A struggling mum of seven was left unable to buy school uniforms or food for her kids after she was unable to access her bank account for a week, an MP has claimed.
The mum recently lost her bank card and immediately contacted Cashplus, with whom she has a digital bank account.
Despite immediately going through the bank's security checks to regain control of her account, the woman was unable to access her account and her money for more than a week afterwards.
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The woman's story has been highlighted by her MP, West Lancashire representative Rosie Cooper, who issued a press statement on the matter today.
However, Cashplus said it has been surprised by Ms Cooper's comments today as the issue with the woman had been resolved 'amicably' five days ago - and claimed the MPs office were frustrated because the bank would not provide them with the confidential details of the case.
In her comments, Ms Cooper criticised the bank for what she described as a 'cold-hearted failure' to help her constituent when she needed it.
She said: "The callousness on display here is beyond belief. My constituent has seven children at home and this so-called bank refused to let her access her money for more than a week. She has school uniforms and food to buy but my experience trying to help her with this has shown that Cashplus couldn’t care less.
"My constituent was told by customer services that she would just have to wait to be allowed back into her account – they should try telling that to her young family.
"It took more than a week for them to resolve this, and even then, it was only after my intervention. Should it always require an MP getting involved to resolve basic issues?"
Ms Cooper says she has now written to the Financial Conduct Authority and to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to ask them to look into the issue.
She added: “When something goes wrong with a digital bank, and customer services won’t help, what can individuals do to resolve their issues? If there is no clear answer to this question, why should anyone have confidence in ‘digital banking’?”
In response, a spokesperson for Cashplus said: "We were surprised to see this statement today considering this issue was resolved amicably with the customer last week, five days before this press release was issued.
"We exchanged emails with Rosie Cooper’s team (she did not appear to be personally involved) and they expressed some frustration that our customer services team were unable to provide them with confidential details of our customer’s account without permission. Under Data Protection regulations, we are unable to discuss a customer`s account without evidenced permission, which we reiterated to Rosie Cooper`s team.
"We take great pride in our customer service and will always try to resolve security and account issues as quickly as possible while following the proper procedures required of a regulated bank. We have a specialist Vulnerable Customer Team who support customers with short or long term difficulties, however, we never circumvent basic rules of banking.
"We’re rated “great” on Trustpilot and 80% of our customers would recommend our personal current account, higher than any of the major high street banks.
"We are also proud to run our fully-UK-based customer services operation from the North West, providing over 100 jobs for people in Birkenhead, Liverpool and the surrounding areas."
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