My wife and I were migrated to Virgin Money credit cards last year after Virgin severed ties with MBNA which had previously been its card provider. Recently, Virgin wrote to us demanding disclosure of sensitive information such as our salaries, proof of identity and proof of source of funds that we use to pay our credit card bill.
This is the first time in 20 years a credit card provider has sought such personal data, and the fact that the demand was signed by hand led me to suspect it may be fraud. I reported it to Virgin Money and it confirmed it had sent the letter, but was unable to share from which department it had originated, nor why it required the information.
I elected not to reply and, without further notice, Virgin stopped both our cards, leaving my wife and myself stranded at opposite ends of the country.
Multiple calls to Virgin Money received the same nonchalant reply. As I had not returned my questionnaire and provided the data wanted, my card was blocked and would remain so until I capitulated. TD, London
Requests for personal information are becoming more common as banks are required by the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to monitor accounts suspected of criminal activity.
Banks can be found guilty of money-laundering offences if they don’t investigate unexplained transactions and report suspicious activity to enforcement agencies.
As a result, perfectly innocent payments can cause an account to be suspended if they differ from the account holder’s usual spending patterns. They might also request personal information if they think that the account-holder details may not be up to date.
You are right to be wary of an unexpected request for information, but once you’ve established it genuinely comes from your bank, I’m afraid you have to comply if you want to continue using its services.
Virgin says: “There can be circumstances which mean we need to ask customers for additional information in order to protect the customer and their account. In this case, we have subsequently been able to use additional data sources to verify the information needed, meaning the account can now operate as normal.
“We have apologised for any inconvenience caused and resolved the situation to their satisfaction.’
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