Is Lloyds Bank in trouble? Refusing to give money.

labevs

Is Lloyds Bank in trouble? It has frozen my sons account with no explanation. They won't give him any of his money, even to live on and his wife is in great distress having given birth only two weeks ago? I have heard of a 'Run' on a bank when they refuse to give people their own money...anyone know if this is about to happen to Lloyds? He has been with them 5 years.

Lost2

am with Lloyd's Bank and I have not had any problems
may be someone has tried to access your sons account
has he phoned them or gone into bank to find out what is going on

Plxply

If they flat out refuse to give a reason for freezing his account then it may be investigated for money laundering, they are legally required not to inform the account owner that this is happening. Apart from that, has he tried speaking with the branch manager or making a complaint?

pqrdef

The bank's computer thinks your son might be a terrorist. Its reasons for thinking so will be unbelievably silly, but then, it has no sensible way of detecting a terrorist, and the government deems that Something Must Be Done, no matter how useless.

The banks have been given draconian powers, and the government insists that they use them, so that Something appears to be Being Done. Coutts have just been fined £9m for not doing enough of this sort of thing, although as a private bank you'd think they'd know their customers better than most.

Don't expect any help from Lloyds. Don't bother appealing to their better natures etc. Don't expect any compensation.

All we can do is learn lessons. Don't rely on just one bank. Spread money around. Don't rely on a bank's services for anything important. For credit cards, set up minimum payment DDs, and then pay manually. Don't use overdrafts. Have wages paid into a bank that you don't use for anything else.

opinions4u

Is he overdrawn beyond his overdraft limit?

Has a cheque bounced?

Ben8282

I can't imagine that this is a 'run' on Lloyds/TSB.

Either, as other replies have suggested, your son's account is, for some reason, the subject of a fraud/money laundering investigation OR they have frozen the account because he has not conducted it properly/owes money to Lloyds/TSB or similar.

How you proceed will depend on the reason that this is happened. Ask your son if he can think of any possible reason. Has there been any unusual activity on the account such as large sums of money going through it? Does your son have debt problems?

This may sound a silly question, but how did you/your son actually find out his account has been frozen? Does his card still work in ATM's? Have you called Lloyds/TSB and, if yes, what exactly did they say. Has he been to his branch?

Itismehonest

You used to get a run on a bank when savers thought the bank was in trouble & that they might lose all their money. The guaranteed £50,000 (now £85,000 I think) was brought in to stop runs on banks.

I doubt very much that this has anything to do with the solvency of Lloyds. I'd guess, as the others have said, it has more to do with your son's account in particular.

opinions4u

Itismehonest wrote: »

You used to get a run on a bank when savers thought the bank was in trouble & that they might lose all their money. The guaranteed £50,000 (now £85,000 I think) was brought in to stop runs on banks.

It was £35k when Northern Rock hit the iceberg.

The increase to £85k does provide greater reassurance to savers. But around 30% of money deposited in banks is not covered by the FSCS compared to around 35% before the changes that took it to £85k.

So in the great scheme of things, not much difference.

I doubt very much that this has anything to do with the solvency of Lloyds. I'd guess, as the others have said, it has more to do with your son's account in particular.

Correct.

ses6jwg

Sounds like some kind of fraud marker on the account.

As has been said, if it's money laundering he is being investigated for they cannot tell him anything as "tipping off" a real money launderer is an offence.

Ben8282

ses6jwg wrote: »

Sounds like some kind of fraud marker on the account.

As has been said, if it's money laundering he is being investigated for they cannot tell him anything as "tipping off" a real money launderer is an offence.

What I think is funny about this is that by taking an action such as freezing an account the bank is effectively 'tipping off' a criminal anyway ....