Halifax/Lloyds closing my account in 60 Days!! Extremely worried about CIFAS

MiwMiwCat

hi all,

I’m in a very distressing situation right now. I made the mistake of transferring my wages and savings to Halifax as I wanted to start fresh from my other bank account with HSBC as they aren’t the best in my opinion. I made the mistake of transferring money to my Monzo to pay off my Monzo flex and then decided I was going to transfer the whole balance to my Monzo. The transfer got blocked and I got asked to call in. I then tried again (stupidly) and then got logged out of the app. The guy on the phone was really nice and told me to go into branch with ID.

So I went in today and they spoke to a different fraud team and they said it was also with another team and asked if I had been asked to keep and transfer the money (money mule type of situation), but I’m well aware of money muleing and fraud and I would never risk doing that.

I was told that there was no timeframe but most of the time it takes a couple of hours. So I go home and see a text from Halifax and Lloyds stating that my account will be closed in 60 days and letter will be sent to me. They said I have to go into branch to withdraw my money. I’m genuinely so worried. I can’t risk getting a CIFAS, I’ve seen so many horror stories about CIFAS.

I understand I may not be able to appeal which is fine, I found the customer service with Halifax/Lloyds to be not the best. But I’m just so concerned that I’m going to be treated like a fraudster and have all my accounts closed. What should I do?

la531983

They wouldnt be giving you 60 days if they were going down that road, imo.

MiwMiwCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81863423#Comment_81863423

I truly hope not, it’s the first time it’s happened to me and I know now never to do it again. Lesson learned.

eskbanker

I can’t risk getting a CIFAS, I’ve seen so many horror stories about CIFAS.

I understand I may not be able to appeal which is fine, I found the customer service with Halifax/Lloyds to be not the best. But I’m just so concerned that I’m going to be treated like a fraudster and have all my accounts closed. What should I do?

As above, if they're giving 60 days notice that's a positive sign, in that accounts being operated fraudulently will generally be closed with immediate effect.

In terms of what to do, you can submit a subject access request to CIFAS to ascertain if Halifax have put any sort of marker on there, and challenge if it's erroneous.

MiwMiwCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81863430#Comment_81863430

thank you for answering my concerns, I understand that giving 60 day notices are far much better than being closed with immediate affect upon checking historical forums.

I’ll probably look to do a cifas check soon but the guy on the phone said even he’s 99.9% sure a marker will not be added on since it’s given me a 60 day notice when I queried it (was panicking once I got the text message). other than that, I’ll wait till Monday to get the money and then ask them to close it there and then rather than wait 60 days for it to go.

Not an ideal situation but oh well!

lr1277

I haven't followed your timeline of events as I found it confusing, but here are some thoughts.

Before you close any account and withdraw all the funds, make sure you have somewhere to put those funds. I would suggest opening an account first before closing the Halifax account.

Is your HSBC account still open? Can you put any money in there till you sort out your banking arrangements?

When moving accounts did you use CASS? If you open an account elsewhere (or even if you return to your open HSBC account) would it not be possible to use CASS to transfer the funds?

Sorry if this is not helpful.

born_again

 I made the mistake of transferring my wages and savings to Halifax as I wanted to start fresh from my other bank account with HSBC as they aren’t the best in my opinion. I made the mistake of transferring money to my Monzo to pay off my Monzo flex and then decided I was going to transfer the whole balance to my Monzo. 

So all from HSBC > Halifax > part to Monzo, then balance to Monzo (which got blocked)

Who were you going to use as a new start, given a Monzo acc?

Given 60 days you should be OK.

MiwMiwCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81863482#Comment_81863482

Hi don’t worry about it, I wrote my initial post whilst stressed out (still am, just less stressed) I still have my HSBC and other bank accounts that I don’t really use anymore. Once I am able to get the money out with Halifax I’ll put the money into one of them and go about my life.

MiwMiwCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81863488#Comment_81863488

I was going to give Monzo a try again. I did want to try Halifax but considering there’s not a lot of options available to me that I wanted to use, I decided that I was going to use Monzo again as I have a credit card with them etc. I have had Monzo since October last year as I was a returning customer and wanted to use their features again. Luckily I don’t get paid into Halifax and the account was fairly new too so I’m guessing that’s why they’re shutting it down.

GTR_King

Hi there!

It’s generally a good sign if the account is closed within 60 days.

It usually means the bank believes you’ve breached their terms and conditions, such as by using a personal account for business purposes etc!

Where was your wages paid from your employer? Or are you self employed?

MiwMiwCat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81863970#Comment_81863970

my wages are paid by my employer into my Monzo, I then decided to pay it all into my Halifax which is the biggest mistake ever. I spoke to someone on the fraud team and they said I have to do with ID to withdraw the funds, but when looking at other situations it seems the only money that can be withdrawn is salary / benefits directly paid into the account by the employer/government which has made me extremely scared that they’re going to ask for multiple documents and that it’s going to take multiple weeks for this to be resolved. The only money I have left is £50 I got from a complaint I logged earlier, I tried to explain this through a very very tearful conversation with the fraud team but they said there was nothing the can do and that it sits with the account review team to release the funds etc.