Blacklisted for fraud at 17, now 22

laurenannabelle

I'm currently serving in the British Army and currently I only have a basic Cash Account with Metro Bank, which only lets money go into my account. I am not able to create direct debits with this account either, so building my credit score is becoming a problem. 

An incident happened in 2017 where I was living in a youth hostel and money was nonexistent at the time for me. A girl in her 20s who also lived at the hostel, asked me if she could use my Halifax bank account to put her money into as she didn't have one and she had also said I could keep 100 pounds just for me letting her use it, so being 17 at the time I was more then happy to let her do this, she later on did this 2 more times and then my bank account was closed due to fraud - as the money she was putting in wasn't hers. Me being 17 and naive didn't understand how this could have happened. This incident that I haven't been given the chance to explain has left me not able to open a bank account with anyone in the highstreet and I am now 22 years old. 

It would be great if someone could get back to me on the possibility of giving me some advice or any information on how long being blacklisted lasts?
What banks I can try, I've tried off the highstreet such as Starling Bank and credit accounts such as Monzo - but all been declined.
What I can do to try increase my credit score whilst blacklisted?
If anyone can give me some pointers I'd be so grateful

kaMelo

Forget your credit "score", it's not a real thing, merely a marketing gimmick.

Your chance to explain was with your bank at the time it happened however even if you had I'm not going to suggest it would have lead to a different outcome. This is one way scammers get their hands on ill gotten gains by funnelling it through compromised accounts like yours was. The promise of free money to look the other way combined with the naivety of youth is exactly why they target young people to become money mules, it's unfortunate but not uncommon. Don't beat yourself up about it but certainly learn from it..

The first thing I would suggest is to send a SAR (subject access request) to CIFAS to see exactly what they have registered against you and when it was placed.  Normally a CIFAS marker will stay in place for six years.