Lloyds and my wife the money launderer.

vacheron

I thought I'd take the time to share our recent tale of Lloyds and their anti-fraud department's misguided and complete over-reaction concerning my wife and a gift from her parents to their grandson.

My wife has been a Lloyds customer for over 7 years after she opened a current account while studying for her postgraduate degree at Cardiff University. Since then she has added cash ISAs and a savings account which in total added up to approximately £50K.

Two years ago we took out a joint offset mortgage with Barclays and so we moved all of her savings over into that and she used her Lloyds current account for salary and personal direct debits etc.

She put her career on hold in order to be a full time mum and we now have a 4 month old son. I make payments into her account as and when required to keep it topped up at a healthy level.
In addition, since our son was born, her parents (who live overseas) have been sending her money to spend on their grandson as the distance makes it difficult for them to visit as often as they would like. In the last 12 months (while she was pregnant and since our son was born) they have sent 3 gifts of approximately £300, £600 and £700.

All was well until Saturday morning when she received a letter out of the blue from Lloyds stating that they had reviewed her account and that, with immediate effect, all payments to and from her account, including direct debits and standing orders would not be honored, and her balance would be frozen and that all her accounts would be closed in 2 months time. However As the letter arrived on Saturday morning and direct debits were due to come out as soon as Tuesday, this was obviously a major problem. The letter also stated that in order for her to even have her balance returned she had to prove the source of her account balance to their satisfaction!

We immediately made an appointment to visit the main city centre branch on Monday and arrived armed with receipts, bank statements and full traceability of the source of the funds which her father had kindly ran around his home town to collect and had emailed to us. (her Lloyds statement even had her fathers surname against each of the transfers)! In addition her father now felt awful and kept profoundly apologising as his kind gifts had resulted in her being treat as a criminal and that he had "caused us so much inconvenience".

When we arrived at the branch the very helpful customer services manager read all our evidence and agreed that everything was perfectly innocent and completely in order, and rang the "higher up" department which had locked the account. He returned to state that the "higher up" department had received the evidence he had scanned and sent to them, they were now also completely convinced that the whole thing was an error on their part, and of course they would return her balance to her in cash right there and then as the funds were clearly genuine and legally hers... however they still had to close her account! The adviser even had to take her bank cards from her while apologising sincerely!.

And the really ridiculous part... two days later Lloyds sent her a replacement credit card as her current one was approaching expiry. Apparently this was still perfectly OK to have. We cancelled it anyway out on principle as we want nothing more to do with them.

So, in summary, If you have family overseas who wish to send relatively small amounts to their daughter and grandson and would like your accounts frozen and your direct debits to bounce with no notice while being treated like a criminal, Lloyds is the bank for you!

Azari

Almost unbelievable.

Presumably some enthusiastic kid on their first day in the job thought that he could shut down some Columbian drug cartel by depriving them of their £1600 p.a. income.

vacheron

Azari wrote: »

Almost unbelievable.

Presumably some enthusiastic kid on their first day in the job thought that he could shut down some Columbian drug cartel by depriving them of their £1600 p.a. income.

We thought perhaps that was the case, or just some automated algorithm that scans accounts and highlighted concerns to someone who then can't be bothered to check it properly so just presses the OK button.

I did mention to the adviser that if we had £1M to launder (which I assume is probably a reasonable organised crime amount to warrant such an activity) that this would need to be done in 1825 separate transactions over 625 accounts. Which he completely agreed with and stated that in his opinion the sums involved in our case were really nowhere near large enough to warrant such draconian action.

Lokolo

So if someone had got into your account and had been sending money overseas without your knowledge, I am sure you wouldn't be complaining Lloyds didn't stop the account.

I don't see why increasing amounts going abroad over a a random period wouldn't cause alarm bells to ring. It sure would with me.

nikki1520

Lokolo wrote: »

So if someone had got into your account and had been sending money overseas without your knowledge, I am sure you wouldn't be complaining Lloyds didn't stop the account.

I don't see why increasing amounts going abroad over a a random period wouldn't cause alarm bells to ring. It sure would with me.

Not sure you've read the OP - the money was coming IN from abroad

Lokolo

nikki1520 wrote: »

Not sure you've read the OP - the money was coming IN from abroad

Opps sorry, yes! I still would be suspicious though! Only because of the different amounts and (more than likely) different periods between them.

I suspect if the OP had been sent £100 a month (such as through a standing order), then they wouldn't have battered an eye lid.

duchy

Lokolo wrote: »

So if someone had got into your account and had been sending money overseas without your knowledge, I am sure you wouldn't be complaining Lloyds didn't stop the account.

I don't see why increasing amounts going abroad over a a random period wouldn't cause alarm bells to ring. It sure would with me.

I suspect neither would the OP. Did you actually READ the first post ?

There was no money going overseas from the account just three (reasonably small) payments in *from* abroad.

Lokolo

duchy wrote: »

I suspect neither would the OP. Did you actually READ the first post ?

There was no money going overseas from the account just three (reasonably small) payments in *from* abroad.

Yes I did, I misread one word and I have already posted a response, perhaps you should read replies before then repeating what someone else has?

It's still the same reasoning. Payments going IN or OUT abroad, in increasing amounts at different times of the year WOULD cause problems.

Lloyds asked them to come in and have a chat, they then apologised and unlocked everything. If Lloyds had closed their accounts, not told them then refused to give them their accounts back after, then yes, I would be venting like the OP, but they didn't. They were being cautious.

As I was taught - better to be safe than sorry!

vacheron

Lokolo wrote: »

Opps sorry, yes! I still would be suspicious though! Only because of the different amounts and (more than likely) different periods between them.

I suspect if the OP had been sent £100 a month (such as through a standing order), then they wouldn't have battered an eye lid.

We also questioned the customer services manager about this, stating if irregular payments from parents will trigger such severe action how on earth do the tens of thousands of overseas students in the UK receive living cost money from their parents as, in most cases their visa status limits the amount they can work, forbids them from claiming any benefits, and requires the course fees to be paid by electronic transfer which in her case was £11,000 PA. Again, he had no answer.

She has been receiving money like this to her account while she was a student, to allow us to book plane tickets on her parents behalf when they come to visit (it is far cheaper that way) and to pay for their visas. They even insisted on sending us some funds to put towards our wedding in 2009.

Therefore, any semi-intelligent person investigating her account would see that foreign transfers to her account were not uncommon. and all originated from her home country and home town (which Lloyds have on their records) and all came from the same account number which belonged to someone with the same surname as her!

Though I agree that the banks should be cautious, why not one phone call like they do with credit cards rather than cancelling your whole account without notice and then barring you from their organisation like a criminal?

qetu1357

The problem of course is that money laundering is so rife and the fines if banks do not monitor adequatley for it are so large, that innocent customers will get caught up every now and then.

vuvuzela

Lokolo wrote: »

Yes I did, I misread one word and I have already posted a response, perhaps you should read replies before then repeating what someone else has?

It's still the same reasoning. Payments going IN or OUT abroad, in increasing amounts at different times of the year WOULD cause problems.

Lloyds asked them to come in and have a chat, they then apologised and unlocked everything. If Lloyds had closed their accounts, not told them then refused to give them their accounts back after, then yes, I would be venting like the OP, but they didn't. They were being cautious.

As I was taught - better to be safe than sorry!

You misread the OP for a second time
Lloyds have given them thre money but refused to give them the account back :

"...and of course they would return her balance to her in cash right there and then as the funds were clearly genuine and legally hers... however they still had to close her account! The adviser even had to take her bank cards from her while apologising sincerely!."