Bank of Scotland plc · DRN-5993526

The complaint Mr S complains Bank of Scotland plc trading as Halifax keeps on sending him emails even though his account was closed over a year ago. What happened Mr S had an account with Halifax in 2024. He’s told us that he decided to switch to another bank as he was unhappy with Halifax’s customer service. He did so in June 2024, but he wasn’t able to switch his overdraft to the other bank. He says he cleared his overdraft in September 2024. In June 2025 Mr S complained to Halifax that he’d received an email from it about its app. He said he shouldn’t still be receiving emails and wanted an explanation as to why. Halifax looked into Mr S’s complaint and explained that his online banking details hadn’t been deleted and that this was why he’d received the email in question. Halifax apologised for this – and apologised for the time it had taken to look into Mr S’s complaint – and paid £100 in compensation for the distress and inconvenience he’d experienced. Halifax said that it deregistered Mr S on 2 September 2025 and said that he might still receive emails for some time as some mailings are prepared weeks or months in advance. Mr S was unhappy with Halifax’s response and complained to our service. He said he received further emails. One of our investigators looked into Mr S’s complaint but didn’t recommend Halifax needed to do more as they considered the £100 paid was fair. Mr S was unhappy with our investigator’s recommendation and asked for his complaint to be referred to an ombudsman for a decision. His complaint was, as a result, passed to me. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. There’s no dispute that Mr S received two emails – one in June 2025 and one in September 2025 – about Halifax’s app. Both emails were received after Mr S had switched his account to another provider. The first one was received because Halifax hadn’t deleted Mr S’s online banking details, and the second one was received – more likely than not – because it was part of a mailing that Halifax had started putting together before it deregistered Mr S. That’s more likely than not the reason why Mr S received another email in October 2025. I can see why Mr S is annoyed with Halifax and agree with him that the Data Protection Act covers how long personal data is kept for, amongst other things, and not just breaches of data protection. I can also understand why he’s annoyed and can see he’s spent time following this up. In other words, I agree that Halifax has made errors in this case. The question I have to ask myself is whether or not the compensation Halifax has already paid is fair. Having considered the impact on Mr S of everything that’s happened, I agree with our investigator that the £100 paid is fair. For that reason, I agree that this isn’t a complaint that we can uphold. In coming to this conclusion I’ve listened to a number of calls between Mr S

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and Halifax including the complaint handler. Having done so, I’m satisfied that the complaint handler explained to Mr S why his online details hadn’t been deleted and why he might receive emails for some time after his details had been deleted. My final decision My final decision is that I’m not upholding this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr S to accept or reject my decision before 27 April 2026. Nicolas Atkinson Ombudsman

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