Not only do some banks give their insurance brokers easy access to confidential information in your account but some even provide information about one client to another client.
Case one
A Standard Bank customer some time ago received the bank statements of 100 other bank customers when he asked for information about his own account for a legal case. Among other bank statements he received were those of Sun International at the Wild Coast, Transun Hotel in Port Edward, the Perm in Margate, the Perm in Shelly Beach, and the Ramsgate town board.
The bank did not apologise for its error but requested him to destroy the statements adding a threat which stated: "We respectfully draw your attention to the fact that if you publish to any person or allow to be published to any person the content of any bank statement, serious legal implications will arise for you and we will take legal action if necessary."
And then the bank wanted him to sign and return to it a note confirming he had destroyed the statements and that he had not allowed them to come into the possession of anyone else.
At the same time, our reader says, the bank lost other documents of his pertaining to a contract.
Case Two
Do not go on holiday without telling your banks - that is the moral of this story.
A reader reports his son formed a longstanding relationship with two banks, opening a no-charges current account with the first when he started working, and accepting a home loan from the second with an obligatory cheque account and credit card attached.
The young man retained the no-charge account as his main banking facility, used his Visa card as a savings account, to save towards a two-week trip overseas, and maintained a token amount in his high-fee cheque account. He rarely used the overdraft facility and paid off his bond a year in advance. In every respect he was a model bank client.
When he embarked on his overseas trip, he withdrew his savings from the credit card and left enough money in the current account to cover a few debit orders while he was away.
On his return two weeks later he found his overdraft facility had been cancelled, he could not access his ATM card, and his current account was totally empty. All his debit orders had been rejected.
The bank with whom he had held a home loan said the portfolio manager became nervous when the young man did not return his telephone calls for two weeks and contacted the other bank. Together they cleaned out his current account "just in case".
"Tell me again they cannot access your account," the reader says.
"And, yes, we yelled blue murder, but they just shrugged their shoulders and smiled - both banks."
The reader did not name the banks.