Lost Checking Account Info in UK

Interesting story about the big data theft in U.K., where about half the population of U.K. got their personal data "lost" via a hard drive theft. And that data contains consumer bank account numbers.

I was reading the Red Tape Chronicles (always interesting, story here http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/11/britains-lost-d.html ) where he said that there are minimal protections against loss off checking account information.

"But banks have no such protections on checking account transactions, Litan says. In fact, anyone with a bank account number and routing number can print up fake checks and start draining consumer accounts. Banks don't even process checking account transactions in real time. Instead, they are batch-processed, generally once each day, through a system called ACH, or Automated Clearing House. So there really is little defense against a large-scale checking account theft. Millions of checking account numbers falling into criminals’ hands would be difficult to combat."

Read the entire story. Then remember to take a close look at all of your checking account transactions often (we do it daily). You might also consider keeping a minimal amount in those accounts, transferring money as needed. A bit of a pain, but nothing like the pain of dealing with identity theft.