My Bank Have Put a Block on My Account due to a PM Bank Transfer Payment

[ArgentSmith]

Are people using references such as Gold, Silver or Coin? It feels like a pre curser to a social credit system, gold is bad so you are bad. How on earth can the Biden crime family have 50 or so shell companies nearly 200 suspicious activity reports filed yet nothing happens, no assets frozen. Dave from Hastings wants to buy a Gold coin and gets locked down.

[BackyardBullion]

5 minutes ago, ArgentSmith said:

Are people using references such as Gold, Silver or Coin? It feels like a pre curser to a social credit system, gold is bad so you are bad. How on earth can the Biden crime family have 50 or so shell companies nearly 200 suspicious activity reports filed yet nothing happens, no assets frozen. Dave from Hastings wants to buy a Gold coin and gets locked down.

I know that having my account name as Backyard Bullion has certainly flagged up transfers coming in to me.

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

I had my bank account closed, not frozen, but closed, about a week ago after sending a payment to a bullion dealer. I had to re-open the account, re-register for online banking, etc. It was a pain but thankfully was resolved within a couple of hours and the payment went through

[Orpster]

1 hour ago, JamesH said:

Just experienced this myself in the past 24 hours. Payment just shy of a couple of grand to a new bank account, got held by my bank (Nationwide) as suspicious activity and went through a 40 minute ‘interview’ with them on the phone this morning. They’re pretty intense too. Asked me if I’d met the seller etc and knew who I was buying from. I used the analogy I’d not Mr Bezos either but I buy from Amazon all the time - that was not well received apparently. What was I buying, where did we meet, who approached who etc etc. Only ended up releasing the payment as we’d had a previous transaction together, albeit via a different account. Definitely time to open up another couple of accounts elsewhere I think

Yea made me wait ages for my money, bl00dy Nationwide, still a pleasure as always though @JamesH

[JamesH]

41 minutes ago, ArgentSmith said:

Are people using references such as Gold, Silver or Coin? It feels like a pre curser to a social credit system, gold is bad so you are bad. How on earth can the Biden crime family have 50 or so shell companies nearly 200 suspicious activity reports filed yet nothing happens, no assets frozen. Dave from Hastings wants to buy a Gold coin and gets locked down.

I’m always careful not to use any words that might flag. Most secondary market is peer to peer with regular names and payment Ref is my username so not sure how/why some are picked up and others not

[JohnA1]

I've flatly refused to tell them who/what/why .

It is none of their business, they have just been instructed to collect data, probably to be used for a form of 'asset register' that is being created in the background.

Someone I know eventually told them it was purchase of PMs, and the freeze remained. It makes no difference what you say, the more data you give them the more they will use it against you eventually.  It's like talking to the police - bad, bad idea even if you are totally innocent/irrelevant. You never know what will be used against you, in what form and when. There is a lot of bad will out there.

[Bigmarc]

Does anyone know if these issues are happening in other countries or is it just us? Would be interested to know if in the far East WeChat and alipay stop transactions.  

[ZigZag]

5 hours ago, JamesH said:

Just experienced this myself in the past 24 hours. Payment just shy of a couple of grand to a new bank account, got held by my bank (Nationwide) as suspicious activity and went through a 40 minute ‘interview’ with them on the phone this morning. They’re pretty intense too. Asked me if I’d met the seller etc and knew who I was buying from. I used the analogy I’d not Mr Bezos either but I buy from Amazon all the time - that was not well received apparently. What was I buying, where did we meet, who approached who etc etc. Only ended up releasing the payment as we’d had a previous transaction together, albeit via a different account. Definitely time to open up another couple of accounts elsewhere I think

Switched to Nationwide due to an incentive, but more thanks to Severn Trent water telling me they had a security breach of my details last August (something they fessed up to several months later 🤬, but that’s an aside). Nationwide are seriously hard work and user unfriendly to transact payments compared to my previous bank. My intention is to go back soon, as I can’t recall many issues and twice as simple to transact payments debit or credit. 

