CreditCard Company won't cancel my card and refund me due to Money Laundering rules.

aleph_0

sfax wrote: »

This simply isn't true. I often have positive balances on my credit cards and have spoken to customer services about accounts whilst I've had a positive balance on them and it's never been questioned over the phone, or by any other means.

If you can find somewhere in Bank of Scotland's T&Cs that clearly states you cannot have a positive balance then please highlight it for me. The T&Cs can be found here

http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/creditcards/bank-of-scotland-credit-card/terms/

The issue is not the positive balance per se, it's the attempt to close the account with such a large positive balance and the transaction that is then required with respect to AML

My apologies, you're correct that they don't explicitly ban it (which is curious, I have a Halifax card where they do, but they haven't standardised their T&Cs).

Nonetheless, I can't see an argument that a credit from a 3rd party (barclaycard) to the account should be refunded to a different account of your choosing going very far. The agreement is to supply you with credit, and details for how payments are assigned to pay off transactions. A payment that has nothing it can be assigned to can reasonably be returned. I guess the only argument is that by not returning it immediately, they've implicitly accepted it.

I would have thought the money-laundering/fraud potential here would be clear. Take out two cards as above, but fraudulently, and take the cash. Or pay off Barclaycard with cash from one source, and then withdraw it at BoS side.

exel1966

cos wrote: »

The bit quoted below is on this site. It says to get an MBNA card, then, if you like, transfer a load of cash to your current account so that you get a cheap loan. I see nothing wrong with it at all. I also see no warnings that you might be deemed a miscreant for moving money into another account and then using it (either by small withdrawals or, even, one large one).

So, back to square one. Why is the OP being accused of potential money laundering issues? I suspect bank of Scotland are lying and again recommend a formal complaint.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> quoted from MSE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

MBNA 0% for 20 months. Plus a 4% fee.
The MBNA Platinum card offers 0% for 20 months on money transfers (super balance transfers) for a one-off fee of 4% (higher than the standard fees charged on balance transfers). You can do the super balance transfer at any time within 60 days of opening the account. After the 20 month period the rate is a huge 20.9% representative APR, so ensure you've repaid the money by then.

Always pay at least the minimum monthly repayments or you'll lose the 0% deal.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

All irrelevant because the OP isn't directly transferring cash by approval into a bank account as in the case with these type of transfers. It's clear manipulation of the BOS card, a credit card which is not designed to be 9K in credit, nor used as a mule to facilitate a transfer which Barclaycard themselves may not even have sanctioned if they knew what the OP was trying to do.
For transfers to banks accounts MBNA make additional checks (one of them to fulfil AML regulations) before going ahead with them as they have a responsibility to do.

Just to add I think this is all a concocted story in any case !

aleph_0

cos wrote: »

The bit quoted below is on this site. It says to get an MBNA card, then, if you like, transfer a load of cash to your current account so that you get a cheap loan. I see nothing wrong with it at all. I also see no warnings that you might be deemed a miscreant for moving money into another account and then using it (either by small withdrawals or, even, one large one).

So, back to square one. Why is the OP being accused of potential money laundering issues? I suspect bank of Scotland are lying and again recommend a formal complaint.

*sigh* The OP isn't being accused of anything. Maybe MBNA take more care or maintain a different paper trail, or have better procedures to check things. They're also just loaning money from a verified customer into a bank account, which they probably can do some verification on.

This is different to a CC being loaded from a mystery source (an unverified Barclaycard CC customer BT that may/may not be the OP), which the OP is asking to move into a bank account.

BoS have received a payment from Barclaycard which they have no transactions to apply to. By the sounds of it, they're happy for the money to sit there until transactions to match it with occur, or they've offered the OP the option of sending the offending payment back to source.

chattychappy

These days, people (including call centre ops) are all too quick to quote money laundering regs as being the reason for something happening or not happening.

A UK bank receiving funds from another UK bank is unlikely to be concerned as to money laundering - particularly if it's clear that the funds are financed by an advance on a CC account. From an AML point of view, accepting funds to put a CC into credit is no more of a risk than accepting funds to pay off a balance.

Deposit taking and banking comes under a different regulatory regime to consumer credit. That is why T+Cs typically state that you must not put a CC into credit.

