Trouble at ABN AMRO
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ABN AMRO happens to be the bank holding our mortgage, so a few things have caught my eye recently.
First, we recently received a letter from them telling us that we were among the 2 million customers whose data is on a tape that was lost in transit to a credit reporting bureau. This wasn’t exactly good news (considering our social security numbers and other rather personal information was involved), but it seemed to be a mistake that wasn’t the bank’s fault (DHL actually lost the data) and they were trying to make it right by offering a free 90 days of credit monitoring.
Now the latest news is that the tape was found (yay!) at the same facility where it was lost (oops?). According to the article, ABN AMRO is extending the 90 day credit monitoring offer for a full year. I might actually bother to sign up, assuming there aren’t any crappy auto-extensions.
While I’m happy about the tape thing, I’m a little disturbed by other ABN AMRO news: US fines ABN AMRO Bank $80 million. Apparently they aren’t doing a good enough job of preventing money laundering. Of course, I’m generally opposed to money laundering, but I’m more annoyed that they are getting fined. Clearly, if other banks are not getting fined, this is preventable. $80 million may not be that much to a bank, but they’re going to have to cover it somehow, and as one of their customers, I don’t like that. One way or another, expenses get passed on—if not to me, then to some other customer some other day.
Of course, this whole post really doesn’t have a “good” action step, because the bank is the one with the loan and therefore the power. I just keep paying (and as long as it’s according to the terms I signed on with, I’m fine with that). I just hope that ABN AMRO doesn’t have any more mishaps!