As you may be aware, it was recently announced by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs that two disks had been mislaid, containing personal information (along with account details) of every person in the UK who receives Child Benefit. Should these disks fall into the wrong hands, there is the potential for ID fraud to be committed.
We have therefore immediately identified every Skipton Building Society savings account that receives Child Benefit payments and have put measures in place to protect them. This includes asking for extra security details every time a transaction is carried out, such as what other Skipton accounts you might have or how much money you last withdrew.
Skipton customers affected
If you have your Child Benefit paid into a Skipton savings account, you should have
recently received a letter with details of our offer of six months’ free credit checks through our subsidiary, Callcredit – one of the UK’s three credit reference agencies.
To register using your unique promotional code visit the Callcredit website and select 'E-Alerts Free Trial' at the bottom of the page.
Only members of the Skipton Building Society who have personally received notice of the promotional code shall be entitled to use it. If you use the promotional code without entitlement, you will be charged for your use of our service. For details of these charges please have regard to the Terms and Conditions of use on the myCallcredit website.
How the credit checks work
The service acts like a burglar alarm, constantly monitoring your credit record and sending you a text or email alert as soon as any changes are detected*. That way, if the change has occurred fraudulently – for instance, if someone was trying to take out a loan using your details or your address has been changed – you can take action immediately.
In the meantime if you are concerned that you may be affected or have any queries please call 08458 501722.
*Each credit reference agency receives monthly updates from lenders regarding the account information they hold, alerts are generated as soon as this information is processed.