Santander Froze My Account after transferring money it's been 15 days

addo16

The issue that I have experienced was: 29/07/2022 I transfered all my savings from my my current account with a different bank into my santander account. This to use my santander current account as a saving account that way I don't see my money on a daily basis and will help me save.

I would wanted to 

Move money to my other account to as and when I needed to, to pay my bills and for my normal living costs.

However I received a call the next day to be told my account has been frozen/suspended due to suspicious activity and that its an automated system that flags this and now I would have to supply details of my other bank account (Halifax Account) to verify my own money which was my savings of £8000 and that this would allow my account to be re accessible.

I contacted them on the Monday 01/08/2022 to ensure they had received everything in the hope that this would be resolved. I was then told it can take upto 2 working days for this to be assessed and for me to hear back.

I then received a call from santander telling me they had received my documents and where looking into the matter but also was quizzed a out my own finance in my Halifax account from the evidence I supplied, which is totally fine as I can account fir all my finances obviously.

Baring in mind I have used this account and card to make payments, to transfer money over back and forth many times even when I worked over seas and I have had the account for at least 3-4 months.

Their customer service fraud department tell me they can't tell me anything there is no time frame on this and I have to wait to hear from them so no point calling.. I have no money bills to pay food to put on the table, loosing work etc  etc ause of this and its now been 16 days..

Can anyone advise. Its messing with my mental health and physical health amongst other things 

[Deleted User]

You'll need to wait for them to finish their investigations.

Do you have credit cards or other accounts you can use in the meantime? Friends or family?

Why are you losing work?

addo16

I do t have credit cards etc.. I have my other account but transferred near enough all my money over to stop myself spending 

I'm self employed and alot of my work as a male singer is on crusies and overseas and can't take the risk of travelling without and security money.

Do you know on average how long their investigations take? 
It's been over two weeks now.. plus I transferred the money from my Halifax current account and also sent them my statement as they asked for it. 

Futuristic

It should not take 2 weeks, next step is raising a complaint. I was given £80 for having transfers blocked for 2 weeks but you might be able to get even more. 

This is sadly normal with banks at the moment with fraud checks, Santander certainly one of the worst. I had the issue over a month ago, pretty sure they have been stuck in backlogs for over a year at this point with calls taking hours. 

Daliah

Futuristic said:

This is sadly normal with banks at the moment with fraud checks, Santander certainly one of the worst. I had the issue over a month ago, pretty sure they have been stuck in backlogs for over a year at this point with calls taking hours. 

I had my entire Santander online and app access blocked earlier in the week, after attempting to pull a high 4-figure sum of money into Zopa. I rang their Security folkes and got interrogated for half an hour, after which my online and app access got re-instated, and  I was able to make my Zopa deposit then. I have since made several more Zopa deposits from Santander, all went through without further blocking.

This doesn't help the OP, as unfortunately the block will take for as long as they need to conclude their investigation.

addo16

I appreciate the help and Information guys..

It's just awful they expect you to live of nothing it's crazy.. I'm actually just speechless TBH.. 

Iv started my committee but have to wait 8 weeks before you can take it to the financial ombudsman. However it can be early if I get a negative response from santander I believe 

Section62

addo16 said:

I'm self employed and alot of my work as a male singer is on crusies and overseas and can't take the risk of travelling without and security money.

Is there anything a bit unusual about the way you get paid, for example from overseas agencies or bank accounts?

addo16

I don't get paid into my santander account only Into my Halifax account. I guess the fact that iv moved big sums across both my accounts could be the reason why but that was because I was going to buy a car and then then didn't and whent to see another o e and didn't so money got moved out in out in etc but I don't see even if so why they haven't called me ask about that or anything just nothing and when you ring they are rude and say (no transactions to be made and no time frame) pathetic tbh 

Bridlington1

By the sounds of things Santander have submitted a suspicious activity report (SAR) and if that is the case Santander can't legally give you any information about why your accounts were frozen whilst your accounts are frozen as they would be committing "tip off offences". I know it's one of the most stressful things a bank can inflict on you but eventually it will be resolved.

I've had a couple of bank accounts frozen this year. In February HSBC froze my account for 23 days for a number of transactions over January and a month later Virgin froze my account for 5 days for moving £25k into its linked saver shortly after they put their interest rate up. With HSBC I was able to close my savings accounts over the phone whilst my current account was frozen and get the money transferred directly to my Lloyds account as the block was only on the current account. I don't know if Santander would be the same but it may be worth a shot.

Other than that it's just a case of ensuring you give them any information they require as quickly as possible and keeping a record of any conversations you have with them for reference.

All of this only goes to underline the importance of not keeping all your eggs in one basket with regards to bank and savings accounts.

Section62

addo16 said:

I don't get paid into my santander account only Into my Halifax account.

But Santander asked you for details of your Halifax account (which you gave them?) so the source of funds enquiry could go back to the Halifax account - which means you need to think about anything going into the Halifax account and whether that might be seen as problematic.

E.g. frequent payments of variable amounts from overseas accounts, rather than a steady income stream from a UK employer.

addo16

Makes sense section 62 

It's not frequent but there are some.. 

How long do I vestigations normally take.. my kids got to eat man