Picture this, you have what shopping you need at the checkout, you are in a hurry to pay and get home but your account has been blocked. Fuming, you leave the shopping where it is and stomp out of the shop. You know you have money in there, you know it hasn’t been stolen so why? Why? Why?
Everyone knows that banks will freeze an account when reported stolen or if you have attempted fraud. For the average person who has neither of the above it can be frustrating at best and really problematic at worst.
What it means if your account is blocked
When your account is blocked it means you can’t make any purchases using your debit card. It also means any direct debits or standing orders will not be processed. Access to your funds will also be blocked therefore, you can’t withdraw cash out at ATM or Post Office and you can’t make any payment transfers.
The main reasons accounts get blocked:
- To protect you from unauthorised access
- Suspected fraud
- Lack of use
- Suspicious transactions
- Disputes with your bank
- Reported lost or stolen
What most account holders don’t know is that many digital banks don’t set the rules around blocking accounts. It is the ‘issuing’ bank that sets the rules around account freezing and processing transactions. These companies provide the technology to enable your account provider to exist, they have a relationship with Mastercard or Visa and they set the regulate the account features and restrictions.
Why is it happening more often?
In 2002 the Proceeds of Crime Act came into place and banks are under a legal obligation to ensure they monitor customer accounts for suspicious activity. As a consequence, this is now a much more common reason that banks freeze accounts, even if it for a payment of £40.
Fraudsters have dramatically increased fraud in the UK in recent years. They stole £754 million from customer accounts in 2021, a 30% rise from 2020. Furthermore, transfer scams amounted to £355 million, an increase of 17%. The data reported shows a fraud scam is happening to 24 people an hour in the UK, amounting to £2 million per day.
What to do it if is blocked?
- Contact your bank and find out. It can be a quick and easy process.
- Log in to your online banking and review your transactions for any unfamiliar payments or deposits.
- Open a new bank account
How do I avoid being blocked in the future?
It is not possible to predict when your bank will freeze your account but to minimise the chances of your account being block we suggest you:
- Contact your bank if you are expecting an odd payment into your account or going out of your account. This will forewarn the Fraud team and they may be less likely to freeze the account if it is an expected payment.
- Ensure you used pins entry after your 5th contactless payment
- Don’t give your debit card to anyone else to use
- Understand the limits to your account and don’t use it outside of those limits
Suits Me Accounts
Although Suits Me also need to abide by the regulatory requirements and UK law, there is a commitment to ensuring we have no or minimal ‘false positives’. This means we do everything we can using advanced technology to make sure your account isn’t blocked when you have not committed any fraudulent activity. If your account does become temporarily blocked, we have the fastest turn-around time to re-opening. In fact most customers do not even notice their account has been blocked.
Suits Me offer personal accounts providing banking-like features to manage your money with a free deliver contactless debit. Rewards come as standard and there are no minimum deposits.
Join thousands of people who wanted to an account to suit them.
Summary
In summary, having your account frozen can be really disruptive and cost you money if direct debits bounce. The banks are legally bound through the POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act) to monitor every transaction on your account. Notably, most of the monitoring is conducted through technology with rules pre-set by the issuing bank. This monitoring is in place to protect you from fraud and accounts that have been frozen, if there has been no suspicious activity will be unfrozen quickly.
