Vanquis credit card account locked!

Windtalker54

An elderly relative in Canada recently needed to send me some money, and the only way they were able to figure was to transfer the money to my Vanquis account, which of course left me with a credit balance.
I spent about three-quarters of the amount almost immediately, but before I was able to use the rest, and without ANY prior notice, my account was locked on June 18th. Despite several phone calls, and an email to their Customer complaints department, I have been unable to get them to remove the lock so that I can use the balance.
I realise that I'm not supposed to have a credit balance, but this was the only way my relative could transfer the funds, and they surely should have given me advance warning of their intention? Suggestions, anyone?  

Browntoa

It's probably not the credit balance, it's money laundering red flags .

How much money are we talking roughly? 

Mark_d

Credit cards are not design to hold credit balances.  What happened here looks suspicious and the bank need to investigate.

If your relative could only make a payment into a mastercard account, why didn't they transfer the money to your debit card?  I've received international payments to my Starling current account with no issues.  As long as you give the sender your IBAN details they should be able to make the transfer.  For people incapable of doing banking, there are lots of simple solutions for sending money, such as Paypal.

I don't think Vanquis has acted improperly here

Hoenir

Windtalker54 said:

An elderly relative in Canada recently needed to send me some money, and the only way they were able to figure was to transfer the money to my Vanquis account, 

Many would view it as the most unusual way. 

Windtalker54

Browntoa said:

It's probably not the credit balance, it's money laundering red flags .

How much money are we talking roughly? 

The total was just about £2000, after buying my air fare, about £700 remaining.

Windtalker54

Mark_d said:

Credit cards are not design to hold credit balances.  What happened here looks suspicious and the bank need to investigate.

If your relative could only make a payment into a mastercard account, why didn't they transfer the money to your debit card?  I've received international payments to my Starling current account with no issues.  As long as you give the sender your IBAN details they should be able to make the transfer.  For people incapable of doing banking, there are lots of simple solutions for sending money, such as Paypal.

I don't think Vanquis has acted improperly here

I should have clarified, for some reason they were told they could only pay into VISA, not Mastercard. By debit card is Mastercard. I guess I'll give them a bit longer, although 3 weeks to investigate £700 seems a long time!

Windtalker54

Hoenir said:

Windtalker54 said:

An elderly relative in Canada recently needed to send me some money, and the only way they were able to figure was to transfer the money to my Vanquis account, 

Many would view it as the most unusual way. 

I must admit I thought the same at the time, but it was as much as he was able to do to figure out how to transfer the money to my VISA, and his bank told him that was the only option.

Hoenir

Windtalker54 said:

 although 3 weeks to investigate £700 seems a long time!

Depends what's ahead in the queue. Only so many hours in the working day. 

born_again

Windtalker54 said:

Hoenir said:

Windtalker54 said:

An elderly relative in Canada recently needed to send me some money, and the only way they were able to figure was to transfer the money to my Vanquis account, 

Many would view it as the most unusual way. 

I must admit I thought the same at the time, but it was as much as he was able to do to figure out how to transfer the money to my VISA, and his bank told him that was the only option.

You don't transfer funds to a card. You transfer them to your bank account....

A 3rd party from oversea's paying to someone else's CC has so many red flags on it, even more so when it is putting it into credit.

Windtalker54

Thanks all, lesson learned, the hard way!