KYC Santander

GingerTim

Without condoning anything on the part of the bank, did you provide the documents they were asking for?

RG2015

johnthebaker said:

Now Santander have blocked my account 
so my pension is coming into the account but they won’t let me or my wife withdraw any of our funds 
this has got to be criminal activity on the part of the bank 

what am I supposed to live on 

so anyone who can justify the banks actions to do this to pensioners who have been with bank 40 years is beyond me 

If this happened to me I would be livid but I would comply to avoid actions like this.

It may appear to be grossly unfair. However, in my opinion, being aggrieved and not complying is not as bad as losing my banking facilities.

Zanderman

johnthebaker said:

Now Santander have blocked my account 
so my pension is coming into the account but they won’t let me or my wife withdraw any of our funds 
this has got to be criminal activity on the part of the bank 

what am I supposed to live on 

so anyone who can justify the banks actions to do this to pensioners who have been with bank 40 years is beyond me 

Well it's not criminal activity by the bank. And maybe you should, asap, open another account elsewhere if you don't have one already and get your pension provider to pay into that from now on. It's always a good idea to have more than one current account and with different providers in case of IT failures or situations like this..

You haven't said whether you provided the information they asked for. The likelihood was always, if you didn't provide the info, that they would block your account. Many in this thread suggested that you should comply, and comply soon. But have you done so? 

If you have and they have blocked your account anyway then there's clearly something they don't like about your transaction pattern, possibly business use (perhaps for your rental).  In which case you need to work out how to sort that out. 

If you haven't provided the info their action is unsurprising and expected, and you should supply the info requested (and you must regard this, despite your views, as required not just requested) as a matter of some urgency.

Nasqueron

johnthebaker said:

Now Santander have blocked my account 
so my pension is coming into the account but they won’t let me or my wife withdraw any of our funds 
this has got to be criminal activity on the part of the bank 

what am I supposed to live on 

so anyone who can justify the banks actions to do this to pensioners who have been with bank 40 years is beyond me 

Set up another account and have pension paid there for the moment

It is not criminal activity

johnthebaker

I have provided all the information requested 

BooJewels

The most glaring issue to me (assuming that there aren't loads of other details you've not included) is that your rental income is seen as a business transaction and Santander's terms explicitly state in point 2.1 on page 8:  "You must not use the account for business purposes."  It seems that a lot of the requested documents related to this rental property.  They usually charge a £12.50 monthly fee for businesses so by putting business transactions through a personal account, that's how much you're avoiding paying.

TheBanker

johnthebaker said:

Now Santander have blocked my account 
so my pension is coming into the account but they won’t let me or my wife withdraw any of our funds 
this has got to be criminal activity on the part of the bank 

what am I supposed to live on 

so anyone who can justify the banks actions to do this to pensioners who have been with bank 40 years is beyond me 

Have they done this after you supplied the information requested, or because you didn't supply the information they need?

You will need to call them. Despite the block they should arrange for you to have access to your pension.

If you don't want to engage in this process, then the best course of action would be to open an account somewhere else and have your pension re-directed there. 

TheBanker

BooJewels said:

The most glaring issue to me (assuming that there aren't loads of other details you've not included) is that your rental income is seen as a business transaction and Santander's terms explicitly state in point 2.1 on page 8:  "You must not use the account for business purposes."  It seems that a lot of the requested documents related to this rental property.  They usually charge a £12.50 monthly fee for businesses so by putting business transactions through a personal account, that's how much you're avoiding paying.

I don't know how exactly Santander work, but no bank I've worked for would have blocked an account for this. Initially the customer would have been contacted to explain it was not allowed, and invited to open a business account if appropriate. If they still continued to use their personal account for business purposes, then they would be given notice to close. 

RG2015

TheBanker said:

BooJewels said:

The most glaring issue to me (assuming that there aren't loads of other details you've not included) is that your rental income is seen as a business transaction and Santander's terms explicitly state in point 2.1 on page 8:  "You must not use the account for business purposes."  It seems that a lot of the requested documents related to this rental property.  They usually charge a £12.50 monthly fee for businesses so by putting business transactions through a personal account, that's how much you're avoiding paying.

I don't know how exactly Santander work, but no bank I've worked for would have blocked an account for this. Initially the customer would have been contacted to explain it was not allowed, and invited to open a business account if appropriate. If they still continued to use their personal account for business purposes, then they would be given notice to close. 

It was not blocked at the time of the original post. This appears to have happened 7 (or even 21) days later.

TheBanker

RG2015 said:

TheBanker said:

BooJewels said:

The most glaring issue to me (assuming that there aren't loads of other details you've not included) is that your rental income is seen as a business transaction and Santander's terms explicitly state in point 2.1 on page 8:  "You must not use the account for business purposes."  It seems that a lot of the requested documents related to this rental property.  They usually charge a £12.50 monthly fee for businesses so by putting business transactions through a personal account, that's how much you're avoiding paying.

I don't know how exactly Santander work, but no bank I've worked for would have blocked an account for this. Initially the customer would have been contacted to explain it was not allowed, and invited to open a business account if appropriate. If they still continued to use their personal account for business purposes, then they would be given notice to close. 

It was not blocked at the time of the original post. This appears to have happened 7 days later.

I know. I was replying to BooJewels who suggested the block was due to using the account for business purposes. I was saying in my non-Santander experience, this wouldn't result in a block. It would result in a request to stop doing it (which the OP hasn't mentioned), followed by an account closure notice. No need to block the account as it is not unlawful to use the account in this way, it's a breach of contract. 

I would suggest the block is because either the bank has not received all the information they asked for, or they have received it and have some concerns about what's been provided.

How are these rental payments being made? Are they direct from the tennant's personal account, coming from a lettings agency, cash deposits? And is there just one monthly payment, or are there multiple payments each month?