account marked for fraud

meer53

It sounds like Lloyds are suspicious about the cheque paid in and are investigating under Money Laundering Regulations. It's probably the amount which has raised suspicions, they don't usually advise people to open new accounts when this happens, are you sure this is what they said ?

What usually happens is that once they've done their checks the money will be released to you. As it was a National Lottery cheque i can't see you having any problems.

There must be more to what you have told us if they have said they are closing your account, if they are investigating for Money Laundering, Lloyds won't be able to tell you anything at all. If you're so unhappy, you need to make an official complaint.

TrueUnitedFan

How much did you win?

It must of been quite a lot of money for your bank to do this. I know that if you don't have that kind of money going in on a reg basis, the banks will be very suscipous.

ChiefGrasscutter

Some time ago ( say 2 years maybe) I got a cheque for around £9500 from a well known financial investment group resulting from a sale of some of my investments.
Go to pay in it at my Lloyds account and they seemed to take an inordinate interest in the why and wherefores......
It was not a happy conversation, you know along the lines of:
Where did this come from- answer read the name blazened across the cheque in big letters.
Why are they paying by cheque - 'cos that's their standard payment method - why don't you ask them not me.
What are you going to do with the money - answer move it to a higher interest bearing account with another savings group the day it clears unless you are going to offer me xxx% (cue long silence)
Then they went off the photocopy the cheque alongside my paying in slip - presumably for some hard copy evidence should later 'problems' arise. Very wise I said - I've got a photocopy of the cheque as well just in case of problems which was the end of the conversation and they put it through the lloyds scanner thingy, stamped book and gave paying book back to me.
It went though no problem and I heard nothing more.

Funny bit is that if I move over double that sort of money by internet bank transfer no one bats an eyelid.

meer53

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

Some time ago ( say 2 years maybe) I got a cheque for around £9500 from a well known financial investment group resulting from a sale of some of my investments.
Go to pay in it at my Lloyds account and they seemed to take an inordinate interest in the why and wherefores......
It was not a happy conversation, you know along the lines of:
Where did this come from- answer read the name blazened across the cheque in big letters.
Why are they paying by cheque - 'cos that's their standard payment method - why don't you ask them not me.
What are you going to do with the money - answer move it to a higher interest bearing account with another savings group the day it clears unless you are going to offer me xxx% (cue long silence)
Then they went off the photocopy the cheque alongside my paying in slip - presumably for some hard copy evidence should later 'problems' arise. Very wise I said - I've got a photocopy of the cheque as well just in case of problems which was the end of the conversation and they put it through the lloyds scanner thingy, stamped book and gave paying book back to me.
It went though no problem and I heard nothing more.

Funny bit is that if I move over double that sort of money by internet bank transfer no one bats an eyelid.

Transferring large amounts of money via the internet is still reported within the banks, and investigated if necessary. Anything over a set figure has to be verified before the transfer can be confirmed.

Mikeyorks

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

Funny bit is that if I move over double that sort of money by internet bank transfer no one bats an eyelid.

Similarly, I've never had a Bank take the slightest interest in any of my transactions. Despite - on the odd occasion - shuffling money about between savings accounts etc my Current account credits (and debits) for the month have topped £250k. Which is more than a bit 'out of pattern'. Perhaps the benefit of being with the same Bank 30 years?

But 6 years ago I did deposit a few hundred thousand from a house sale - that wasn't going to be immediately reused - and deliberately opened a new Websaver to put it in. Just 2 months later I had a P2(Coding Notice) from HMRC with an 'HR' restriction in it. Didn't take above 30 seconds to work out that was 40% tax on the value of the cheque at the interest rates then in play! I'd obviously deposited just at the time the Tax Deduction Scheme for Interest reporting season to HMRC got under way ..... but the haste was still a bit obscene.

Rang HMRC and naively asked where the restriction came from. Lots of mutterings and stammerings and an eventual 'don't know'. So I gently pointed out the new Websaver was deliberate as interest wasn't due until the following tax year - so to please remove the restriction. Which they did just a few days later. Made me a bit shamefaced that having done so well - they'd got it wrong.

ziprar

Greetings

Today I received the official letter stating that in "order to protect their interests they will close my account in 60 days" also gave me a reference number, thats about it.

So I visited my local branch, the clerk took the copy of my passport and also a copy a receipt which I got from the post office. He faxed all this to the main branch(?) and later told me that it is all sorted, they gonna pay me all the money, "unfortunaty" they will still have to close the account!!!

I asked about any records on my credit card history etc and got the answer that there is not gonna be record of any kind, because this check was legitimate.
When asked about process of apeal he didnt know anything.

Also told me that my account will be reactivated by this evening. When trying to purchase the same national lottery ticket about 5 mins ago (I also have a online account) the card was still blocked which resulted in my national lottery account being suspended!

The amount was 7K. They also kept asking the clerk about my passport and what country it was issued from.
I agree that this amount might have drawn their attention (as I am not a big earner), I can even justify temporary account suspension but this is just ridiculous! I didnt do anything wrong, I did not scam them, the mistake was made entirely by Lloyds and I was still labelled as a bloody criminal, also my account being closed for no reason!
Anyway probably on tuesday I am planning a trip to the head office to get some answers.

pqrdef

This could be a good time to switch your account to the Halifax for the £100 incentive.

Plxply

ziprar wrote: »

Anyway probably on tuesday I am planning a trip to the head office to get some answers.

Don't waste your time, as previously said you need to make an official complaint. Write a letter and clearly state in the subject that you're making an official complaint, the bank has to respond and if you're not satisfied after eight weeks you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman.

ffacoffipawb

pqrdef wrote: »

This could be a good time to switch your account to the Halifax for the £100 incentive.

Also a part of the Lloyds [STRIKE]W[/STRIKE]Banking Group.

Gromitt

pqrdef wrote: »

This could be a good time to switch your account to the Halifax for the £100 incentive.

Don't waste the application, you will most likely be instantly refused, considering its in the same group.