My sister-in-law (who lives 300 miles from us) has a (passbook) savings account with Virgin. She's 89, has been housebound since 2020 and now needs access to this account to pay her increased care bills.

Two years ago, my wife (her sister), was added to what then became a joint account so we could access the funds if needed for this purpose, but which we haven't had to touch until now. As Virgin have now closed all their branches south of Northampton (70 miles away), we decided to transfer the money to somewhere we could manage it on my sister-in-law's behalf. We sent in the relevant forms - and waited, in vain, for Virgin to respond.

Virgin Money seem to go out of their way to be obstructive. When we chased, their call-centre agent, who appeared to know nothing and have no authority, couldn't explain why my wife, as an account holder, couldn't close the account & transfer the money. He claimed that they wanted to see the original of our Power of Attorney, which we'd taken to their Reading branch 2 years ago and had supposedly been copied and put on file. And despite being a joint account holder, my wife has received no correspondence related to any activity - except a letter telling her that she'd been made a joint account holder on an unspecified account. You can almost taste the amateurism.

I dealt with Virgin Mobile a couple of years ago, and Virgin Money seem to be just as clueless as their sister businesses.