Pensioner refuses PIN - and is told to bank elsewhere

Craben Herald | November 29 2004

A LINTON man who has held a bank account with the HSBC since his first birthday has been told that he should take his business elsewhere.

Philip Rawson, 69, has been told that because he does not want to use cards with a personal identification number (PIN), the HBSC will no longer be able to offer accounts to him.

Mr Rawson and his family have been connected to the bank, formerly The Midland, for generations.

Both his mother and father worked for the bank and his grandfather was a manager of the Rotherham branch. He even received commemorative coins for holding a bank account with the company for 60 years.

Mr Rawson said he was completely flummoxed by the decision taken by the bank. He added that all he wanted to do was to return to using a chequebook with a cheque guarantee card,which is why he returned his PINs to the bank.

Caroline Mooney, spokesman for HSBC, told the Herald: "The introduction of the Chip & PIN is very much to protect the client (and the bank) from fraudulent activity.

"Our policy is to encourage the customer to take advantage of this security initiative, but in circumstances where they cannot - if, for example, a customer is visually impaired and unable to key in a PIN when paying at retailers' premises - we will be happy to discuss their requirements with them including appropriate alternatives which may be available.

"More importantly the cards we issue on our accounts are multi-functional - they are cheque guarantee, ATM and debit cards.

"If a customer wants to only use the card to guarantee cheques then, of course, we are happy for them to do so."

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