Santander Froze My Account!!!
vesperlynd
Posts: 5 Forumite
Hello All!
I've combed the forum recently to see if anyone has had a similar situation. It seems as though many have had their accounts frozen. None matched my exact scenario! If you have any insight at all, it would be greatly appreciated.
I've been a customer for over 10 years, no fraudulent activity, never even had a chargeback, always notified them of when I was traveling out the country. I've used the account to pay small bills and as a secondary account. Recently, I decided to use Santander solely, I plan to relocate to Spain and figured it would be easier. I received a deposit for a little over £5900 and it came from a friend in Italy, To be more exact the relative of my fianc!, who was simply sending a gift for our recent engagement. Since my fianc! is here in the UK we figured it be easier for her to send to my account?
We didn't think we'd done anything wrong, until we went to check the account and my access was blocked. We called, were told to go to a branch, provided a scanned copy of the passport and also some evidence of the transfer. Which is quite odd as we can't go asking someone for their bank statement! To our good fortune her cousin had a physical copy of a receipt with the banks stamp and her signature. We went into a branch, did all they've asked and have heard nothing from them?
Fair enough if they want to hold the funds for a few days because they want to ensure it's not fraudulent, however, this isn't the first time I've received funds from anyone. I received funds from a friend who owed me money in March, and another transfer from my fianc! in January. She usually sends money to cover her trip so that she doesn't incur fees when spending money here.
I simply can't understand why I'm being treated this way. No customer appreciation, no recourse and no funds. We're at a loss here, with no answers and no one to even advise us. Surely it doesn't take that long to contact the bank that sent it, ask if it was legitimate and then they have their answer. To waste precious time, and make a customer feel so unvalued is gross.
I've rambled on a bit, and I apologize! Thanks in advance for any and all help!
I've combed the forum recently to see if anyone has had a similar situation. It seems as though many have had their accounts frozen. None matched my exact scenario! If you have any insight at all, it would be greatly appreciated.
I've been a customer for over 10 years, no fraudulent activity, never even had a chargeback, always notified them of when I was traveling out the country. I've used the account to pay small bills and as a secondary account. Recently, I decided to use Santander solely, I plan to relocate to Spain and figured it would be easier. I received a deposit for a little over £5900 and it came from a friend in Italy, To be more exact the relative of my fianc!, who was simply sending a gift for our recent engagement. Since my fianc! is here in the UK we figured it be easier for her to send to my account?
We didn't think we'd done anything wrong, until we went to check the account and my access was blocked. We called, were told to go to a branch, provided a scanned copy of the passport and also some evidence of the transfer. Which is quite odd as we can't go asking someone for their bank statement! To our good fortune her cousin had a physical copy of a receipt with the banks stamp and her signature. We went into a branch, did all they've asked and have heard nothing from them?
Fair enough if they want to hold the funds for a few days because they want to ensure it's not fraudulent, however, this isn't the first time I've received funds from anyone. I received funds from a friend who owed me money in March, and another transfer from my fianc! in January. She usually sends money to cover her trip so that she doesn't incur fees when spending money here.
I simply can't understand why I'm being treated this way. No customer appreciation, no recourse and no funds. We're at a loss here, with no answers and no one to even advise us. Surely it doesn't take that long to contact the bank that sent it, ask if it was legitimate and then they have their answer. To waste precious time, and make a customer feel so unvalued is gross.
I've rambled on a bit, and I apologize! Thanks in advance for any and all help!
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Comments
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No one is singling you out personally.
Just let them do their job and the account will be unfrozen and the funds released.0 -
It just seems that the banks and possibly ombudsman are making it up as they go. I understand it's not personal, it's business.
However, it certainly feels that way when they leave you with nothing based off algorithms and etc.
I thank you both for your response! I appreciate it greatly!0 -
Hello Lola - yes the same has happened to us - Santander has frozen the current account fro 5 weeks now - accepts salary into the account but won't allow any withdrawals or payments. We know what caused it - a £4k deposit of cash which is easily explained. But nobody at the bank will talk about it. They will give no information about policies or procedures - just a blank wall. They have completely cut their customer off from any source of funds - no matter what legislation this is under, this is cruel and intolerable treatment. They do not care about what the consequences are. I had contact with a single parent with two children that this this happened to as well last month - cut off from all funds for 10 days in her case. Bank had no interest in how she would feed or look after the children. I cannot believe how anyone can think this behaviour of the bank is in any way just. Even the police have a set time to charge you if they suspect an offence - here the bank can send someone into poverty, not paying the mortgage or utility bills but still hanging onto the salary deposits is outrageous. it cannot take more than 5 weeks to investigate a simple personal account . Nobody is bothering or caring, that is the trouble0
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For Gary Dexter
but how long will they take? 5 weeks now in our case. Can they cut us from funds for years ? The bank is a law unto itself and care nothing for the damage it does in the meantime. 2 salary payments gone into the account now - and nobody will even speak about it . This cannot be justice in any shape or form. If someone did not have friends to borrow from, someone cut off from all funds could easily get very ill through this0 -
You should always have more than 1 bank account incase things like this happen0
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To Gary
Good tip - certainly will in the future - but need to get this sorted first - but there is no evident way of sorting it if they won't speak to you about it - not gone to the Ombudsman yet - as don't think that would be much help but may try it next week when we get to 6 weeks0 -
I feel so awful for complaining! We're single adults and trying to make ends meet! You have a family! We haven't had any updates either. Fair enough if they suspect fraud, however if they did the proper checks in a timely manner. It seems to me it wouldn't take weeks. I don't mean to sound cynical, but try calling every few days? I mean maybe that would speed up the process? Have you provided supporting documents?0
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The frustrating thing for readers of this forum (and listeners to Martin's radio program, Paul Lewis, and readers of constant newspaper articles) is that phishing thieves seem to have no problem getting people to empty their accounts into a new safe "secure account", and then getting that completely empty in a matter of minutes. And then be untraceable.
This can be tens of thousands........and yet we see genuine transactions are often the subject of interminable AML checks. Makes you think there's an algorithm that needs some work in some 40 year old cobol program somewhere.0 -
The cynic might contend that successful scammers know enough about AML processes, thresholds, etc, to ensure that their activities will circumvent scrutiny, almost as if they had inside knowledge....0
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Stop right there. Next you'll be mentioning Asian call centres...........;)The cynic might contend that successful scammers know enough about AML processes, thresholds, etc, to ensure that their activities will circumvent scrutiny, almost as if they had inside knowledge....I came into this world with nothing and I've got most of it left.0
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