Bank worker has just lectured me on my spending

None of their business what you spend it on. They can clearly see you saved and then transfered it so how that's money laundering? Paying in wads of cash every week would be suspicious yes but not when they can clearly see where the moneys been transfered from and to.

She told me I was irresponsibly spending, I need to be careful as it looks like money laundering, and I’m now a red flag to lenders!

Are you sure that's what they said, before you complain? It's highly unlikely that a member of bank staff in any role would tell you what money laundering looks like and that it looks like you're doing it. Is it possible you've misremembered?

They should have contacted you immediately to tell you they'd put a block on your account because of suspicious activity, so you could sort it out immediately.

My credit card was once blocked just before Christmas, which was really inconvenient. The reason was that there were a lot of purchases in a place where I didn't normally use it. I pointed out that I was Christmas shopping at a shopping centre, surely they recognised the pattern? I also recently temporarily lost the use of my debit card due to the same sort of suspicions, which was bad luck for me because I'm currently housebound after a brain tumour was removed, and this was the only way I could shop.

I wasn't told off for my irresponsibility on either occasion, and I doubt she had the authority to block your card before raising her concerns with you first (if not with a supervisor). I'd definitely complain if this happened to me, but then I'm a bit like that - my dad was the same!

She is an idiot, and 1200 would never look like money laundering

Not at all, she has no right to try and control your spending
Your money your choice

How ridiculous. How rude to lecture someone on how and when they spend their own money, what shocking overreach.
If you had just moved house, for example, or had experienced some kind of domestic disaster like a plumbing catastrophe, you could quite easily spend £1200 in one day. It's not a fortune.

The staff member is talking rubbish and you should complain- good thing is it’s a recorded line so they can check and they’ll probably give you a saying sorry payment.

its not business of theirs how you spend money, and they definitely shouldn’t tell you if you’ve been flagged for fraud it’s the definition of tipping off.

it also doesn’t make you a red flag for lenders. What a load of nonsense all around

Name and shame the bank, please 😊

I do think that’s ridiculous, yes.

She’s not questioning that though.

I'm an accountant so I know about money laundering, we do a lot of training on it and are in the front line of detection. This was not indicative of money laundering - possible fraud, maybe, but not money laundering. It is not up to bank employees to lecture anyone on how they spend their money, I constantly move money around to get the best interest or rack up points on specific credit cards. I am sick of being asked what I am doing with my own money every time I do a bank transfer nowadays, it's just to try to cover their own arses so that you pick up any tab for fraud.

I recently bought a house with my husband and had to account for every bit of cash we had, from inheritances to redundancy pay to savings to a gift from my dad (who also had to give chapter and verse on how he accumulated the money). It was so intrusive and took ages. When I inherited some money I fed it into ISAs in both mine and my husbands name, we have been married a very long time and have always shared our money in the most tax efficient way. I had a young legal assistant ring me up and ask me how my husband could have saved up that amount of money on his wage. She really couldn't comprehend how a couple could share their money. It's was so rude as he could have saved it anyway as he has had different levels of income at different times of his life. We are not super rich people, we didn't buy a seven figure house so it really seemed like overkill. I wouldn't mind so much if I felt real money launderers were regularly being caught and stripped of their assets but, sadly, they know how to game the system so it just causes inconvenience for the rest of us.

Having said that, the burden on accountants, solicitors and banks with regard to money laundering is now far too high. I'm not a fraud or crime expert so how do I really know if something is dodgy? Different people spend or juggle money in different ways. Great wads of cash, fair enough that looks a bit suss but other transactions could be perfectly reasonable or dodgy as hell. We can go to prison for years if we judge wrongly. In the example of the legal assistant above, she probably had to make a judgment on whether the account I gave sounded reasonable and tick a box to say it did. It's ridiculous as how could she know really?

Had a similar experience once as in the bank did a block. The Bank member who I spoke with was a gent. Explained why they were concerned (it was a significant amount compared to normal). Asked a few questions that appeared to be checking that I was not under pressure from someone else and once I clarified apologised from the hassle. I would complain/alert the bank of the experience and maybe suggest that additional staff training is given.

Over a certain amount/certain patterns possibly auto trigger. Just as a doctor/nurse/teacher has to report certain things, it might be compulsory. You could check all the documentation for your account; the info is probably available online, to see what the situation is and whether this is relevant to your situation.

Santander did this this to me the other day! All because I transferred some money from my savings account to my Monzo.

I received a text asking me to ring the fraud line and received a million questions about why I was transferring, why that amount, what I was buying, how long I’d had the Monzo. Then she proceeded to tell me Monzo are basically a crap bank and people only use them to scam people.

Yeah I would put in a complaint about this, do it asap as their calls will be recorded but may only be stored for a certain length of time

Apparently, the protocol now is to query any largish transaction made by someone over the age of 60.

I was 61 when (as DH's executor) I wrote out cheques for his daughter, son and grandchild.

I got a phone call from the bank: had I signed a cheque for x amount (a few thousand) if so, to whom?

"Well, yes. Two cheques. Inheritance from my husband, sent to his children by our solicitor. One to [SS] and one to [SD]. Which one is being queried?"

Bank confirmed that it was the one for SS. Fine. Went through some security questions. Told them I'd be under general anaesthetic the next day, so they'd not be able to get me but there should also be a cheque for SD and a smaller one for SGD.

Fine. All sorted.

A week later I got an email from the solicitor. The SD had phoned to say that her cheque had bounced...5 minutes later, while I was trying to get through to the bank, another email. The SGD had phoned to say that her cheque had bounced...

In spite of my previous conversation with the bank, letting them know about the two cheques, someone had decided that I was being defrauded.

I got it sorted out, but could have done without the added stress.

Exactly there will be more to it. Customer do tend to have a selective memory until call recordings and transcripts prove them otherwise

Completely agree, it’s scary and yet very few seem to actually realise this.

The blocking of the card makes sense.

Having to explain yourself to get it unlocked makes sense.

General advice that would ensure your spending habits don't result in similar incidences in the future makes sense.

Anything after that would be an immediate complaint for me.

This person overstepped and clearly needs retraining.

Luckily, as we are all reminded every time we sit through the absolute hellscape that is ringing pretty much any company, 'calls are recorded for training purposes' so you can ask for your call to be reviewed and expect an apology.

Came on to.say this. The agent should not have mentioned money laundering at all if there was any suspicion about your account. Go online and log a complaint.

Nah you don't though. You weren't involved with the call at any point, so unless you are mystic Meg, then you really don't know.

You literally do not know that!