Really need advice, Tesco Frozen Account

justcheckingin

Hi All.

I've had a current account with tesco bank for a while now and had no issues whatsoever, last Wednesday i sold my car to a garage who paid me £17,500 via FPS into my tesco bank account. At that time, i opened an internet savings account with them, and transferred £10,000 into that account (whilst leaving £7,500 in my current account). Immediately the savings account was frozen, I phoned tesco who told me this was standard procedure and after 24 hours the block would be gone, it wasnt, on thursday i spoke to someone else who told me it would be a further 24 hours, at the end of Friday i received a phone call from a very rude man at Tesco, he told me to stop phoning them (yes, that's correct) because they were doing security checks and they would not be releasing my money and unfreezing the savings account until they were ready. I enquired as to how long they would be taking to complete these security checks and he said they are working within FCA guidelines and don't need to give me a timescale, i found this bizarre, i said so you're telling me you will be withholding my £10,000 for a week? a month? a year? whatever you see fit? he said it will take as long as it takes.

Now, i find this bizarre. They have NOT frozen my current account, i have offered to send them copies of the sale document for the car which they have declined to accept and said wont be necessary. my current account isnt frozen just the new savings account that i opened. They have literally told me to just leave them to it and they will contact me when they have a decision on what they're doing, they'll give me absolutely NO information as to why the newly opened account was frozen upon transferring the £10k, and i'm becoming a little worried after 6 days with no contact and no change.

Any advice would be very helpful as i'm just being fobbed off now.

Thank you

colsten

You could ring the FOS on 0800 023 4567 and ask for their guidance. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

justcheckingin

Thank you. I had already called them and asked and they refused to offer advice or guidance until 8 weeks had elapsed.

grumbler

justcheckingin wrote: »

... he said they are working within FCA guidelines and don't need to give me a timescale, i found this bizarre, i said so you're telling me you will be withholding my £10,000 for a week? a month? a year? whatever you see fit? he said it will take as long as it takes.

Now, i find this bizarre.

So do I. So do all normal people. The only people who don't are our lawmakers that seem to live on another planet.

Any advice would be very helpful as i'm just being fobbed off now.

Relax as you can't do anything. Every cloud has a silver lining. Your current account isn't frozen and you aren't starving like many other victims of the arrogant lawmakers and banks are.

diamonds

Login to tescobank, then you can lodge a formal complaint online. Ask for all responses in writing.

Include in that the evidence you offered where the money came from was refused. (Which would tie up to the depositors account)

Yes it is unfair, but the current security status in Europe means further checks will be carried out ontop of already stringent financial checks in place for large sums.


Obviously tesco have policy on security checks and time frames for these situations but sounds like tesco poorly train their staff if they cannot answer basic questions about such to reassure a customer this is a normal situation for a few checks within X days.


A ombudsman cannot help in immediate assistance, the Financial Conduct Authority can assist http://www.fca.org.uk

xylophone

I imagine that the telephone call was recorded.

Deliberate rudeness to a customer in response to a reasonable enquiry is not acceptable - you can put in a formal complaint.

GingerBob_3

Don't forget, when all this is sorted out, close your account with the buffoons, and tell them in writing (to the CEO) in the strongest possible terms why you're doing so, and remind them what an arrogant bunch of slime dwellers they are.

NectarCollector

Don't forget, nothing will have been done since Friday-Monday anyway due to Easter bank holiday.

bobobski

xylophone wrote: »

I imagine that the telephone call was recorded.

Deliberate rudeness to a customer in response to a reasonable enquiry is not acceptable - you can put in a formal complaint.

I know it's really not the point here, but I once had an issue with Nationwide, complained about it, they listened back to the recording of the telephone call and gave me £50 in compensation (they offered, I didn't ask). Food for thought when this is all over.