Bank worker has just lectured me on my spending

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.

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?

She’s not questioning that though.

Name and shame the bank, please 😊

I do think that’s ridiculous, yes.

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

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.

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

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

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 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?

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.

They need far more evidence than spending £1200 on online shopping!

I can understand a bank keen to tell you that recent activity looks a bit like money laundering because it is their job to protect us and there are so many scams out there. I've been glad of their caution in the past. It sounds like it's the tone of the caller which got your back up and understandably so. It's up to you what you spend money on, within reason. Banking seems to have changed recently in terms of their involvement in your affairs. I cancelled the cost of counselling with Better Help some time ago, then phoned the bank to check it was cancelled. The bank asked me if I was mentally okay, if I needed help and if I was interested in pursuing further therapy. Apparently they were going to assist me in that regard if I wanted. I was quite chuffed really.

That's completely abnormal and worth filing a complaint

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@MrsCartwrigth wow, not heard that about Monzo!

Banks are ridiculous over money laundering nowadays, the amount of questions they ask even if you want to send a relative a few quid for a Christmas gift is ludicrous! They always say it’s to prevent money laundering but surely you should be able to send a grandchild £50 without an inquisition.

I agree, hate their approach but I can only ever bless the woman who did over reach on a 50k transaction which, whilst not a scam, she has heard some negative things about a very small detail which would have affected the yield. Invested in a less interesting area and made a packet, all because she stopped the payment. I wouldnt have actually lost anything but would have been fed up with the return. She had absolutely no business stopping my transfer but bless her, I owe her about 18k 😀

I hope I'm like that if I'm lucky enough to live that long. Just awesome 👌 👏

I am fine with them not letting gangsters clean their cash but a bit rich when the vape shops and barbers are not penalised...

This isn't right. Money mules can have smaller payments made into several accounts with various banks. Not that what op did looks anything like being a money mule, they're not generally heading straight to M&S when the money hits the account

Total over-step by that bank employee. You should have told her yes it's a lot of expense, but you only replenish your dildo collection once in a while. Then cheerfully wished her a lovely day.

Was it Santander by chance? My mother had a right go at the woman who she spoke to at Santander. Mum had a question, woman couldn't answer so after being condescending wanting to know why she was asking what she wanted to do with her money etc, she was put through to fraud instead of the dept that could answer her questions. Oh hell, no one speaks to my mother like that. She told them in no uncertain terms about it and said she'll be closing her account. She did, she transferred everything to another bank she has an account at. She was Livid.

I don't see how moving money from one account in your name to another account in your name could really be money-laundering; I feel this mostly because what is let's face it a largish amount to you or me is peanuts for organised crime.

Also, they must have your other account to look at and see you have been saving over quite a long time.

Was it RBS? I cannot be bothered with banks who make it difficult for me to get my money. I spend on cards where they don't have so many 'checks' now.