Santander - Frozen account 5 weeks ago still ongoing!

gemgemgemgem

Hi, wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar with Santander and can tell me what happened / how long it took….

I opened an account and paid in an HMRC refund check at their branch.

Santander froze my account a few days later (22nd Aug) and I provided the HMRC document the day they requested it (26th Aug).

I then heard nothing at all after chasing so made a formal complaint 2nd Sept (still awaiting response as apparently the letter about my complaint they sent me was lost in the post…)

I chased again, eventually got a call back 10th September asking more questions then saying to wait for an email….. no email was received

Called 17th Sept and told someone will call me - no call received

Called again today 24th Sept and told again to wait for a call.

So now over a month and no access to my account and no updates despite providing the evidence they asked for as soon as they asked.

I'm really frustrated and upset now! I get they have checks but it's the length of time and being kept in the dark which is extremely frustrating - feel as though they have stolen my money!

Anyways if anyone has had similar happen and can provide any insights I'd appreciate that.

Thanks.

flaneurs_lobster

It's certainly odd when you look at this activity in isolation.

Was this literally the only activity on this account - open, pay in HMRC cheque.

Do you have other accounts with Santander?

Do you have other accounts elsewhere? Any reason not to use one of these accounts?

gemgemgemgem

Yes that was the only activity, though I paid in person and they saw it was a new account and didn't mind me putting the cheque in…..

I wanted to open a high interest savings account and was told Santander had a good one plus a branch I could pop into, so opened the regular account, figured I'd pay that cheque in then go open the savings one after my holiday and transfer that plus some other savings with my other bank over. I mean I had no idea this wasn't a normal thing to do tbh.

I'm not disputing they may want to do checks on it, more the amount of time and limited (or should I say no) updates from them, its driving me crazy. Also I sent them my HMRC letter as soon as it was requested. Yes I have another account with another bank thankfully!

born_again

New account & pay in a HMRC cheque. Will set alarm bells ringing. Complaining will get no where, with this, as no one will tell you what is going on other than it takes as long as it takes. Could be waiting on HMRC to confirm details.

Anything else becomes tipping off.

flaneurs_lobster

New account & pay in a HMRC cheque. Will set alarm bells ringing.

Why? If standard ID checks are done on opening a new current account?

Not likely to be money laundering.

sgthammer

I've got an old TSB account that I mainly keep open because it's the one I've had longest and I can remember the number and sort code off the top of my head, which is occasionally useful.

About this time last year they were running a prize draw where you got one entry for every, I think, £5000 deposited during the period. So I transferred £10000 from other savings temporarily on the offchance. And they phoned me up to check source of funds, why I was moving so much money at once etc. Mate, you were actively soliciting big deposits!

And then there was the time many years ago when a struggling artist I knew landed a gig with a big American comic publisher. Three months after signing off the dole, he rang New York wondering what had happened to his first paycheck (probably 2 or 3 thousand dollars at the time), to discover his own bank had been sitting on it for weeks as a suspicious transaction.

Anything unusual is an automatic red flag, it seems.

gemgemgemgem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82147180#Comment_82147180

I don't get it though, why don't they make a rule that you aren't allowed to pay cheques into new accounts if it's that much of a worry? Then I wouldn't have bothered.

Just wish they would give me an update to let me know they are at least progressing, when I chased one of the times I was told 'oh it doesn't look as though anyone's looked at it yet, don't know why that could be'

It's a legitimate cheque and feels so wrong they can just freeze my account with absolutely no timelines or updates.

Gah!

redux

I opened a new Santander current account

Transferred in £100 then £250, and transferred £200 to new monthly savings account

Tried to transfer £75 to my mother's also new Santander account. Didn't work

I wondered whether there was an already reserved transaction of about £90 shopping on the debit card, though Sainsbury's don't usually charge the card until the early morning of the delivery date (next day)

So I tried to send in £25 more, from same Lloyds account as before. It was returned few minutes later. Tried again, returned again

I rang their fraud department at about 7 pm and asked is my account blocked. Yes, pending criminal investigation checks, normal process, should take a week or so to clear

I said I don't want to be in trouble with Sainsbury's if the debit card payment fails. [Fortunately I was able to change the payment card with them a bit later that evening]

I said please file a formal complaint, as these transactions should be as innocuous as can be and shouldn't set off money laundering or similar alarms.

Someone from the complaints team phoned the next day. Would look into it. I said are you sure you'll get all the info, as with a certain other credit card in the past the fraud team refused to talk to the complaints team

She contacted me a few days later and said the account was now unblocked. It's not clear to me whether she was able to improve the process or just observe it.

It sounds like in your case nobody in the place is trying or able to prod something into happening

gemgemgemgem

Thanks for letting me know about your experience, I'm glad it didn't take so long to get your account back.

I just had my letter through from the complaints team and it mentions something in the text that didn't happen in reality, so I called them and the complaint handler actually went and listened to my previous calls with the investigation team.

She said outrightly that I've had very poor service, that the investigator failed to follow up with what they said and further to that left no notes for any colleagues - so thats why I've been told 'still ongoing no updates' every time I've called - she has reopened my complaint, left an urgent message with the relevant team and has promised an update hopefully tomorrow.

So lets see… hopefully this will actually get the various teams to communicate with each other!

Sam_666

So, you still want to bank with same bank after all this ?
I dont get it, what am I missing here.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82147294#Comment_82147294

It's not about making rules.

It's about how it looks to them. Clearly something about the application & payment have set alarm bells ringing.