Santander blocked my account--need help

kissmoney

Hi all, I opened a Santander 1/2/3 account couple of weeks before. In the first day, my wife transferred in total £6500 and then I transferred 4k out to a property company. This money was paid as the deposit for a buy-to-let property investment. One hour later, a guy who said he is from Santander called me asking where this money come from? I was very surprised with this call since that was a very generic transaction. Also I was not sure if that guy is really Santander staff. So I replied him this is our own money, our savings and don't want to answer him more questions.
The second day morning I was told the money was not gone through by the investment company. Then I tried my online account and cad ALL blocked. I called the Santander customer service line and was told to handle my wife's bank statements and explain in a letter where the money come from and what is for. So I did all in the afternoon and send to my local Santander branch. They faxed all document to fraud department and told me I should receive a call in 24 hours time.
Now more than a week gone, I lost my investment opportunity. And I still don't know how long I should wait until I get my account released. I have visited Santander branch 5 times and they told me they have contacted HSBC,which is my wife's account, to check where the money original come from.
Can somebody please shed a light for me? What Santander will do?How long it will take? Do they really have the right to block my account? Thanks!

meer53

If they suspect the account is being used for money laundering then they can freeze the account whilst they investigate. They don't have to tell you why it's been blocked, but paying in and then withdrawing large sums will trigger these sort of checks.

If you have proof of where the money came from and what it is for then they should unblock it for you. There are no timescales as to when they will do it though so it's a case of waiting.

kissmoney

So Santander doing this is legal? They can block my account without reason(I think at least a letter to inform me they SUSPECT money laundering on my account)? This sounds not right. Any idea how long this will take?

maas

Opening a new account and then dumping 10k in on the 1st day and then transferring it out straight away almost certainly raise a red flag as this type of activity is exactly what money launderers do.

The bank cannot tell you about the suspicion as it could jeopardise any ongoing investigation.

Have you raised a complaint?

kissmoney

The reason why the money was transferred from my wife's account to mine is we agreed to use my name for this investment. But I did not notice that could be suspected as laundering money. All messed up now.

dr_adidas01

kissmoney wrote: »

So Santander doing this is legal? They can block my account without reason(I think at least a letter to inform me they SUSPECT money laundering on my account)? This sounds not right. Any idea how long this will take?

Yes they can block your account without a reason, if they suspect you of money laundering they have to by law not tell you they suspect it. So there is no way they would send you a letter say oh by the way we suspect you of money laundering.

What they do have to do is find out that the money has come from and that it is not proceeds of crime or drug related money.

As others have pointed out depositing a large sum of money then immediately sending someone else £4k will look suspicious, and trigger the banks security checks.

If you can prove where the money came from, then they will unblock the account and you will be able to use it as normal.

Though even after this any large transaction may still trigger the banks system and may require it to be security checked.

plunt

i know when i first opened my santander 123 account (despite holding 5 other current accounts with them at the time) they blocked my 1k transfer out to my nationwide account. they called me up and explained i was transfering it to one of my own accounts and the next day it was all sorted. However after that i have been doing loads of transfers between my santander account and other accounts (back and forth in excess of 20k) and nothing has ever been stopped.

seems like an instant reaction in their system, im curious if you opened an account, put in say 10k, and then waited for a week, if the same thing would happen as may just be any transfer out above X amount as the first transfer will always be blocked

kissmoney

Well. I have used HSBC many years and did not have similar problem.Very disappointed. I don't worry mind their investigation,but want to know how long this can take. I visited branch few times, they only told me the case is under review nothing else. More than a week gone, and I assumed the investigation should only take few days.

plunt

I would recommend to anyone who gets a call like this to ask them for their name, and call back using the number on the Santander website.

Withholding information on the call as you did (which you clearly and understandably did for you own security) just sadly creates issues like this.

If they wont allow you to call back then their is something flawed in their approach!

kissmoney

I don't think I did any thing wrong when this guy called me. Firstly, my mobile phone didn't show his number. And during the conversation, he did not show his good manner, keeping asked me for the details of each transaction and where the money from. He has very strong accent(maybe irish, I am not sure). So I told him, can you forward the call to one of your colleague. But he still continued ask me to reply his questions. He even asked me with warning'Now I ask you the last time....' When I replied him with 'sorry I cannot catch your question'. He hanged the phone without bye.

maas

If you had used your existing bank account you might have avoided these problems. The moment you opened a new bank account to move money around, you open the door to this extra scrutiny.

The new bank wont process these transactions until they know more about the origin of the money, whereas your existing bank account (used for years) will have a profile and these transactions may just pass as "usual".

I would expect 2 weeks to be a reasonable amount of time for the bank to carry out its investigations. Have you raised a complaint?