HELP!!banks won't take my money

LR67

Hi all,

This is my first post and I would appreciate some advice if possible.

I'm 25, live on my own and have around £400,000 in savings. This figure will decrease to around £340,000 in less than a year but I will also own a home outright worth just over £110K as I'm buying my council property under right to buy. Also as soon as I own my home it will be let out to generate extra income because to be honest I don’t want/need it any more but I'm not going to say no to a £50K discounted home!! So basically I'm quite a good position financially however the banks don’t think so.

I'm having a real struggle storing my money, I bank with Lloyds and they won’t give me any decent account at all and whenever I go to another bank/building society to get an account I get rejected, in fact a number have said they won’t even have me as a customer and the 2 who have offered me an account are offering a pitiful 0.1% - 0.25% gross interest rate. I currently have most of my money in Lloyds but I don’t want it to be as A, it’s not actually gaining much interest (0.75%) B, in the unlikely event it goes bust I won’t be protected above £85K and C, my card constantly gets blocked as Lloyds are trigger happy on the suspected fraud transactions. I do have a savings account with the co-op but again there in a dire situation and they won’t even give me a current account, so I can only access my money over the phone or in branch.

I have tried to get accounts such as the Santander 123 account or the N&P account (For cheap foreign transactions) or first direct, I could go on and on as I have tried loads and loads of banks/building societies. I even had a right struggle to get an ISA in March with a certain institution so ended up taking up a new one with Lloyds. I want to know how the banks justify themselves, I can kind of understand why they say no to you if you’re debt but I'm not, I don’t want or need credit, I just want to store a large amount of cash with them and get a fair deal in return it’s not unreasonable is it?

I'm now left with a situation where all my eggs are in one basket (well nearly) and I have now ran out of banks/building societies in my town to go to, the last one to try is TSB (I just hope they will take my cash) Why do banks do this for, is there anything I'm not doing right ? What should I do because this is now beyond a joke, I fear my only option is to move the money out of the UK? Any advice would be much appreciated.

I would just add that I do appeal to the banks when they have rejected me and the same answer has come back, you’re a risk!! If someone who has £400K in cash is a risk than over 98% of the UK wouldn't get a bank account at all and we wouldn't have credit! There’s accessing risk and then there’s common sense.


Thank you in advance.

HappyMJ

Go and see a financial advisor. If you can prove the source of your funds then you should have no problem in saving your money with whoever you choose.

Caprylate

Have you checked your credit report? Must be something on there you're unaware of that's affecting you?

jimjames

Why would you keep that amount in savings when you don't need it to buy a house.

See an IFA or do your own research into investment to get a decent return.

By the way your reasoning is wrong. 98% of the UK do not have £400k in cash so that's why they don't have the same problem.

Enterprise_1701C

Have any of them asked you how you have managed to obtain £400,000 in savings at such a young age? It could be the large sum has them worried as to how you managed it.

ColdIron

What is it with 20 somethings and large amounts of cash?

ajdj

Unless you are having problems proving your identity then there's no reason why you'd struggle to open savings accounts, they don't need a credit check.

Not sure why anyone would claim to have £400k in the bank, then boast about a council house discount purchase, immediately renting it out?

Interesting first post OP...

Masomnia

ColdIron wrote: »

What is it with 20 somethings and large amounts of cash?

I'm 25 and I've got beggar all

PasturesNew

I suspect you're going into each bank acting like a loon with bizarre stories. Simply open accounts and slide £1k in.... then, once it's set up, transfer bigger chunks over into your new accounts until you've achieved what you set out to achieve.

They don't need to know what you've got..... you're probably going into far too much detail (like in your post). Shuffle in... "wanna open an account" .... job done.

somethingcorporate

25, £400k in cash and a council property with the RtB?

Easter holidays anyone?

BillJones

LR67 wrote: »

Hi all,

This is my first post and I would appreciate some advice if possible....


...Thank you in advance.

Makes no sense. I had more than that on deposit between selling one house and buying another, and no bank batted an eyelid (it lived in several banks at different times).

What was the source of the money?