A major bank has been refusing to let me withdraw £10k of family savings for over one month

User1234567

keef-WhatStandards wrote: »

I had a similar experience from a building society that took over from an online saver.

Turns out the online saver was US based and my DOB was transposed incorrectly from the US to the UK system. Month Date Year to Date Month Year.

FOS were no help, I even sent them a copy of my birth certificate.

Thanks for this. How long did your situation take to resolve?

User1234567

Migster wrote: »

One of the things that banks are required to do is to carry out PEP (politically exposed person) and sanctions checks. While these are done at the time of account opening, account holders need to be re-checked from time to time. By the sounds of it, the usage of your account shouldn't be the cause of the problem, so it's possible that you've been flagged erroneously as a PEP or sanctioned individual (I presume by "public sector", you aren't an MP or similar).

Thanks. This is definitely a potential cause that I wasn't aware of. Is there anything I can do to try to highlight this as a potential error or do I just have to wait for them to figure it out?

User1234567

Ben8282 wrote: »

Rather unusual hypothesising though.

I was asked [on this forum] what I had done to have caused this, and as I hadn't done anything, this was the only thing I could think of. I don't know if it's "unusual" or not but I can't think of anything else. Do you know any other reasons why they might have locked down my account without any obvious reason to the me as the account holder? Thanks

User1234567

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Can you tell us which bank it is, OP?

Posting online was really a last resort and my partner and I agreed that I would limit details as much as possible. Does it make a difference which bank it is in terms of what I can do? There aren't many major UK banks and it is one of them.

boo_star

snowqueen555 wrote: »

I have noticed a from recent threads of frozen accounts that the first insinuation is that the OP is suspicious. I don't think that line of tone is particularly nice or helpful!

Banks aren't in the habit of freezing customer's accounts without reason, why would they?

That's why the regulars are a bit sceptical when people claim "the bank closed my account but I did nothing wrong!"

boo_star

User1234567 wrote: »

Posting online was really a last resort and my partner and I agreed that I would limit details as much as possible. Does it make a difference which bank it is in terms of what I can do? There aren't many major UK banks and it is one of them.

Some are twitchier than others so yes, it does matter which bank it was.

Also some posters may have more intimate knowledge if they know which bank it is.

[Deleted User]

User1234567 wrote: »

Posting online was really a last resort and my partner and I agreed that I would limit details as much as possible. Does it make a difference which bank it is in terms of what I can do? There aren't many major UK banks and it is one of them.

I’m sure it will make zero difference naming the bank - and it’s not like you can be identified from your generic username in this forum either

nyermen

OP - the problem here (as I think is clear from other posters) is that "review" most likely means its referred for compliance concerns. The "unlimited time without telling you why" indicates this.
Thoughts:
1) Whomever you spoke to sees very little - as the compliance department can't control every call center employee they won't risk putting any more info on the main bank systems. Ditto FOS's information at this stage - they can't just pick up the phone to the bank and get all the details of your account from them, there's a process.
2) If it's a "big five" then they have a branch. Have you popped in with suitable ID, and tried to speak to someone (often there's people with "manager" on their name plates on the floor these days). Suggest that if the "review" team would like to contact you with any concerns you'll be happy to provide information (ie. source of funds). If nothing else, I'm sure the branch manager can put a note on the account.
3) Urgent house purchase - what does your conveyancer think? I presume they'd already reviewed/confirmed your source of funds (as they have to for compliance reasons anyway).
4) Is it all accounts or that one? Review your last statement for the account(s) frozen, see if there's anything different from normal - an extra payment you don't recognise (however small) etc.

Sadly, the FOS is right however - they can hold funds if they have reason to - but won't longer than necessary as if there isn't a good reason they would be held to account later. I suspect, sadly, that your account may just be in a queue for review by the bank's compliance team, in which case maybe ask the bank (in branch) how long it typically takes. Or name them here for others to give a view on how long.

nomorekids

Have you missed a communication from your bank requesting branch visit ? Could this be the reason for length of time and delay? I only say this as my son has been locked out of his account/account frozen following "suspicious" activity when he tried to transfer his next terms rent and not their interpretation "the bulk of his balance" from his student loan to an interest account.

Passport and driving licence shown at the bank a few days later plus a few questions and explanations, thankfully at local branch to him so he didn't have to come home but annoyingly having had to make appointment when he thought he could just turn up and all is well. He is still miffed about having no access to his money for a few days and that the above simple enough transaction was enough to trigger HSBC fraud team into freezing the transfer and access to his funds.

HSBC User123456? if so you are not alone, just saying

AnotherJoe

User1234567 wrote: »

I was asked [on this forum] what I had done to have caused this, and as I hadn't done anything, this was the only thing I could think of. I don't know if it's "unusual" or not but I can't think of anything else. Do you know any other reasons why they might have locked down my account without any obvious reason to the me as the account holder? Thanks

Can you clarify if your bank account was "hacked" or not? If it was presumably all the money went and was then replaced by the bank. That would be rather a major thing to omit.
If it wasn't and you were just making stuff up then all you've done is muddy the waters