Halifax Account Freez'd

Mohsinali

I'm hoping someone can help me! , i came to UK around 2.5 years ago and had opened an sliver account with Lloyds where i use to pay 7£ a month, after running that account for year and half, i dint got any kind of benefits from that bank, not even an 100£ over draft, i use to have 6 to 7 direct debits and never ever my direct debits were due or paid late, one of my frd suggested me to switch to Halifax where i will atleast get £250 over draft, i thought its fair enough and went to Halifax and switched my lloyds to halifax and closed lloyds account, started using this Halifax ultimate reward account, for upto 1year dint had any kind of problems, suddenly few days back my online banking has been freezed, i thought that it might be a temporary problem and in 2 days i got a letter from halifax saying that for security reasons they had freezed my account and i have to go to any branch with my proof of ID, so that they can realise that freez......

it was fine till here.....
but the funny part starts here , when i went to bank with my driving licence and counter part, from the bank they called some fraud services and kept me on phone, on phone she was asking me abt..... why lot of money coming in and going out ?????? i said i pay my house rent utility bills and all persons who shares that house with me pay there share to my account and from my account direct debits goes and they have all the details of direct debits where iam paying to......after some discussion she said they are going to close my account, when i asked for wat reason she said she is not supposed to give me a reason.....or not allowed to give me a reson, and on top of it i was getting paid in two days time to that account....... so i requested her that i will close my account after i get paid, when i got paid, i went to bank to close the account as all my direct debits were cancelled and all my money was in that account,

again they called that stupid service and kept me on phone
this time ....she is asking me why i need money for ?????????

thats my !!!!ing account and thats my !!!!ing money, who the hell is she to ask this ?

then she said that she cant authorize more than £2500 in a day frm cash counters in bank, and asked me to come the next day and call up this service again and get authorization to get the money out
and they are not giving me a proper answer why they are doing this to me ? why me ??

can any one help me out here plzzzz......????
can any one tell me whats going on with my account and bank plzzzz..??
thanx in advance

sharpy2010

Yeah, unfortunately your absolutely screwed. They suspect that you are money laundering, and that you are a terrorist. (I am sorry to be blunt, this is what they suspect).

Once they put a marker on your account(s), it WILL NOT BE REMOVED AT ANY COST. It happened to me, I proved it was my money, and that I wasn't money laundering, and they just decided to keep it and not unfreeze my accounts.

And I worked for them at the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You, my friend, have no chance of seeing that money again.

rockitup

I suspect that different banks have different cash deposit levels before they make a call to a "fraud department".

Soon we will be getting like the USA where you have to fill in a full A4 page full of answers if you deposit over $3,000 even just once.

To OP, whoever you bank with next time try and get your housemates to arrange standing orders to your bank or pay by cheque. Regular cash deposits can set alarm bells ringing in the minds of a minority bank staff who are a bit wary or have a good imagination

KingElvis

Yep, not a great situation but common in these paranoid, post 9/11 days I'm afarid.

MoneySaverLog

sharpy2010 wrote: »

I proved it was my money, and that I wasn't money laundering, and they just decided to keep it and not unfreeze my accounts.

And I worked for them at the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's not right, especially if you were working for the bank at the time. Did you do anything to make them believe you were committing fraud/money laundering in the first place? Did they sack you because of this, if so I hope you took them to a tribunal for unfair dismissal.

ihateyes

the OP will most likely have state he/she earns say 20,000pa so say £1500 pmonth.
What most likely has happened is there is a far higher amount going into this account, and money then being diverted of to other accounts as well.

MoneySaverLog

ihateyes wrote: »

the OP will most likely have state he/she earns say 20,000pa so say £1500 pmonth.
What most likely has happened is there is a far higher amount going into this account, and money then being diverted of to other accounts as well.

Well my salary gets paid into Lloyds TSB from there a grand is transferred to Halifax once a month (to get the £5 reward), and £500 transferred back to Lloyds. 2 standing orders then go out to regular savers, which when they mature will probably end up back in the Halifax / Lloyds TSB.

