Our investigation

While banks are liable for unauthorised transactions, they are not liable where the customer breached their terms and conditions. The terms and conditions of Sid’s account made it clear that he could not give his card and PIN details to anyone else. Sid had breached his terms and conditions by giving his card and PIN to his carer, and this action was the primary cause of his loss. In terms of Thomas’ concerns about the bank not noticing the transactions, we noted that Sid’s PIN – which should only be known to him – was used to authorise the transactions. As the transactions looked like they had been authorised by Sid, the activity therefore did not trigger any alerts for the bank.

Outcome

As Sid had provided his card and PIN to his carer, the bank was not required to reimburse him for the transactions. We noted that he could have prevented much of the loss if he had checked his monthly statements.