An 84-year-old pensioner was forced to live off his credit card after Santander froze his bank account for ten weeks amid a bungled fraud probe. James Campbell, who is hard of hearing and sight impaired, made repeated trips to his local branch in East Kilbride in a bid to fix the error but staff were unable to help.
The OAP’s daughter Elaine told how they believe the issue was sparked by the retired RAF policeman trying to move funds from one account to another online back in June. The Santander fraud team blocked the account and launched an investigation but it left the grandad-of-five without access to his money meaning he was unable to pay care home fees for his wife.
Despite repeated phone calls in a bid to get answers, Elaine, 60, said they felt like they were just ‘banging their heads against a wall’ while her father racked up fees and charges on the credit card. After being contacted by the Daily Record, Santander lifted the block and apologised for the delay while also offering James compensation.
Elaine said: “How do you expect somebody to live like this? I think my dad’s done really well. “I couldn’t have gone 10 weeks without any money. What he’s been doing since then is living on a small credit card that he’s got which is obviously incurring interest charges.
“He’s been drawing cash out of it because sometimes he needs cash to pay for his cleaner who comes in once a week and he pays for his clothes to be washed and ironed. So he’s got people that he needs to give cash to.
“He also likes to give the grandchildren £10 here and there so he likes to have cash in his wallet. So he’s been going to the cashline and drawing cash out of this credit card. I’ve tried explaining that it’s going to be incurring charges but he doesn’t understand that.
“Santander’s fraud team has not been communicating with us or not telling us anything. We don’t know who committed this fraud or if there’s even been fraud, which we don’t think there has.
“We think it might actually have been him moving money about that has started this all but because they’re not telling us anything, that’s only a guess. We’ve been into the local branch multiple times and they’ve really tried their best to help but because they are working on a different system from the fraud team so there’s absolutely nothing they could do.
“This has just been going on and on. Going into the bank, trying to get money, nothing happening. On the odd occasion, he might get some money out but he’ll put that on his credit card so that it doesn’t run out because it’s only a small balance.
“That’s how he’s been managing to survive. We call them up, they say they’ll call us back but they don’t. One day my son went up and sat for five hours with my dad waiting for a call back but it never came.
“My dad can’t hear what they’re saying to him over the phone because he’s deaf. They’re asking security questions like ‘what money went into your account last week’ but because he can’t get access to his account, he can’t see what direct debits have gone out or what’s come in.
“My dad’s got two broken ribs after a fall in the house a few weeks ago and I’m having to drag him up to the bank to try to get money out. He had care home fees to pay which he hasn’t paid for ages but he hasn’t been able to get access to his money.
“It’s an awful way to treat someone.”
After being contacted by the Record, a Santander spokesperson confirmed the account was unfrozen on August 25. They said: “We take our customers’ security extremely seriously and where we are concerned, we will temporarily freeze their account until we are comfortable that there is no threat.
“In Mr Campbell’s case, we rightly froze his account over security concerns; however, we are sorry about the length of time it took for us to release the block and the number of times he was required to visit his branch.
“As such, and as a gesture of goodwill, we have offered him £400 and to reimburse the interest and fees on his credit card for the last two months.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
