Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against Santander UK plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S complained that Santander failed to refund approximately £550,000 in unauthorised transactions from a joint account she held with her deceased mother, including £102,000 in transactions after her mother's death. Santander had refunded only £968.16 and offered £375 compensation for poor service. The ombudsman found that transactions before Mrs S1's death were authorised under the power of attorney held by Mrs S's sister, and that the two unauthorised post-death transactions had already been refunded. The complaint was not upheld except for the £375 compensation for service failures, which was deemed fair and appropriate.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that transactions before Mrs S1's death could be treated as authorised because they were conducted by Ms S acting as attorney, and Santander's queries about transaction values provided a similar protective effect to checking the power of attorney was being exercised properly. After Mrs S1's death, the power of attorney ceased to have effect, making the nine subsequent transactions unauthorised. However, seven of these nine transactions had matching credits and debits creating no loss, and the two transactions that did create loss (£228.16 and £740) had already been refunded by Santander. The ombudsman rejected reliance on the 13-month rule as the basis for non-refund since the transactions had been refunded anyway. The £375 compensation for poor service and unclear information was deemed fair.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website