PTSB’s support for 88-year-old widow leaves family unimpressed

A reader called Louise recently lost her father and has started helping her mother, who is in her 80s, with some of the life admin she needs to do. She has ended up with some questions about how her mother’s bank, PTSB, manages the financial affairs of older customers. “What person in their 80s can register for online banking, answer seven security questions, set up a temporary password, six-digit pin, new password of eight digits – including capital and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols – register a smartphone device, access a one-time passcode, log on to a PC and then download a banking app for an approved device, and all without help from a family member?” Louise reasonably asks. Louise’s father had online banking with PTSB on an iPad device he set up with her help in 2020. “He used it very successfully up to the time of his passing earlier this year,” she says. “Despite the fact that the three accounts were held jointly with my mother, the access to online banking did not transfer to her after his death. READ MORE“She was required to start from scratch. Over a period of eight weeks, six phone calls (two of which were abruptly ended as the bank agent said I was prompting her or she had answered the security questions incorrectly), two letters to the bank and email correspondence with a regional manager, she was unsuccessful in accessing online banking,” Louise adds. [ PTSB customer given the runaround trying to access virtual moneyOpens in new window ]The reason she was given by PTSB was that she did not have a smartphone registered in her name. “They would not add a third-party phone number (mine) even though it was the registered phone for my father’s online banking,” she says. “We registered my phone to ensure that neither he nor she would be getting any fraud/scam text messages or cold calls where they might inadvertently give their bank details via a website link or over the phone. He only ever used online banking when I was with him for his own peace of mind.” Eventually her mother “abandoned all attempts to access online banking and following a personal appointment in-branch she has resorted to transferring money between accounts by standing orders to ensure that she has sufficient funds in her current account to set up direct-debit payments where necessary. In order for her to attend the branch, I had to take an annual leave day from my job and arrange accessible transport for her at her expense.”[ ‘Our children will in all likelihood lose their mother. We didn’t want to spend precious time calling PTSB’Opens in new window ]Louise points out that the PTSB website states under its Enhanced Customer Support section: “Looking for someone to withdraw money on your behalf? If you are unable to visit one of our branches, we have a support in place to allow you to nominate a family member, a friend or carer to withdraw money for you.”She says her mother “was keen to avail of this support. In practice they do not offer this service and have not for some time. The alternative offered by the bank manager was that I be added as joint account holder on my mother’s accounts. As this has far-reaching and long-term legal and financial consequences for myself and my mother, I politely declined and am surprised that it was offered as an option by a bank manager considering he could not offer any help with online banking, which would be a much simpler solution to her banking needs.”[ Alarming letters and hoop jumping over paltry sum not actually owed to PTSBOpens in new window ]Louise says her mother is nearly 90 “and fully compos mentis, and is a customer of PTSB in all its iterations since 1957. She laughs sarcastically when she sees PTSB describe themselves as the ‘human’ bank in advertisements.” Marketing materials refer to the bank as “altogether more human”.We contacted PTSB, and this was the statement we got back in response: “We sincerely apologise to our customer and her daughter for the poor customer experience they received at such a difficult time. We have since been in touch with the customer and her daughter to offer any further support that may be required.“We have an enhanced customer support team in place and offer a range of additional services for customers who may need extra assistance, including help with setting up online banking services. While some of these supports were offered in this specific instance, including an offer to call to the customer’s house to assist her, the process of getting access to these supports was not at the standard it should have been. We will review this specific case to ensure we learn from it.“To ensure our customers’ funds are protected, we do not permit third party mobile numbers to be given access to another customer’s online banking. Unfortunately, we have seen many cases of attempted financial abuse and fraud by third parties attempting to gain access to individuals’ account details. For customers who require family assistance in managing their financial affairs, we do have procedures in place to enable this, including third-party mandates and other solutions. These supports can be accessed via our enhanced customer support team, who can be contacted on 0818 818721 or by visiting one of our 98 branches nationwide.”