[Spyder]

5 hours ago, ArgentSmith said:

Are people using references such as Gold, Silver or Coin? It feels like a pre curser to a social credit system, gold is bad so you are bad. How on earth can the Biden crime family have 50 or so shell companies nearly 200 suspicious activity reports filed yet nothing happens, no assets frozen. Dave from Hastings wants to buy a Gold coin and gets locked down.

Who is this Dave from Hastings? He should have come to me and I would have saved him the postage. ☺️

On another note, I have said it before, never had any problems with Santander. Looking at my files, since January I have purchased substantial amount from forum members and have not had one problem. When I do ref, I just put members handle. 

[Foster88]

I had a general email from a big high street bank that I bank with a few months ago that said along the lines of, from September, if they suspect fraudulent activity in payments out of the account (good thing) they will decline payments, but also if they suspect payments into the account, they will also block them.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Foster88

[JohnA1]

9 hours ago, Foster88 said:

I had a general email from a big high street bank that I bank with a few months ago that said along the lines of, from September, if they suspect fraudulent activity in payments out of the account (good thing) they will decline payments, but also if they suspect payments into the account, they will also block them.

I got the same from RBS early September

[Divmad]

I've bought quite a few gold and silver coins from forum members this year, through my bank, Santander, and had no problems at all so  far.

I am careful to reply to their pages of anti-scam warnings that I am buying from someone I have seen, that I initiated, that it's a payment for "other goods" (other than jewellery, luxury goods etc) and for a transaction reference I say something like "TSF -  sov". Seems to work so far.

[ArgentSmith]

 

[marshbag]

When I sent a BT earlier I had the banking app ask me what I was sending the money for. This is the first time it has ever done this.

[Bratnia]

First it will be your bank account being suspended if you buy gold. And later that will transition to if you buy too much red meat or beers/whatever. The state wants to see/control all. In turn people will lose faith in the Pound/banks and opt for alternatives ... perhaps some gold or silver of set weights, worth their weight and preferred over that of pieces of paper (plastic) provided by a state and banks that are distrusted. One ounce of gold for a round of beers and 80 ounces of silver in change ... not that far fetched.

[Earthmetal]

39 minutes ago, Bratnia said:

First it will be your bank account being suspended if you buy gold. And later that will transition to if you buy too much red meat or beers/whatever. The state wants to see/control all. In turn people will lose faith in the Pound/banks and opt for alternatives ... perhaps some gold or silver of set weights, worth their weight and preferred over that of pieces of paper (plastic) provided by a state and banks that are distrusted. One ounce of gold for a round of beers and 80 ounces of silver in change ... not that far fetched.

No-one is going home from the pub with three tubes of Brits in their pocket.

[Bigmarc]

1 hour ago, Earthmetal said:

No-one is going home from the pub with three tubes of Brits in their pocket.

There is bound to be someone on here that does. 

On a different note, in our area we have a banking hub opening. All the banks under one roof. So it looks like the majority of branches will close but you still have options. The current system sucks and I am done with relying on other people or expecting them to do there job properly and I am all for an automated system. But maybe that's the way they want me to go. 

[bobski]

On 21/09/2023 at 15:59, marshbag said:

When I sent a BT earlier I had the banking app ask me what I was sending the money for. This is the first time it has ever done this.

I've had it on every single payment from my NatWest account

[Earthmetal]

1 hour ago, Bigmarc said:

 I am all for an automated system. But maybe that's the way they want me to go. 

It is.

[scotwasp]

On 12/06/2023 at 15:34, katyc said:

My bank kindly rejected a transfer I made (below £300) to another member for a coin. A simple fraud check.... No biggie.... You'd think!

I called to say it didn't go through, assumed they'd do a check, ask a few questions and then authorise it. But they said they needed 72 hours to look further in to it. They ask where I purchased the item (I guess when they heard it's a forum it'll set alarm bells ringing perhaps....)

I then called a few times over that 72h period pushing for answers (as I am not happy they've put a block on my account). I can make debit or credit card payments. I seem to be able to pay existing payees. But I can't do any new bank transfers as there is a block on my account until this is resolved. Each time I'm fobbed off "I can see they have taken some action on it but it's not completed yet" (what the hell does that mean?!) Luckily I'm at my spending limit anyway so won't be purchasing for a while - but it's the principle!

