Bad bank data wreaks havoc on customers

I am dealing with an issue about an old bill that I was not aware of. It all started last year when one bank stopped mailing out credit card statements through the post office.

The trend now at all banks that I deal with is that only email statements are sent to customers. Some banks issued advance notifications of the impending switch. Others just stopped sending paper statements and started emailing them without confirming the email addresses first.

In my case, the email address was no longer in use, because the Internet provider that supplied it had been sold. But what happens in rural areas, and with older customers who have no access to email?

In all these cases financial relationships got cut off, and perhaps reputations were ruined, all because of wrong email addresses or other bad data.

There was another case when another firm was bought by a South African bank. It seems the buyers did not trust the data they were acquiring and they froze all accounts.

All of us, even long-standing customers, had to fill out new forms, bring in our IDs and take new pictures to reapply and get our accounts unfrozen.

Earlier this year, a citizen took a petition to Parliament in which he sought to have credit bureaus banned as they have caused anguish to thousands of Kenyans.

Several banks have also been individually accused of dumping unverified debt data directly to the credit bureaus to punish loan defaulters.

NOT JUST BANKS

It is not just banks. Utility companies that have stopped mailing paper statements, such as Nairobi Water, have threatened to report delinquent customers to the credit bureaus.

The cases that go to the credit bureaus are meant to be debts that banks feel their customers have refused to pay. But in some cases, the amounts owed could be charges that a bank has levied against customers, even without their knowledge.

It is probable that the bank stopped sending statements, which the customers previously used to pay their bills, or sent them to a wrong address.

Banks, financial institutions and now the government have a lot of data and are collecting even more. Right now the Kenya Revenue Authority is conducting a block management study of landlords and tenants to rope in more taxpayers into the tax net. They now want to know rental income from a building, the number of rooms, and PIN and VAT numbers.

It is important that citizens get educated on where their data is being used, and how they can reconnect with financial institutions and correct data about themselves. Someone may get divorced, or may wish to change his or her name, email or signature. It is their right as a citizen.

It should be easy for citizens to correct data so that their assets don’t end up unclaimed or they themselves don’t end up as bad debtors, with bad reputations in society.

Twitter: @bankelele