The banks are still at it.
I signed up with Latitude for 2 x fee-free 28 Degrees Mastercards to use on an overseas trip in 2000. These provided fee-free international transactions, which was the only reason we chose them.
We never used the cards and I cut them up after the trip, as we already had our own financial products for use at home. I never formally cancelled the cards. Bear in mind, this was 20 years ago - I would take more formal action nowadays; the landscape is significantly different!
I received occasional marketing mail from Latitude over the period since, which I both returned to sender and contacted them to have my name removed from their database. This mail eventually stopped after 10 years or so.
In November 2024, I noticed a direct debit from our personal bank account to Latitude Financial. I contacted our bank and asked them to reverse this transaction, as I did not know what it was for, who authorised it or if it was legitimate. To their credit, our bank responded without hesitation and dishonoured the transaction.
Today, I received a Direct Debit Dishonour notice from Latitude. The notice informed me that it was mailed to me because they had an out-of-date email address on my database profile.
I called Latitude immediately. I waited in the queue for 20 minutes, then firmly but politely explained the situation. I said that I don’t have any products with Latitude, that I haven’t had anything to do with them for 20 years, that I didn’t even know I was still on their database and was calling to find out what was going on. I repeated this several times during the call.
Despite this, the first thing the initial consultant then asked me was to provide an up-to-date email address and bank account details for direct debit payments. I obviously refused.
She asked if I wanted to cancel my direct debit. I said I don’t have a direct debit and I want all trace of my details removed from their database, including the direct debit. She referred me to another department.
The next consultant asked if I was being referred to her to update my direct debit details. I said, “No” and explained the above timeline again. She then asked for an up-to-date email address and direct debit details! I refused.
She then asked if I wanted to cancel my direct debit. I gave the above explanation again.
She said that Latitude had created a new policy in 2024 (so, after the inquiry into the behaviour of banks) which stipulates that any customer who takes out a card product with Latitude has it active until the customer cancels the product.
It appears that they have applied this policy retrospectively (at least to me), which I think is unethical at best. In addition, they haven’t bothered to call, SMS or mail me any statement or notice of the direct debit before processing it.
Needless to say, I’m pretty cheesed off. This is exactly the sort of behaviour that got them into trouble in the first place. I am going to tell this story to everyone who will listen and warn them off Latitude.
