Revolut has suddenly blocked my account without any valid reason

Juba5783

Hi fellow forumers,

I am currently residing on a small, remote Canary Island for health reasons. While still living in the UK I applied for a Revolut account and card, in order to stay clear of hefty exchange rates and bank transfer fees due to Brexit. It all worked fine until yesterday, when I tried to pay with my Revolut card for some harmless grocery shopping and found that it didn't work. I have over 2500 Euros in there. A couple of hours before I was still able to pay with my card for a bit of petrol in order to test drive a car. 

I then received messages from Revolut that my account was blocked and that it was undergoing security checks, which would last at least 2 days. I am in the process of selling my van and buying the newer car I was test driving. The car is a very good deal and there is a lot of other interest in it, so I have to be quick. The money for it is already partially in my Revolut account. Public transport on the island is poor and cars are very hard to come by, as well as normally extremely expensive. I am disabled and absolutely reliant on having a car. I need to pay other bills from the Revolut account also and receive the rent from my lodger in Britain into it, which is now due. 

I can do nothing with the account at the moment, not withdraw money, not exchange money, no bank transfers are possible, I cannot use my card!

If I don't pay for the car tomorrow, I will lose it. 

Revolut has not given me any reason why they are blocking it, nor a warning. It is causing me a incredible stress. I also don't want to lose immediate credibility within the small community I am trying to build a new life in.

A few weeks ago I opened a Spanish bank account and would now like to transfer my Revolut funds into it, but am of course not able to.

Revolut's customer service is practically non-existent. If you are lucky enough to get through to a human being you cannot only type, not verbally speak to anyone. They will just tell you the same thing from a script over and over. In my case something like this:

'We perform security checks on Revolut accounts, because we have to perform such checks to ensure the security and enhancement of our accounts'.

By not allowing people to access their funds for days on end without any warning? I find that absolutely unacceptable. 

I feel controlled and under scrutiny and am being investigated for I do not know what! I also feel extremely vulnerable now. There are no branches one can go to!

I have emailed the Financial Conduct Authority and contacted the Ombudsman. I have also raised a complaint with Revolut but only received a lengthy, apologetic answer via email, which says nothing in detail. I can paste it if needed. I will write to BBC's 'you and yours'. 

Has anyone of you made similar experiences and can tell me what to do?

I would be extremely grateful!

Thank you in advance.

TimSynths

Know you customer KYC and anti money laundering AML. If they are performing AML checks they wont tell you anything about it as they cant, its known as tipping off. Right now there is probably nothing you can do. It will (sadly) take as long as it takes, Revolut (Im a customer also) are known for taking a long time due to the nature of the customer base they have (its very non traditional).

All you can do is answer any queries they have. They wont have done this without a valid reason- they just cannot share it with you.

Glad you have a local account now too, hope it all works out, I think you will lose the van sadly.

SavingThosePennies

They legally aren't allowed to give you more details because of the regulations around Know Your Customer. Unfortunately you'll just have to wait until they complete them, and it wouldn't necessarily be better with another bank. In fact if they do take just 48 hours to complete those checks then count your blessings because some of the non-digital banks will block accounts for weeks at a time to complete checks once something has triggered. 

Juba5783

Thanks guys,

And that is all legal? Can they just do that? What kind of world are we now living in?

So what could have triggered it? The AML checks I mean?

Ok, I lost my Revolut card twice in a row. First here on the island. I froze it and then ordered a new one to my friend's address in Britain, who was about to visit me here. He wanted to bring it with him. It took a while (several weeks) for him to arrive here. Post/mail from Britain to this island is extremely slow and sometimes unreliable, so I rather that he brought the card personally. He is an elderly gentleman and unfortunately his bag was stolen on a bus from Tenerife airport. The card was in it! So I had to yet again order a new one, which was then posted by a friend of his. It took about 6 weeks for it to arrive. But then I was able to use it for a few weeks without any problems.

But could this be the reason? Should I tell them (Revolut) about this? Could the person who stole the bag have suddenly attempted something dodgy? Obviously I immediately froze the second card again and re-ordered.

Or what else could it be? 

Thanks again!

SavingThosePennies

It’s hard to say for certain but it’s definitely possible that multiple card requests in quick succession could be part of it, especially if you ordered cards to an address in Britain and then used them immediately aboard for the first transactions. But if it is anti-money laundering triggers then it could be anything from an unusual purchase to the fact that you’re recieving rental payments in a personal account. 

Others might disagree with me but I’ve found generally with the challenger banks that they are the quickest to open retail and business current accounts but you are then more likely to face KYC and AML checks later on. I have a feeling it’s to do with wanting to maximise their net promoter scores as people initially ahve very positive experiences whereas some
legacy banks put you through the ringer to open an account (especially business) but then generally there are less problems. But that’s just my opinion. 

Standingstrong

They legally aren't allowed to give you more details because of the regulations around KYC..

please answer these questions.

ANY large amounts coming in?
Any recent fraud eg compromised account details , card use which wasn’t you? 

Any refunds?
anyone asked you to deposit money in and transfer it.


possibly where you changed the address that’s what’s spooked them so please ring them and ask them what’s happening