HELP!!!! Bank Account Frozen / No-ops

grumbler

dtaylor84 wrote: »

You can't demand compensation for deliberately ...!

Why deliberately? Was it they who offered me the cash and I have refused to take it?

meer53 wrote: »

Definately sounds like AML procedures to me.

Grumbler, you really live up to your name don't you ?

Sure I do!:D
Have a look at my signature BTW...

meer53

Try not to be worried by it, it's standard procedure for banks. It is really inconvenient when it happens but at least they've allowed you to get some cash. They can obviously verify where the credit in your account has come from so are happy for you to have some of it.

It's not cloak and dagger, they're not allowed to tell you anything about why they've frozen your account (assuming it is AML) as this would be classed as "tipping off"

Tipping off is an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act and anyone who does this could be prosecuted.

They're not saying you're involved, obviously something has happened to make them take this action but you will never be told what it is, so don't worry too much about it. It might not even be frozen because of AML regulations but it does sound like it is.

benog1985

meer53 wrote: »

Try not to be worried by it, it's standard procedure for banks. It is really inconvenient when it happens but at least they've allowed you to get some cash. They can obviously verify where the credit in your account has come from so are happy for you to have some of it.

It's not cloak and dagger, they're not allowed to tell you anything about why they've frozen your account (assuming it is AML) as this would be classed as "tipping off"

Tipping off is an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act and anyone who does this could be prosecuted.

They're not saying you're involved, obviously something has happened to make them take this action but you will never be told what it is, so don't worry too much about it. It might not even be frozen because of AML regulations but it does sound like it is.

Thanks for your advice, I do appreciate it and you have put me a little at ease. I hope they sort it fairly soon.

Why would they have done this then, would they be suspicious of something and do this?

Do you know roughly how long it will take to sort/investigate?

TheBanker

benog1985 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice, I do appreciate it and you have put me a little at ease. I hope they sort it fairly soon.

Why would they have done this then, would they be suspicious of something and do this?

Do you know roughly how long it will take to sort/investigate?

They might be suspicious of a transaction, or something may have come to their attention to cause them to have concerns about your account. I don't work for Natwest but I am sure they will be actively dealing with whatever the problem is, and will restore your account as soon as they are able.

It sounds like the manager has arranged the £200 to try to help you; he sounds like a good chap and is probably working hard to try to resolve the situation for you, even though he can't discuss what's being done.

I know this doesn't help but try not to worry. More than likely everything will go back to normal and you'll never know what happened.

No-name_2

This is why I have a second (and third!) current bank account - which acts as a reserve in case things go wrong with my main account. Just make sure that the accounts are from completely different banking groups - if you had this you could then easily get your ebay income paid direct to your reserve account and then you would at least have access to some cash.

It also helps to have a Visa and a MasterCard again with one covering for the other.

TheBanker

No-name wrote: »

This is why I have a second (and third!) current bank account - which acts as a reserve in case things go wrong with my main account. Just make sure that the accounts are from completely different banking groups - if you had this you could then easily get your ebay income paid direct to your reserve account and then you would at least have access to some cash.

It also helps to have a Visa and a MasterCard again with one covering for the other.

That is good advice, a "spare" account can also help if a card is lost, internet banking passwords are forgotten or a bank's systems fail. I was grateful for my spare account when the RBS systems collapsed last year!

benog1985

TheBanker wrote: »

They might be suspicious of a transaction, or something may have come to their attention to cause them to have concerns about your account. I don't work for Natwest but I am sure they will be actively dealing with whatever the problem is, and will restore your account as soon as they are able.

It sounds like the manager has arranged the £200 to try to help you; he sounds like a good chap and is probably working hard to try to resolve the situation for you, even though he can't discuss what's being done.

I know this doesn't help but try not to worry. More than likely everything will go back to normal and you'll never know what happened.

Thanks for your advice.

It was a slight relief that they let me have £200 as this made me think that things can't be all that bad as surely they wouldn't give me any money at all.

In your experience, how long do these things take to resolve? My salary is being paid into the account tomorrow and I need to pay rent/bills etc etc so I'm quite keen o be able to get more money from my account otherwise I could be in trouble.

benog1985

TheBanker wrote: »

That is good advice, a "spare" account can also help if a card is lost, internet banking passwords are forgotten or a bank's systems fail. I was grateful for my spare account when the RBS systems collapsed last year!

A spare account would be useless in this instance as I can't transfer money from my account

DevCoder

I think it was more that you have some money in each account, the spare account with no links to other banks within the same group.

You can then use this as emergency funds if AML checks kick in.

A bank will compensate for any financial loss during the check time but the Proceeds of Crime act is firmly on the banks side, you wont get anywhere demanding excessive compensation as grumbler seems to think you can. Trust me, with AML the regulators will side with the bank every time.

grumbler

krisdorey wrote: »

A bank will compensate for any financial loss during the check time but the Proceeds of Crime act is firmly on the banks side, you wont get anywhere demanding excessive compensation as grumbler seems to think you can. Trust me, with AML the regulators will side with the bank every time.

It's not about AML in general. It's about how arrogantly and disrespectfully this is being done to presumably innocent people. Any reputable company has to have a special procedure in place providing access to some emergency fund for the time of investigation. I know, 'reputable' is something that has nothing to do with our banks.