Daughter unable to open a bank account - Advice please.

Hammerpgh

Hi all,

Hope somebody here can offer me some advice. My daughter recently had her Barclays Bank Account closed without warning and when she went in to see them they couldn't give her an answer as to why this had happened. However, she had to withdraw whatever money she had in the account and give in her bank card.

Subsequent to this she has tried to open a new account with HSBC and but was informed that she they were not able to open an account for her as she had failed the credit check.

She obviously is very upset and concerned about this as she now has no account to have her wages paid into and no account to have her direct debits, etc. paid from.

She has had some issues with a student account with Nat West which has a large overdraft (about £1500) and a credit card with the same account with about £500 on it and I can therefore only asume that this is what is now causing her to be apparently blacklisted. However, it does seem really harsh as those are the only problems she has had and I know plenty of people with far worse credit records that do not seem to be having the same difficulties.

She is currently trying to speak to Nat West about the problems with that account in the hope that she can perhaps start to use that one again but I am doubtful that she will get a positive response from them to be honest.

So my question is what can she do now? She needs to be able to have her wages paid into an account and also needs to be able to have payments taken out of her account for things like mobile phone, broadband, etc.

Grateful for any and all advice.

Thanks

molerat

She needs to get her credit reports https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/51087 to find out how. To have her account closed like that means there is possibly a fraud marker on her.

Annisele

She can ask the three credit rating agencies for her credit files, at a cost of £2 each (details here). I'm not quite sure of the payment methods they accept, so you might need to write a cheque for her.

I'm afraid I'm not certain that she's telling you the full story. Barclays' customer service isn't stellar, but (usually at least) they don't close accounts for no reason. I wonder if the actual problem is suspicion of fraud on Barclays' part?

The Financial Ombudsman Service has published some examples of cases where banks closed their customers accounts, and it has suggested how the bank ought to have behaved. If your daughter thinks Barclays was wrong, she could make a complaint to Barclays (via FOS if she prefers).

She also might like to try opening a basic bank account. The Debt Free Wannabee board can give more information about that, but I believe Co-op are supposed to be quite good.

Edit: What molerat said - my typing is slow today!

slyracoon

She should be able to open up a basic bank account.

Is she telling you the truth about her money situation? Maybe she is more debt than she is telling you about.

She needs to get a copy of her credit report to identify what could be the problem.

izools

Annisele wrote: »

they don't close accounts for no reason

They did with me. No CIFAS, no outstanding adverse CRA data, very little debt, never incurred charges, always turned over £1K+ / Month in each Barclays account.

Closed arbitrarily without warning - first I knew was card being declined - had to see branch manager with photo ID to withdraw remaining balances - no reason given even as part of a S. 7 DPA request.

Just a letter sent after the fact basically saying "We're closing your accounts in 14 days. We will not honour any debit requests in any form from the accounts in the mean time. Don't come back. Don't ask why".

I'm sure they had reason but I can guarantee you, it was a totally arbitrary one.

Hammerpgh

Thanks for all the replies,

I do know for a fact that she has only had these bank accounts and has never had any loans, etc. other than the credit card.

It's always possible that there are some other things that she hasn't been totally up front about.. I know she was the person named on the water rates \ gas bill accounts, etc. for the house she was sharing with some other students and was getting letters about an outstanding amount of about 40 quid that one of them failed to pay. But as my house is where she was registered any letters would come to there and I haven't seen anything else.

Would Barclays close her account just because her credit rating had gone bad? I have had some 'major' credit problems following a divorce but never had my bank account closed at any point.

I was thinking of getting her credit file checked to make sure there is nothing untoward on there so will get her to do that.

Thanks for the suggestions.. I'll check them out.

PNPSUKNET

I would check all of her files, you never know there could of been another student taking things out at her old address

DrSyn

1.Look up Basic Bank Accounts on this site at:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts


2.As others have suggested she should check her files at the various credit reference agencies.

[Deleted User]

co-op cashminder is a good account to get

jonesMUFCforever

Has she had money paid into her account for then somebody else to ask her to pay/transfer it elsewhere ie acting as a mule in a money laundering scam??