The enthusiasm for 'paperless' makes me slightly nervous.

And me. I need to prove source of funds for something and I need some statements for Nationwide accounts going back to around 2007 so I can show a paper trail from when the money came in to one account, through all the others I swapped to over the years chasing interest rates, to the account it's ended up in. Their web site only allows me to see them back to 2021. If I'd had paper statements I'd have them filed, and if I didn't, it would be my fault, but at least one of the accounts is an online account only, and if they can't / won't give me a statement, I'm stuck. I've sent them a secure electronic message to ask how to proceed, but apparently that can take up to eight working days to get a reply, for some reason.

[Sheepshanks]

droopsnoot said:

And me. I need to prove source of funds for something and I need some statements for Nationwide accounts going back to around 2007 so I can show a paper trail from when the money came in to one account, through all the others I swapped to over the years chasing interest rates, to the account it's ended up in. Their web site only allows me to see them back to 2021. If I'd had paper statements I'd have them filed, and if I didn't, it would be my fault, but at least one of the accounts is an online account only, and if they can't / won't give me a statement, I'm stuck. I've sent them a secure electronic message to ask how to proceed, but apparently that can take up to eight working days to get a reply, for some reason.

My missus used to work for HMRC so she's a bit of demon for having hard copies and filing them away, but even we wouldn't have stuff going back anything like that far.

[mikey_b]

A tale that might give you a little more hope OP - I had two long dormant accounts with NS&I dating from way back when I was a teenager, and recently decided I really ought to close them and get the money out. I did still have the passbooks for them, a blue book 'ordinary account' and a grey book 'investment account'. The last entry in either book was dated sometime in the late 1990s.

I did have to bugger about on their website for some time, and eventually got them to acknowledge that I didn't live where the passbooks said I did, and after about 3 months of back and forth I finally got the money out. All ~£500 of it, a good deal more than the books said as there was 30-ish years of interest to be added.

So keep plugging away, they do have these records somewhere...

[mikey_b]

bmwmike said:

concur, and as an aside i have the same concerns about news being in electronic form only with no long term archival. History could be changed just as easily.

Likewise. It also frustrates me somewhat that banks and similar institutions push quite hard with the 'go paperless' messaging when it comes to them spending money sending your statements, but the moment you want something from them, they are strident in their demands that only proper paper statements from other financial or utility companies will do for identity checks, proof of address etc.

Thankfully the newer banks seem much less that way inclined. I set up a current account with Starling recently, the whole thing was done and dusted in about 20 minutes. From initial app download to receiving full 'approved' account status, with account number, sort code and a working virtual Mastercard. In about 4 days the real card had arrived, as had two more for my kids to use against Kite Spaces I set up. Very slick indeed.

[Simpo Two]

Dingu said:

I am not sure why they (Santander) would retain statements from 2008 on multiple grounds. Both cost and in terms of the proportionality of keeping data that long. I would expect about 7 years to be their limit

Not in rooms full of paper in filing cabinets perhaps, but how many bytes of computer storage does a bank statement need?

I almost 'lost' £15K because a sharedealing platform was taken over and the single e-mail they sent out didn't make it for some reason. Nothing else was received. A few years later I thought 'Hang on, I'm sure I had £15K with so-and-so and they've disappeared...'

Edited by Simpo Two on Saturday 17th February 21:50

[pork911]

Try a full subject access request, for everything they hold, including for the phone call?

[Digger]

Thanks for the further replies folks.

pork911 said:

Try a full subject access request, for everything they hold, including for the phone call?

Now how would one go about that then?

[Digger]

pork911 said:

Try a full subject access request, for everything they hold, including for the phone call?

Thanks & have the info . . .

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-ge...

[Simpo Two]

Digger said:

pork911 said:

Try a full subject access request, for everything they hold, including for the phone call?

Thanks & have the info . . .

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-ge...

I wonder if it would have worked with the Post Office...

[droopsnoot]

Sheepshanks said:

My missus used to work for HMRC so she's a bit of demon for having hard copies and filing them away, but even we wouldn't have stuff going back anything like that far.

Really? I have everything, in one place or another. That's not to say I can find it - I have a Nationwide book from one account that goes back to when they were a thing, but I can't find the one that replaced it. That's another thing I am hoping they can provide electronically as the money I need to prove source for passed through that account too.

I don't think I've ever thrown out a bank statement, and for this sort of thing it's quite useful. There is a lot of paperwork that probably could go - statements for credit card I haven't got any more. It's just a case of getting around to it and providing a bit of warning for my shredder to get itself ready.

I'm not sure why I can't just say "well, the money is in two regulated financial institutions who have already performed anti money-laundering checks on it when it went in, so surely it's OK", but apparently I can't.

[Sheepshanks]

droopsnoot said:

I'm not sure why I can't just say "well, the money is in two regulated financial institutions who have already performed anti money-laundering checks on it when it went in, so surely it's OK", but apparently I can't.

There must come a point where such requests are deemed to be unreasonable - what are the consequences of being unable to provide the requested proof?


Having said that, I've been having some IHT discussions and for that purpose it's suggested records are kept for 20yrs.

[droopsnoot]

Sheepshanks said:

There must come a point where such requests are deemed to be unreasonable - what are the consequences of being unable to provide the requested proof?

I don't know, but reading some of the comments above I suspect that I might be about to find out.

Sheepshanks said:

Having said that, I've been having some IHT discussions and for that purpose it's suggested records are kept for 20yrs.

I don't really mind that, if I've had the statements in the first place. I've always resisted going paperless just because I thought I might have something like this at some point, convinced myself I was being daft, but the account in question has never sent statements. I have had some banks just convert me (Natwest, I don't recall them asking), some ask (Barclays, who at one point asked me every time I logged in to online banking and there was only "Yes" or "Ask me later" options) and some have been paperless from the start. With this in mind I should start downloading statements, in the hope that my local storage proves more reliable than theirs.