Release early from fixed term saving account

My mom had a 18 month fixed term savings account with KBC. It stated that funds would not be accessible until the period ends unless stated otherwise in the terms and conditions (which we cant find)

6 months on her husband passed away, it was a joint account and the savings were moved to a single account in her name. She badly needs access to the funds but they say the most they can release is 25%.

While she was expecting that there would be some financial repercussion from leaving early and fully expected there would be little or no interest because she is doing this, what she didnt know until today was that she cannot access the funds at all. This is what she was told over the phone but i dont know if they were just keen to avoid her withdrawing money. Has anyone experienced anything similar and/or does she have any legal rights to get the money back without waiting another year (again fine is there is a fee involved)

Some banks have low penalties when withdrawing early and clear early withdrawal terms such as Nationwide UK (Ireland) while other such as KBC have far more stringent early withdrawal terms and others such as RaboDirect have very unclear penalty terms.

There is no legal obligation for KBC to release the funds.

KBC can, if they really want to, release the funds early but they will need major persuasion to do so.

A sob story helps. Why does your Mum need the cash? Is it medical reasons? Can you produce evidence to that effect? etc.

An in-person meeting helps too, their HQ is on Sandwith Street. Have you spoken to them face to face?

Escalation to management helps. Has a KBC manager looked at your case?

Hopefully, the above works. Failing everything, you could ask KBC for a personal loan equating to the value of the term deposit using the term deposit as collateral for the loan.

This could well deserve a mention on the Joe Duffy show.

Why would it be a Joe Duffy case? I sympathise with the OPs mother but a contract is a contract, if the terms and conditions said there wasn't an early repayment option with penalty or otherwise then that's the case. A polite appeal to them is likely to be the best option rather than threatening ringing Joe Duffy.