Branch Shenanigans

On the afternoon of Friday May 4th, my husband took time off work so we could go into the local branch and fill out the fraud form.

The first thing we got was a funny look - we shouldn't have been told to come into the branch, but to persevere with the busy Fraud Department phone number. I stressed that we'd taken time off especially to do this, so the staff decided to help. There was a bit of a furore over finding an actual form - phrases like "we haven't used them for years" were bandied about, then "it's a good job [staff member] hoards things!"

Meanwhile, I mentioned that I hadn't received my new debit card yet. The lady checked on the computer system and decided that it could be to do with it being a joint account. She felt fairly certain that both mine and my husband's cards would have to be cancelled* - in spite of me knowing for a certainty that it was my card that was used fradulently. She spent about 20 minutes phoning Card Services and checking with other staff members, before she said, "right, both cards are cancelled, and the new ones will be ordered tomorrow".

All this was done at the front of the branch, and presently we were ushered to a desk to sort out the fraud form. It took about half an hour, forms were filled in and signed, copies of statements with the relevant transactions were printed, and we were told that they would be "faxed off straight away".

We came away from the bank feeling happier that this was being dealt with.

*the "both cards need to be cancelled" thing is utterly wrong - a friend who also has a joint account at Abbey lost her card, and Abbey cancelled it and issued a new one without even blinking...