Relentless branch

Woman desperate: Terminally ill person should go to the bank

Ilona Rath not only had to cope with the loss of her husband, she also had to deal with the bank.(Bild: Dostal Harald)

For Ilona Rath (75) from Lichtenberg in Upper Austria, the world collapsed at the end of the previous year. As if it wasn't enough that her husband was seriously ill, the bank also made her life difficult. She tells her story, which actually sounds unbelievable, in the Krone newspaper.

"My husband was admitted to hospital in mid-December 2023 and it was foreseeable that he wouldn't be able to leave the hospital any time soon. His condition deteriorated very quickly. Unfortunately, we hadn't made sure that I was authorized to sign on his account by then," says the 75-year-old. Now they wanted to make up for this and Josef Rath (76) signed a power of attorney in the presence of a nurse. But then came the shock at a Bank Austria branch in Linz.