HSBC closed current account and savings

clast07

HSBC have closed my savings and current account with no communications and can give me no reason why, has this happened to other people recently? Thanks in advance for any suggestions as currently have no access to any of my money they hold.

eskbanker

All banks close accounts and there's always some sort of reason behind it, even if not immediately apparent to the customer - can you not think of anything unusual or inappropriate in its recent conduct, in terms of large payments from abroad, potentially disputed sales of items to third parties, crypto dealings, business use of personal account, etc, etc?

Were the accounts closed with immediate effect or were you given notice?

If the former, you might wish to check if they've notified the anti-fraud database CIFAS:

https://www.cifas.org.uk/dsar

clast07

I was given no notice at all. This is not an account associated with any business at all. No comms just a blocked transaction and informed when I called customer services.

molerat

No comms just a blocked transaction

And what was that transaction ?

eskbanker

clast07 said:

This is not an account associated with any business at all.

You chose to pick up on one of a list of potential things to consider, but in any case it wasn't a complete list by any means - nobody on here is going to play twenty questions to try to guess in a drip-feed manner, so you'll need to evaluate what happened on the account in the days and weeks leading up to the transaction being blocked.

Edit: fair point above - I was assuming that the transaction being blocked was a symptom/effect rather than a cause, but again that's just guesswork!

clast07

An Amazon transaction for about £15 which I called the bank about to then be told account was closed.

mebu60

An Amazon transaction you had made or a spurious one that had appeared? 

clast07

One that I had made

MrFrugalFever

Only you know how you have managed your financial affairs. Banks do not just close accounts for no good reason and even less so now given the huge media attention that NatWest got from the closure of Nigel Farage's Coutts account.

You will need to think about the usage of your accounts both current account and credit card facilities and check your credit reports for any unusual activity. A serious breach of terms and conditions allows a bank to utilise immediate closure. A minor breach requires the bank to provide sufficient notice of closure.

SiliconChip

If it's correct that the bank has actually closed your accounts with no notice, rather than saying they'll close them in 60 days or frozen your access to them, then it's very likely that they feel they have good evidence of criminal activity. They won't do immediate closure unless they are very sure of their position.

grumbler

If the accounts are really closed, not frozen, then they must give you your money and inform you how they are going to do this.