can't open a bank account

grumbler

Gentoo365 wrote: »

Also, you said you applied for two current accounts, did you do this at the same time? Did you provide the same details to each bank. It is possible that this may have flagged up.

What's here to flag up?

No need to post anything specific here, but it is possible that you were using a personal account as a business account, and that looked dodgy.

Not illegal. Dodgy enough for closing the account, but not enough for placing any flags in shared databases.

...and as above, don't apply elsewhere until you know the reason for the declines.

Generally, it's possible that the OP will never know

BTW, it's cheques in UK, not checks.

BillJones

syedys wrote: »

my bank account was recently blocked by Halifax Bank of Scotland. They said it's going to be closed in 60 days. They didn't tell me any reason, but probably because I was running my business in personal account and was doing transactions of around 5k+.

If you've been abusing your account, that could well mean that no-one will offer you one in the future.

It's worth getting to the bottom of why it's happening, but it's possible that you may have to get by without one for a few years.

GingerFurball_2

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

they suspect illegal transactions such as money laundering.

And we have a winner.

syedys

I have an online business of selling stuff on eBay and Amazon. I haven't been transferring money to other banks or using cheques. I used to transfer money from PayPal most of the time, and then paying on aliexpress to buy goods.
I didn't apply for two accounts at the same time. I applied to the second one after got refused from the first one.
The same thing happened to me 2 years ago, when my LLoyds current account was closed. They wouldn't tell me any reason. At that time I had another account so I didn't chase it up. Now the second account is also being closed and I am without a bank account.

BillJones

syedys wrote: »

I have an online business of selling stuff on eBay and Amazon. I haven't been transferring money to other banks or using cheques. I used to transfer money from PayPal most of the time, and then paying on aliexpress to buy goods.
I didn't apply for two accounts at the same time. I applied to the second one after got refused from the first one.
The same thing happened to me 2 years ago, when my LLoyds current account was closed. They wouldn't tell me any reason. At that time I had another account so I didn't chase it up. Now the second account is also being closed and I am without a bank account.

As above, this could be enough that you won't be offered an account. You agreed to terms and conditions, then quite egregiously breached them, with the intention of taking business banking services without paying for them.

You do need to find out if this is why you are having the account closed, but if it is, surely you realize that you may not be able to open another one?

dktreesea

Is your business registered properly with HMRC? Have you been into the HBOS branch to meet with your branch manager to find out what is going on? HSBC have a business account for around £5.50 or so a month which doesn't charge transaction fees for electronic transactions.

I found this on the financial ombudsman's website:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/48/banking-closing-accounts.htm

If you don't get any joy out of meeting with the bank, I suggest you get in touch with CIFAS, the UK Fraud Prevention Service. The bank may have registered some info about you with CIFAS, which would explain why the other banks initially agreed to open accounts for you then went back on their decisions. It would cost you £10 to do a subject access request, and if you find info against your name or your business name, you can challenge it.

There's quite a good article a few months back in the telegraph on this very subject:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/10273512/Banks-dump-thousands-of-loyal-customers.html

gunsandbanjos

syedys wrote: »

my bank account was recently blocked by Halifax Bank of Scotland. They said it's going to be closed in 60 days. They didn't tell me any reason, but probably because I was running my business in personal account and was doing transactions of around 5k+.

You can't use a personal account for your business. You've answered your own question .

grumbler

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

You've answered your own question .

What question?
The only question I see was: "what can I do, if they suspect me of doing illegal transactions or money laundering?"

This was neither illegal nor ML.
It's still absolutely unclear why Lloyds and Nationwide closed fresh accounts.
And the question is yet to be answered what the OP can do to open a new account.

john1002

I would suggest doing what others have said, raise a complaint, then follow that up with a complaint to the ombudsman, in the meantime until it is sorted open up a cashplus business account to allow you to carry on with your business.

At the end of this you can always close this down if you get a main account but this all could take upto 6 months or beyond so you need a contingency, blindly applying will decrease your credit score and could mean it takes a year to get a new account again once the problem arises.

Please do take the advice, there is not a magic answer to this and you will see that other forum posters have taken ages to get this type of account closure sorted.

good luck

syedys

I filed a Subject Access Request to CIFAS a few days ago. Today I got their response. Although in Equifax report there was nothing, but the response from CIFAS has an entry by LLoyds Bank who had closed my account 2 years ago without telling me any reason. It says First party fraud (opening an account or other facility for fraudulent purpose or the fraudulent misuse of an account facility;....). Which isn't true because I was only using my account for my wages and a few direct debits at that time. What should I do now? Is there any way I can prove myself innocent?