Attention UK Bitcoiners

[ukbitcoiner]

I think they most certainly DO have to tell you why they closed your account:

Closure by us
7.1.1
We can close your account immediately if:
(a) we reasonably suspect that you have given us false information;
(b) we reasonably suspect that your account is being used for an illegal purpose;
(c) you behave in a threatening or violent manner towards our staff; or
(d) you were not entitled to open your account.
7.1.2
We can also close your account by giving you not less than 60 days’ notice before we close your account.

As they havn't given you 60 days notice, then they must suspect you of providing false information, illegal activity or not being entitled to open the account in the first place (I'm assuming you havn't been violent towards any of their staff recently). So they need to tell you why. If they can't then I would accuse them of being in breech of their own terms and conditions and liable to damages for your loss of trade as a result of having your account closed.

Don't let the bastards get away with this.

The plot thickens...

22nd April – Bank account frozen, rang up twice and was hung up on both times. Then rang local branch and they also hung up. Had to go into branch to withdraw child benefit. After waiting over an hour they said they would not let us access child benefit either (not for us obviously, for the 5 week old baby!!  )

23rd April – Cash machine swallowed bank card. Rang up again and wouldn’t tell us anything apart from its frozen.

23rd April – Still can’t withdraw any money and account is still frozen. They also said the account £9,200 in debt(?!?!), which has been paid to BTS something.

Rang up again later and spoke to someone different, they said a cheque has been paid in for £100,000 and the account is negative £98,878.41. How does someone paying a cheque in leave you in negative balance? Had an argument with customer service and got put through to manager.

5 minutes later the manager said regret to inform that we are closing your account which is £98,878.41 in debit. She said a cheque was never paid in. She can confirm the account is in debt but she can’t tell us anymore about it.


24th April. Rang up, account is unfrozen, no history of £100,000 ever being withdrawn, or any cheques being paid in. Bank account is still being closed.



Now, I am not one to moan, but this is ridiculous, it makes absolutely no sense, and someone somewhere has been lying. Not to mention neither of us could sleep all night thinking that we are almost £100k in debt and will never be able to buy our own house or afford anything for the rest of our lives.

Would it be worth posting on one of those consumer action group type forums? Do we have any comeback?

[nbartlett]

I think the press might be interested in this. They do love a good story about banks screwing innocent customers.

Or if you actually want somebody to get to the bottom of what happened and hold the bank to account, try Radio 4's Money Box programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/money-box/contact/

[BaronMcG]

sounds to me maybe they think you where / are commiting fraud or money laundering. you're accoutn will be frozen and you will be reported for you, there is a very real chance you are under investigation by SOCA and the banks wont tell you shit because they can go to jail for tipping off. if they where closing the account because you where using it as a business or whatnot they would tell you, them not saying anything makes me think its something very serious and going on at them about it won't make them tell you, the fact they are hanging up on you makes me think there is a note on your account saying your a suspect in a fraud investigation or something and nobody wants to get fired/ arresed for letting something slip they shouldn't.

also in regards to record of a cheque not being paid in, banks can see records of transaction you can't - i cant remember if its because they would have reversed it or because somethings been done as an internal transaction to something (i.e moving to a holding account). cant remember off the top of my head its been a few years since i worked in a bank.

if i where you i'd expect the police to come knocking, either politely or with a battering ram.

[ukbitcoiner]

sounds to me maybe they think you where / are commiting fraud or money laundering. you're accoutn will be frozen and you will be reported for you, there is a very real chance you are under investigation by SOCA and the banks wont tell you shit because they can go to jail for tipping off. if they where closing the account because you where using it as a business or whatnot they would tell you, them not saying anything makes me think its something very serious and going on at them about it won't make them tell you, the fact they are hanging up on you makes me think there is a note on your account saying your a suspect in a fraud investigation or something and nobody wants to get fired/ arresed for letting something slip they shouldn't.

also in regards to record of a cheque not being paid in, banks can see records of transaction you can't - i cant remember if its because they would have reversed it or because somethings been done as an internal transaction to something (i.e moving to a holding account). cant remember off the top of my head its been a few years since i worked in a bank.

if i where you i'd expect the police to come knocking, either politely or with a battering ram.

Wow, seriously?

This is insane...I sold maybe £3k worth at the most.

