Natwest are closing my account after 27 years......

whiteswan

Ben8282 wrote: »

Whatever alarmist stories may be published by the media, I don't think that banks are going around closing long standing main current accounts on a whim. There must be some motive for a particular action. Suspicion of fraud or money laundering. Dormancy. Account misconduct/default. Etc.
The decision to close the OP's account may be nothing to do with the abovementioned events. For all we know, the OP may have been going constantly into unauthorised overdrafts or other such undesirable activity.
Although the OP states that similar activity regularly occurs on the account, that is not in fact the case. On this occasion there were two important differences. Firstly, the money was being transferred to a NEW savings account with another bank. Secondly, on this occasion because the 'battery in the card reader had expired' the OP had to both set up a new payee by phone then make the transfer by phone.
The OP has never stated how much money was in the envelope that the friend deposited. A good question at this point would be to ask the ORIGIN of this money. The OP states 'The paying in of cash and then transfer to my savings account is a regular occurrence and has been for the past few years' but where does this cash come from? This is the OP's main current account which receives their income 'wage goes in / dd's come out ', so where does this cash come from? If as a disabled person you find it difficult to do your own banking, then I am surprised that over the course of many years you have not found a better way of conducting your financial affairs than paying in cash from unknown sources and transferring the cash to other accounts.
I can well imagine that starting a conversation with 'I am recording this call' is probably not going to go down to well with the person at the bank. They are going to instantly assume that the call is a complaint and are at that point probably wishing that they had never answered the call.
You would normally only have needed to use the card reader to set up a new payee. So what you actually wanted to do in this call was not to make your usual transfer at all but instead to set up a new payee, an account with another bank, presumably in your name??? and transfer a (large?) sum of money to that account. A sum of money which had just been deposited in a branch in an envelope. She was probably wondering, as I am, why you bothered. Why didn't you arrange to pay this cash directly into the new account with the other bank? Oh yes. The other bank has no branch in your town. So just why did you open this new account with that bank anyway? Why, after all these years, did you change the destination account of this cash from unknown sources that your are saving regularly?
This really does look suspicious you know. The cash being paid into the account which already receives your wages in envelopes. Transferred out immediately to other accounts. It is actually difficult to quite understand why you choose to conduct your financial affairs in this way.

Thank You for your input - it does well to see all sides of a story and other peoples perspectives.

First of all I always explain why I am recording the call - if that makes them nervous and thinking that they wished they had never taken the call then so be it - is that not what they (companies, banks etc) do to us at the beginning of most calls ?

The amounts of monies involved is less than £100.00.

The cash was winnings from a bonus ball at work - but it could have been money loaned from/to a friend (being repaid), a scratchcard win etc - any situation that would mean I would have cash to pay into my bank.

It was a new savings account I had opened because of a good deal that was offer on account opening - surely this is not that unusual ?

As a disabled person the way I bank has been fine for "x" amount of years - so why would I change it now ?

As you state above - there is no branch local of the institution where I opened the new savings account - and I hadn't "changed destination" of the money going into savings - purely added a new savings account because of a good deal offered - again is it that unusual ?

I honest believe in my humble opinion that this in no way looks suspicious - maybe if I had waited for a new card reader to arrive and then set up the transfer without speaking to a human being........then maybe..........just maybe.........in the very very looses sense of the word could it be deemed as suspicious.

I honestly believe I paid the price for that ladies bad day - it was a simple request for a small amount of money to be transferred from my current account to a (new/additional) savings account - it went from "we have better savings accounts" to "take your business elsewhere" .

If I was suspected of money laundering / dodgy dealings etc - then whatever they suspect me of I couldn't have been very good at it asking to transfer such a small amount.

The account overall in my opinion has been run very well - it had a large (for me) overdraft of £5000 - this has been "dipped in to" on 3 occasions - all during house moves to buy furnishings etc - and on all 3 occasions was repaid the next month.

Probably too well............they don't make much (if any) money from myself............

Once again - thank you so much for taking the time to write your lengthy response.

I am going to "move on" to another bank.

Dave

MABLE

whiteswan wrote: »

Thank You for your input - it does well to see all sides of a story and other peoples perspectives.

First of all I always explain why I am recording the call - if that makes them nervous and thinking that they wished they had never taken the call then so be it - is that not what they (companies, banks etc) do to us at the beginning of most calls ?

The amounts of monies involved is less than £100.00.

The cash was winnings from a bonus ball at work - but it could have been money loaned from/to a friend (being repaid), a scratchcard win etc - any situation that would mean I would have cash to pay into my bank.

It was a new savings account I had opened because of a good deal that was offer on account opening - surely this is not that unusual ?

As a disabled person the way I bank has been fine for "x" amount of years - so why would I change it now ?

