Big UK bank won't release my money to me. This is illegal isn't it?

[XFMum]

I have an account with one of the big UK Banks. I am on secondment abroad. I have sent a letter requesting transfer of a sum of money out of my account and with this letter is a legally verified copy of my passport as requested by the Bank, for identification purposes.

I am astounded today to find out that the bank won't release my funds because my Branch Manager has told me that the Bank no longer holds a copy of my signature on file and therefore they have nothing to compare the signature on my passport to. They can not therefore release my money to me as they are unable to identify me.

Surely banks MUST hold a copy of our signatures, otherwise how would we ever be identified?

Help! What would you do?

That sounds most strange.
Have you asked the bank manager how he ever expects you to access your money? Are you expected to leave it there forever? Even if you go in in person, they still couldn't verify your signature...

That's crap.

They must have a signature somewhere. When did you last withdraw money from them other than by card? Have you applied for anything from them, a credit card for example? Do you have any standing orders or have you issued any cheques?

If your account was opened years ago, you would have signed a signature card - which could get lost (I know, have worked there).

Siganatures on cheques are only checked above a certain limit - below this limit it is cheaper to refund frauds than to check every one.

Letters from abroad are the commonest form of fraud as well unfortunately - so your manager is being extra cautious. We would notmally ask you to call into a branch. Ask your bank what their agent bank abroad is & can you take your ID in there??

out of interest, which bank is it?

Can they not remotely verify you using your security details etc. Surely withdrawls like this can be done via internet banking...

do you have a UK solicitor who could supply proof of id?

I am looking to transfer money to another UK Bank.... and the sum is higher than that allowed via internet banking.

I have banked with them for 20 years!!

I occasionally use the UK account from abroad.... flowers for friends, Amazon.co.uk etc.

No I do not have UK solicitor who could verify me

I am returning to the UK in 4 weeks and will go into my branch, withdraw all my money and close the account down. I was treated like a criminal on the phone today..... admittedly the figure I am looking to transfer is quite large, but surely a Bank should not assume your customers are 'guilty' until proven innocent?

Thanks for your responses. I feel stumped.

when you go in, take several proofs of identity- passport, birth certificate, any other photo id you may have...

I recently wanted to pay just over £1000 to an Italian account- they wouldn't let me do it online/ over phone due to money laundering regs, so I went into the branch, but they'd failed to tell me to take id, and my driving licence wasn't enough, so I had to go home and get my passport, then they filled in a form wrongly, so I had to back to the branch.... it was a feckin' nightmare!

I had something like this. I wanted to move a sum of money which was too high for internet banking so went into branch with passport and asked for a cheque so I could walk it down the road and pay it into a different bank.

They said they couldn't do a cheque . I said OK what about a bacs transfer I have the details of the other account. They said no. Which seemed a bit weird.

I said I can do it over a few days on internet, although that's a PITA, they said they wouldn't recommend it although didn't want to explain why. Plus it was to open an ISA and I didn't want to be fiddling around I wanted to do it in one go.

They told me the only way I could get my cash was to pay them £30 to to a chaps transfer

I got a bit miffed and said OK fine if I close the account can I have a cheque I am not paying £30 for the privilege of taking my own money out FFS.

They agreed to waive the £30.

The whole thing is really crap and dodgy, they will hang onto your money and make it as difficult as poss for you to get it - especially at the moment.

Just to warn you that even when you go in armed with ID you may have a battle.

Can you do it a bit at a time by internet banking?

I thought the same thing as ChukkyPig- could you just do it in smaller chunks over the internet? dealing with banks when you're abroad is an absolute mare, been there!

is it barclays?
twhen i moved they said they had no record of my signature to approve change of address. therfore 18mths of statements sent to pervious address whilst it got sorted. which was safer obv