You have me very worried now! Especially if they think fraud, I can't prove otherwise as BTC are untracable!

[BaronMcG]

Serious Organised Crime Agency

it could be because some of the people that you had dealings with where under investigation themselves or with the case of the 100k cheque it could have been forged / stolen funds. usually the banks would report dodgy goings on, sometimes they even know whats going to happen before it does - banks have seriously good intel regarding frauds and scams going on, usually for the local area, but if somebody had tried to pay in a stolen cheque then it would be a massive red flag and all accounts related would be frozen.

if your account shows unsual transactions they will report it, they might suspect you being a money mule i dont know, but it does sound like something bad's happened, if you've not done anything wrong then you've nothing to worry about although it will be more of a major inconvienece than anything, and police might want a word with you. i'm not too sure what happens after the account closure, my experience of dodgy goings on at a bank are we got told from head office that things had been reported to soca and after that you'd stay away from said account because it would be monitored, but they'd then be closed and it would be outside the banks control - at least at branch level, short of the risk assesment stuff we always had to do i didnt have a great deal to do with it so i cant say what might be going on in the background.

[Bitemix]

there is a very real chance you are under investigation by SOCA and the banks wont tell you shit because they can go to jail for tipping off. if they where closing the account because you where using it as a business or whatnot they would tell you, them not saying anything makes me think its something very serious and going on at them about it won't make them tell you, the fact they are hanging up on you makes me think there is a note on your account saying your a suspect in a fraud investigation or something and nobody wants to get fired/ arresed for letting something slip they shouldn't.

Exactly, them not giving you any explanation whatsoever, is most likely because they're not allowed to tell.

It's like calling the phone company and asking about a strange sound that you hear when making calls or picking up your phone => phone t.

"well sir, I'm sorry to inform you, but there's a tap on your phone" 

[Mogumodz]

I think it depends on which bank you are with. HSBC shut my account when I was selling BTC and only reopened it on the understanding that I would not do any more BTC trades on the account. I think the red flags were receiving lots of bank transfers from individuals and receiving a transfer from someone on a watch list of suspicious accounts or something.

HSBC lol.... not like they do anything illegal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18880269

[vm1990]

and this is the reason mt.gox dont have a UK bank account.... im from the UK and for one of the banking kings of the world everything is shit mostly because of the government and those fucks from Europe

[ukbitcoiner]

I think is probably the reason why their are no UK exchanges. What a ballache!

[alyssa85]

I'm in the UK. You need to use either Liberty reserve or OK-Pay and a funding intermediary. And there are a bunch of e-exchangers out there, so you can convert money from say Liberty Reserve to move money to your account.

For example: the following e-exchanger (which is from New Zealand) - www.alertexchanger.com - will send money from Liberty Reserve to Paypal, and then from Paypal you can send it to your UK bank account (if your Paypal account is verified). It's a great pain, and of course there are fees taken out along the way.

If you use OK-pay, they then allow you to send money directly into your account.

Hope this helps

[evilscoop]

Transfer wire to bit stamp works well too

[Mogumodz]

Transfer wire to bit stamp works well too

Not anymore 

http://transferwise.com/blog/2013-04/notice-to-bitcoin-users-april-2013

[knocte]

He said transfer wire, not transferwise.

I'm using transfer wire (SEPA) to bitstamp and it worked fine twice. (Sending; I haven't tested receiving yet.)

[blackarrow]

[clip]

[Mogumodz]

He said transfer wire, not transferwise.

I'm using transfer wire (SEPA) to bitstamp and it worked fine twice. (Sending; I haven't tested receiving yet.)

Whoops, good to know.

Bank of Scotland is the biggest gathering of thieves ever.

This bank has closed my business account in 2009 and refunded the money after 4 years with no interest. I had to invest hundreds of hours of my time in reading legislation and writing letters.

Not only this, they have also sent the Police and HMRC over my house just to hassle me. When they've seen that we are legit, they just refunded the money but paid no interest.

My fight with this bank still continues. Read more details here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?331715-8000GBP-retained-by-Bank-of-Scotland

Dam, Good luck with that.

[evilscoop]

Transfer wire to bit stamp works well too

Not anymore 

http://transferwise.com/blog/2013-04/notice-to-bitcoin-users-april-2013

mother in ..........
nooooooo

time to redo my sig then.....