Banks closing accounts

Band7

This might be an opportunity to suggest people check their own credit files for free, so they can see for themselves what's held about them.

The summary info from my Experian file looks like this:









So zero CIFAS for 53 closed or switched accounts.

phillw

Band7 said:

This might be an opportunity to suggest people check their own credit files for free, so they can see for themselves what's held about them.

The summary info from my Experian file looks like this:









So zero CIFAS for 53 closed or switched accounts.

Have you taken out a protective registration with cifas or have you been registered as a victim of fraud?

They are the only CIFAS details that will appear on your credit report. The "this guy is a wrongun" reports will not.

I'm not saying there are any such reports held by CIFAS about you, but looking on experian is no proof that there are not.

[Deleted User]

Band7 said:

[Deleted User] said:

RG2015 said:

A bank can close a bank account without giving a reason. They can also close an account for irregularities without providing any evidence. This second point is based on a post on another thread today and I see no reason to doubt it.

My question is whether there is any evidence of a bank doing this to a completely innocent customer?

Yes, I opened an account with a now-defunct bank with the intention of testing it out then switching over if I liked it. Set up the account, added card to Apple Pay, paid some money in. Then the following working day I woke to my Apple Pay being disabled and being unable to log in. Closed and the CS would refuse to say why. Only had one transaction in and one out to set my other account up as a payee (before the days of CoP). No issues before, or since, with any other bank.

I will never bank with them - or their successors - ever again.

Which bank which used to offer ApplePay is now defunct?

My bad. It was a now defunct trading name/whatever of a still going group. 

TimSynths

RG2015 said:

TimSynths said:

Yes- ive done it. I used to work in a fraud dept and would sometimes close "linked" accounts. An account could be run within guidelines but would receive regular cheques or transfers from an account that we had closed for fraud.

Thank you. This is very interesting.

Did you inform the innocent customer of this and did you mention fraud to them?

Also, was the “linked “ account a proven fraud case or just suspected?


Fortunately nobody ever pays me any money. 

No, they would just get the "we are withdrawing facilities" letter. We had a piece of software that would link bank accounts like a spiders web (this is in the noughties so i'm sure things are even more sophisticated/powerful now) so if account A was being mistreated we could see every other account that had ever had a payment to or from it either electronically or as a cheque and if we deemed the risk big enough we could close all of them- you could have had a £25 cheque from uncle Denis for your birthday and you could be a Vicar but uncle Denis has been up to no good in South America with his import/export business. It was vast, interesting and beyond anything you could imagine sometimes. When ever I see the "my account has been closed for no reason" posts, there is always a reason.

We could never tell the customers, sometime it was very frustrating especially in fraud cases, you knew and could see that the grandchild had been ripping off Nana but you could never tell them, that was the worse when you suspected the fraudster was under the same roof.

I imagine as more things have gone digital more tools are now in use to track and prevent.

DullGreyGuy

phillw said:

Band7 said:

This might be an opportunity to suggest people check their own credit files for free, so they can see for themselves what's held about them.

The summary info from my Experian file looks like this:









So zero CIFAS for 53 closed or switched accounts.

Have you taken out a protective registration with cifas or have you been registered as a victim of fraud?

They are the only CIFAS details that will appear on your credit report. The "this guy is a wrongun" reports will not.

I'm not saying there are any such reports held by CIFAS about you, but looking on experian is no proof that there are not.

CIFAS only holds serious concerns of fraud not general accounts you've closed.

Via the CRA like this you only see protective and victim markets. If a bank has said you've lied on your application form then that wont appear to you via a CRA check but another bank checking would see a first party fraud marker.

If you want to know what financial institutes have accused you of you'd need to do a DSAR request to CIFAS

RG2015

Thanks for your input TimSynths
 
I suspect the likelihood of this happening to me, or any other individual is pretty small. I am vigilant and would like to think able to recognise anything out of the ordinary.

Any more is well out of my sphere of influence.

phillw

DullGreyGuy said:
Via the CRA like this you only see protective and victim markets. If a bank has said you've lied on your application form then that wont appear to you via a CRA check but another bank checking would see a first party fraud marker.

