Closed account for a "risk to their business"

cm1981

I received a letter yesterday from my bank after I complained about my accounts being closed and was offered no explanation by the branch itself, I recieved a letter saying my accounts were closed because I was a "risk to their business", it was just a basic bank account which i used for my student loan and to pay for things in shops etc, ive never used my acount fraudulently or the like, it was initially frozen for suspicous activity and I had to take ID into the bank which I did, has this happened to anyone else?, im thinking of writing to the Financial Ombudsman.

glider3560

Put simply, it means that having you as a customer costs them more money than they make.

Perhaps you don't pay enough charges or have enough products from them?!

jonesMUFCforever

Nothing to do with previous poster - something going in or out of your account has spooked them.
Sure nobody asked you to put anything through your account or done a lot of gambling?
You can complain if you want but you need to open a new account with a different bank pronto and get a copy of your credit files just in case.

masonic

glider3560 wrote: »

Put simply, it means that having you as a customer costs them more money than they make.

:rotfl: If that really happened I wouldn't be able to keep any of my bank accounts open.

cm1981

Well I gamble alot on william hill but never big amouts and always regular basically every saturday no more than a tenner, they went on about faster payments I was making to my credit card when I went into my branch, basically coz i always leave it to the last minute nothing fraudulent thats for sure

cm1981

forgot to mention I recieved a copy of my credit file and there aint anything on it I wasn't expecting, and no cifas flags or whatever just normal debts and credit accounts.

Bloomberg

wrangler5 wrote: »

There's your answer then, gambling is considered by Banks/lenders to be risk taking behaviour, you also indulge in further risk taking by paying bills right at the last minute hence you are a risk to their business, ie you fit a certain profile that makes them nervous.

That is the only reason I can think of too.

Rupert_Bear

wrangler5 wrote: »

There's your answer then, gambling is considered by Banks/lenders to be risk taking behaviour, you also indulge in further risk taking by paying bills right at the last minute hence you are a risk to their business, ie you fit a certain profile that makes them nervous.

Its ok for the banks to gamble and lose billions and we have to accept that. However when the customer wants to have a small wager the bank gets panicky.

Pity the banks did not take a leaf out of their own book.

masonic

wrangler5 wrote: »

There's your answer then, gambling is considered by Banks/lenders to be risk taking behaviour, you also indulge in further risk taking by paying bills right at the last minute hence you are a risk to their business, ie you fit a certain profile that makes them nervous.

If that really is the only reason, then it's certainly worth appealing/complaining. The behaviour the OP describes is far from excessive and the bank should not be withdrawing his banking facilities over the timing his card payments if they are not late.

BLT_2

wrangler5 wrote: »

There's your answer then, gambling is considered by Banks/lenders to be risk taking behaviour, you also indulge in further risk taking by paying bills right at the last minute hence you are a risk to their business, ie you fit a certain profile that makes them nervous.

That doesnt make sense. If he is not overdrawn then I fail to see why they should close his account. He is gambling with his own money, a customer has the right to use his money how he sees fit surely.

cm1981

wrangler5 wrote: »

There's your answer then, gambling is considered by Banks/lenders to be risk taking behaviour, you also indulge in further risk taking by paying bills right at the last minute hence you are a risk to their business, ie you fit a certain profile that makes them nervous.

well they dont know im paying it at the last minute, the bill has nothing to do with them, its a different company altogether i pay using faster payments, as for the william hill thing i've been doing it for years.