Santander Blocked 27 September 2022 at 12:11PM in Budgeting & bank accounts 38 replies 3.1K views

Bridlington1

I had my HSBC account frozen in February (23 days) and my Virgin Money account frozen in March (5 days). All of the rest of my accounts remained untouched as the investigations are only on the frozen account. I was even able to close a HSBC regular saver and transfer the money to Lloyds whilst my HSBC account was frozen.

For the future if you are going to sell a couple of greyhounds, don't take a payment in cash. Santander's fraud systems are notoriously over-sensitive anyway and depositing £8920 in cash will only result in your account being frozen. If you must receive a large sum of cash like this, deposit it across multiple current accounts with as many different banks/building societies as you can over several weeks. Most banks let you deposit £500 in cash at the post office in one go and if you hold an account with each bank on your local high street (assuming there's any branches left) you should easily be able to get it all into the bank within a month or two and at the same time start doing any day to day spending in cash to use some of it up that way.

Shakin_Steve

Dear me. Act like a criminal who's got something to hide, furtively paying in small amounts and spending cash,  just so the bank(s) don't take away your 'privileges'.

Astria

Shakin_Steve said:

Dear me. Act like a criminal who's got something to hide, furtively paying in small amounts and spending cash,  just so the bank(s) don't take away your 'privileges'.

Yep, I was once given £2000, I didn't dare put it in the bank

I tried to use nothing but cash, seemed to annoy quite a few shops and bars as they assumed I would be paying by card, and I got a huge amount of change that I didn't want to carry around with me. After managing to spend half of it I bit the bullet and deposited the rest, it just couldn't do it any more. Payment by card is just so much easier.

tifo

Banks do this all the time, more so in recent years. Criminals are too clever to get caught like this (usually), it's the innocent that have to wait and wait  .... and wait. I know of people this has happened to, inc business accounts doing legit business they've done for years, and for many years the bank don't give the money back, even froze personal accounts of connected people.

Plasticman

I paid in £1000 cash (via the Post Office) and was convinced that there would be flashing lights and alarms going off and HRMC would sweep down from the roof SAS style. They didn't. Having read this I really hope I never have to do it again, just in case!

I also get concerned that my family (especially the kids) use me as the middle man to pay each other. So child 1 sends money to my bank account which I then have to send to child 2. Then child 2 sends money that I need to send to my wife etc etc. I'm sure that would look suspicious if somebody was looking in detail - always small amounts though. 

Astria

Plasticman said:

I paid in £1000 cash (via the Post Office) and was convinced that there would be flashing lights and alarms going off and HRMC would sweep down from the roof SAS style. They didn't. Having read this I really hope I never have to do it again, just in case!

I was told that amounts of up to approximately £5000 rarely get looked at if it's a one-off, they might ask for where the money came from but you'd rarely have to produce documentation for it. It's when a significant sum of cash appears in your account over the course of a period that they'll become really interested, even if it's just £500 a month.

Plasticman said:

I also get concerned that my family (especially the kids) use me as the middle man to pay each other. So child 1 sends money to my bank account which I then have to send to child 2. Then child 2 sends money that I need to send to my wife etc etc. I'm sure that would look suspicious if somebody was looking in detail - always small amounts though. 

If it's a bank transfer they can trace it, so again, little to worry about. Heck, I regularly sends payments of £1000 or above between my accounts, and have at times sent over £100,000, but because it's all digitally recorded I guess they are not interested. They can see exactly where the money has come from and where its going. They might be more interested if something significant happens such as death and you transferred £10,000 just before.

Bridlington1

Plasticman said:

I paid in £1000 cash (via the Post Office) and was convinced that there would be flashing lights and alarms going off and HRMC would sweep down from the roof SAS style. They didn't. Having read this I really hope I never have to do it again, just in case!

I also get concerned that my family (especially the kids) use me as the middle man to pay each other. So child 1 sends money to my bank account which I then have to send to child 2. Then child 2 sends money that I need to send to my wife etc etc. I'm sure that would look suspicious if somebody was looking in detail - always small amounts though. 

It's "unusual" account activity that sets the fraud systems off. If you are always sending money between your account and kids accounts that will be seen as "normal" account activity, so shouldn't cause any issues.

I regularly transfer £15-30k/mth in and out of my Lloyds account and have never had any issues so far, but if I tried transferring that amount of money in and out of my TSB spend & save account, which has only £35 going in and £35 going out each month, my accounts would no doubt be frozen like a flash as it would be "unusual" activity for that account.

born_again

123thfc123 said:

It was deposited into an ATM deposit machine. As said I sold 2 greyhounds that I own. Again I can provide documentation for this. 

Here is the issue. Such a amount of cash in that manner. Would have been better to pay in branch in person. Or even better get the purchase to transfer the funds via faster payment. 

Odds on HMRC are going to be informed for not only you, but possibly for the purchaser, who you will have full details for, won't you?

Daliah

Plasticman said:

I also get concerned that my family (especially the kids) use me as the middle man to pay each other. So child 1 sends money to my bank account which I then have to send to child 2. Then child 2 sends money that I need to send to my wife etc etc. I'm sure that would look suspicious if somebody was looking in detail - always small amounts though. 

Why do your children need a middleman?

Ed-1

born_again said:

123thfc123 said:

It was deposited into an ATM deposit machine. As said I sold 2 greyhounds that I own. Again I can provide documentation for this. 

Or even better get the purchase to transfer the funds via faster payment. 

But this carries risk too. There are many reports of purchasers pulling a fast one and telling their bank they've been scammed. The bank then contact your bank who freeze your account.