HSBC has frozen all my accounts - high earner left penniless

Shakin_Steve

I know all of this isn't fur, but you need to paws for thought. HSBC will let the cat out of the bag sooner or later.

k_man

@ent_moot

Do you know how many other kittens were being sold?

I imagine that multiple incoming payments of many hundreds of pounds from different sending accounts would trigger AML alarm bells at the kitten seller's bank.
This then has a potential knock on to all those sending accounts, yours included.

It would be very easy for actual money launderers to setup a fake kittens for sale advert, if providing that as a reason was enough to stop an investigation.

nadsat

HSBC did this to my business account (both the account and associated credit card) and there was nothing I could do apart from open another account (with Tide) and write an instruction to transfer the balance of about £30k, which they did. There was no explanation or option to reverse their decision. 

Strangely they were unconcerned about my HSBC personal account, which I still have although you've reminded me that I intended to shut this down. 

I would just transfer to another bank and forget HSBC. In your shoes I'd go with the newer online providers. Tide (which is only a business bank) is excellent and it only took 30 mins to open an account, which is the main reason I chose it as all the traditional players wanted 7 days or so. 

penners324

The op already has an account with Monzo. 

AstonSmith

k_man said:

I imagine that multiple incoming payments of many hundreds of pounds from different sending accounts would trigger AML alarm bells at the kitten seller's bank.
This then has a potential knock on to all those sending accounts, yours included.

I reckon you're 100% spot on. If the kitten sellers were suddenly and unusually receiving £1000s, that'll trip a flag somewhere. Then like a contagion, reports are sent to the banks of all those sales who then freeze accounts. That bit might even be automated.

I strongly believe that the law as currently implemented harms normal people more than criminals. Even if the OP doesn't receive much of an explanation from their MP about why this happened, perhaps it'll nudge them to change the legislation a bit.

Reaction to frozen accounts depending on group:

• Innocent: what happened? I can't pay my bills
• Organised crime: the account's frozen, they've cottoned on, time to move
  

Momanns

AstonSmith said:

k_man said:

I imagine that multiple incoming payments of many hundreds of pounds from different sending accounts would trigger AML alarm bells at the kitten seller's bank.
This then has a potential knock on to all those sending accounts, yours included.

I reckon you're 100% spot on. If the kitten sellers were suddenly and unusually receiving £1000s, that'll trip a flag somewhere. Then like a contagion, reports are sent to the banks of all those sales who then freeze accounts. That bit might even be automated.

I strongly believe that the law as currently implemented harms normal people more than criminals. Even if the OP doesn't receive much of an explanation from their MP about why this happened, perhaps it'll nudge them to change the legislation a bit.

Reaction to frozen accounts depending on group:

• Innocent: what happened? I can't pay my bills
• Organised crime: the account's frozen, they've cottoned on, time to move
  

100% Doesn't happen like that. Might create an alert with the seller's account but there is no report sent to the payee banks. Even then, the alert would only trigger a potential investigation with the sellers account. No automated account block. 

Again, the entire banking system would collapse if accounts that received or sent multiple payments were suddenly blocked.

Agree with many of the posts, the system is broken as it is overwhelmed and under resourced. 

Organised Crime - If the account is subject to a fraud/AML block then the funds would not be transferable through switch or moving accounts. 

Law enforcement do freeze/forfeit money held in accounts but are just as overwhelmed/under resourced. 

trient

ent_moot said:

Momanns said:

If this is genuine, definitely check your credit report in case of erroneous markers or any clue you may have been the victim of an unidentified identity fraud or similar. 

I just checked by credit score with MoneySuperMarket:


624/710

Credit score • Very good

It's every bit as bland as I would expect: I have no loans, no credit cards, and no mortgage. 

Furry details aside, credit report != credit score.  The credit score (meaningless as ever as people here will tell you) will not show you any markers put on your report.

Get your credit reports (statutory reports) from the CRAs (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and to cover all bases file SARs with National Hunter and Synectics as well.

ent_moot

Okay, I have news:

• My accounts were unfrozen this morning (a little over a week after they were frozen)! 
• I visited my local branch. The chap there did his best to investigate; however, the usual leads (where departments are required to leave a memo when an account has been inhibited) were left blank. He said there are two departments that are not required to leave such a memo: the fraud department, and the regulatory department. He said that it was more likely to be the latter, as "statutory UK regulatory requirement" (or whatever the original note was) seemed to hint in this direction
• He seemed to think it was unlikely a result of paying for the kittens
• He couldn't see anything unusual about my account
• He said I'm likely to get compensation, but no explanation.

It looks like !!!!!!-up. or a faulty system. I don't have high hopes for the complaint leading to genuine explanation.

MattMattMattUK

ent_moot said:

Okay, I have news:

• My accounts were unfrozen this morning (a little over a week after they were frozen)! 
• I visited my local branch. The chap there did his best to investigate; however, the usual leads (where departments are required to leave a memo when an account has been inhibited) were left blank. He said there are two departments that are not required to leave such a memo: the fraud department, and the regulatory department. He said that it was more likely to be the latter, as "statutory UK regulatory requirement" (or whatever the original note was) seemed to hint in this direction
• He seemed to think it was unlikely a result of paying for the kittens
• He couldn't see anything unusual about my account
• He said I'm likely to get compensation, but no explanation.

It looks like !!!!!!-up. or a faulty system.

It looks more like they completed their investigation and found nothing illegal. You will not get compensation for them following the rules they are required to follow by law. 

ent_moot said:

I don't have high hopes for the complaint leading to genuine explanation.

You will not get a "genuine explanation" because if it is suspected fraud, AML or regulatory they are not allowed to tell you what triggered the investigation, this is one you have to chalk up to "it happens".

sleepymans

The kittens are gorgeous! Worth any inconvenience they caused!
I’d enjoy leaving  HSBC once you’ve had a good compensatory payment, if I were you. It’s all we consumers can do really.