Cash Plus FROZE my account and refuse to speak to me (Advanced Payment Solutions)

ActiveJustice

I received an email from cash plus asking to contact them. I did as requested, and spoke to a gentleman who proceeded to ask an uncomfortable line of questioning.

I was asked where my money was coming from, and I explained I have a business PayPal account and that all the payments made into the account are electronic payments which can be accounted for. Every single penny has documentation to show how it was earned and where it came from.

This gentleman insinuated it could be money laundering - impossible as 99% of all money deposited was electronic payments made by BACS transfer from PayPal, and each PayPal transaction can be accounted for. I emailed a piece of information to them that they asked for, a url link to an advert posted online. Although I asked for confirmation that this was received, the email was not acknowledged.

The following day, I suffered further humiliation when I found my card had been declined and I could not withdraw money from the ATM. I phoned the following day, but head office were not available as it was a weekend. I phoned the following Monday at 9am, only to be told by all staff that head office refuse to speak to me and will contact me in due course, with no set time frame or any information or reason to why my account was frozen. Them simply cite 'technical difficulties'.

This has lead to literally hundreds of phone calls from myself in an attempt to pressure them into giving me answers but they refuse. They refuse to reply to my emails, and they refuse to talk to me. I obtained the head offices number and when I attempt to speak to them they divert me back to customer services who then tell me the same thing "head office are citing technical difficulties and won't speak to you". Either that or they are rude to me, tell me not to call them anymore and hang up the phone. The department dealing with my case refuse to talk to me at all and when I get put through to them they immediately put down the phone on me.

Apparently they held a meeting to discuss the fact I won't stop calling them. This piece of information slipped out of one of the staff I spoke to on an unrelated department, the finance department. Yet still they will not call me and will not reply to my emails.

I have now obtained the CEO email address, and emailed him directly, he also will not reply to my emails. I have tweeted him on twitter, he doesn't reply. I tweeted the company and they blocked me. They currently have £1500 of my money, I can't use my card or log into my account, and they won't even speak to me to resolve this issue. I have offered to provide all documentation for every penny that went into the account - no reply. I don't feel I need to provide any information as I am entitled to my privacy, but I am willing to do it if needed.

It is only a prepaid master card for people with bad credit history, not like I should have to jump through hoops when it's an account with no benefits. They will not let me close the account either. I only had this account as I had a poor credit history and my financial situation improved dramatically. Once I resolve this and have it closed I'm going to try and open a proper account again. However this does not help with the situation I'm currently in.

In conclusion I am a sole trader, and without access to this money I am now sitting at home unable to work. I need the money to purchase stock and run the day to day operations of my business. I have explained this to the department handling my case and to the CEO Mr Wagner, but they do not care, I get no reply.

It is bad enough they blocked my card and account and are withholding my money, but the fact that they refuse to even speak to me is the most frustrating thing. I have never, ever dealt with customer service as poor as this, and have told them I will be contacting media outlets and the financial obudsman.

I do hope if anyone can help me that they please get in touch. I have found that they did the same thing to an 82 year old woman, froze her account and wouldn't let her close it until a journalist Tom Hazell contacted their CEO.

I'm sure others must be having problems with this company and I would like to untie with those people to have Advanced Payment Solutions practices scrutinised. What they are doing to me is just plain wrong.

alanq

All banks are now ultra cautious when money laundering is suspected. The penalties for allowing laundering to take place are far more of a risk to the bank than that of upsetting its innocent customers.

It is an offence for a bank to to inform the customer that it is being investigated. Hence many innocent people are given the run around. Guilty until proven innocent.

ActiveJustice

I've offered to provide documentation to show all transactions - who would be investigating me? And what do I do now?

magpiecottage

alanq is correct. It is also quite possible for money to be laundered via paypal as part of a process known as layering.

Consequently, banks do have to be cautious. They must also not tip you off that you are being investigated. However, it could be argued that by refusing to deal with you they are alerting you to the fact that something is up.

A real criminal would realise this and probably not draw attention to it on a forum such as this - although you could be double bluffing!

However, they still have a duty to treat customers fairly and to resolve matters within a reasonable timescale.

you still have the right to make a complaint - which is defined by the Financial Conduct Authority as "any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not".