When they mature there will be more money going into my account, than what I am paid. I hope they don't freeze my account then

ihateyes

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

Well my salary gets paid into Lloyds TSB from there a grand is transferred to Halifax once a month (to get the £5 reward), and £500 transferred back to Lloyds. 2 standing orders then go out to regular savers, which when they mature will probably end up back in the Halifax / Lloyds TSB.

When they mature there will be more money going into my account, than what I am paid. I hope they don't freeze my account then

No.... the bank can see the money is coming from a saving or similar account. The OP says a lot of money is being paid in and out. Now when you apply they will ask how much your salary is.

Now if continously for a number of months a higher than normal amount is being paid in, then this will be flagged. If its being paid in from other acc within that bank, they can trace though to see where the cash is coming fom.... from acc outside the bank they cant do this.

But if an OP earns £1500 a mth (thats what the appliant noted) but £7000 is paid in by various means, this will flag up as potential money laundering.... or could the applicant be using a personal acc as business account to avoid business charges???

This could be 2 possible reasons why account was frozen.
Another reason would be if mail was returned to sender, on more than one occassion.

pinkdalek

rockitup wrote: »

To OP, whoever you bank with next time try and get your housemates to arrange standing orders to your bank or pay by cheque. Regular cash deposits can set alarm bells ringing in the minds of a minority bank staff who are a bit wary or have a good imagination

Just a reminder no matter how wary someone's imagination may be that anyone working in the financial industry has a legal obligation to report anything that they suspect may be money laundering. Failure for them to do so can lead to prosecution, fines and even imprisonment.

The OPs description of what is happening on the account is a classic example of potential money laundering eg high amount of traffic on an account, mainly cash deposits and withdrawals which are hard to trace. Laundering money is not just for terrorists, you have drug dealers, people trafficking, sale of stolen items, monies from robberies etc.

The bank are simply following procedures that they are legally obliged to do, you need to go back to them and find out why there is a freeze and if it is because of the transactions then you need to declare to them what this is for. The more aggressive and rude you are and use the attitude "it's my money!" will just make them even more suspicious of you.

rockitup

pinkdalek wrote: »

Just a reminder no matter how wary someone's imagination may be that anyone working in the financial industry has a legal obligation to report anything that they suspect may be money laundering. Failure for them to do so can lead to prosecution, fines and even imprisonment.

The OPs description of what is happening on the account is a classic example of potential money laundering eg high amount of traffic on an account, mainly cash deposits and withdrawals which are hard to trace. Laundering money is not just for terrorists, you have drug dealers, people trafficking, sale of stolen items, monies from robberies etc.

The bank are simply following procedures that they are legally obliged to do, you need to go back to them and find out why there is a freeze and if it is because of the transactions then you need to declare to them what this is for. The more aggressive and rude you are and use the attitude "it's my money!" will just make them even more suspicious of you.

We can only go on what the OP has told us, he is in a house share and collects the other housemate's rents and share of utility bills. Let's just assume he collects 4 lots of £400 pcm plus his own share so likely he is depositing around £2,000 pcm. He has told the clerk what the money is for and where it comes from and that still does not satisfy them...

Why doesn't the bank just go ahead and inform HMRC if they think he is evading tax. That is why I suggested the main point of the post to collect cheques from housemates or get them to arrange standing orders into his account, a lot easier don't you agree. My last part of post was a bit of gentle sarcasm about some people making mountains out of molehills.

I tried to open an investment account with a High Street bank's stockbroking division and was asked how much I intended to invest as a maximum, informed the person asking the amount that i would transfer. Was then asked how long i had that money, told them 3 1/2 years then "where did I come across that amount?". My answer 35 years of work and selling my house 3 1/2 years ago was not enough, they needed a completion statement or letter from the solicitor handling the sale from the 2007 sale....

Told them to stuff their account and opened up a better one charging less in fees, than the High Street bank with not such a good reputation in investments. Give it a couple of years and probably be questioned about money laundering down at the local pub for buying a large round...

Mohsinali

thanxx guyz for taking out time and for ur usefull replies,
but i got another question now......... will this effect my credit history ??
as i applied for another basic account in Barclay's and they rejected me saying they credit checked, if its on my credit report, how to remove it ????

thanx in advance guyzz.....