A family are ”fuming” after a banking decision left a north-east Fife widow at the mercy of muggers.
Vida Alderson (70) wanted to transfer funds from her account to her son’s bank to repay him for covering the costs of her late husband’s funeral. But, according to the family, the Bank of Scotland branch in St Andrews was unable to transfer the money electronically.
Her concerned son Steve said: ”What they did was allow her to draw out £3,200 so that she could walk to Santander in St Andrews about five minutes’ walk away.
”She did not want to do this and shouldn’t have had to. What if she had been mugged?”
He added: “Surely in these times of internet banking and the electronic age generally they can transfer money without having to put an elderly lady through this unnecessarily stressful situation?”
His sister Val was also ”really angry” at the bank’s methods.
Sadly, the family lost father Richard at the turn of the year and since then they have all rallied round to help Mrs Alderson sort out his financial affairs. While Val said other banks had conducted business quickly such as cancelling cards and removing Mr Alderson’s name from joint accounts things had not been as easy with the Bank of Scotland.
”But the biggest issue I have is how they let a little old lady walk out of a bank with £3,200,” said Val. ”It is incredible. The bank is open plan and the queue is just behind the counters all it would have taken is for one person to overhear her conversation and wait for mum outside and grab her bag.
”She certainly has no height or strength behind her to grab her bag back.”
Val said through her work she transfers money all over the world every day and was astounded this could not have happened in her mother’s case.
”No, instead let’s give her lots of cash to walk outside and get mugged. It is a ridiculous scenario.”
What has made it worse was the reason behind Mrs Alderson’s cash withdrawal.
”Dad died on January 2, and when the bill came for the funeral it is hard enough to deal with, so my brother said he would pay.”
Once money from a policy came through, Mrs Alderson wanted to ensure she repaid her son.
Mrs Alderson said the branch had been busy when she visited and she herself was concerned ”that someone could come in behind me, because you never know.”
She claimed bank staff said they could not transfer funds with her card to her son’s account.
”I thought there was nothing complicated after all, the money was there in my account. I wasn’t trying to take money out that wasn’t there.
”I lost my husband on January 2, not really that long ago, and my son paid for the funeral. I just wanted to pay him back.”
A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland Lloyds Banking Group said she could not talk about Mrs Alderson’s case directly as she did not have her permission, but gave an explanation of options provided in branches.
”Firstly, I should say that we take the security of our customers very seriously, and for instance check that our customers are comfortable with making the withdrawal,” she said.
”We have in the past saved customers from handing over large sums of cash to rogue traders, for example. However, in this case we can only assume she needed cleared funds as we would have offered alternative arrangements that meant she didn’t need to carry the money personally, such as a standing order, CHAPS payment, cheque or online transfer.”