NatWest suspended online banking - won’t tell me why

ratherPerturbed

The Natwest app was happy to allow me to make a payment to a new payee without anything else needed, other than verifying my mobile number.
They said there’s a daily limit of paying £750 to new payees.

Terry_Towelling

Righto, thanks for that.

Seems the most likely explanation is that NatWest wish to verify your identity before allowing the payment to go through and probably only the fraud team are in a position to do that - I'm guessing based on the Monzo link in Post #3 where it also suggests that banks are not permitted to tell you why they've blocked your account.

One wonders whether your account suspension has also blocked your debit card. If it hasn't (which is unlikely but worth checking) you could just use it make a payment to your credit card.

It strikes me as odd that banks will block an account rather than just a payment for a simple identity check. If they suspect criminal activity then account blocking sounds about right. Quite why they shoud suspect OP of criminal activity (if they do, that is) I have no idea. It also strikes me as odd that getting it unblocked requires you to contact them yet they aren't available at the weekends - for innocent people that could be a real problem. BTW, tomorrow is a bank holiday, so you might not be able to get through to them until Tuesday and, as Gary Dexter says, surely you have a lunch break to make the call - hopefully there won't be a long queue.

As for your date today, you'll have to use your credit card to pay for it!

jonnygee2

Like many posters on this forum who glibly throw the term "money laundering" around, you clearly do not have any idea how one might go about laundering money.

Moving money across accounts all in one's own name does not result in the money being "laundered" and is the last thing anyone attempting to "launder" money would do.

Sorry, that's incorrect. The pattern of new account set up - large transfer in - large transfer out is an extremely common one associated with financial crime.

People set up accounts, usually using other people's IDs, addresses etc or (increasingly) use money mules to set up accounts. Then they commit a financial crime, e.g. social engineering fraud. Money goes into a bank account. Then it gets passed pretty much instantly around a few other UK accounts before being transferred of the country. This obscures the trail for long enough for an international transfer to safely clear.

People who are money laundering usually try to keep their UK balances at zero because they know their accounts will be frozen at some point. They don't have normal account usage, card transactions etc - just large successive bank transfers.

This is why many banking systems will detect new accounts that fit this pattern and freeze them.

Sea_Shell

They obviously don't freeze them all the time. DH switched to RBS for their offer (same group), the account was opened, he deposited the required £1500, waited a few days (coz we needed a card reader!!) and then transferred it all back out again, albeit to an existing payee (himself) switched in. £0 Balance the rest of the time. The incentive was paid, and duly transferred out. The account is now being switched to Santander.

GDB2222

Sea_Shell wrote: »

They obviously don't freeze them all the time. DH switched to RBS for their offer (same group), the account was opened, he deposited the required £1500, waited a few days (coz we needed a card reader!!) and then transferred it all back out again, albeit to an existing payee (himself) switched in. £0 Balance the rest of the time. The incentive was paid, and duly transferred out. The account is now being switched to Santander.

One user on MSE has his main account, that stays fixed, plus a second account with several Direct debits that is just for switching to get the incentives.

The idea that someone has set up a bank account just to launder £500 seems a bit OTT to me.

Zero_Sum

We use Nat West at work & they occasionally freeze your login (not actual account) when making a payment for no reason. Think its just a random anti fraud thing, we just then phone up, answer a few security questions. But then thats business banking so probably a bit different.

jonnygee2

GDB2222 wrote: »

One user on MSE has his main account, that stays fixed, plus a second account with several Direct debits that is just for switching to get the incentives.

The idea that someone has set up a bank account just to launder £500 seems a bit OTT to me.

There are a load of scams (phone scams where they ask you to transfer to a 'safe account', fake items sold on Gumtree) etc that people need a UK account for. As soon as the scam gets reported, the account gets closed, so they are repetitively opening new accounts.

There are plenty of places in the world where £1000 -£2000 a month income is substantial. And this is the kind of thing that retail bank's fraud systems are mainly designed to look for - your everyday financial criminals. It's not all Russian oligarchs and holding companies in Panama!