Santander blocked my account

tracy1624

Yesterday my travel insurance paid in a settlement from our cruise with regards to
our son to the value of £8200.  I went on my account just to see if had gone in and couldn’t log on .  Received a phone call minutes later telling me they need proof of where the money came from.  I explained and told frankly as far as I am concerned it’s none of your business.

I sent the proof over from our insurance company but have no access to my money and now my wages etc have all gone in and I cannot see what is going on in the account, if my direct debits etc will be paid and cannot even buy petrol, finish my Xmas shopping etc as I can not access my account.

My mum who had £60,000 put in her account from an inheritance last year had no issue and daughter who received her settlement from an RTA didn’t have a problem and she is a student and no flag on £25000.  

But me, end up with no money, no access and they said it will be 48 hours but I read it can take up to 42 days,

We have waited 4 months for the insurance to settle due to the cost as my son needed life saving surgery in Spain and now I have more stress, it’s never ending.  I wouldn’t mind but the money belongs to my mum who paid all the bills for at the time, but the insurance company paid me as it was in my name for my son.

This is upsetting my son who blames himself as he was taken so sick on holiday (twisted bowel) and now to top it off Christmas could be ruined!

Some advice would be great?

MikeJXE

Seems to be happening with many of the banks now days (closing/freezing)

According to many similar threads on here it will take as long as it takes (to sort out)

Perhaps had you not said it's none of your business it would have been sorted on that phone call 

tracy1624

It wouldn’t have been sorted they had already told me proof of where the money came from was required, but this has never happened before! 

So you are saying they could investigate further cos I told them it’s none of their business.

Merry Christmas to us, first Xmas in 4+ years my son is finally able to enjoy it and this happens!  Not intend enough on having him hit by a motorbike at 12, ruining his career (he was training at Tottenham) then developing Ulcerative Colitis and having a stoma bag and our first holiday since he was 12 being ruined as he had to be airlifted to shore after 3 days!  

So me breaking down over this issue was just the straw that broke the camels back and just want to close this chapter of our lives.

Ayr_Rage

Sounds like Santander were very much on the ball in querying where the very large deposit suddenly appeared from and calling you quickly.

Your reaction to that call sounds a little OTT.

You will have to wait for the result of their deliberations although an apologetic call to them from you may help if you can get a sympathetic ear from a supervisor.

IvanOpinion

tracy1624 said:

So you are saying they could investigate further cos I told them it’s none of their business.

If you literally told them it was 'none of their business', then being defensive will not have helped and may have cost you all sorts of goodwill in getting this resolved.

Many people advocate having a second bank account for emergencies. Examples like this go to show how important that is, especially with banks tightening up on their security procedures to protect their/your money.

Devongardener

When I was expecting an inheritance to be transferred into my Santander account I went to my branch to ask if they needed prior notice or proof of the source of the funds, but was told that they didn’t, but would look at it if I moved the money soon afterwards.   I eventually moved it to investments later with no problem.

This was only last year so I wonder whether they have flagged yours for review for another reason.
I hope you get it resolved quickly.    As others have said don’t do or say anything that might be construed as abuse of staff, it doesn’t take much these days even for a fairly mild remark!

km1500

in the worst case it could take weeks so you might want to consider opening a second bank account and divert your wages into that

by the way, investigating source of funds very much is their business

I think but I'm not sure (maybe somebody else can confirm) that you can go into the branch and withdraw your wages even if your account is frozen

dealyboy

I am sorry to read about this Tracy and can understand your frustration.

I think banks need to understand that there are all sorts of personal circumstances and consequences for interventions and actions that they may take, and hopefully they will understand when frustration is shown. At the same time we should understand that banks and building societies do have a duty to protect our accounts and their own finances in these times of fraud and money laundering.

I would try and provide as much information as you can to help them in their enquiry which is not personal but is a requirement of regulations to 'sample' transactions that are unusual for an account.

GeoffTF

tracy1624 said:

So you are saying they could investigate further cos I told them it’s none of their business.

It absolutely is their business. They have to carry out money laundering checks. If you are uncooperative that will slow the process down.

Angelica123

It sounds like a really tough situation to be in and the timing is not ideal. 

Firstly, don't panic - it may take a while but you will get your money back. Santander are not the enemy - they are obliged to take measures to identify fraud/money laundering. It's unfortunate that you have been incorrectly flagged but it is important to cooperate as much as possible. To a certain extent, there has to be a randomness to their flagging system otherwise fraudsters would know exactly how to play the system. Santander are entitled to know the source of any money travelling through their accounts. Ring them back, apologise for your initial reaction, tell them you are keen to cooperate and check that you have given them all the info that they need. 

In the meantime, do you have other accounts? Credit card? Emergency saving account? The advice is always to spread your money between banks for reasons such as this so if you haven't, then once this is sorted then I would say it is a priority to set up some back up accounts. Could you ask your mum for a loan until your account is re-opened? 

I know it feels like the worst thing in the world right now, but Christmas isn't ruined. Your son received life-saving surgery which means that he is actually around to be with you for Christmas! That is all that matters right now. The rest is logistics! Your son can still enjoy this Christmas no matter what as long as you all focus on what is important.  

boingy

There's not much to be done except to cooperate and wait for them to unlock it. This stuff can happen with any bank but, based on forum posts, Santander do seem to be at the "keener" end of the scale.