HSBC suspended account - help!

pittbakes

My husband was recently gifted some money by a close family member to invest in a company (a totally legitimate company I hasten to add - nothing dodgy at all). When he tried to make the payment to the company, HSBC flagged it up as possibly fradulent and he had to call them to assure them he was not being scammed. Eventually they said they would release the payment but said there would be further checks made as it went through. The upshot of that is that the payment wasn't made and his account is now suspended - they have told him he needs to come into the branch with a form of ID to verify that it's him making the payment (I assume they're suspicious that he's had his account taken over by a fraudster, even after the extensive time he spent speaking to them about it). He can't do this until tomorrow. In the interim he can't use his debit card and he can't log in to his online account.

It's a joint account, however, and I can still log in and I can still use my debit card. I assume therefore that it's only his access that has been suspended rather than the account itself being frozen. However I have really worried myself reading the numerous stories on here and other places about banks freezing or closing accounts and it taking weeks if not months to be able to get hold of your money. Almost all our money is tied up in this account (yes I know that's unwise and we will certainly be opening another account!) so if I suddenly lose access to it as well we are stuffed.

My question is:

1) What happens to a joint account in this instance? Has anyone else been in a similar situation with a joint account?
2) Does anyone know how likely it is to be resolved if he goes into the branch with ID? It seems more complicated than that for other people (so I've read). 
3) My husband wants me to move some of our money out of the joint account and into another current account today just in case (I have one my name only that payment for my freelance work goes into) - I'm really nervous about doing this though as I'm worried HSBC will be on high alert for anything at the moment and will see this as dodgy and consequently shut down my access too. 

Has anyone got any advice? I'm desperately worried we'll lose access to our money. 

Ergates

If the bank thought the account was being used for money laundering (or other criminal activities) they'd freeze the whole account.  As this doesn't appear to have happened, it probably is what it appears to be - and they're just concerned that either your husbands access has been hijacked, or that your husband is being manipulated into transferring the money.

The other stories are for when money laundering/etc is involved - this take a long longer to resolve because the cases are handed over to another (government) agency to look into.  Whilst this is happening the bank cannot unfreeze the account and are not allowed to tell the customer *anything*.  And they don't ask you to come in with ID - so again, this is probably not what is happening here.

Is the other account with HSBC and/or have your previously transferred money (from this joint account) into it.  If yes (to either) and the amount isn't large then it will *probably* be OK.  If in doubt though, you could phone up your bank and speak to them before doing anything,.

pittbakes

The other account is with NatWest but it's previously had money transferred into it (fairly frequently as it happens). I just don't want to lock myself out as well!

I am inclined to think that if it was money laundering they were concerned about they'd have frozen the whole account. If nothing else this has definitely taught us to ensure we have a good amount of money in another account. I can't believe how many people this has happened to, reading this forum. 

Thrugelmir

pittbakes said:

The other account is with NatWest but it's previously had money transferred into it (fairly frequently as it happens). 

With money that's been "gifted" ? 

pittbakes

Thrugelmir said:

pittbakes said:

The other account is with NatWest but it's previously had money transferred into it (fairly frequently as it happens). 

With money that's been "gifted" ? 

No, just money that my husband gives to me. I'm a SAHM (apart from a small amount of freelance work) and I find it easier to keep track of spending in my own account. 

There's honestly nothing dodgy whatsoever about that, a lot of SAHPs have similar set ups. Not sure why the 'gifted' was necessary. 

pittbakes

We don't have loads of gifted money in the account I hasten to add. Most of it is made up of my husband's regular salary payments and the money we made from the sale of our home in June. 

Thrugelmir

What's the nature of the investment in the company?  Unusual to be gifted money for such a purpose. 

pittbakes

Thrugelmir said:

What's the nature of the investment in the company?  Unusual to be gifted money for such a purpose. 

It's just an investment in a start up. We previously invested in it last year (from the same account) and wanted to put in a bit more. Seriously nothing untoward.

I don't see what's unusual about that. Surely plenty of people are gifted money by relatives that they then use for investments, deposits and so on.  

jimjames

pittbakes said:

Thrugelmir said:

What's the nature of the investment in the company?  Unusual to be gifted money for such a purpose. 

I don't see what's unusual about that. Surely plenty of people are gifted money by relatives that they then use for investments, deposits and so on.  

I think it probably is quite unusual and isn't something plenty of people do. Maybe gifted house deposit or rental deposit but investment into a startup isn't your average transaction. Why gift it rather than invest yourself? If it's a substantial amount then you can see why it would trigger alerts as the risks of losing money in a start up are quite substantial especially if you've made a small payment already and want to add more.

pittbakes

I think maybe I didn't explain it very well. It wasn't like "here is some gifted money for you to invest"...it was "here is some gifted money", and we chose to invest it. We might have chosen to use it to buy a car, or put in savings or what have you, but we chose to invest it. That's why I was comparing it to a house deposit or similar.  

The amount is not hugely substantial. We're talking less than 5k. 

eskbanker

pittbakes said:

I think maybe I didn't explain it very well. It wasn't like "here is some gifted money for you to invest"...it was "here is some gifted money", and we chose to invest it.

That's definitely not how your first post came across, so is it possible that similar misleading wording may have spooked HSBC?

pittbakes said:

My husband was recently gifted some money by a close family member to invest in a company....