Woman shuts down bank account on the spot after not being able to withdraw her own money

An Australian woman has gone viral for closing her bank account on the spot after being told she couldn’t withdraw money.

Taryn Comptyn filmed the clip complaining about her local branch, revealing that she wasn’t able to withdraw $3500 (£1836.76) for home improvements.

The mum also said that the experience really got her ‘thinking about our banking system’.

Uploaded to TikTok last week, the video has been seen over 39,000 times, with the Brisbane resident explaining the incident.

It happened when she visited her local ANZ branch, when Comptyn realised she didn’t have her bank card to make the withdrawal at the ATM.

She told her followers: "The teller proceeds to tell me they don't have cash in the bank anymore. You can only get it out through the ATM."

Rather than race home to get her card for the renovation money, the teller advised that she could access her money another way – using a temporary card.

However, this would soon come back to haunt the Brisbane mum as she explained.

As she went out with the teller to secure the cash, an error message repeatedly came up when Comptyn tried to access her account.

"It just kept giving an error message. It wouldn't even let me get to the point to put my pin in when I tapped it. It just gave this error message," she said.

Despite her having money in her account, Comptyn was then told that there was nothing the bank could do – leaving her absolutely penniless.

Rather than accept the banking debacle, she decided to take matters in her own hands.

"I was like, what do you mean, I need to get my money out of my bank account,” she said before revealing that she immediately moved her money elsewhere.

"Luckily for me, I am with another bank, she revealed. "So I transferred every single penny out of that account, closed the account while I was there and went and got my money at another bank."

Having closed her ANZ account, the mum reflected on how difficult it can be to access her own money, saying: "But it just got me thinking about our banking system and where we're at and how the hell can you go to a bank and not access your own money?"

Following the incident, an ANZ spokesperson told news.com.au: "At ANZ we have seen in-branch transactions fall 50 percent over the past five years, with just one percent of transactions now done over the counter and 96 percent conducted digitally.

"Some ANZ branches no longer handle cash at the counter, but continue to have cash available through our onsite Smart ATMs.

"At these branches, cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals can continue to be made by using our Smart ATM and coin deposit machines, and we have staff on hand to help customers using them for the first time."