Bank Account Closure

DullGreyGuy

Be aware that the FOS accepts evidence in confidence, if requested by either party. So the FOS may opine on it and tell you that due to evidence share by the bank it was reasonable for them to close it straight away but not provide you with a copy of it. 

Was looking at a case on the FOS website the other day that was exactly this, it was related to a "no intent to pay" fraud allegation but the FOS won't publish what evidence was provided. 

MeteredOut said:

brownriceoysterolive said:

MeteredOut said:

So are you saying

- Your account was closed but they would not tell you why
- You did a SAR and fraud related notes were marked against you, deeming you high risk, but those fraud related notes have mistakenly been marked against you
- You raised this with the bank but they reiterate that they cannot tell you any more

Have you raised a complaint with them? I appreciate this might be difficult if you are no longer a customer. Have you considered raising it with the Financial Ombudsman?

I did raise it and they wouldn’t address it by saying that yes and then eventually it was unrelated to me and accidentally included but seems like a big lie because of the timing and nature of it.

If you want to push it the FOS is probably your next step, but is it worth it? Do you actually want your account re-opened if you believe they've treated you so poorly?

The FOS won't order a bank to reopen an account. Instead they will consider if the amount of notice for closing the account was appropriate or not. If it wasnt then they will order compensation depending on what level of issues the closure caused. Assuming no actual financial loss was suffered as a consequence then tends to be in the £50-£150 range

brownriceoysterolive

DullGreyGuy said:

Be aware that the FOS accepts evidence in confidence, if requested by either party. So the FOS may opine on it and tell you that due to evidence share by the bank it was reasonable for them to close it straight away but not provide you with a copy of it. 

Was looking at a case on the FOS website the other day that was exactly this, it was related to a "no intent to pay" fraud allegation but the FOS won't publish what evidence was provided. 

MeteredOut said:

brownriceoysterolive said:

MeteredOut said:

So are you saying

- Your account was closed but they would not tell you why
- You did a SAR and fraud related notes were marked against you, deeming you high risk, but those fraud related notes have mistakenly been marked against you
- You raised this with the bank but they reiterate that they cannot tell you any more

Have you raised a complaint with them? I appreciate this might be difficult if you are no longer a customer. Have you considered raising it with the Financial Ombudsman?

I did raise it and they wouldn’t address it by saying that yes and then eventually it was unrelated to me and accidentally included but seems like a big lie because of the timing and nature of it.

If you want to push it the FOS is probably your next step, but is it worth it? Do you actually want your account re-opened if you believe they've treated you so poorly?

The FOS won't order a bank to reopen an account. Instead they will consider if the amount of notice for closing the account was appropriate or not. If it wasnt then they will order compensation depending on what level of issues the closure caused. Assuming no actual financial loss was suffered as a consequence then tends to be in the £50-£150 range

Don’t they consider the fairness of the decision like require evidence for it and determine whether such unrelated data affected it and if so to make it right reverse the decision and so on? In a case where there’s a clear data breach would that apply?

DullGreyGuy

brownriceoysterolive said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Be aware that the FOS accepts evidence in confidence, if requested by either party. So the FOS may opine on it and tell you that due to evidence share by the bank it was reasonable for them to close it straight away but not provide you with a copy of it. 

Was looking at a case on the FOS website the other day that was exactly this, it was related to a "no intent to pay" fraud allegation but the FOS won't publish what evidence was provided. 

MeteredOut said:

brownriceoysterolive said:

MeteredOut said:

So are you saying

- Your account was closed but they would not tell you why
- You did a SAR and fraud related notes were marked against you, deeming you high risk, but those fraud related notes have mistakenly been marked against you
- You raised this with the bank but they reiterate that they cannot tell you any more

Have you raised a complaint with them? I appreciate this might be difficult if you are no longer a customer. Have you considered raising it with the Financial Ombudsman?

I did raise it and they wouldn’t address it by saying that yes and then eventually it was unrelated to me and accidentally included but seems like a big lie because of the timing and nature of it.

If you want to push it the FOS is probably your next step, but is it worth it? Do you actually want your account re-opened if you believe they've treated you so poorly?

The FOS won't order a bank to reopen an account. Instead they will consider if the amount of notice for closing the account was appropriate or not. If it wasnt then they will order compensation depending on what level of issues the closure caused. Assuming no actual financial loss was suffered as a consequence then tends to be in the £50-£150 range

Don’t they consider the fairness of the decision like require evidence for it and determine whether such unrelated data affected it and if so to make it right reverse the decision and so on? In a case where there’s a clear data breach would that apply?

They can close your account for any reason, they just need to give you 60 days notice. 

If they give you less than 60 days notice they have to have good reason which is what the FOS will opine on. If they disagree with the good reason they will require compensation to be paid based on the damage of having X days rather than 60 days caused. 

Any data breach is a separate matter. 

brownriceoysterolive

DullGreyGuy said:

brownriceoysterolive said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Be aware that the FOS accepts evidence in confidence, if requested by either party. So the FOS may opine on it and tell you that due to evidence share by the bank it was reasonable for them to close it straight away but not provide you with a copy of it. 

Was looking at a case on the FOS website the other day that was exactly this, it was related to a "no intent to pay" fraud allegation but the FOS won't publish what evidence was provided. 

