TD Bank Teller Denies Black Woman’s Withdrawal, Says,’I Don’t Feel Comfortable Giving you the Money’

A Black woman was met with racism and denied a money withdrawal from her own business account when a TD bank teller told her, “I don’t feel comfortable giving you the money.”

According to Fox61, the Black woman, Gwen Samuel, who is the founder of an educational advocacy group, the Connecticut Parents Union, had recently deposited a check into her business account at a TD Bank located in Southington, Connecticut. She had gone to the branch to withdraw money from her business account. Although she has been with the bank for 16 years, the bank teller met her request with skepticism when she tried to withdraw $1,000.

She explained, “I go inside, I had my TD bank card and my license. They were cordial. I’m not even gonna say they were rude.” She had to wait for several minutes. “And I see her over there and I was like ‘oh she looks like she’s going through my account.’ OK. Maybe that’s just the policy.”

Then the teller comes back to her. “She hands me my license and she says, ‘I don’t feel comfortable giving you the money.’ So, I got confused so I said, ‘you don’t feel comfortable giving me the money. She said ‘well you just deposited the check yesterday.'”

After feeling humiliated, Samuel left the branch and went to another TD Bank that was nearby and was able to withdraw the money she tried to in Southington.

She told NBC Connecticut, “I just had to make sure I am not overreacting because we’re such a racially tense time right now, so I just wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, but that doubt went away when I got the money from the ATM and Bristol.”

TD Bank released a statement regarding the incident:

“At TD Bank, we proudly serve diverse communities and customers and do not discriminate in the services we provide or the products we offer. The security of our customers’ accounts is a top priority and we regret that the specific reasons why the transaction could not be completed may not have been explained to Ms. Samuel at our Queen Street store in Southington. Due to privacy concerns, we cannot discuss the account activity of particular customers, although we can confirm that the customer’s transaction was completed at another TD store in the vicinity. We regret that Ms. Samuel did not have a positive experience, which is what we strive to provide, and that she did not receive a satisfactory explanation regarding her transaction. We are contacting her to review her transaction and to understand and address her concerns.”