Blocked account - becos of previous people living at our address???

slopemaster

Sorry, this is gonna be long. It's turning into a nightmare.

My other half had a problem with Santander blocking his account, for reasons which were never explained. (We are still waiting on the results of a subject access request under the data protection act to try to discover why, and also have a complaint going through the system.) Eventually, by going into the branch with a whole file full of ID, we managed to get his account unblocked, and we then closed all our accounts with them. The money from the Santander account was sent by BACS to his account with Lloyds-TSB about 2 weeks back. Yesterday we tried to move some of this to my Lloyds-TSB account – only to discover that Lloyds-TSB have now blocked his account until he goes into a branch with ID so once again we can't get at our money. And we're currently abroad so can't go in a branch. And they won't talk to him about it.

Santander have obviously passed on some kind of (mis)information to Lloyds-TSB as he had no problem with this account before. It was opened 3 months ago, in a branch, and they saw all necessary ID at that time.

When OH phoned to do the transfer to my a/c, they put him through to a "payment referral system". The people in this dept asked him a string of increasingly bizarre questions (at which point we put the phone on speaker) – 'do you know any of these addresses?' 'do you know any of these people?' (2 long lists of names and addresses he's never heard of) and then 'which of these people lived at your address before you?' When he said, 'how would I know who lived at my address more than 15 months ago, and what is it to do with me anyway?' they said that this was information from his credit file and he has failed security verification. (At this point he had already answered all normal security Qs – DoB, security nr from debit card, etc etc)

Now there should be no financial association on his file with anyone except me – and last time we checked, there wasn't. And I always believed that other people who previously lived at your address should not appear on your credit file. So why are they asking about this?
It just seems completely wrong. And what the hell do they suspect him of and how can we get it sorted? If anyone understands how these systems work we'd be very glad of some advice.
He has done NOTHING WRONG. Does it sound like someone somewhere is committing fraud using his name? Or why have TWO banks got their knickers in a twist?

pmduk

I wonder if there's now some sort of CIFAS marker on his credit record?

slopemaster

Will that show up on the statutory £2 credit check thing?

pmduk

I think so, hopefully somebody with more knowledge than me will be along soon with a definitive answer?

Careful_ly

Yes a CIFAS will show on the £2 report.

HTH

savagej

It would seem that something is not right here at all, I would foster a guess at people at your address previous to the time you lived their (or currently with a mail redirection order in place in their names, do you get letters from the Royal Mail for a previous tenant?) have/are committing a large fraud and/or money laundering. Against several banks by the looks of it and they are only working it out now, as that list of names and addresses you were asked all point too it.

pcombo

This happend to me all banks just started closing my accounts, But i cant find any cifas markers on my credit file. Quite strange i think.

savagej

Yep, sometime you need to SAR CIFAS to see all of the markers (they dont show on the £2 report, or on any on-line report £2 or otherwise) as they dont want you to know they are actually there, in case you tip off the fraudster (I think).

ChiefGrasscutter

I can help slightly with the part about the Lloyds questions.
I had a online FPI blocked/delayed for additional security questions once.
They rang me up sometime later to confirm various things.....and asked me several questions similar to what the OP was asked - and others.
Clearly the Lloyds rep did not have my credit report in front of them. I suspect they had some system whereby they were linked directly into one of the credit reference agencies and the CRA's computer was posing these questions which the lloyds rep then asked me and relayed the answer back - to presumably be told after a number of questions being answered correctly whether ID verification was passed. I would imagine you are allowed a certain (small) number of incorrect answers.
In my case the lloyds rep clearly told me that they were going to ask me several questions from my credit report to enable me to passs ID: for your/their own security they would not be giving the lloyds bank rep full access to anyone's credit report.
Oh and I could indeed understand why my pattern of FPI transactions had been flagged up as "suspicious" even though it wasn't and hence why the FPI transaction had been 'blocked/delayed' for further authorisation.

The questions are clearly being used as a method of verifying your ID - without having to take/send in the usual ID requirements.

slopemaster

Thanks all for helpful info.
Seems there is clearly something on credit files which we are not being allowed to see even when we check them.
What you say is interesting, grasscutter.
But OH did not authorise them to re-check his credit file (since them checking it when he opened the a/c) We have written to LTSB to say that, as well as trying to get access to the account back.
But as you say savagej it looks like we will have to do SAR to CIFAS as well.