The bank sent H's new debit card to our old address and.....

That is utterly disgraceful! I'm glad they are refunding the money though, and rightly so. I would start by finding out their complaints procedure and write to them stating the facts and your disappointment. I'm not sure if you would want any more from it other than the money back but I would probably ask that it be looked at and let me know whether it was a system error and whether it's been rectified or whether it was a person and training issue.

Saying all that, if my bank did something like that I'd probably simply change.

I'd be getting a credit check done, a debit card can be used as proof of identity for borrowing money / hiring equipment, all sorts. All it would additionally need is something like a utilty bill, bank statement etc with the address, which they may also have.

WTS

I would also definitely put a complaint letter together. I used to bank with HSBC and they opened a credit card without my permission and the first I knew about it was a statement I got through (thankfully with a £0 balance). When I finally managed to get down to the bottom of it after many phone calls, there were actually 3 cards opened, all had been sent out along with PINs - I never received any of these, so GOK where they actually went to (there was £6K of credit between the 3). One of their call centre people actually asked me for my PINs on the phone, when I was trying to sort it all out, and I told them that they shouldn't be doing that. In the end I cancelled everything and moved my account from HSBC, I just couldn't trust them anymore.

Hope you get it sorted.

I had exactly the same thing with Abbey Credit card. They sent a new PIN and card to my old address and the people took £1900 out in cash over several days. When I found out it took months to sort out but eventually I got all the money back and the interest charged and also made them write to the credit agencies as they had also been sending statements to the wrong address so i wasnt getting statements so not paying the minimum therefore it showed I had missed payments. I didn't think anything of it because they dont send statements if there is a Nil balance which I thought it had.

Even though they knew they sent it to the wrong address and it must have been the people who lived there nothing was done, they said there was no point in even letting the police know. I contacted the police myself (through a friend who is a policeman) and they said it wasn;t worth contacting the people either.

Hope it all gets sorted for you x

Thanks for the advice and replies

Well we went into the branch today (Lloyds TSB) and the guy we spoke to was a bit of a chocolate teapot. I explained the situation, he noted down our account number and went away for about 5 mins and came back. He said, and I quote "Well everything with your address looks fine here." At which point my jaw nearly hit the floor! Totally flabber ghasted, I managed to splutter "But you havent even asked us our address, so how do you know its fine?!?!" To which he he replies "oh...So whats your address?" I give him my address which is obviously different to what they have on their records and all he can say is "OH....thats not right." The weird thing is ..... when H spoke to the dept that deals with sending out new cards, on the phone - the guy he spoke to, was able to quote both our new address and our old one? ? ?

I asked what theyre official complaints procedure is and he says that they will submit the complaint and then someone from customer services will call us......thats right - I just need to wait for them to call. I said, surely you would want my complaint in writing, to which the teapot replied that I could do that if I wanted but they prefer to do it verbally ??? I then said me and H both work shifts, could he give me the number so I could call when im not working - NO. Apparantly theres no number for me to call them on. I find this hard to believe.

When they do call I'll be asking them why this has happened? What has been sent to our old address over the past 6 months? And what they are going to do about this?

I would have kicked off and asked to speak to the manager then and there (unless the teapot was the manager!) That's bloody ridiculous

We had a similar problem with Abbey and my H's business account. We wrote a letter tellng them we'd moved and received all the statements at our new address. However, the debit cards and cheques never arrived when we needed new ones seven months later. Eventually the bank realised that they had sent them to our old address - but then said it was our fault as we had only told them in a letter that we had moved and not completed a form - we were never told there was a form!

They won't want you to complain in writing as then it is governed by the FSA and they have to respond to you within certain timescales, ie you need to get an initial response within 5 days.

Just asked H what you should do (used to handle complaints for a living for a financial company) and he said to write directly to the chief executive.

All complaints are governed by the FSA guidelines regardless of whether or not they are in writing. It's not that they don't want people to complain in writing, it's that customer's don't have to. If you haven't heard back within 5 working days, give the main customer service number a call and they will be able to escalate it through their complaints process. If it's not fully resolved within 40 working days then the FSA will look at it as the bank hasn't fulfilled the obligation as per FSA guidelines.

Thanks again for all your replies, you have posted alot of helpful info.

Im still waiting on my phone call and was wondering how long I should wait before contacting them but Jelly Baby just answered that! I'll let you know how it goes after I speak to them.

No help but ?