TSB Have Suspended Account

EachPenny

woolyG wrote: »

I think what she meant was she felt as though she was being interrogated by the staff, but I do realise there is a fine line between protecting the customer and infringing on their rights. I personally believe they crossed the line.

There might be a point in that, but you might then expect something like the bank sending her a bunch of flowers as a 'sorry', not her taking the bank to court for thousands of pounds of compensation.

woolyG wrote: »

I don't suppose it helped the matter that the branch staff had her trying to get her point across to somebody in a foreign call centre and she is hard of hearing as it is. I am sure you can imagine even for the best of us how stressful that can be. never mind being bombarded with questions from everywhere

Again, 'hard of hearing' and not coping well with a stressful situation might all go to reinforcing the idea that something was not right about this transaction. It is very easy to mistake someone not understanding because of hearing difficulties with someone not understanding due to confusion, or worse.

The best way forward - if your mum really wants to go ahead with the transfer - is to work with the bank to find a way to satisfy them that all is in order. Once that has been done then the next step might be to complain and explain how stressful your mum found it, in case there are useful lessons to be learned by the bank.

woolyG_2

I am not entirely sure age has anything to do with banks / foreign call centres stressing you out, when I was in there with my mum in the branch, my stress levels were through the roof, god knows how she felt on her own. I do get your point though.
Anyway, I phoned the bank today and issued a formal complaint, which I was told it would take 5 days to resolve and there was nothing that could be done including any restrictions being lifted until after the complaint was complete. In the meantime, my mum has agreed to have a formal loan agreement put in place hopefully that should help things move forward a bit and maybe that is a good thing anyway to come from this.

Ms_Chocaholic

Who is she giving the money to? A friend/relative, how long has she known this person?

Are you not worried that your mum might be being ripped off.

xylophone

£75k leaving the bank would be quite bad for TSB's accounts.

https://www.tsb.co.uk/news-releases/tsb-h1-2017-results-announcement/

I think that they may be able to absorb the loss..

xylophone

With regard to TSB's stance http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/74/74-older-customers.html

"Mrs D, who was 98 years old, had been a customer of the same bank for many years and was well-known to the staff at her local branch. They became concerned when she suddenly started withdrawing large sums of money from her account, at regular intervals.

Because this was so unlike the way she normally managed her affairs, the bank decided to raise the matter with her, as tactfully as possible. However, Mrs D took offence and said the bank should not be questioning what she did with her own money.

After several further large withdrawals from Mrs D's account, her bank manager contacted the police. He outlined his concerns and said the bank considered her a potentially vulnerable customer, because of her age. The police enquiry led to a Mr T receiving a prison sentence for cheating Mrs D out of her money.

Mrs D's nephew, Mr K, then complained to the bank. He said it should have intervened at a much earlier stage.

He also asked why it had failed to contact him as soon as it spotted the unusual cash withdrawals. Mrs D had told him she had arranged for him to sign cheques on her account, if necessary.

The bank explained the steps it had taken, including notifying the police. But it said it could not prevent customers from withdrawing their own money, particularly where, as in this case, the customer had insisted she knew what she was doing. The bank also noted that it had no record of any arrangement enabling Mr K to sign cheques on Mrs D's account."


Unhappy with the bank's response, and with its refusal to refund the full value of Mrs D's cash withdrawals during the period in question, Mr K brought the complaint to us.

complaint not upheld
From the bank's records, it was clear that it had been prompt in spotting the unusual activity on Mrs D's account. It had also correctly followed its procedure for handling situations involving potentially vulnerable customers.

There was no evidence that Mrs D had ever asked the bank to arrange for Mr K to sign cheques on her account. Even if such an arrangement had been in place, it would not have prevented her from continuing to withdraw funds without Mr K's knowledge.

We had much sympathy for Mrs D. However, we concluded that the bank had done everything it reasonably could do to protect her interests. The bank had no right to stop her getting access to her own money. And we could not fairly agree to Mr K's request that it should refund the money she had withdrawn from her account and given to Mr T.

xylophone

I am assuming that your mother discussed the request for the loan with you before withdrawing her investment from the Pru.

You saw no problems with her doing as she wished with her own money.

However, presumably you did point out to your mother that regardless of her age and her relationship with the bank, in an age when a £1 on line transfer immediately followed by a larger transfer from one's own account with (say) Lloyds to one's own account with (say) Santander can be held up by the Fraud Team, an on line transfer of tens of thousands of pounds to Puerto Rico (?) would almost certainly give rise to a checking process?

Did you not suggest that she might make an appointment with the bank prior to making the transfer to discuss the matter?

If she did not discuss the matter with you (and of course she had absolutely no need to "open her accounts" to you or any family member), and she is capable of managing her own affairs, then she should have anticipated the possible difficulties for herself?

I am not saying that banks are never (let us say) over zealous - I have had experience in this regard of my own.

But in this particular case, I can understand TSB's reservations.

Tommo1980

I can only hope TSB look after my interests so well if I ever get to the stage of giving away huge amounts of my own cash.

woolyG_2

xylophone wrote: »

I am assuming that your mother discussed the request for the loan with you before withdrawing her investment from the Pru.

You saw no problems with her doing as she wished with her own money.

However, presumably you did point out to your mother that regardless of her age and her relationship with the bank, in an age when a £1 on line transfer immediately followed by a larger transfer from one's own account with (say) Lloyds to one's own account with (say) Santander can be held up by the Fraud Team, an on line transfer of tens of thousands of pounds to Puerto Rico (?) would almost certainly give rise to a checking process?


Did you not suggest that she might make an appointment with the bank prior to making the transfer to discuss the matter?

I tried to tell her that if she transfered large ammounts of money out of her account that it was very likely that the payment would be flagged up, but she went ahead anyway.

If she did not discuss the matter with you (and of course she had absolutely no need to "open her accounts" to you or any family member), and she is capable of managing her own affairs, then she should have anticipated the possible difficulties for herself?

I am not saying that banks are never (let us say) over zealous - I have had experience in this regard of my own.

But in this particular case, I can understand TSB's reservations.

She was of the opinion that it was her money and she could do with it what she wished, which is true. Obviously the bank does not agree with that sentiment though.

The problem now though is that regardless of what happens from here on in, there will be problems ahead. It is highly likely the payment will be blocked, if this happens her account will likely be flagged and she wont be able to make any sizeable withdrawals, regardless of how badly she want her money backs due to a lack of trust and I can only imagine her reaction if some sort of power of atorney arrangement was suggested.

woolyG_2

Tommo1980 wrote: »

I can only hope TSB look after my interests so well if I ever get to the stage of giving away huge amounts of my own cash.

That can be a double edged sword though, maybe you will want to make a transaction in your older age in full knowledge of what you are doing, only to be told NO!!! how will you feel?

woolyG_2

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

Who is she giving the money to? A friend/relative, how long has she known this person?

Are you not worried that your mum might be being ripped off.

He is a family friend she is giving the money to, she has known them for about 25yrs and trusts him.

In all honesty, I would very much prefer she never sent the money to him, but there is a fine line between warning/advising her about the risks of lending such a large ammount of money and not getting it back and sounding like you a concerned about your own financial interests.