‘I’m old, but I’m not an idiot’ campaign gathers speed
The behaviour of banks is increasing social exclusion, states pensioner
PRESSURE is growing on banks to guarantee an over-thecounter service for the elderly and people who are unable to access or use online services.
The campaign started by Valencia resident Carlos San Juan – using the slogan ‘I’m old, but I’m not an idiot’ – has won the backing of the national government and the ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo.
Sr San Juan, aged 78, launched a petition on the platform Change.org at the end of last year asking for banks to provide more human treatment for the elderly via their branches.
He admitted that he broke down in tears when he heard that he had won such high-level support for his fight.
On Tuesday Sr Gabilondo revealed that he would ask the Bank of Spain to guarantee that a personal service would be offered to people who need it.
He noted that this would help to combat the ‘financial exclusion’ that some collectives are suffering.
While it is vital to have a transition to ‘new technologies’, the rights of citizens must be guaranteed, he noted, and institutions should not be increasing people’s vulnerability.
He said that customers should be attended to in person when it is necessary.
The polemic has arisen after banks around the country have closed tens of thousands of branch offices in villages and towns, and launched campaigns to ‘persuade’ their customers to use their online
banking services.
Nearly 400,000 people have now signed Sr San Juan’s petition on Change.org
In the text which accompanies the online document, he states that he has become ‘very sad that the banks have forgotten elderly people like me’.
“Now almost everything is done over the internet and not all of us get on with machines,” he states.
“We do not deserve to suffer this exclusion.”
He added that a lot of elderly people live alone and ‘do not have anyone to help them’.
“We want to carry on being as independent as possible but if they complicate everything and close branch offices then they are excluding people who have trouble using the internet and those who have mobility problems,” he added.
Sr San Juan called on people to sign his petition ‘to ask the banks to attend to elderly people without creating technological barriers, and with patience and humility’.
“And they should keep their offices open, where people can talk to a person, not do it all over the internet,” he added.
People can sign the petition via the following link www.change.org/petitions