How long do service providers keep bank a/c details

[Logo]

During the past few months I closed accounts with two service providers. One company continued to take direct debits for two months after the account was closed; the other company over-charged on the last bill and this showed as a credit. Today I requested a refund and was told that they would credit my bank account within the next 10 days (even though I stopped using their service three months ago). With all the recent fuss around data protection I'm just wondering how long are service providers allowed to keep bank account details on file when an account is closed? TIA

 

[peemac]

I would guess that it would be as long as reasonably required. If you are in credit then your account is still live even if no charge is being applied.

As for data protection, there's nothing they have that isn't printed on a cheque and with the sepa guarantee, you have protection against errors