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Santander closing my accounts?

sh4d0w

sh4d0w

Member
Joined
30 Jun 2020
Messages
73
Location
Stockport, Greater Manchester
Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of insight on this situation.

November time i was getting called 2 or 3 times a week by Santander, i binned them off thinking it was a scam until i finally called them to check, it wasnt; they wanted to check on a few things... OK>

They asked me about my accounts, am i happy etc, they asked me about my job and they then asked me about one "Random" transaction that was made to my builder for £5k, that one payment specifically, we must have had a dozen or so payments to him, i think this one was from my own account and to his personal account, usually they would go from a joint savings account to his business account.

They then asked me to send them a payslip within the last 3 months, i sent it.

I questioned everything and they just kept going on about how it is random and they will be doing the same checks to all their customers under new regulations....

Mid of December and i wasnt able to make any payments, me wife neither (from joint accounts), turns out the bank had froze all of my accounts as my payslip didnt upload, i did it again and i had access again.

Yesterday, i got 9 letters (i have 9 accounts, Savings, Children etc) saying i have two months to find another bank as they can no longer offer me banking services. They will send me a Cheque for any balances remaining beyond the date and unfortunately they are not able to give me any further information about how they've made their decision.

I have never missed a payment, have very healthy accounts with them, not committed any offences or been victim to any scams or fraud and not cheated any systems - AFAIK.

What on earth have i done? What can i do now?

How can i check if i have a CIFAS Marker etc?

Cheers
 
There seems to be a lot on the internet related to banks doing this - related to regulation for which the criteria is vague to the consumer. From what I have read, the only way is to request CIFAS files and see what they say. I am not an expert here, so please do check my findings before you submit anything.

www.cifas.org.uk

Data Subject Access Request form | DSAR Online Application | Cifas

If you have been turned down for a product, service or employment they might advise you to contact a credit reference agency and Cifas for more information
www.cifas.org.uk www.cifas.org.uk
 
@BRJP1. That's what l would do by law they have to send you all internal emails data ,they have to acknowledge receipt of request and have 30 days to send you ALL the information you requested .Also separately put a complaint in with their complaints prochedure but keep it civil and calm, also send a copy of this to the CEO or MD of Santandar,still not satisfied go to the FOS, Banks are limited in what personal information they request, seems to me they are out of order here, good luck
 
From what we have seen there is little you can do to retain your account with Santander, though they say the government is looking at such situations as its becoming too prevalent and the consumer has no recourse.
We similarly made several smaller payments rather than sending one larger amount thinking it would be safer, but soon had calls from our bank, somehow that seems to trigger their fraud system.
You might find some advice on this well known site and its forum -
Home - MoneySavingExpert Forum

edit - would suggest you open two new current accounts, nothing to stop you having more than one, so if the same situation arises you have a backup. Similarly your wife could open one or more in her name as extra protection.
 
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Well! I have just called the team that dealt with this at the bank and i was greeted by a lovely lady who went above and beyond to help.

Turns out this was an error at the bank!!!! - due to a backlog in their data handling, my submitted documents took longer to process and ended up being completed after the deadline and the account closure workflow was triggered.

She tells me that i dont need to worry! - i just laughed and said well very clearly i do! ill continue moving my accounts elsewhere.

At least there is nothing untoward on my accounts as feared and i shouldn't have any issues with a new bank/BS
 
sh4d0w said:
At least there is nothing untoward on my accounts as feared and i shouldn't have any issues with a new bank/BS
Click to expand...
Which is a god result, minus the unneeded stress of course!
 
We had something similar with a payment to our builders personal account. They were just showing due diligence incase we were being ripped off. I think it went further in your case because you have several accounts.

It might have triggered a money laundering logarithm. It’s what happens when you take real people out of the equation. Seems to be happening increasingly often these days as corporations cut costs by replacing humans with AI.
 
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