As you state above - there is no branch local of the institution where I opened the new savings account - and I hadn't "changed destination" of the money going into savings - purely added a new savings account because of a good deal offered - again is it that unusual ?

I honest believe in my humble opinion that this in no way looks suspicious - maybe if I had waited for a new card reader to arrive and then set up the transfer without speaking to a human being........then maybe..........just maybe.........in the very very looses sense of the word could it be deemed as suspicious.

I honestly believe I paid the price for that ladies bad day - it was a simple request for a small amount of money to be transferred from my current account to a (new/additional) savings account - it went from "we have better savings accounts" to "take your business elsewhere" .

If I was suspected of money laundering / dodgy dealings etc - then whatever they suspect me of I couldn't have been very good at it asking to transfer such a small amount.

The account overall in my opinion has been run very well - it had a large (for me) overdraft of £5000 - this has been "dipped in to" on 3 occasions - all during house moves to buy furnishings etc - and on all 3 occasions was repaid the next month.

Probably too well............they don't make much (if any) money from myself............

Once again - thank you so much for taking the time to write your lengthy response.

I am going to "move on" to another bank.

Dave

However it may be because of your attitude on the phone and no doubt they would have listened to the call afterwards they felt the banking relationship had broken down and this is the reason for closing your accounts. If they had expected anything under hand they would not be giving you 60 days notice.

mt99

this is all very strange - very surprised at a bank (even hsbc) closing an account because of £100 cash paid in and xferred to a new savings accoint. Even annoying a csr on the phone wouldnt cause that

MABLE

mt99 wrote: »

this is all very strange - very surprised at a bank (even hsbc) closing an account because of £100 cash paid in and xferred to a new savings accoint. Even annoying a csr on the phone wouldnt cause that

As I said the relationship and trust has broken down. This is proven by the fact the op said he was recording the call. I was given to understand you are not allowed to record the call without the advisors given there consent to being recorded.

If a person intends to make the conversation available, they must get the consent of the person being recorded.

Lungboy

By continuing with the call it could be argued that they are giving consent, having been told it's being recorded.

phillw

Lungboy wrote: »

By continuing with the call it could be argued that they are giving consent, having been told it's being recorded.

Consenting to it on one occasion doesn't mean they can't change their mind.

Without listening to the calls it's impossible to know what the fault lies. If you listen back to the call objectively and still feel as if you're in the right then make a formal complaint to your bank and take it to the ombudsman. I'd still recommend leaving.

Ed-1 wrote: »

They did it to me... presumably for opening 10 accounts online across RBS group (Ulster, Natwest, RBS) in relatively quick succession which were all subsequently switched out to Yorkshire Bank for £150 a time. So they were all going to be closed anyway but now I'm banned from banking with RBS group as well!

Do you blame them?

eskbanker

phillw wrote: »

I'd still recommend leaving.

Somewhat academic recommending jumping when OP has already been pushed!

whiteswan wrote: »

The letter says they are withdrawing banking facilities from myself - it doesn't request any id - it says I have 60 days to find another bank.

Ed-1

phillw wrote: »

Do you blame them?

Not particularly. Although I certainly am not the only one to have 'used' them for donor accounts, I was perhaps the most blatant about it. Having said that the closure letter was dated the day before the first switch request was received (you had to request switches with Yorkshire Bank by paper...) so they were perhaps a bit quick to jump to conclusions about my intentions (I wasn't an existing customer). Had they known all the accounts were going to be closed anyway maybe they wouldn't have decided to do what they did.

EachPenny

MABLE wrote: »

As I said the relationship and trust has broken down. This is proven by the fact the op said he was recording the call. I was given to understand you are not allowed to record the call without the advisors given there consent to being recorded.

But as the OP clearly states, he asked for the other parties consent for him to record the call and he says he explained the reasons why he needed to do so. A well trained and experienced CS agent would then immediately appreciate they were speaking to a customer who may not fall into the 'normal' category and would be expecting responses such as needing someone else to pay money in. If the CS agent had any doubts then the call should have been immediately transferred to a manager or the agent should have put the customer on hold while they asked a manager for advice. This is basic customer service stuff. The bank has failed.

Are you really suggesting that the 'relationship' has broken down due to a single telephone call? If we assume the OP's version is true then he doesn't appear to have done anything wrong.

Are you suggesting that any customer daring to make a complaint about a bank can reasonably expect themselves to have their banking facilities withdrawn?

Thrugelmir

whiteswan wrote: »

The cash was winnings from a bonus ball at work - but it could have been money loaned from/to a friend (being repaid), a scratchcard win etc - any situation that would mean I would have cash to pay into my bank.

Most people don't deposit and transfer out the same day to a different bank though. Legitimising money is often done a small scale so as not to raise suspicions. Why not simply deposit the money into the correct account at the outset? If on review there's a history of similar transactions. Then the bank may well simply decide that your custom isn't worth their time and trouble.