Bank accounts disappeared

labamba007 · 2025-03-13T07:28:42+00:00

Had a very stressful evening/night. Tried to pay for something online I knew had funds in only for it to decline. Logged onto online banking and my accounts have disappeared- all of them except my loan. It's a business account - so I had several of them but they've all gone. Tried to ring NatWest but no joy, they open 8am. But has anyone experienced this before? I'm so worried! And regular direct debits have already started declining!

AndMiffyWentToSleep · 13/03/2025 07:38

That's like something from The Handmaid's Tale! Hopefully just a glitch. How stressful.

DinoLil · 13/03/2025 07:57

Sounds like they've closed them for suspected fraudulent activity.

When it happened to me, they refused to discuss and said it was a business decision.

The best of luck.

Wolfpa · 13/03/2025 08:34

Have you received any requests for additional information recently? There were a few posts on here towards the end of last year where banks were asking for additional information about people stating that if you didn’t provide it by a certain time they would need to block the accounts. Could this have happened to you?

FiletMignon · 13/03/2025 08:50

This happened to my neighbour. She does graphic design and fine art, and got a commission from a new client based in the Bahamas. As soon as the client paid her fees, NatWest shut her account down for “fraudulent activity” and refused to discuss any further with her. I don’t know the details but it wasn’t very easy for her to get NatWest to release her legitimately earned money either! All her direct debits failed because they shut her account with no warning. I was shocked then, and shocked now to hear that wasn’t an isolated incident

Doggymummar · 13/03/2025 08:52

Sounds like you have been debanked. You should have had 90 days notice though. Unless it was suspected illegal activity.

SedentaryCat · 13/03/2025 08:54

We had a nightmare with this yesterday. Also a business account. Found them (NatWest) very unhelpful as we couldn't operate the account at all.

It turns out that we hadn't completed a 'business assessment' - except we had, and all they needed was a copy of our VAT registration. Might have been nice to tell us that this final step was required before stopping our accounts.

I was then told that it would be 'several working days' before I could regain access to the accounts. In reality we managed to log on yesterday evening.

We are planning to move accounts based on this. Found it incredible that they had absolutely no leniency, that the account had been frozen. Not acceptable.

Looking at TrustPilot, NatWest score very low (1.4, from memory, could be lower).

Hoppinggreen · 13/03/2025 08:54

HSBC closed my Business account with only a few days warning, they sent me a letter but our office is a mailbox that wasn't checked every day. It was due to a slight difference between the info I had provided them with recently and what was at Companies House. The Branch couldn't help.
Fortunately as I had a few days warning I managed to open a new account with another bank and move everything but if it HAD been closed the chances of another bank accepting us might have been slim.
I really hope its a glitch and not that OP because its awful trying to sort it out, it does happen and there is no redress, I think radio 4 did a piece on it a few years ago.

Doggymummar · 13/03/2025 09:00

I was at a conference yesterday and the owner of Allica Bank was talking about debanking, if I needed a new account they would be on my list and my partner works at Barclays which is the worst for debanking SMEs apparently.

DazzlingCuckoos · 13/03/2025 09:23

Wolfpa · 13/03/2025 08:34

Have you received any requests for additional information recently? There were a few posts on here towards the end of last year where banks were asking for additional information about people stating that if you didn’t provide it by a certain time they would need to block the accounts. Could this have happened to you?

This is still the case.

They're the bane of my life at the moment (Barclays in particular - I'm looking at you!) - I'm an accountant and it's become so silly that I now have a template letter ready to go to confirm the trading address of clients.

Another client of mine had an account with HSBC and received a letter saying "we've been reviewing our business accounts and no longer want to do business with you. Your account will be closing on X date. If you don't give us the details of a new bank account we'll send you a cheque for your balance. This decision cannot be reversed and we cannot give you the reason why we've taken this decision."

This was a company with an excellent credit rating and quite a bit of money in the bank too.

As a result of them closing the business accounts, the director took all his personal accounts away from them too.

Hope you get to the bottom of it @labamba007

For what it's worth, I've just logged into my NW app (which is out of date) and all our bank accounts (personal and business) are showing still.

Hoppinggreen · 13/03/2025 09:28

They're the bane of my life at the moment (Barclays in particular - I'm looking at you!) - I'm an accountant and it's become so silly that I now have a template letter ready to go to confirm the trading address of clients.
@DazzlingCuckoos
My Accountant did a letter for HSBC when they were closing my account but they wouldn't accept it!

DazzlingCuckoos · 13/03/2025 09:42

Hoppinggreen · 13/03/2025 09:28

They're the bane of my life at the moment (Barclays in particular - I'm looking at you!) - I'm an accountant and it's become so silly that I now have a template letter ready to go to confirm the trading address of clients.
@DazzlingCuckoos
My Accountant did a letter for HSBC when they were closing my account but they wouldn't accept it!

I would like to say I was surprised, but...

It's ridiculous that they won't even tell you why they're closing it.

Another client of mine got a similar letter from their bank saying they didn't want to trade with him any more and offered him £3,000 to take his business elsewhere!

Original poster

labamba007 · 13/03/2025 11:20

Hoppinggreen · 13/03/2025 09:28

They're the bane of my life at the moment (Barclays in particular - I'm looking at you!) - I'm an accountant and it's become so silly that I now have a template letter ready to go to confirm the trading address of clients.
@DazzlingCuckoos
My Accountant did a letter for HSBC when they were closing my account but they wouldn't accept it!

Thank you so much everyone for your kind words and sharing similar stories - actually makes you feel better.

This was the problem they needed to confirm details and had sent a letter - although we never had one through the post. And they need to review the account.

Have it reinstated for 10 days so we can do account review and access our funds (and pay our staff which was my biggest worry!)

OP posts:

Hoppinggreen · 13/03/2025 11:21

I would still suggest you look at moving or even open a tandem account just in case they DeBank you after the 10 days.
Maybe look at Monzo?

TheMimsy · 13/03/2025 12:00

I had similar with NatWest for over 20 years. The letters that were allegedly sent but never received etc. mixed messages when I rang them.

moved to Monzo for business and personal when it started up and never looked back. Much easier to deal with and they actually get supervisors etc to ring me off their own back to follow up on stuff (and I’m only a teeny business!).

starling and others have had similar good reports.

I would never use or recommend NatWest and the big banks ever again.

DazzlingCuckoos · 13/03/2025 13:38

TheMimsy · 13/03/2025 12:00

I had similar with NatWest for over 20 years. The letters that were allegedly sent but never received etc. mixed messages when I rang them.

moved to Monzo for business and personal when it started up and never looked back. Much easier to deal with and they actually get supervisors etc to ring me off their own back to follow up on stuff (and I’m only a teeny business!).

starling and others have had similar good reports.

I would never use or recommend NatWest and the big banks ever again.

Barclays did the same to me on another business bank account that I have access to.

Never received a letter, never received a notification on my online banking, then one day I just couldn't log in. They said the same thing - "we've sent you lots of letters", yet nothing had arrived.