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Bank Harassment

Hello

I am looking for some advice.

My wife has had the same bank account now for 4 years. It's a standard account her wages go into and some bills come out of. That's it, nothing fancy, just a run of the mill place for her wages to go.

Over the last few months she has been receiving letters from the bank threatening to restrict access to the account. The first ones were threatening that unless she completed a form asking loads of questions (I at first suspected some kind of scam, as the information was all things that her bank have been given), we queried this letter in branch and returned it, yet the letters persisted.

She was accused of ignoring phonecalls - this never happened, we even called them on more than 1 occasion. The last call was yesterday where I took the phone call and answered more questions.

When I ask why this is happening (in all my years of having bank accounts I have never encountered anything like this) I was told these letters were being sent to all their customers, I told them that I was a customer also and as were other family members - none of whom have ever received anything like these letters. They said we will. - I was told the same in a conversation months earlier - and still nothing to anyone else.

Now we have another letter sent after the conversation asking about another bank account - my wife doesn't have another bank account - again threatening to restrict access to the account. Needless to say this is causing a lot of stress and my wife is pregnant, who can I complain to about this as the bank are clearly lying to us about the purpose of this harassment. We have even checked my wifes' credit report for anything amiss and there is nothing - only the things we are aware of (and they come from this account).
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Comments

  • comeandgo
    comeandgo Posts: 5,930 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Have no idea who you should complain to about your wife being pregnant but I can't understand why the bank even discussed her bank account with you, thankfully my bank only discusses my accounts with me.
  • Sibz
    Sibz Posts: 389 Forumite
    100 Posts Combo Breaker Name Dropper First Anniversary
    comeandgo wrote: »
    Have no idea who you should complain to about your wife being pregnant but I can't understand why the bank even discussed her bank account with you, thankfully my bank only discusses my accounts with me.

    If you've nothing productive to offer go and troll elsewhere.
    Given authorisation from an account holder banks can discuss details with whomever the account holder authorises. Now crawl back under your rock
  • Tallaght
    Tallaght Posts: 1,632 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Obviously you must have power of attorney with the bank.
  • Sibz
    Sibz Posts: 389 Forumite
    100 Posts Combo Breaker Name Dropper First Anniversary
    Tallaght wrote: »
    Obviously you must have power of attorney with the bank.

    Simply, when a bank call you and you go through security, if you want them to talk with someone on your behalf you can authorise this then and there - standard practice - though not what my post was about.
  • Tallaght
    Tallaght Posts: 1,632 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 17 November 2018 at 6:57PM
    What bank is it ? Can you walk into a local branch ?
  • Uxb
    Uxb Posts: 1,340 Forumite
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 45,757 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    My wife has had the same bank account now for 4 years. It's a standard account her wages go into and some bills come out of. That's it, nothing fancy, just a run of the mill place for her wages to go.

    Switch and get a bonus?

    https://personal.natwest.com/personal/current-accounts/reward_account.html?extcam=N_AGG_MSE_MTA_Rwd_ALO_AL_LIST
  • meer53
    meer53 Posts: 10,217 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Why not just answer their questions ? Or is that a bit too obvious ?
  • Wyndham
    Wyndham Posts: 2,625 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I mean this respectfully, but feel I need to say it. If it is her account, and not yours, there may be something going on that you don't know about. And the bank should be protecting her privacy by not discussing it with you.

    I may well be wrong, of course, just putting it out there as a thought....
  • 18cc
    18cc Posts: 2,120 Forumite
    You don't say explicitly which bank you are talking about but I suspect it is HSBC as they are notorious for this in fact if you search this forum you will find at least one thread on the subject of safeguarding letters that might help you

    in the end you really only have two alternatives either answer their questions assuming you can get them to not lose the forms etc or switch and go elsewhere
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