how quickly are bank accounts frozen?

Hi

I have a very specific question concerning bankruptcy. How quickly do the banks move to freeze an account?

Here is my situation. I think that I was declared bankrupt today as a result of a petition by HMRC. (I was unable to attend the hearing as I am abroad on work, and I did ask the court for an adjournment by letter for this reason, but let's assume the adjournment wasn't granted.)

I assume that because Monday is a bank holiday I won't appear in the insolvency register until Tuesday at the earliest.

I should get paid by my employer next Wednesday (by Faster Payments, not BACS).

I have two accounts: a NatWest Select Silver, and a Cashplus prepaid debit card. I don't have any borrowing, or a chequebook, on either. There's not much in either of them.

Currently my salary goes into the NatWest account but it would be easy enough to change that before my payday.

Ideally, what I need to be able to do is to get some cash and pay urgent bills (rent etc.) as soon as I am paid - then that gives me several weeks before the next payday to sort out a new basic bank account if I need to, and obviously I will have spoken to the Official Receiver by then anyway.

So, is it likely my NatWest account could be frozen as early as the Wednesday?`

Would Cashplus be likely to freeze it at all?

If I called the NatWest insolvency team on Tuesday (I have the direct number) would this help avert the problem, or would it just alert them to the bankruptcy and make them more likely to freeze it?

Obviously, the timing and being away from home just make things more complicated, but there's no avoiding that.

Any advice much appreciated!

Thank you

Dan

Comments

  • joa1210
    joa1210 Posts: 73
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    I think my husbands was about 7-10 days I had already changed mine to a coop cash minder but because we had a joint account the closed his too. Could you get it paid to a relative until you can sort one out?
  • TheGardener
    TheGardener Posts: 3,303
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    edited 26 May 2018 at 12:03AM
    Took 3 or 4 weeks for my 'everyday' account to be temporarily suspended and other accounts I expected to be closed took about the same length of time before anything happened. However I went BR before the 'online' submissions so I don't know if its quicker now. I would guess you'd be fine on Wednesday. I think ringing them would indeed alert them to the BR.
  • fermi
    fermi Posts: 40,546
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    Entirely on the bank, and how they find out. So rule of thumb is not to depend in any way on it not happening for x days, if you can avoid it.
    Free/impartial debt advice: National Debtline | StepChange Debt Charity | Find your local CAB

    IVA & fee charging DMP companies: Profits from misery, motivated ONLY by greed
  • srg0916
    srg0916 Posts: 25 Forumite
    My halifax accounts frozen and closed within 3 weeks of BR been accepted. Luckily I already had a basic account I had opened online with Nationwide so I got my pay paid into my new account. I have recently just changed all my Direct Debits to it too. I am waitig on another Nationwide account to be opened so I can have one for bills and one for everyday use.
  • roughsea
    roughsea Posts: 87
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    My account was not frozen and now discharged :)
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