HSBC have "inhibited" my account. Frozen my DLA etc

exfoliant

I've been with HSBC about 2 years. I've got an overdraft limit of £2000, a credit card and a loan. Until last November everything ran smoothly. From November I became ill, lost my job and began being permanently £2000 overdrawn. I kept up with my credit card minimum monthly repayments and my loan repayments and I had some money (mainly DLA) coming into the account. However for a period of about 5 months I was actually never in credit and living at the edge of my overdraft. In the past 2 months I've incurred charges on 3 occasions, each time for going over my OD limit by about £50. Each time I've brought the balance back within the OD limit within 24 hours

About 3 weeks ago I tried to log into online banking (I log in every day to check my finances) and found my security info did not work. I rang up telephone banking and they told me they could not even look at my account as the security had been frozen or something. They said I'd need to go into branch with ID. Went into branch with ID and they had no idea what was going on and basically just sent me home again.

A day or two later I got a letter from them saying they were unhappy with the way I was running my account and that unless I did something about it they might have to close the account, recall the overdraft and demand my cards back. I phoned the number on the letter to discuss only to be told they could not discuss the account with me because my telephone banking security had been 'shut down'. I wrote them a letter and sent it in the post. Never heard back.

They've cancelled all my Direct Debits and Standing Orders. My DLA just went into the account and that's been swallowed up. I just had a man in India on the phone complaining that my loan repayment Direct Debits not gone through this month. He looked at my current account and told me that my current account has been "temporarily inhibited" by the bank. He says there's a marker on the account that says "inhibit all debits except charges on this account." He said the account will accept payments IN but no outgoing payments will be accepted. He spent a long time looking through the notes and concluded that no clear reason had been give as to WHY. My ESA has also just gone into that account and he said that I won't be able to access that either.

I asked him if/when my account will be 'uninhibited' and he apologized and said he had no idea.

Anyone else had a similar experience?

Lokolo

Because your income/expenditure habits changed, you maxed out your overdraft, and went over this, they believed you were unable to pay back overdraft and closed your account (or frozen), which they are allowed to.

It would have been better if you had gone to them in November to explained the situation.

Unfortunately your best bet is to open a new account with another bank, have any benefits and money go into there. Until you are stable, then pay off as much of the debt as possible.

exfoliant

Lokolo wrote: »

Because your income/expenditure habits changed, you maxed out your overdraft, and went over this, they believed you were unable to pay back overdraft and closed your account (or frozen), which they are allowed to.

It would have been better if you had gone to them in November to explained the situation.

Unfortunately your best bet is to open a new account with another bank, have any benefits and money go into there. Until you are stable, then pay off as much of the debt as possible.

Thanks for your reply. I thought in that sort of situation they might write to you and warn you they'd close your account unless you bucked up your behaviour. I was taken aback that they froze the account just like that.

I talked to my cousin who used to work in Lloyds TSB and he said that for them to freeze my account so suddenly they must suspect me of Money Laundering:eek: But I spoke to a mate who said that if a bank suspect you of Money Laundering they'd immediately close the account and not even allow incoming credits into it. As things stand my account is accepting incoming credits but no debits are allowed.

I wonder why the bank didn't write back to me when I wrote to them asking to set up a repayment plan.

By the way, my credit card was maxed out to within £5 of its limit:(

zppp

exfoliant wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I thought in that sort of situation they might write to you and warn you they'd close your account unless you bucked up your behaviour. I was taken aback that they froze the account just like that.

I talked to my cousin who used to work in Lloyds TSB and he said that for them to freeze my account so suddenly they must suspect me of Money Laundering:eek: But I spoke to a mate who said that if a bank suspect you of Money Laundering they'd immediately close the account and not even allow incoming credits into it. As things stand my account is accepting incoming credits but no debits are allowed.

I wonder why the bank didn't write back to me when I wrote to them asking to set up a repayment plan.

By the way, my credit card was maxed out to within £5 of its limit:(

I doubt it is money laundering - a red herring I think. It sounds like they may be on the way if not already to defaulting your account, which means you cannot make payments. I would suggest contating CAB to get some advice if you are in financial hardship

exfoliant

zppp wrote: »

I doubt it is money laundering - a red herring I think. It sounds like they may be on the way if not already to defaulting your account, which means you cannot make payments. I would suggest contating CAB to get some advice gien that you are in financial harship

Thanks. Don't they have to write you a warning letter if they are considering defaulting you?

crispy_chris

exfoliant wrote: »

I talked to my cousin who used to work in Lloyds TSB and he said that for them to freeze my account so suddenly they must suspect me of Money Laundering:eek: But I spoke to a mate who said that if a bank suspect you of Money Laundering they'd immediately close the account and not even allow incoming credits into it. As things stand my account is accepting incoming credits but no debits are allowed.

working in fraud defense for a bank, if we suspect money laundering we are specifically told not to freeze the account as that would be classed as tipping off

See financial ombudsman link for clarification.

zppp

exfoliant wrote: »

Thanks. Don't they have to write you a warning letter if they are considering defaulting you?

They have to write to you if the account is defaulted. However, as I said they may be on the way to defaulting you because of the letter they sent to you regarding recalling the overdraft etc. I would suggest going into the branch of your bank and let them have a look a your account.

Rgds

zppp