Problem with bank

[Lil H]

Every few weeks my bank freezes all my accounts, so that I am unable to make cash withdrawals at ATMs or use my debit/ credit card. When I telephone them, they say it's for security reasons and I have to confirm my last few transactions. That is fine as I would rather be safe than sorry. It is the frequency and the fact that I am not warned of this, they have all my contact details, mobile, email etc etc, even a message to ask me to call them would be better than the stress of finding myself stranded (like last week when I was away in Hong Kong with just �5 worth of HKD in my purse and an 8 hour wait until the UK call centre I needed to telephone would open!) and the embarrassment of not being able to pay in restaurants etc. Does anyone else have this problem? Has anyone managed to resolve the problem with their bank?

[dzug]

If you are going overseas it can be worth letting them know.

Other than that it does sound rather frequent.

[enigma69]

I had the same problem but not as severe, I had my account frozen after 6 months of inactivity. Spoke to my bank who basically said the same as yours, that it was a security issue. They did say, that unless I performed a transaction it would become dormant again after six months. As its not my main account it doesn't really bother me and the frequency doesn't seem to be as extreme as yours, six months seams reasonable I guess.

Not too sure whether that helps you in any way though!

[themas]

It does sound extreme unless the pattern of your transactions keeps on altering. You could make another effort to get them to stop doing it, or go through their complaints procedure or move to another bank.

[stevie21]

Banks definitely shouldn't do this without good reason but this does sound excessive.
Obviously we've only got one side of the story here but I'd consider changing banks if this continued.
Have you asked for an explanation? Are your patterns of spending totally different from the rest of us or are you spending �1.20 in Aldi one minute and 3000 Euro in Paris the next? (just before you spend 500 USD online and then jet off to Hong Kong).

[jason1980]

sounds really bad seeing as banks make profits from funds that you pay in because they use your cash to trade with along with everyone elses. I would switch banks.