HSBC Bank account has been frozen

Fergus10

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What activity could have triggered their systems? Things happen for a reason. Normal personal banking activity is very straightforward. Wages in, payments and transfers out.

I've banked with HSBC for 25 years. My bank account is pretty mundane & ordinary so I have no idea what's triggered this investigation.

Fergus10

penners324 wrote: »

Your best option is to open a bank account with a different bank (Starling or Monzo are quick and straightforward).
Get some money into it and to pay your Bill's from there.

Do this today.

Your HSBC account has been frozen for suspected fraud. It wont get unlocked for weeks if ever.

Thanks a lot, I've opened a new bank account today.

Fergus10

18cc wrote: »

If you do get any further information come back and let us know it might help others in the same situation as you

I've posted an update from today, once this investigation is finally over I'll post a further update.

Fergus10

Jonathan_Kelvin wrote: »

If they suspect you of certain financial crimes then not only are they obliged to suspend your account but it would also be a crime for them to tell you why you have done it.

HSBC were fined billions of pounds not so long ago for not being as diligent as they ought to have been in this area, so are cautious now.

Have you been doing anything unusual in your account, such as transferring large amounts in and out, or accepting payments from others which you then withdraw to give them in cash?

Are you using it for business use, or have you been selling on eBay via it, and had any disputes raised?

No I haven’t been doing anything like that with my bank account. I heard about HSBC being over-vigilant checking bank accounts these days but in a million years I’ve no idea why they’re checking mine.

Fergus10

Robin9 wrote: »

Furgus10 - HSBC will take as long as they see fit - days, weeks ………. In the meantime they won't tell you anything.

There is something that has trigged their systems - someone you paid or received from that's "dodgy", bitcoin, foreign transactions, business.....

Have you another bank account to get your salary paid into ?

I honestly have no idea at all what might have triggered this as there's been no out of the ordinary transactions that I'm aware of in my account.

Terry_Towelling

Fergus1 wrote:

I also checked my banking app today & saw that although repayments for my mortgage, rent & a personal loan haven’t been paid, that on Mon 30th Dec they withdraw a £5 pre-notified overdraft fee for themselves!!!

I can quite understand how stressful this must be for you (especially at this time of year) when there has been absolutely no activity on your account that is anything other than completely normal, but do you actually have any money in the account? I ask because your paragraph (above) suggests you may actually be overdrawn.

Can you also confirm whether you are a landlord renting out your mortgaged property and living elsewhere, because paying a mortgage and rent at the same time is (whilst possible) unusual for most of us.

Fergus10 wrote:

I honestly have no idea at all what might have triggered this as there's been no out of the ordinary transactions that I'm aware of in my account

Could you please clarify what you mean by the text that I have highlighted in the above quote? Presumably, you have checked all traffic passing through the account and are fully aware that all is normal and above board.

Fergus10 wrote:

The branch manager told me that if I’m not at fault in this investigation then they’ll refund me any charges for unpaid bills & will amend my credit score

This is very interesting that the branch manager has confirmed there is an investigation. Did they say how they might amend your credit score if that became necessary?

Fergus10

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

I can quite understand how stressful this must be for you (especially at this time of year) when there has been absolutely no activity on your account that is anything other than completely normal, but do you actually have any money in the account? I ask because your paragraph (above) suggests you may actually be overdrawn.

Can you also confirm whether you are a landlord renting out your mortgaged property and living elsewhere, because paying a mortgage and rent at the same time is (whilst possible) unusual for most of us.



Could you please clarify what you mean by the text that I have highlighted in the above quote? Presumably, you have checked all traffic passing through the account and are fully aware that all is normal and above board.



This is very interesting that the branch manager has confirmed there is an investigation. Did they say how they might amend your credit score if that became necessary?

In response to your comments, at the beginning of December I accidentally went into an unauthorised overdraft as there wasn't enough money in my account that day to pay my bills as a payment I was due wasn't paid in on time. Since this time I've had money paid in my account and currently have money in my account that I can't access at the moment due to this investigation.

The situation with renting out my property and living elsewhere has been going on for years and the bank are fully aware of this so I don't think this is an issue (& there are legitimate reasons for why I'm in this situation so I'm not concerned that this is why this investigation is going on).

When I said "I have no idea at all what might have triggered this as there's been no out of the ordinary transactions 'that I'm aware of' in my account" - what I meant was I'm not aware of any unusual transactions but that's not to say somebody hasn't tried to do something with my account that I'm not aware of. This was a possibility mentioned to me in the branch when I first visited on Xmas Eve.

Re. comment by Branch Manager about the Investigation and amending credit score, I've actually posted an update this evening that mentions all of this.

Thanks for your interest in my post.

Terry_Towelling

Fergus10 wrote: »

Re. amending credit score, I've actually posted an update this evening that mentions all of this.

Thanks for your reply. Sadly, there is nothing anyone on this forum can do to help you. You just have to suffer - sorry.

When I asked about your credit score, I was actually interested in knowing exactly how HSBC intends to alter your credit score. Have they explained how they do this, and which credit score they will be altering? Have any of your scores dropped at all since your account was frozen? Have you checked your credit files to see if anything adverse is showing?

Thrugelmir

Fergus10 wrote: »

The situation with renting out my property and living elsewhere has been going on for years and the bank are fully aware of this so I don't think this is an issue (& there are legitimate reasons for why I'm in this situation so I'm not concerned that this is why this investigation is going on).

HSBC has formal policies for your circumstances. Consent to let is normally only granted on a short term basis. If the situation has been going on for years then the mortgage should have been switched to a Buy to Let.

born_again

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

When I asked about your credit score, I was actually interested in knowing exactly how HSBC intends to alter your credit score. Have they explained how they do this, and which credit score they will be altering? Have any of your scores dropped at all since your account was frozen? Have you checked your credit files to see if anything adverse is showing?

Given that no payments have been made out of the account DD's etc. These will be reported as missed payments.
So if the OP acc is reactivated as OK. Then I would say that they will amend the systems to show payments were not missed.

No offence to the OP. But something clearly has triggered something. Even though you think nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
Get ready for some tricky questions when they ring you up