my wife and me and I are in our early 80s and have lived in Spain for 21 years. My wife has banked with Santander (formerly Abbey National) for 45 years, but suddenly we couldn’t get her a new debit card because the old one expired.
Apparently my wife’s credentials are not correct and the bank needed proof, such as a utility bill. I sent our electric bill but it was only in my name. I also sent two other official documents showing his name and our address, but have not heard back. We cannot afford food for ourselves or our 40 rescue cats.
BN, Spain.
Sally Hamilton responds: They say curiosity killed the cat, but I simply had to find out how you came to have 40 feline mouths to feed, as well as get to the bottom of your challenges in accessing vital money.
His wife explained that it all started three years ago when she saw a mother cat frantically carrying four kittens, one by one, by the neck and dumping them on their porch.
His wife was so amazed by the efforts the mother made to bring her offspring to safety that she took in the entire family. Some time later two more pregnant stray females showed up and stayed. His wife’s weakness for rescuing animals means she now houses 40 cats, plus a dog and other occasional canine visitors. The bill for feeding them all is around €100 (£83) a week.
Paying his bills was not a problem until recently, as he regularly transferred his British state and personal pensions totaling around £1,000 a month from a deposit account they hold jointly to his wife’s personal current account. Both are UK Santander accounts.
Then he used the debit card to spend. Each new card was pre-posted to the address of a trusted friend in the UK. They then forwarded it to his post office box in a nearby Spanish town, as there is no residential delivery service in the remote mountainous area where he lives.
The arrangement worked until his friend moved and the most recent plastic was returned to sender. This alerted Santander, which requested updated security data.
You tried to resolve the issue and even bought an iPhone so you could communicate with Santander by email instead of by phone, as well as setting up online banking. In June, you stopped chasing due to a hospital stay.
But when the card expired in September, he was forced to act. Having made no progress on your own and having to borrow money from your friends to feed you and your furry friends, you asked me to intervene.
After investigations, Santander said he could not send the card because verification of his wife’s address was still necessary. You sent other documents.
A few days ago Santander confirmed that it had received them and that a new card was on its way to its post office box that the bank has accepted as its address. Your wife can collect the card by presenting her ID. Your banking arrangements have become a crib over the years, but now that you are online and with your address up to date, you should never lose access to your cash again.
As it happens, you’re lucky to be banking at Santander, as many other major banks have recently closed their doors to British expat customers.
A Santander spokesperson says: ‘It is vital that we retain correct contact information, including addresses, for all our customers.
‘As Mr and Mrs N had not updated the address we had for around 20 years, we were unable to help them quickly by providing them with a new card and online banking credentials. We regret that we missed the opportunity in June to implement a change of direction earlier and have offered £300 in recognition of this.” Purrfecto.
In March, my friend’s dementia and Parkinson’s deteriorated severely and he was placed in a residential care facility. You no longer have the ability to use your mobile phone. As I have Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for him, I went to a Tesco Mobile store to ask how to cancel his account. Despite doing everything asked of me, the process has become a nightmare in recent months with debt collectors chasing me for non-payment of their mobile phone bills. Please can you help?
ML, Greater London.
Sally Hamilton responds: Your friend is lucky that you act in his interest. Having a financial LPA takes the burden off people when they lose capacity so that their invoices can be managed (hopefully) seamlessly by someone they trust. While acting as someone’s advocate when they are too frail to make decisions alone is a blessing for them, it can be a challenge for the person in charge if things go wrong.
I thought canceling a £7 a month phone contract would be simple, but you hit roadblock after roadblock. Visiting the mobile store to ask for help, Tesco told him to use his friend’s phone to call customer service as it would immediately recognize his account. You did this in April and were able to explain the situation. A call handler said he would note the cancellation and send him a confirmation email.
You didn’t get anything, although a customer satisfaction email did arrive in your friend’s inbox. In the meantime, you asked the bank to cancel the monthly direct debit. After several weeks, a letter arrived warning of the delays, so she called customer service again. Tesco asked him to email a copy of the LPA which they said was not legible and asked him to scan each page separately. You did this. He didn’t hear anything else, so he assumed everything was fine.
A few weeks later, a letter from a debt collector arrived on the doormat. You got in touch and they also asked to see the LPA. Since they were also unable to read the emailed version, you posted hard copies, along with printouts of your correspondence with Tesco Mobile.
Despite this, they still pursue him with daily letters and text messages about the debt and when he called the collection agency, they told him there was no record of the documents.
At the end of your strength, you came to me. At my request, Tesco Mobile delved deeper into the case. He didn’t explain what had gone wrong, but he eventually fixed things and canceled the debt collectors. A Tesco Mobile spokesperson says: ‘We are very sorry this has happened. We have canceled the remaining balance on this account and have contacted the customer to apologize.’
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email sally@dailymail.co.uk; Include the phone number, address, and a note addressed to the offending organization giving you permission to speak with Sally. Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot be responsible for them. The Daily Mail cannot accept any legal responsibility for the responses given.
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