Transgender woman in tears after bank account frozen as she ‘sounded like a man’ on the phone

A TRANSGENDER woman was left in tears after her bank account was frozen because she sounded “like a man” over the phone.

Sophia Reis, 47, said she was “humiliated and embarrassed” after telephone banking staff said she failed security checks because she didn’t speak “like a lady”.

Things went from bad to worse the next day when she went to pay for items in Tesco and discovered Santander had frozen her account.

Now she is fighting to ensure that other transgender people are not treated in the same way.

Sophia, a customer service advisor living in Nottingham, went into her local Santander branch to confront staff after the humiliating telephone ordeal.

She said: “The embarrassment and humiliation I felt was unbelievable.

“They said my voice did not match my profile because ‘it sounded like a man on the phone and not a woman.’ The whole situation is inadmissible.

“I was crying my eyes out and I am not that type of person at all. I am a very courteous person and I am outgoing but to feel that way when all I asked was for my money to be transferred… I feel mistreated.”

Sophia informed Santander last November she would no longer be named Sergio on the account.

But despite changing her registered name and telling phone banking staff she was a transgender woman, they still treated her with suspicion.

Sophia said: “I work as a woman, I identify myself as a woman and I look good as a woman but for the first time in my life I felt embarrassed about being who I am.

“It was humiliating having to go into my bank and to explain myself when all my information was at the click of a button.”

Sophia is originally from Portugal but moved to England in 1997 as a single parent with her three-year-old son.

Family circumstances meant that she could never address herself as a woman at home, but she feels comfortable to transition in the UK.

Sophia said: “My son is old enough now and I said ‘The woman you know will be coming out more often.’

She hopes to have gender reassignment surgery next year.

A spokeswoman for Santander said: “We have apologised to Miss Reis for the experience she had when using our telephone banking service and offered her a gesture of goodwill.

“It was certainly not our intention to cause any offence, and our service was not as good as it should have been.”