Account frozen by co op bank savings

Yasmoh786

Hi, I'm new here I'm wondering if someone please could give me advice my savings account has been frozen by the co op and they won't tell me when I will have acess to it again.

I was naive and needed my cash for some things I wanted to do and didn't realise that there were rules to getting your money out.

They will not tell me anything, I only bank with them and half of my wages go into that account. It happened on the 9th September, since then I have moved all my other accounts to another bank.

Logged a complaint and raised it to the ombudsman, they are only picking complaints up in a 4 month window.

I have also sent a email to the ceo but they are keep saying we will have a update, I'm missed out on mortgage , parking and some other things I was committed to.

Please does anyone have any advice on what I can do or say .

Thank you 

unkle

Banks normally only freeze accounts like this if they think there is some sort of fraud/money laundering etc happening. Has there been any large withdrawals/pay in's or anything unusual? If they do suspect something I believe they aren't allowed to tell you until it's investigated.

Not sure what you mean by 'rules to getting money out'?

Albermarle

It is something that happens occasionally if an account is being investigated ( as said above ) .

Thrugelmir

Yasmoh786 said:

Please does anyone have any advice on what I can do or say .

Tell us why the bank had a reason to freeze your account, What activity caused it. 

Yasmoh786

So I wanted to withdraw my funds and didn't know you had to give reasons they didn't feel the reason was sufficient enough

Yasmoh786

It's half of my wages that go into the account , I honestly didn't know that you have to give specific reasons for withdrawals and I get its for my protection but even after explaining everything to them they have given an explanation to why they won't release the funds but will give no explanation to when I will have acess to it 

lozzy1965

If you can, it would be useful to know the reason.  I imagine the only reason they would disallow a withdrawal would be if they suspect fraud or a scam that they are protecting you from?

Yasmoh786

I was looking to purchase a high end vehicle from a auction and had a couple of weddings to attend and wanted a remortgage doing on my property. I agree that they wanted to protect me from being scammed is what they said ,however after emails going back and forth and after explanations being given they were not happy to release it which is fine, as I have set up with lloyds and have asked the funds to be released to them, however they are stalling and I don't know what else I can do. Very distressing for me.

eskbanker

Were you trying to make a substantial withdrawal in cash?

Yasmoh786

Yes silly of me I know 

dunstonh

Yasmoh786 said:

It's half of my wages that go into the account , I honestly didn't know that you have to give specific reasons for withdrawals and I get its for my protection but even after explaining everything to them they have given an explanation to why they won't release the funds but will give no explanation to when I will have acess to it 

There is a  transaction, or a series of transactions, that has led the bank to be concerned about suspicious/fraudulent activity on your account.  They are not allowed to tell you why they think this.

Have you done a some foreign currency transfers? or transferred money to a non-mainstream bank/institution?   Do you have a habit of paying money in and drawing it out again quickly after?   Any bitcoin transactions?   Or money paid in from third parties on a repeated basis?  (sometimes it isn't you directly but someone who paid money to you and you are caught by association).

Logged a complaint and raised it to the ombudsman, they are only picking complaints up in a 4 month window.

The FOS cannot look at a complaint until you have completed the complaints process with the bank anyway (or 8 weeks has passed without resolution).

The FOS would not be able to overturn a fraud review anyway.  Unless the reasons were not justifiable.