I expect it is a simple case of BoS being unwilling to accept a positive balance for regulatory reasons and therefore returning it.

cos_2

chattychappy wrote: »

I expect it is a simple case of BoS being unwilling to accept a positive balance for regulatory reasons and therefore returning it.

I suspect BoS see an issue that doesn't really exist.

YorkshireBoy

I'm surprised the BoS T&Cs don't include the wording the Halifax card T&Cs so, namely...

11.7 You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account. We may return any funds that exceed the balance owing on your account to the account from which the money has been sent.

http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/balance-transfer-purchase/all-in-one-card/terms/

They certainly used to.

Indeed, LTSB used to have similar wording...but that's gone now too.

Talking of LTSB, they used to have a condition saying any "debt that you owe" may be transferred. This, I believe, was an attempt to stop stoozers from BTing ficticious debts from Egg Money in the stoozing heyday. I'm not sure how they were ever going to police it though, because I BTd many times (£15K each time) from Egg Money to LTSB from 2006-08 (must have totalled well over £100K because I had 2 x £15K limit cards simultaneously and they were very forthcoming with fee-free follow on deals once the introductory periods had ended).

roscob

Some interesting responses so far. Thanks.

From my wife's point of view(just makes it easier to type/read I hope)
....Going to send letter off to Bank of Scotland asking them to detail exactly why I cannot cancel this account and have any outstanding credit refunded to me.

If the amount was £9, £90 or £900 in credit would there be such a problem???

I am trying to get a cheap loan...why would I want an expensive one?

How was the credit card designed to be used......don't care....this is how I want to use it and if i can prove this money is mine surely I can cancel my card and any monies outstanding has to be repaid to me.

Has my plan backfired.....time will tell.

Am I actually laundering money ..... I can't see how.

As to who owns this £9k that is sitting (in limbo) as a positive balance on my Bank of Scotland CC... Pretty sure it's me who owns it (or should own it)
Pretty sure I owe Barclaycard £9k plus the BT fee which I'll be paying back at minimal payments until the 0% time runs out then I'll try and overpay and cancel it .... Ok maybe I'll see how this goes first.

As I've said before I've done this multiple times in the past and never had a problem. I used to have a fixed rate mortgage (relatively high interest rate) that allowed overpayments and subsequent withdrawals without charge. This was my way of effectively having a cheaper mortgage.

Current mortgage isn't the same but need money to carry out home improvement and nothing is improving at the moment.

Someone MUST have been in this situation before although I've searched on here and on google and can't seem to find a similar case......anyone else find one?

Still welcoming responses.....watch this space.

dalesrider

chattychappy wrote: »

These days, people (including call centre ops) are all too quick to quote money laundering regs as being the reason for something happening or not happening.
.

They should NOT be even mentioning money laundering to a customer.
That is clearly against the regulations. If they have concerns they need to report via their internal procedures.

dalesrider

roscob wrote: »

Some interesting responses so far. Thanks.

From my wife's point of view(just makes it easier to type/read I hope)
....Going to send letter off to Bank of Scotland asking them to detail exactly why I cannot cancel this account and have any outstanding credit refunded to me.

How was the credit card designed to be used......don't care....this is how I want to use it and if i can prove this money is mine surely I can cancel my card and any monies outstanding has to be repaid to me.


As I've said before I've done this multiple times in the past and never had a problem. .

Quite easy to see why they don't want to do what you ask.
9K transfered in from outside source, followed by request to transfer funds to a 3rd acc and close the CC account.
That is going to set alarm bells ringing.

Take away you thought of a cheap loan and think of it from a banks point of view.

A CC is designed to buy goods using credit you pay back. just because you don't care, does not mean its right to do what you want.

What you have done in the past, Means nothing. It is what you can do now.

antrobus

roscob wrote: »

...
From my wife's point of view(just makes it easier to type/read I hope)
....Going to send letter off to Bank of Scotland asking them to detail exactly why I cannot cancel this account and have any outstanding credit refunded to me....

And the Bank of Scotland might reply by pointing out that they are happy to refund her the outstanding credit balance. Back to the Barclaycard from whence it came.