We are now at six days. Double the quoted time they said they would take to get back to me. I have made a formal complaint about that of course.

I'm livid that they are allowed to control the way I spend MY money for this long!

I'm guessing they are digging deep on this one by the sound of it (perhaps seeing that in recent times, instead of buying clothes from the internet, I have been paying various random people by bank transfer - which is going to look a bit dodge I guess!) So I'm predicting they'll question many payments/receipts etc. Fine. I've nothing to hide (but what an inconvenient waste of time and faff!)

So, have any of you had similar to this? What did you have to do? How long? etc

Also, if I have to provide proof of purchases, then most members (who are not businesses) of course don't supply invoices. So do I provide screen shots of the listing of any queried transactions? Along with copies of any correspondence messages for evidence? Is that adequate proof? Is that even allowed for the sake of GDPR?

I don't like this one bit!!!! I'm also going to change current account because of it (due to the unacceptable time they're taking), however I currently cannot even change banks while there's a block on my existing one!

 

I would suggest that anyone who finds themselves in this position does not close your existing account if you move bank. 
Dont close your old account, by having several accounts with your funds spread out, you protect yourself.

closing an account is much easier than opening a new one.  I have several accounts with several banks, I believe with this current banking behaviour having one account is way too risky. (Just an opinion)
 

[bobski]

2 minutes ago, scotwasp said:

I would suggest that anyone who finds themselves in this position does not close your existing account if you move bank. 
Dont close your old account, by having several accounts with your funds spread out, you protect yourself.

closing an account is much easier than opening a new one.  I have several accounts with several banks, I believe with this current banking behaviour having one account is way too risky. (Just an opinion)
 

100%

[HillWalkerDundee]

Agreed. Multiple accounts, multiple banks. Keep money in each of them. There should not be a "main" account. When you buy PMs, transfer money into that account so that the originator is not closed.

Edited September 23, 2023 by HillWalkerDundee

[ZRPMs]

I've recently had to sorted out a, as the bank calls it, returned cheque. I paid a cheque in to my account, £2k. The day after the cheque cleared, funds in my account to use. Great, or so I thought. The very next day after it had been cleared they took out the fund's and just put in unpaid chq for the transaction. No notification at all. Just under a week later I check the account to find this problem. When I contacted them, the reason given was that it was the cheque was returned unpaid. I tried to inform them that the cheque had cleared. I could use the funds. The problem isn't that the cheque didn't clear. You took the funds out of my account the next day. I've had no notification and if, as you say the cheque was returned unpaid. Where is it so that I can represent it to the issuer for payment. I see, was my reply. Well all i can tell you is that in this instance the cheque is unpaid and you won't have the cheque as it's not yours. Banging my head against a brick wall I said I wanted to make a formal complaint. Ok, if you go online you can inform us of your complaint. Unbelievable, I then proceeded to tell him that I'm on the phone now, with you and I'm informing you that I wish to make a formal complaint. I've told you why I wish to make the complaint. which is because you have taken cleared funds from out of my account that you are trying to say it's an unpaid cheque. The cheque had cleared, so It wasn't unpaid. Eventually he transferred me to some one else. Once again I went through the problem and still, nothing. I've managed to get a replacement cheque which I've since deposited in a different bank. Cleared, funds available and more importantly are still available 1 week on. 

All I can take from this is. Check your accounts regularly and have multiple accounts with different banks.

[ArgentSmith]

1 hour ago, ZRPMs said:

Where is it so that I can represent it to the issuer for payment. I see, was my reply. Well all i can tell you is that in this instance the cheque is unpaid and you won't have the cheque as it's not yours.

Unbelievable who's cheque do they think it is 😠

[ZRPMs]

2 minutes ago, ArgentSmith said:

Unbelievable who's cheque do they think it is 😠

Exactly. I tried to inform them that the cheque was a payment from the issuer to me. The cheque was therefore mine. In the past any problem cheque would have been returned to me. Perhaps, They are trying to say in this instance it belongs to them. In a twisted way I suppose they could argue that once deposited it became the banks property and I only had a call on it. If they deemed that they didn't want to release it as in their opinion I didn't align with their business model then they don't have to release the cheque.