Chris’s dad gave him access to his personal and business accounts at Sovereign Bank a few years ago. Now that he’s remarried, the dad wants to take Chris off and replace him with his new wife. This seems like it would be simple enough, but Sovereign says, not so fast. They can’t remove Chris’s access to the accounts unless he dies.

Chris writes:

A few years ago my father added me to his Sovereign Bank accounts: business account (as I had started working for him) & his personal account (as my mother had recently passed and he wanted a backup). He recently got married and wants to take me off the personal account and add his new wife. He spent an hour at the branch yesterday trying to perform this maneuver and with no luck came back to the office and spent a while on the phone trying to get me off the account.

Sovereign has stated very clearly that I must DIE in order for my name to be taken off the account! Even with the threat of closing all our accounts and significant funds, they are standing firm. Do other banks get as possessive of their account holders as Sovereign?

Any hope of getting my name off this account, I don’t think the jury will appreciate my father’s reasoning for off’ing me at the bequest of Sovereign.

Well, maybe not a jury filled with people who have had problems with their banks.

I’ve had this problem myself in the past: HSBC told me that in order to remove my mother from a savings account opened when I was a minor, I would have to close the account and open a new savings account: an adult one one with fees and minimums that I wasn’t particularly interested in. Is this an option at Sovereign? After all, taking his money elsewhere will involve opening new accounts, too.

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