Anger as Santander ATM swallows man's card but bank refuses to return it

He tried to show his ID to prove the bank card was his but staff would not give to him.

By Nicholas Dawson, Finance Reporter based in London, covering personal finance with a focus on the state pension and retirement planning.

A person using an ATM

An ATM swallowed a man's bank card but the bank refused to return it (Image: GETTY)

A man has voiced his fury as he was unable to retrieve his bank card after it was swallowed by an ATM.

The man got in touch with Santander over social media site X as he had lost his HSBC card when using a Santander cash machine in Paignton, in Devon.

He said: "Went to get it back the next day and was told that only you only help Santander customers to retrieve swallowed cards. What a load of baloney."

But the bank responded to say the correct procedure had been followed. They said: "This is correct. As we can't very [sic] that you are the account holder of the card so can't give it to you."

The man was unhappy with this response, saying: " Rubbish. I had my passport, driver's license and seaman’s discharge book with me.

"I could have made a withdrawal with it in front of you. I am going back to sea tomorrow and I now don’t have a bank card because of your caring bank."

But the representative stuck to their position and tried to offer a solution. They said: "This would not be banking process I am afraid. If you contact your bank they can issue a new card."

Santander customers have reported issues the past couple of days with online transactions going through.

A Santander branch

Santander refused to return a man's bank card (Image: Getty)

A customer contacted the bank yesterday morning (June 29) over X to ask: "Is there still a problem regarding online transactions?

"I paid suppliers yesterday afternoon and the money showed as sent but they haven’t received payment yet."

Santander replied shortly after to say they were still having problems. They said: "Yes some payments are still being affected.

"Please don't reattempt the payments as they will be in a queue to be processed as soon as possible. We do apologise for any inconvenience this widespread issue has caused."

The customer then asked if they knew when the issue would be fixed.

The customer support team replied: "Unfortunately there are no exact timescales provided for this issue. We do apologise for any inconvenience caused by this."

Express.co.uk has contacted Santander for comment.

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