Barclays have just frozen my account

charlybarly

bobobski wrote: »

Is it just me who thinks you should find out what happened before complaining?

KYC is a !!!!! but we'd all complain a lot more if the banks let things which they consider to be suspicious go without enquiry.

You may not consider your own behaviour suspicious, because you know where the money came from and where it went and that it's all legitimate. But banks have to have a low tolerance for being spooked.

Maybe find out first what spooked them, if anything. If it was something you did which gave them legitimate (albeit annoyingly) reason to take their chosen cause of action, all complaining will do is mark you as a troublesome customer and leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. This all happened just over 24 hours ago, on a weekend. Perhaps give them a couple of working days to send you this promised letter (factoring in the weekend) and then reassess?

The priority should be getting your money back, not complaining about overcautious banks implementing the high level of regulation which we as a country forced them to do.

You're right of course. I cannot do anything to resolve this problem until Monday morning at the earliest, and even then it might take until I get the dreaded letter.
My point is not being told why - I think as a customer of decades its something I should expect. That alone is worthy of complaint.

jumperabv3

charlybarly wrote: »

I think as a customer of decades its something I should expect. That alone is worthy of complaint.

Bank loyalty is so meaningless nowadays, I'm not too sure how to explain it ... perhaps having a completely new account is different than one having the account for 1 year or more ... but that's about it.

Loyalty beyond I'd say 6 months or 1 year is completely meaningless ... banks can shut down anyone anytime they want, they don't have to give our any reason.

The letter you're expecting to receive is going to contain a very generic reason for the closure something along the lines of "We are allowed to close any account for any reason whatsoever and that's why we closed your account", they won't give you any further information beyond this point.

I have 3 bank accounts (Barclays, Metrobank and Post Office), I used to have Halifax but it got closed:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5494413

I don't put my savings in neither, I opened several accounts overseas which I trust much more than any of the UK Banks (or the British Pound as currency)... never put all your eggs in 1 basket and furthermore if you can open accounts overseas do it - my Citibank Hong Kong account has around $1,500 USD in it, but it's very useful for travel and other purposes... you don't need to be rich to open accounts overseas.

I personally do not trust any bank whatsoever and will switch upon first sign of any warning whatsoever, in the UK or overseas ...

Trust only in yourself.

bobobski

charlybarly wrote: »

You're right of course. I cannot do anything to resolve this problem until Monday morning at the earliest, and even then it might take until I get the dreaded letter.
My point is not being told why - I think as a customer of decades its something I should expect. That alone is worthy of complaint.

Unfortunately telling you what's wrong while they're investigating goes against money laundering law (which is the basis for KYC). It's very annoying, but I think they're in the right here, assuming there's something which they reasonably consider "dodgy" going on. Wait til they send you the letter then take action I say

warby68

You have mentioned a whole host of things that, unfortunately, might trigger a review:

- running a personal account as (or like) a business one
- high volume of small transactions
- an out of the ordinary high value transaction
- unclear personal status (retired/employed/self-employed)
- reporting a faulty card but then using it
- level of turnover compared to what they last knew about you

Or it may be an error caused by the incorrect handling of the card problem?

If any of the concerns are related to money laundering or other suspicious activity they are simply not allowed to tell you. However my view is that they wouldn't freeze your account immediately if this was the issue as this would actually alert you - I may be wrong though.

I think you need to wait and see also - in my mind it is always better to be sure what the problem is and what the offered solutions are before jumping straight into 'complaint & compo' mode. You tend to get a better result if someone has a degree of discretion regarding your case if you are reasonable. If you treat someone doing their job as immediately in the wrong, they will not want to cut you any slack. The sad truth is that as a non-fee paying personal customer you aren't worth much to any Banks these days - even deposits have minimal value. The regulatory threat has much higher priority than the loss (or upset) of non-profitable customers of many years.

