Bank refuse to give money

starlight2k50

My son lost his bank card several times for the past year and yesterday he needed some money from his account. The bank refused to give him saying he needed a cheque book,which they never gave to him. He had all the necessary documents, like passport, utility bills and bank account statement. They made him wait over an hour and at the end they still refused to give him. He has a job and his salary goes to this account. They sent him out without an explanation why they refused, they just gave him a number to call and told him to come back tomorrow. Should i add that the bank is Santander.
He is very angry and doesn't understand why the bank is refusing to give him "HIS" money?!
I don't find it normal, can they do that and why?
He said he will get a solicitor's help but i am sure we could do something else, i don't know what but there must be something to do without a solicitor, after all it is his money.
Sorry if i go on about it,my first time in this forum.
Thanks for any help.

opinions4u

There will be a complaints procedure on their web site. He should use it.

Did he ring the number they gave him? What was said?

Why is he incapable of looking after the card which is intended to be the way he accesses his cash?

Voyager2002

Moral: leave Santander.

Anyway, he should carefully calculate the financial cost of their failure to give him money when he needed it (any late payment charges or other fees, etc.), add on the value of an hour of his time, and request reimbursement via their complaints procedure.

Don't bother with a solicitor: the least that a lawyer would charge would be more than this issue is worth.

And now is the time for him to open an account with a proper bank.

Malory

I agree that Santander is horrible and he needs to leave (I am an ex-Santander customer) but losing your card several times in one year is unusual. Losing your card once is a big deal. I think I have lost a bank card/credit card twice (maybe three times) in my life and I am in my 40s and have had bank cards since I was in my late teens.

It does sound a bit odd to me. I can imagine that if you report a lost or stolen card a certain number of times in a period of time you start to look suspicious.

Did he report his card lost as soon as he realized he lost it?

I can understand why Santander would have a problem if he said he was missing his card and it hadn't been reported lost or stolen.

Maybe you should just let him deal with it himself. If he has to go through all the hassle of going throught the complaints procedure, etc., by himself, it might encourage him to be more careful with his cards in the future.

Olipro

not to be cynical, but... I would wonder whether he's been declaring the card lost/stolen in order to dispute payments he'd made on the card.

bendix

Why are people attacking the bank? There is an established procedure for taking money from your account - you can't just expect to talk in off the street and say give me my money. This lad was issued a card and has lost it several times - why, noone really knows. From the bank's perpective, they need to be sure the due process is being followed.

He will simply have to wait for another card and grow up a bit.

bengal-stripe

starlight2k50 wrote: »

My son lost his bank card several times for the past year.

Malory wrote: »

It does sound a bit odd to me. I can imagine that if you report a lost or stolen card a certain number of times in a period of time you start to look suspicious.

bendix wrote: »

He will simply have to wait for another card and grow up a bit.

I agree, it really sounds dodgy, if he makes a habit out of loosing cards.

There is a simple solution to a lost or stolen card (which, of course, can happen to everyone): get in addition to your 'proper' debit card a cash card which you safely keep in a drawer at home and never carry with you.

Then you have a fall-back, just in case you lost your 'proper' card.

1jim

To be fair to op, if I had lost my card (to me the number of times I have lost it would be irrelevant) and I had ID, passport etc to prove that I am the account holder then I would expect to be able to walk in to a branch and withdraw money so that I could continue to eat/live etc
If I were refused this I would demand the closure of the account with x amount in cash and x amount in cheque, walk across the road and open another account with a different bank

To be more helpful though- does he have phone bank or internet bank access? If he does could he do a faster transfer to your account in exchange for cash?

Voyager2002

bendix wrote: »

Why are people attacking the bank? There is an established procedure for taking money from your account - you can't just expect to talk in off the street and say give me my money. This lad was issued a card and has lost it several times - why, noone really knows. From the bank's perpective, they need to be sure the due process is being followed.

He will simply have to wait for another card and grow up a bit.

I disagree. On several occasions I have needed to walk into my bank and withdraw cash, and have always been able to do so once I have confirmed my identity and enabled them to verify that I am the owner of the account in question.

Banks are not courts of law: they have a right and duty to verify that money belongs to the person asking for it before they hand it out, but they exist to provide a service. Bank customers are not obliged to follow the processes that banks put in place for their own convenience.

[Deleted User]

1jim wrote: »

To be fair to op, if I had lost my card (to me the number of times I have lost it would be irrelevant) and I had ID, passport etc to prove that I am the account holder then I would expect to be able to walk in to a branch and withdraw money so that I could continue to eat/live etc
If I were refused this I would demand the closure of the account with x amount in cash and x amount in cheque, walk across the road and open another account with a different bank

To be more helpful though- does he have phone bank or internet bank access? If he does could he do a faster transfer to your account in exchange for cash?

Santander have let me before do that without card (but had chequebook)

Malory

1jim wrote: »

To be fair to op, if I had lost my card (to me the number of times I have lost it would be irrelevant)

But it is relevant.

Losing a card once is just an accident.

Losing a card multiple times in a short period of time can mean either

A. You are very careless, and therefore create a risk by increasing the chances that someone will steal your card and use it fraudulently.

B. You are trying to do something dishonest yourself. (I never thought of declaring the card lost in order to dispute payments on it.)

The OP hasn't said whether her son had officially declared the card lost, but if someone walked into a bank saying that they wanted money and their card had been lost, and the card was never reported lost, it would sound very suspicious.

If he did report the loss each time, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some kind of flag on his account for unusual/suspicious behaviour.