NatWest closed my account.

xlnc99

Alot of gaping holes in this story. 
Come on OP - start again and tell us the truth without missing anything out.

A bank closing your account because you made a joint account application for the same bank. Doesnt add up.
However, on the off chance you are being 100% honest the likely explanation is that Natwest did a credit search when you applied and got spooked by a marker (most likely CIFAS) from either you or your partner and thus closed your account.

But would Natwest do another Credit Check if you are already with them? I am not so sure, i dont bank with them so others may know. I know once i added someone to Santander and no credit checks were undertaken. 

Either way email CIFAS for a SAR - that is the first thing to do

xlnc99

Also would like to add - not sure why you needed to mention your partner is a NHS Key worker. Not sure how that is relevant. Did you think more people would reply to your thread for stating that piece of information, as i realised you did not feel it was necessary to state your own occupation - i guess because it was not relevant to the matter at hand.

Ed-1

xlnc99 said:

A bank closing your account because you made a joint account application for the same bank. Doesnt add up.

It does add up with Natwest. There's seemingly no sense nor reason to some of their closure decisions. They seem to be automated based on a set of rules and not sense checked. They're nearly always following an application. 95% of the time (based on the 5,000+ people in a Facebook group) there's no CIFAS involved but often National Hunter is or some other source checked during a Bounceback Loan application. One poster stated that it appeared a comma in his address on his application was the source of the closure; the system assumed that as the address with the comma was inconsistent with the address without the comma (which was why their previous BBL applications had been failing - the address at Companies House had the comma) a false address had been provided and triggered closure just after the applicant had finally had a BBL application accepted after a few auto declines without the comma.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/3096246600404581

xlnc99

Not sure why Natwest are doing this and what the benefit for them is to lose so many customers. Very odd going ons at Natwest.
Should count yourself lucky OP, move to a different bank. My recommendations are Lloyds, Halifax and BOS. By far the best ive bank ive had. Closely followed by Santander.

Ed-1

xlnc99 said:

Not sure why Natwest are doing this and what the benefit for them is to lose so many customers. Very odd going ons at Natwest.
Should count yourself lucky OP, move to a different bank. My recommendations are Lloyds, Halifax and BOS. By far the best ive bank ive had. Closely followed by Santander.

Not lucky if they're still waiting to get their money back. When Natwest triggers 'immediate' closure (they normally say "we can close the accounts immediately in certain circumstances but we're giving you 14 days notice and restricting all services immediately) they make you fill out a funds release form which they say takes 60 working days to process. Some people have been waiting nearly a year to get their funds back in rare cases but it's far from common to get it back before 3 months.

Natwest process goes something like:
1. National Hunter flags a part of the application as suspect
2. Text sent to customer saying can no longer provide banking facilities
3. Letter sent containing funds release form
4. Fraud team take an age reviewing the funds in the account before releasing it to customer 

Alex9384

xlnc99 said:

But would Natwest do another Credit Check if you are already with them? I am not so sure, i dont bank with them so others may know. I know once i added someone to Santander and no credit checks were undertaken.

NatWest do credit checks whenever they can. They will search you for every new product you apply for.
A few weeks ago I did comparison with Halifax, who do not credit search you once you are their customer.
The result was, 5 new products with Halifax (second current account, new overdraft + later 2x increasing this OD, new credit card) with 0 credit searches. If I did the same thing with NatWest, it would mean 5 hard searches on my files.

YorkieB

I had quite the opposite problem - I asked NatWest to close my current account but they continued to send me emails and bank statements for weeks after. It turned out that it was linked to a Rewards account that needed to be closed separately.

born_again

Ed-1 said:

xlnc99 said:

A bank closing your account because you made a joint account application for the same bank. Doesnt add up.

It does add up with Natwest. There's seemingly no sense nor reason to some of their closure decisions. They seem to be automated based on a set of rules and not sense checked. They're nearly always following an application. 95% of the time (based on the 5,000+ people in a Facebook group) there's no CIFAS involved but often National Hunter is or some other source checked during a Bounceback Loan application. One poster stated that it appeared a comma in his address on his application was the source of the closure; the system assumed that as the address with the comma was inconsistent with the address without the comma (which was why their previous BBL applications had been failing - the address at Companies House had the comma) a false address had been provided and triggered closure just after the applicant had finally had a BBL application accepted after a few auto declines without the comma.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/3096246600404581

Well if they are doing a Bounceback Loan application on a personal account, then it is going to flag a problem on a personal account being used by a business.
So the "comma" could be totally irrelevant. As you would expect someone to know how to enter their own address in the correct format.

Ed-1

born_again said:

Ed-1 said:

xlnc99 said:

A bank closing your account because you made a joint account application for the same bank. Doesnt add up.

It does add up with Natwest. There's seemingly no sense nor reason to some of their closure decisions. They seem to be automated based on a set of rules and not sense checked. They're nearly always following an application. 95% of the time (based on the 5,000+ people in a Facebook group) there's no CIFAS involved but often National Hunter is or some other source checked during a Bounceback Loan application. One poster stated that it appeared a comma in his address on his application was the source of the closure; the system assumed that as the address with the comma was inconsistent with the address without the comma (which was why their previous BBL applications had been failing - the address at Companies House had the comma) a false address had been provided and triggered closure just after the applicant had finally had a BBL application accepted after a few auto declines without the comma.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/3096246600404581

Well if they are doing a Bounceback Loan application on a personal account, then it is going to flag a problem on a personal account being used by a business.
So the "comma" could be totally irrelevant. As you would expect someone to know how to enter their own address in the correct format.

The guy that had the problem with the comma was a small business owner.
They kept having their BBL application auto declined and couldn't understand why. They then contacted Experian and pulled up their business's credit report and found that the business address had a comma in because this was how it had been keyed at Companies House. So they submitted a 5th attempt at the BBL application with Natwest, thus time with the comma in the address and it went through - until they got a text the next day revoking all facilities. Now whether it was the comma that directly or indirectly triggered the closure is unclear. But there's a clear pattern with Natwest group doing this where something doesn't match something given on a previous application.

Another guy had facilities revoked and when they took Natwest to court the reason came out as a different business turnover amount was declared on the BBL application compared to a previous application for a business current account.

Alex9384

I'm wondering if I can have problem in the future with some banks due to my job title or sector / industry. Not all banks and insurance companies allow my to type in my exact job title. I can only choose from options they are giving me. But not all of them are giving the same options. So, as a warehouse worker, sometimes I have to choose "distribution" and sometimes "retail" because there's nothing more accurate.