Bank card blunder is addressed

2:32pm Monday 28th January 2008

A PENSIONER whose debit cards were twice sent to the wrong address by her bank has been offered £150 in compensation after The Press intervened.

Ruth Morley is one of a number of Abbey customers whose correspondence was addressed incorrectly because of "technical issues."

Mrs Morley, 74, of Rawcliffe Way, Rawcliffe, contacted us after reading how Lee Wilson, of Full Sutton, had repeatedly been sent debit cards and secret PIN numbers intended for a customer who had last lived at his address more than six years before.

She said she first discovered she had a problem last autumn when she went into a shop to buy something and couldn't use her card, and the assistant told her it was out of date.

Upon asking the Abbey why she had not been sent a fresh card before it expired, staff told her the computer had her address as being in "Shipton Road."

She then waited for the card to arrive. When it didn't, she went into the bank branch in York city centre, only to be told that the computer now listed her address as "Rawcliffe Lodge."

She said she had never discovered who ended up getting the cards, but she had not noticed any incorrect withdrawals from her account in statements.

However, she had had an Abbey account for decades, and had lived at the same address just as long.

"How could they suddenly think I lived at a different address?" she asked.

"It's totally inefficient.

Mrs Morley received a letter from the Abbey apologising for the problems she had experienced, but made no mention of compensation. But after The Press raised the matter with the Abbey, it said it had now offered her £150.

It said it had been undertaking a major upgrade and replacement of its banking systems, part of which involved checking historic information it had about a small number of customers.

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