HELP Halifax have frozen my account for no reason :-(

shopaholicno1

Hi I paid in a cheque for £3000 into my halifax account and today I got a letter saying they are freezing my account and I must go into the nearest branch with proof of ID and a recoginsed form of address verification.
Anyone ever heard of this before? It also goes on to say if I don't supply this information within 60 days they may close my account, well what about my money? I am a student and have no toher money to live off.

Whats this all about?

JuicyJesus

Where did the cheque come from?

opinions4u

They are concerned that the cheque may be fraudulent.

Provide the ID etc that they've asked for and also take proof of where the cheque came from (e.g. letter or whatever) if available.

The freeze on the account will be removed before the end of the next working day. Some branches are open until 3.30pm today.

shopaholicno1

Its from the motor insurance bureau compensation from an accident I was in. I have the letter referring to the cheque. Can I ask for the interest they are making on it too? It came from a government department and had my name on so I don't get it.

daniel598

What interest is the bank making on it?

They simply put a block on your account but it still accrues interest.

opinions4u

shopaholicno1 wrote: »

Its from the motor insurance bureau compensation from an accident I was in. I have the letter referring to the cheque. Can I ask for the interest they are making on it too? It came from a government department and had my name on so I don't get it.

They will pay you whatever interest your account is entitled to it.

As I said, relax, do as they ask (but take that letter of proof in too) and take it from there.

It may be a nuisance, but occasionally we are all inconvenienced by actions to prevent fraud, money laundering etc.

YorkshireBoy

daniel598 wrote: »

They simply put a block on your account but it still accrues interest.

Only the student account pays interest (at 0.1%) doesn't it?

I imagine the OP wanted to do something with the money (either spend it or move it elsewhere for a better rate), rather than leave it in an account paying zilch!

daniel598

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Only the student account pays interest (at 0.1%) doesn't it?

I imagine the OP wanted to do something with the money (either spend it or move it elsewhere for a better rate), rather than leave it in an account paying zilch!

I don't see anywhere in the OP's post that it was paid into a student account but still the OP is a student.

Also the OP has said they have no money to live off so I doubt that would want to be moving the money elsewhere for a better rate

shopaholicno1

Hi, the money is in an account making no money. I am just annoyed they have it locked away and are making interest on it.
There is a section in the letter I really don't like in the letter where they want me to sign for them to be allowed to access any information from a 3rd party they wish to. I find this so intrusive and a breech of my privacy-they could ask for all sorts of records with personal details couldn't they?

I also don't have a passport for the ID check they wish to do. I have sent off my provisional driving licence off to have the address changed as its needed doing for quite some time now. So I have no ID until that gets back. Surely all they need is a letter from the solicitor confiming the cheque is genuine and for me? I do have no money to live off until this is sorted.

zppp

daniel598 wrote: »

I don't see anywhere in the OP's post that it was paid into a student account but still the OP is a student.

Also the OP has said they have no money to live off so I doubt that would want to be moving the money elsewhere for a better rate

Don't be melodramatic about the interest. I calculate that to be 81p at 5% interest before tax. And I don't think they pay that rate of interest at the moment anyway. Plus, they may have restricted the OP's card, it doesn't mean the interest won't still accrue.

Re the OP needing money to live from. The problem is that if you recieve an unusually large cheque into the account, the bank may report this to SOCA and wait to do KYC checks. Unfortunately this happens across all of the banks and is completely legal.