Family Stranded In Disney Florida After Bank Blocks Debit Card

Family Stranded In Disney Florida After Bank Blocks Debit Card
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A desperate family is stranded in Disney Florida after their bank blocked their debit card without explanation.

Nicola and David Lawless and their daughters Abbie, 15, and Hollie, 12, have only $50 to last them until they fly home on January 10 and are trying to save money by eating nothing but crisps.

They've pleaded with family and friends to send cash but have been told they're all skint after the Christmas splurge.

Now the family have appealed to their local paper to highlight their plight to try to raise enough money to get them through the next week.

Mum Nicola, 35, from Warrington, explained how she told Natwest that she'd transferred cash to spend on their holiday to a Thomas Cook Cash Passport system before they went away.

But when – running low on funds - Nicola tried to add more money to the account, her card was blocked.

She now has only $50 left in her Thomas Cook account and can't access her Natwest account.

Nicola, who works for a travel agent herself, says she has spent 180 minutes on phone calls to Natwest, costing at £2.50 a minute, trying to sort the problem out but has had no success.

The family are now eating nothing but crisps in their hotel room to save cash because they're not due to fly home until January 10.

Nicola told the Liverpool Echo: "This has been going on since December 31.I'm down to $50. We'd already bought passes to the theme parks but four drinks there cost $40 so we're not going.

"The phone calls trying to sort it out are costing me a fortune.

"I just don't know what to do. I feel so sorry for the kids. We've paid £1,500 for park tickets and we've only been able to go for five days.

"We had promised the kids we would take them to swim with dolphins but we can't as we've got no money.

"This holiday was a Christmas present for the kids, over the last seven years a lot of people in our family have passed away and I just thought as a treat for them we would go away."

Natwest and Thomas Cook haven't yet commented.