A printing mix-up resulted in thousands of Goldfish credit card customers receiving other people's bills.

Tony Jacob, 58, a Goldfish cardholder told UK tabloid The Sun that he was shocked to discover a statement for another credit card holder when he opened his monthly bill. "I was worried when I saw I was £10,000 in debt — but then I saw the mistake," he said.

Goldfish apologised to its customers for the slip-up, which it blamed on a printer's error (see statement below). It said only a small number of its customers were affected but didn't specify how many were presented with an insight into other people's spending habits.

Due to a processing error at our printers a very small number of Goldfish customer statements have been issued which are incorrect. In these cases, the customer will have received their own front page but subsequent pages may refer to another account.

We would like to apologise to customers for this error and reassure them that the protection of customer data is extremely important to us and we are treating this very seriously. Customers will be receiving a correct statement within the next few days, as well as a letter of apology. We are taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.

Goldfish offers credit cards, insurance and loans. Founded in 1996, Goldfish used loyalty schemes to differentiate its offering in the crowded UK financial services market. The firm was acquired by Barclays Bank earlier this year. ®

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