Multiple accounts for interest

Zero_Sum

Ed-1 wrote: »

When you say "circulate the same cash round the accounts" it is a very wise idea to go Bank A -> Bank B -> Bank A and Bank A -> Bank C -> Bank A etc. rather than Bank A -> Bank B -> Bank C -> Bank A. For money laundering reasons.

Really?

Is a few hundred quid once a month which covers the funding requirements as per that banks t&c's going to be pulled up for fraud? More so as with electronic transactions theres a full audit trail between banks. If you're going to launder money you'd be taking it out in cash & going to bookies or something.

prezzacc

Agree with Zero Sum, is moving money between a few accounts to fulfill the T&C going to be picked up as fraud/laundering? They surely are happy that I have my money with them and make a couple payments?

Out of interest then has anyone opened that many accounts and moved that much money to get into any trouble?!

Ed-1

Zero_Sum wrote: »

Really?

Is a few hundred quid once a month which covers the funding requirements as per that banks t&c's going to be pulled up for fraud? More so as with electronic transactions theres a full audit trail between banks. If you're going to launder money you'd be taking it out in cash & going to bookies or something.

It's unlikely to be pulled up in terms of accounts getting frozen/closed if that's all that's happening but it makes you a higher risk in the bank's eyes if (without thinking about it) other payments end up going through it as well.

msallen

Ed-1 wrote: »

When you say "circulate the same cash round the accounts" it is a very wise idea to go Bank A -> Bank B -> Bank A and Bank A -> Bank C -> Bank A etc. rather than Bank A -> Bank B -> Bank C -> Bank A. For money laundering reasons.

I've been doing Bank A -> Bank B -> Bank C -> Bank D etc for years with no issues.

Ed-1

msallen wrote: »

I've been doing Bank A -> Bank B -> Bank C -> Bank D etc for years with no issues.

You may see no apparent issues but you don't know what's happening behind the scenes in terms of your risk level. Money laundering regs have been really tightened up over recent years and banks are getting more and more cautious. Ultimately you don't know whether your activity has ever been monitored and if something you might see as trivial were to happen with any of the accounts, the previous activity could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I've done a lot of delving into behind the scenes stuff through subject access requests and some of the stuff they note is quite surprising. It makes you think twice about how someone else looking at the activity can misinterpret it and it's best to make it as clear as possible that there's nothing untoward behind the activity to avoid them getting the wrong impression for the simple reason that if they do get the wrong impression the law makes it practically impossible to engage with the issue.

colsten

Ed-1 wrote: »

You may see no apparent issues but you don't know what's happening behind the scenes in terms of your risk level. Money laundering regs have been really tightened up over recent years and banks are getting more and more cautious. Ultimately you don't know whether your activity has ever been monitored and if something you might see as trivial were to happen with any of the accounts, the previous activity could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I've done a lot of delving into behind the scenes stuff through subject access requests and some of the stuff they note is quite surprising. It makes you think twice about how someone else looking at the activity can misinterpret it and it's best to make it as clear as possible that there's nothing untoward behind the activity to avoid them getting the wrong impression for the simple reason that if they do get the wrong impression the law makes it practically impossible to engage with the issue.

Scaremongering.

Banks will obviously notice transactions that shift the same amount of money in and out of an account on the same day but they are smart enough to determine whether someone just shifts money between their own accounts or whether it's money laundering. Banks also know why some of us are shifting the same sums on a single day month in, month out.

Ed-1

colsten wrote: »

Scaremongering.

Banks will obviously notice transactions that shift the same amount of money in and out of an account on the same day but they are smart enough to determine whether someone just shifts money between their own accounts or whether it's money laundering. Banks also know why some of us are shifting the same sums on a single day month in, month out.

That's what you'd hope and that's what I thought a few years ago. But you learn to realise that some of them really aren't that clever.

colsten

Ed-1 wrote: »

That's what you'd hope and that's what I thought a few years ago. But you learn to realise that some of them really aren't that clever.

To clarify, I was talking about transactions to meet the monthly minimum deposits to be eligible for some current account perks, not about transactions designed to exploit different times for the daily account totting-up processing. I am not surprised if banks close accounts for the latter, and I have heard credible reports of multiple such instances. Although that second type of transactions wouldn't be classified as money laundering, either, if all the accounts involved belong to the same person. They'd just be classified as severe p$$$taking - more severe than exploiting the little interest/rewards etc game some of us like to play.

Ed-1

colsten wrote: »

To clarify, I was talking about transactions to meet the monthly minimum deposits to be eligible for some current account perks, not about transactions designed to exploit different times for the daily account totting-up processing. I am not surprised if banks close accounts for the latter, and I have heard credible reports of multiple such instances. Although that second type of transactions wouldn't be classified as money laundering, either, if all the accounts involved belong to the same person. They'd just be classified as severe p$$$taking - more severe than exploiting the little interest/rewards etc game some of us like to play.

I wasn't referring to the latter activity either. But someone I know tried this and indeed accounts got closed.

I'm referring to cumulative little things of which transfers in and out to a different account is one that could be put together to create a misleading picture. E.g. the below is from a subject access request and the situation - in line with many on here - merely represents lots of open accounts for interest/rewards, 0% overdrafts being stoozed and transfers in/out to meet interest. But they are doing things like emailing MLRT (money laundering reporting team?) etc.:

colsten

I see nothing untoward in these notes. No idea what MLRT stands for.

Personally, I wouldn't be concerned either if any Money Laundering team has looked, or is looking at my accounts and transactions. I would expect they do, as part of the Fraud Prevention measures any good bank would have.

I'd actually be a lot more concerned if they didn't look at my accounts because only be looking at them can they determine that there's no money laundering happening from my accounts.

It's a bit like the screening at airports. Without checking me, they don't know whether I am a terrorist carrying explosives. Whilst I never do carry any explosives, I fully understand why they do need to confirm that I don't.