LETTER: Happy at the hole in the wall

Richard Tyson-Davies
Saturday 08 April 1995 23:02 BST
Comments

THE article "Lax banks blamed for vanishing cash" (Business, 2 April) offers an unbalanced view of the secure and reliable cash services offered by banks and building societies in this country. More than 3.5 million customers withdraw £150m in cash every single day, yet only one of those customers had reason to complain to either the Banking Ombudsman or the Building Societies Ombudsman.

Moreover, contrary to the claim in the article, complaints about cash machines are actually falling.

A bank or building society may challenge a customer who disputes a transaction because experience has shown that many customers genuinely forget a transaction or the customer's card is borrowed by a family member or workmate. The increasing numbers of cameras linked to cash machines have starkly confirmed this.

To suggest that the law in the UK is "weighted against customers who complain about phantom transactions" is total rubbish. The Code of Banking Practice specifically states that in a dispute the card issuer will bear the full losses incurred unless the customer acted with fraud or gross negligence.

Richard Tyson-Davies

Association for Payment Clearing Services

London EC2

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