Bank blocks a woman's account because her voice sounds like a man

A mother, Lorraine Chademunhu, said that her bank account blocked because the officials have mistaken her to be a man because of her low-pitched voice. She has now decided to talk to the telebanking officials as a man named Derek. Lorraine said that ever since Barclays bank branch in her area had shut down, she had to use telephone banking. However, she was repeatedly questioned by the bank staff on a call with her.

'I feel insulted and humiliated'

Lorraine further added that she spent approximately 20 minutes arguing with the phone banking officers and has tried lodging a complaint. In response, she has been told that a note had been attached to her account but it did not make any difference. The mother of two added that she faced a similar problem while making reservations at restaurants.

Lorraine said that she could not even count the number of hours she has spent on the phone and added that she just feels insulted and humiliated. She said that people on the phone call her sir, buddy, Mr. Lorraine and added that whenever she told them that they were speaking to Lorraine, they just asked her if Lorraine was actually there or not.

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Lorraine further added that she stopped using the telephone banking services but if in case she lost her purse, card or faced difficulties logging into her account, she had no other option but to call up the bank officials. The mother of two said that whenever she had a car breakdown and had to call the AA or if she called someone to fix things in her house then she went along with being a man to make things easier for herself.

An association of 22 years

Lorraine had a bank with Barclays since the year 1997 and has had her account blocked a number of times because of the mistaken identity and added that she was called sir more than 15 times when she was applying for a new bank card. She said that it was really humiliating for her as it was just her voice and added that to the bank she was just a number as they did not bother to treat her right.

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She said that she has accounts in two other banks — Lloyds and Halifax. However, she has not suffered any problem because both the banks have a voice recognition system. Lorraine thought about changing her bank account from Barclays but has failed to do so due to her work hours.

Apology issued to Lorraine Chademunhu

A representative of the Barclays bank stated that thee had apologised to Lorraine Chademunhu for the experience she had to go through and added that securing their customers' bank accounts was the bank's top priority. The representative also added that they had strong measures in place to verify a customers' credentials whenever they called up the telebanking services. In addition to this, the spokesperson said that they had contacted Lorraine to chalk out a process for verification that will ease out the verification formalities for her in the near future.

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(With inputs from agencies)