Bank have closed my account HELP!

irishmama

My husband and I separated a year ago, we had 2 joint bank accounts through the duration of our marriage. when we seperated I opened a new bank account in my own name (with a new bank) and have been using that account ever since. My child benefit however was still being paid into one of the joint accounts. My ex husband lost his job in may of last year and found new employment quickly but has taken a 62% pay cut. All his finances are being dealt with by a debt management company because of this. They allocated him £150 per week child maintenence (we have 3 small children).

This month because of christmas coming up he decided to give me the whole months money up front instead of weekly(£600) I have been selling on ebay and gumtree for the past few months to get some money together for christmas, this was also sitting in the joint account that the child benefit was being paid into (£250). When my ex transferred the child maintenence into my account on friday I (stupidly) decided to lodge it into the joint account that the other christmas funds were sitting in, that took the balance up to £850.00. This was not all for christmas as I have utiity bills to pay out of his maintenence money . I went to use my card in tescos this evening and it was declined. I logged on to my internet banking and the account no longer is showing up. Im panicking now as I know my husband has debts with this bank and Im scared they have closed this account and will now use the balance to pay off the exisiting debts can they do this? I will be ringing them first thing in the morning (its 5am and I cant sleep ) I just need some advice as to how to handle this? Please help! If this money is gone I dont know how Im going to pay bills this month or get anything for the kids for christmas .

mwarby

Your husbands debt management company may be able to help.

Depending on the debt solution your husband is in the bank may or may not be allowed to offset. If he's in Bankruptcy\IVA\DRO the right of set off will have been removed, if it's just a debt management plan the right of set off will still be there

If they have no right of set off, the bank should refund the money (the debt management company will have contacts for the right department in the bank.

If the right of set off still exists, there are 2 options. The first is to appeal to the banks better nature and see if they will reverse the transaction. The second depends on level of repayments, but the debt management company could(not saying they will) take your accidental repayment off the next one due and pay you direct

I'd get the child benefit payments switched ASAP. By all means have a joint account, but not one with a creditor. You might also want to think about the impact on your credit score, as a joint account will link your scores(dragging yours down)

grumbler

Banks don't just close accounts suddenly. Normally the T&C say that they have to give a notice well in advance unless the account is used for fraud.

agrinnall

grumbler wrote: »

Banks don't just close accounts suddenly. Normally the T&C say that they have to give notice well in advance unless the account is used for fraud.

There's absolutely nothing in what the OP has written to suggest that the account has been closed, so the title is probably a bit misleading. Most likely is that the funds in the account have been used for set off so there's nothing available to use in any other transaction, although it's possible that the account has been frozen for some reason.

grumbler

agrinnall wrote: »

There's absolutely nothing in what the OP has written to suggest that the account has been closed, ...

irishmama wrote: »

...I logged on to my internet banking and the account no longer is showing up.

................

agrinnall

Yes, you're right, I'd missed that, mea culpa...

If the account has gone from internet banking because it's been closed then as you said earlier it's probably because they have good reason to suspect fraudulent or other criminal activity, in which case the money may be gone for good.

grumbler

Well, it's possibly not Barclays, but if you remember they make accounts overdrawn by £1m - £2m in such cases, not make them disappear from online banking.

I guess all banks have their own know-how for causing inconvenience and stress to their innocent customers.

colsten

grumbler wrote: »

Banks don't just close accounts suddenly. Normally the T&C say that they have to give a notice well in advance unless the account is used for fraud.

As it seems a joint account that has disappeared, and as the other account holder probably lives at a different address, notice might have been given to that different address.

Westie983

could your husband have closed the account down? as one of the account holders, or taken the funds? it may not be anything to do with the bank.