MeteredOut said:

brownriceoysterolive said:

MeteredOut said:

So are you saying

- Your account was closed but they would not tell you why
- You did a SAR and fraud related notes were marked against you, deeming you high risk, but those fraud related notes have mistakenly been marked against you
- You raised this with the bank but they reiterate that they cannot tell you any more

Have you raised a complaint with them? I appreciate this might be difficult if you are no longer a customer. Have you considered raising it with the Financial Ombudsman?

I did raise it and they wouldn’t address it by saying that yes and then eventually it was unrelated to me and accidentally included but seems like a big lie because of the timing and nature of it.

If you want to push it the FOS is probably your next step, but is it worth it? Do you actually want your account re-opened if you believe they've treated you so poorly?

The FOS won't order a bank to reopen an account. Instead they will consider if the amount of notice for closing the account was appropriate or not. If it wasnt then they will order compensation depending on what level of issues the closure caused. Assuming no actual financial loss was suffered as a consequence then tends to be in the £50-£150 range

Don’t they consider the fairness of the decision like require evidence for it and determine whether such unrelated data affected it and if so to make it right reverse the decision and so on? In a case where there’s a clear data breach would that apply?

They can close your account for any reason, they just need to give you 60 days notice. 

If they give you less than 60 days notice they have to have good reason which is what the FOS will opine on. If they disagree with the good reason they will require compensation to be paid based on the damage of having X days rather than 60 days caused. 

Any data breach is a separate matter. 

FOS site says:
If we decide you were wrong to close a customer’s account or you didn’t give them enough notice, we’re likely to tell you to pay them compensation if that caused them distress or inconvenience. We’ll base the amount on the individual circumstances.

Yes it seems like only compensation if they decide they were wrong to do so… so they can potentially make decisions like this based on inaccurate data and then only have to pay a small amount of compensation and keep the account closed even if it was wrong to do so.

boingy

@OP. I can save you some time here. The best outcome you can hope for is a "compensation" award of fifty quid or so. It will take 4 to 6 months to get there. The bank won't care either way and certainly will not take any lessons from it. Move on, open a new account at a better bank and put it behind you.

I'm not saying it's fair, just that the rewards are meagre and the stress is high. Not worth the hassle imo.

brownriceoysterolive

boingy said:

@OP. I can save you some time here. The best outcome you can hope for is a "compensation" award of fifty quid or so. It will take 4 to 6 months to get there. The bank won't care either way and certainly will not take any lessons from it. Move on, open a new account at a better bank and put it behind you.

I'm not saying it's fair, just that the rewards are meagre and the stress is high. Not worth the hassle imo.

Thanks and yeah it’s shocking… only £50 after months of stress for a mistake that was their fault and they consider it “fair” and “reasonable”.  

brownriceoysterolive

eskbanker said:

It would probably be worth being less cryptic about the information you're referring to, and how it came to light.

Any organisation processing personal data has to disclose this to the data subject, via the subject access request provisions of the Data Protection Act, have you done this?  There are various exemptions, so it may not be viable to use this to ascertain detailed reasons for account closure....

What’s even weirder is aren’t these risk related fraud notes considered exempt from DSARs? So they inadvertently exposed they were holding these against me so in theory I should never have known?

eskbanker

brownriceoysterolive said:

eskbanker said:

It would probably be worth being less cryptic about the information you're referring to, and how it came to light.

Any organisation processing personal data has to disclose this to the data subject, via the subject access request provisions of the Data Protection Act, have you done this?  There are various exemptions, so it may not be viable to use this to ascertain detailed reasons for account closure....

What’s even weirder is aren’t these risk related fraud notes considered exempt from DSARs? So they inadvertently exposed they were holding these against me so in theory I should never have known?

Difficult to say without more detail about exactly what was contained within them.

Grizebeck

DullGreyGuy said:

Be aware that the FOS accepts evidence in confidence, if requested by either party. So the FOS may opine on it and tell you that due to evidence share by the bank it was reasonable for them to close it straight away but not provide you with a copy of it. 

Was looking at a case on the FOS website the other day that was exactly this, it was related to a "no intent to pay" fraud allegation but the FOS won't publish what evidence was provided. 

MeteredOut said:

brownriceoysterolive said:

MeteredOut said:

So are you saying

- Your account was closed but they would not tell you why
- You did a SAR and fraud related notes were marked against you, deeming you high risk, but those fraud related notes have mistakenly been marked against you
- You raised this with the bank but they reiterate that they cannot tell you any more

Have you raised a complaint with them? I appreciate this might be difficult if you are no longer a customer. Have you considered raising it with the Financial Ombudsman?

I did raise it and they wouldn’t address it by saying that yes and then eventually it was unrelated to me and accidentally included but seems like a big lie because of the timing and nature of it.

If you want to push it the FOS is probably your next step, but is it worth it? Do you actually want your account re-opened if you believe they've treated you so poorly?

The FOS won't order a bank to reopen an account. Instead they will consider if the amount of notice for closing the account was appropriate or not. If it wasnt then they will order compensation depending on what level of issues the closure caused. Assuming no actual financial loss was suffered as a consequence then tends to be in the £50-£150 range

@DullGreyGuy you don't have a link do you please 

brownriceoysterolive

Thanks for the advice