My wife and I and I are in our early 80s and have lived in Spain for 21 years. My wife has been banking with Santander (formerly Abbey National) for 45 years, but we suddenly couldn’t get her a new bank card since her old one expired.
Apparently my wife’s login details were incorrect 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 her name and our address, but received no response. We can’t afford food for ourselves or our 40 rescue cats.
BN, Spain.
Sally Hamilton replies: They say curiosity killed the cat, but I just had to figure out how to get forty feline mouths to feed – and how to navigate the problems of getting essential money.
Your wife explained that it all started three years ago when she saw a mother cat frantically carrying four kittens, one by one, by the scruff of their necks and dropping them onto your porch.
Your wife was so impressed by the efforts the mother made to keep her offspring safe that she took the entire family into her home. Some time later, two more pregnant strays showed up and stayed. Because your wife has a soft spot for animal rescue, you now host 40 cats, plus a dog and occasional other canine visitors. The bill for feeding them all is about €100 per week.
Paying your bills wasn’t a problem until recently, as you regularly transferred your UK state and personal pensions, totaling around £1,000 a month, from a joint savings account to your wife’s personal current account. Both are UK Santander accounts.
She then used the debit card for expenses. Rather, each new card was sent to the address of a trusted friend in Britain. They then forwarded it to your PO box in a nearby Spanish town, as there is no delivery service in the remote mountain area where you live.
The arrangement worked until your friend moved and the most recent plastic was returned to sender. This alerted Santander, who requested the updated security details.
You tried to sort things out, even buying an iPhone so you could communicate with Santander via email instead of phone, and to set up online banking. In June you stopped hunting due to a hospital stay.
But when the card expired in September, you were forced to take action. Because you weren’t making progress on your own and had to borrow money from friends to feed yourself and your furry friends, you asked me to intervene.
After investigation, Santander said it could not send the card because address verification for your wife was still required. You have sent other documents.
A few days ago Santander confirmed that these had been received and that a new card was on its way to your letterbox service, which the bank accepted as your address. Your wife can collect the card upon presentation of her ID. Your banking had become a litter box over the years, but now that you’re online and your address is updated, you shouldn’t lose access to your cash.
Coincidentally, you are lucky enough to bank with Santander, as many other banks on the high street have recently closed their shutters to British expat customers.
A Santander spokesperson said: ‘It is vital that we have the correct contact details, including addresses, for all our customers.
‘Because Mr. and Mrs. We regret that we missed the opportunity to make an earlier change of address in June and have offered £300 in recognition of this.” Purrfect.
In March, my friend’s dementia and Parkinson’s worsened severely and he was admitted to residential care. He no longer has the ability to use his cell phone. As I have a Financial Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for him, I went to a Tesco Mobile store to ask how I could cancel his account. Despite doing everything he asked, the process has turned into a nightmare in recent months, with debt collectors hounding me for not paying his mobile bills. Can you please help?
ML, Greater London.
Sally Hamilton replies: Your friend is lucky that you are acting in his best interests. Having a financial LPA takes the burden off people if they lose capacity, so that their accounts can (hopefully) be managed smoothly by someone they trust. While it is a blessing for someone to act as an advocate when someone is too weak to make decisions independently, it can be challenging for the person responsible if something goes wrong.
I thought canceling a £7 a month phone contract would be easy, but you run into one hurdle after another. When Tesco visited the mobile store to ask for help, he told you to use your friend’s phone to call customer service as his account would be recognized immediately. You did this in April and were able to explain the situation. A call handler said she would note the cancellation and send you a confirmation email.
Nothing came to you, although a customer satisfaction email arrived in your friend’s inbox. In the meantime, you have asked the bank to stop the monthly direct debit. After a few weeks, a letter arrived warning of a payment arrears, so you called customer service again. Tesco asked you to email a copy of the LPA, which they said was not legible, and asked you to scan each page individually. You did this. You didn’t hear anything else, so you assumed everything was fine.
A few weeks later a collection letter arrived on the doorstep. You made contact and they also asked to see the LPA. Since they couldn’t read the emailed version either, you posted paper copies along with printouts of your correspondence with Tesco Mobile.
Despite this, you are still being chased by letters and daily text messages for the debt and when you called the collection agency they said there was no record of the documents.
At the end of your life you came to me. At my request, Tesco Mobile has looked into the matter. It was not explained what had gone wrong, but eventually the matter was corrected and the collection agencies were suspended. A spokesperson for Tesco Mobile said: ‘We are really sorry this has happened. We have debited 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 telephone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organization giving permission get to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send any original documents as we cannot take responsibility for this. The Ny Breaking cannot accept any legal liability for any answers given.
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