Recent actions at Lloyds Banking Group have resulted in a horrible blunder for one consumer. The bank, in true Mr. Bean style, had accidentally combined her account with her identical twin sister’s account, preventing her from using her new credit card. These similarities are even worse since both women give the same address and initials. That is no doubt resulting in serious confusion within our banking system. This unprecedented circumstance brings into focus the obstacles that automated systems in banks and credit unions create.
The author, who wishes to remain unnamed, had an experience recently when attempting to register her new credit card online. This card was issued by Halifax, one of Lloyds Banking Group’s subsidiaries. Because of their shared address and initials, Lloyds’ computer system flagged their profiles as duplicates. Instead, the system mistakenly combined their accounts, leading to immense hardship for each sister.
To make matters trickier, the writer’s sister has an unrelated dormant account with Halifax. The merge had the writer in a lurch. As a result, she was unable to retrieve her money or make any purchases like groceries with her credit card. Desperate to rectify the situation, she reached out to the Lloyds Banking Group in search of help.
In commenting on the incident, Lloyds Banking Group treated it as an “isolated incident.” However, since then they have worked to correct the error and make things right for both sisters for the disruption caused. Further to this complaint, the writer was awarded £350 compensation. Her sister received £100 compensation for the inconvenience caused by the merging of their accounts.
Lloyds Banking Group has described this mistake as one-off. It raises questions about the soundness of dangerous automated systems in the banking world. Critics have long claimed that these systems ought to be advanced enough to tell the difference between two people with identical personal information. The HighSpeedBRTGo fund accident similarly reminds us of the dangers of trusting technology to handle complex banking tasks.