If you want to know what financial institutes have accused you of you'd need to do a DSAR request to CIFAS

Right, that was my point.

If he's been able to operate bank accounts and open new ones without any issues, then I would guess there isn't anything on there.

But I don't know that.

By looking at that experian report, neither does he.

WillPS

Band7 said:

WillPS said:

It's never happened to me but I do somewhat fear it. I remember one day I received a letter in a Natwest branded envelope and a similar one in an RBS branded envelope. In my mind's eye both were marked 'important information enclosed' or similar. I was convinced they'd be closure letters. Turned out it was a closure letter of sorts in both, but a much less scary one - Natwest Group had decided to close both my NatWest branch (Nottingham Victoria Centre) and RBS branch (Child & Co) in the same round.

Band7 said:

ndrw said:

RG2015 said:

A bank can close a bank account without giving a reason. They can also close an account for irregularities without providing any evidence. This second point is based on a post on another thread today and I see no reason to doubt it.

My question is whether there is any evidence of a bank doing this to a completely innocent customer?

Yes, I opened an account with a now-defunct bank with the intention of testing it out then switching over if I liked it. Set up the account, added card to Apple Pay, paid some money in. Then the following working day I woke to my Apple Pay being disabled and being unable to log in. Closed and the CS would refuse to say why. Only had one transaction in and one out to set my other account up as a payee (before the days of CoP). No issues before, or since, with any other bank.

I will never bank with them - or their successors - ever again.

Which bank which used to offer ApplePay is now defunct?

N27 perhaps? Post Office, Salvation Army, M&S Bank and Tesco Bank are still about but have withdrawn from current accounts.

I must have missed the Salvation Army Bank, and all the others still exist. They may no longer offer current accounts [in the UK] but that doesn’t make them defunct.

It's a thing - Personal Current Account - Reliance Bank (reliancebankltd.com) 

55ryan

TimSynths said:

RG2015 said:

TimSynths said:

Yes- ive done it. I used to work in a fraud dept and would sometimes close "linked" accounts. An account could be run within guidelines but would receive regular cheques or transfers from an account that we had closed for fraud.

Thank you. This is very interesting.

Did you inform the innocent customer of this and did you mention fraud to them?

Also, was the “linked “ account a proven fraud case or just suspected?


Fortunately nobody ever pays me any money. 

No, they would just get the "we are withdrawing facilities" letter. We had a piece of software that would link bank accounts like a spiders web (this is in the noughties so i'm sure things are even more sophisticated/powerful now) so if account A was being mistreated we could see every other account that had ever had a payment to or from it either electronically or as a cheque and if we deemed the risk big enough we could close all of them- you could have had a £25 cheque from uncle Denis for your birthday and you could be a Vicar but uncle Denis has been up to no good in South America with his import/export business. It was vast, interesting and beyond anything you could imagine sometimes. When ever I see the "my account has been closed for no reason" posts, there is always a reason.

We could never tell the customers, sometime it was very frustrating especially in fraud cases, you knew and could see that the grandchild had been ripping off Nana but you could never tell them, that was the worse when you suspected the fraudster was under the same roof.

I imagine as more things have gone digital more tools are now in use to track and prevent.

Yep, top post. I've been in the industry too and there is always a reason. The thing is customers don't see what they perceive to be no reason for something that is a reason.

We had a guy on JSA, pay in a couple of thousand via the ATM machine.

Plenty of suspected elder abuse cases. Some families think they are meaning well, but when 92 year old Edna is constantly sending money to her nephew under the guise of shopping etc it will raise flags.

Many cases are genuine of course, but we were under so much AML pressure that anything deemed suspicious was reported or the system picked it up.

People may not like it, but someone sending £500 to John Smith in Costa Rica at 2am can expect something to happen certainly if they keep sending money like this.

We had cases which were simply breaking the t and c's, suspected business on a current account ie a few hundred or more via paypal every couple of weeks. It goes beyond selling a few items or doing online studies, the latter which I do now. 

Most will never have their accounts frozen. I think the moral here is not to sit there worrying that your account can be closed at any moment because you have paid in 70 quid from a win on the machines at bingo. 
  
    

Momanns

When ever I see the "my account has been closed for no reason" posts, there is always a reason.

Amen.