As others say, your priority here is access to your money and that should be the focus of the initial conversations (as well as another account with a different Bank)

I don't think you need to read too much into what you were told on a weekend - yes the lines are open but the specialist staff tend to be M-F, 9-5 workers.

jumperabv3

warby68 wrote: »

I don't think you need to read too much into what you were told on a weekend - yes the lines are open but the specialist staff tend to be M-F, 9-5 workers.

So we reached a point in our society where a 9-5 worker is responsible for someone to have no access to funds in the past weekend? (without playing the blame game telling him to not put all his money in one account ... I'm referring to the general concept)

The whole system needs to change, it can't go on like this ... I don't think the banking system in its current form can last forever. It has to change.

bigadaj

jumperabv3 wrote: »

So we reached a point in our society where a 9-5 worker is responsible for someone to have no access to funds in the past weekend? (without playing the blame game telling him to not put all his money in one account ... I'm referring to the general concept)

The whole system needs to change, it can't go on like this ... I don't think the banking system in its current form can last forever. It has to change.

To an extent you are missing the point.

The idea of loyalty and a trusted bank is now several decades out of time.

We've had enough experience of banking groups failing, I'm thinking in terms of systems failures rather than the gfc, to deliver service to customers. Where there is any opportunity to put in place your own insurance in terms of additional accounts then people should do so, the fact this pays you to do so is even more reason.

charlybarly

UPDATE

I feel a whole lot better now than I did at the weekend.
The branch staff were very helpful and did reveal a little about what my status is.
The review is nothing to do with my business and the running of it through my current account.
It also has nothing to do with the card changeover (and just to correct several posts in this thread, I did NOT use my new card, my second successful attempt at the ATM was sone with my old one)
The reason the fraud dep't were alerted to my account was that on Friday, approx. £2000 was paid into my account. I know nothing of this payment and was not expecting such a sum from anyone I know.
The lady at the branch asked me if I had been expecting such a payment, which I answered no.
The good news was that she confirmed that all my bills would be processed as normal and she allowed me to withdraw a sum of money so I can buy food, petrol etc.
I now have to wait for Barclays to investigate and hopefully clear things up.
In the meantime I can be satisfied that my transactions are going through and I have cash for the short term.
Thanks to all who have contributed so far.

JGUK

Well its good you're getting somewhere.

Now you know the reason, I'd open a formal complaint and look at some compensation.

FOREVER21

charlybarly wrote: »

UPDATE

I feel a whole lot better now than I did at the weekend.
The branch staff were very helpful and did reveal a little about what my status is.
The review is nothing to do with my business and the running of it through my current account.
It also has nothing to do with the card changeover (and just to correct several posts in this thread, I did NOT use my new card, my second successful attempt at the ATM was sone with my old one)
The reason the fraud dep't were alerted to my account was that on Friday, approx. £2000 was paid into my account. I know nothing of this payment and was not expecting such a sum from anyone I know.
The lady at the branch asked me if I had been expecting such a payment, which I answered no.
The good news was that she confirmed that all my bills would be processed as normal and she allowed me to withdraw a sum of money so I can buy food, petrol etc.
I now have to wait for Barclays to investigate and hopefully clear things up.
In the meantime I can be satisfied that my transactions are going through and I have cash for the short term.
Thanks to all who have contributed so far.

Glad you seem to be getting some information about what is happening and that at least they gave you access to some cash.

However 2 points I am surprised that the fraud dept. got involved with ( in banking terms) such a small deposit, after all if as you say you use your account for business they must be used to money going in.

Secondly when like you my account at Barclays was frozen after a suspect transaction, and nobody including branch staff were prepared to tell me why it had happened.

charlybarly

I gleaned the information incrementally from a helpful teller who may well have revealed more than she should, she was certainly sympathetic to my situation and I kind of played on that a little by asking her a number of questions about the suspension.
I am only speculating about the reason for their intervention (the deposit of a sum of money), it may well be something else entirely that they have yet to disclose.