However, when you called on the Monday to complain about your account being frozen, your complaint would have been "received". Unfortunately, they have eight weeks from that day to respond to it. If they do not contact you there is little you can do until the eight weeks are up.

I would, however, send a further e-mail, reminding them of the date on which you telephoned to say that your account has been frozen and insisting that it is released and redress made for the "trouble and upset" you have been caused - as well as the adverse effect on you ability to earn a living. The e-mail address appears to be complaints@apsgroup.com - assuming the correct website is http://www.mycashplus.co.uk/ .

If you do not get a satisfactory outcome after eight weeks, you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service without further reference to them.

ActiveJustice

I have an eBay shop, I'm not even sure how that layering even works or what it means. I've explained to them I'm going public and contacting journalists so believe me if I had anything to hide I would be quiet as a mouse - I have told them this also.

They haven't even told me they froze the account but this link here suggests they have : thisismoney. co.uk /money/experts/article-3127796/Cashplus-frozen-mum-s-account-won-t-allow-close-it.html

On Twitter I can see they also withheld 35,000 from someone.

Surely they can't completely refuse to speak to me for 8 weeks in possession of £1500 of my money, and earn interest off this. Emailing complaints won't help, not even emailing the ceo is working. It literally is going to take public attention to shame them into speaking to me.

jonesMUFCforever

Would this have happened if you had a proper business account with a proper financial institution?
To try and save some pennies in charges has resulted in this for you - is it worth it?

pmduk

Perhaps you should try contacting the journalist you mentioned earlier, I think it's Tony Hazell however at the Daily Mail.

chris_m

ActiveJustice wrote: »

It literally is going to take public attention to shame them into speaking to me.

If they are investigating for suspected money laundering, you can shout it from the rooftops or even take out full page ads in all the dailies and they still won't talk to you until the investigation is complete - because they are not allowed to.

ActiveJustice

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Would this have happened if you had a proper business account with a proper financial institution?
To try and save some pennies in charges has resulted in this for you - is it worth it?

Very annoying when you post on a forum and someone replies adding nothing of value, just to have a pop / criticise.

If you had taken the time to read what I said before replying, you'd be aware I did not use this account to avoid charges. I would have much preferred to have a business account, unfortunately you're stuck with these type of accounts with a prepaid MasterCard when you have a poor credit history.

I had a poor credit history at the time of opening, do you understand that?

So I have used this account to better my credit history as that what it is designed for, so I can get a business account. I really could care less about paying £7 a month when it will benefit me in the long run. So please read if you are going to take the time to reply, especially if it is just to post a negative criticism.

Thanks for the other posters on their educated opinions that actually give me information as to where I stand and what I can do from here. I have contacted the financial obudsman who has wrote to cash plus and emailed, and now are giving them 8 weeks to reply.

Can I ask what is the procedure for these type of investigations? If anyone knows of course. It's not a nice feeling to know you're being investigated, it's quite alarming and distressing, I think most people would be scared to hear that. Like I say I have everything to show, documented proof of everything, just don't like being kept in the dark.

Archi_Bald

ActiveJustice wrote: »

I have contacted the financial obudsman who has [STRIKE]wrote[/STRIKE] written to cash plus and emailed, and now are giving them 8 weeks to reply.

ActiveJustice wrote: »

Can I ask what is the procedure for these type of investigations?

You can ask but nobody will publish the procedures on a public internet forum.

ActiveJustice wrote: »

It's not a nice feeling to know you're being investigated, it's quite alarming and distressing, I think most people would be scared to hear that.

No need to be scared if you have nothing to hide. Annoyed, may be, but not scared.

You'll just have to sit it out - either you get an acceptable resolution within 8 weeks or you don't. If you don't, be prepared that any FOS investigation might take several more weeks or even months, and that the FOS might well side with CashPlus.

Good luck.

pmduk

ActiveJustice wrote: »

Can I ask what is the procedure for these type of investigations? If anyone knows of course. It's not a nice feeling to know you're being investigated, it's quite alarming and distressing, I think most people would be scared to hear that. Like I say I have everything to show, documented proof of everything, just don't like being kept in the dark.

The procedure in these investigation is to say nothing to the customer, as anything that is said may lead to criminal charges against the financial institution if it then transpires that customer has been up to no good. You're not in a nice position. In future don't keep all your eggs in one basket, though I appreciate that hindsight is 20/20.