Santander blocked my account

whyyao11

Hi there I am new this forum thing and I was wondering if anyone can help me regarding my issue. I have a Santander student account right now. However, I found my account was blocked yesterday afternoon. The customer service team said nothing about my situation, the only thing they told me is 'we will call you when the situation updated'. I think the only weird thing I did is I bought several exact same travel insurance (about £12 each) for my friends within 3 days. I bought the last one yesterday morning successfully and then I found my account blocked in the afternoon. So guess that might be the reason. Does anyone know how long this takes until they solve this? I really need my money to live here and pay for my tuition fee!

Thanks for the help in advance.

BoGoF

How many is 'several' and why are you paying for their insurance?

colsten

Did any of your friends ever send you money by bank transfer? Did you ever do a bank transfer to any of them?

whyyao11

Yes, but just two persons did the bank transfer to me. I think it is a pretty normal situation.

whyyao11

BoGoF wrote: »

How many is 'several' and why are you paying for their insurance?

4 times in total.

colsten

whyyao11 wrote: »

Yes, but just two persons did the bank transfer to me. I think it is a pretty normal situation.

It's not the number of times that matters but who the people are. If either one of them is being investigated, or connected to someone who is, you might also be caught in the net.

If Santander are evasive about the blocking of your account, you should be prepared for a long-ish wait before you hear again.

whyyao11

colsten wrote: »

It's not the number of times that matters but who the people are. If either one of them is being investigated, or connected to someone who is, you might also be caught in the net.

If Santander are evasive about the blocking of your account, you should be prepared for a long-ish wait before you hear again.

Thank you for your reply. But the question is, how long should I wait approximately?

colsten

Who knows. If it's an official investigation, and if others [who you may or may not know] are involved, it could be several weeks. If you are certain that neither you nor the people you received money from have done anything wrong, you could forcefully put your case to Santander. I have no idea whether this would speed things up.

You could also consider going to the Press, e.g. the Guardian, if you think they might be able to help. I saw this in another, unrelated, post:

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU.

george2571

If i was you i would be very careful when letting people bank transfer to me, banks always check who has sent money to you and if your friend is being investigated by their bank it will automatically raise the red flag even though it may not necessarily be a fraudulent transaction. I would also be careful and see if there could be a CIFA's marker on your address. There was once on on my address and not in my name but still affected me so make sure you check in with everyone you live with.

Please let us know the outcome and how you got on!

Regards and best of luck,
george2571