Bank account closed when in T1 entrepeneur visa ..ILR soon.

[friendlydude01]

Hello Friends,

I am having a particular problem at the moment,
I am in T1 entrepreneur visa at the moment and was trying to bring my dependant.
Just recently my lloyds bank closed my both business account and personal account and said due to suspicion of fraud.
I have not done anything that relates to fraud.
I am dead worried that this will affect my application for dependant and also my ILR application when i will be soon here for 10 years.
PLease does any one know how to get out of this situation of bank fraud accusation as i am also unable to open account in other banks.
Also will it affect my application for dependant from outside the uk and my ilr after few months.

Please please please help me guys, my whole hard work will be lost. any ideas and suggestions of what to do and where to go will be highly appreciated.

Many thanks is advance.

[pelen23]

Hi there

Did the bank give you 28 days to open a bank account elsewhere before they closed it?
Do a credit search using one of the credit rating agencies. If there is no fraud mark,you should be able to open an account but never guaranteed .

Go through your bank accounts check all transactions credits ,cheques and debits If you find anything that might lead lloyds to close your account . Write to lloyds to reconsider your situation but bear in mind they are not obliged to read your letter and contact you. I am a former bank personnel seen many people in your situation.

Good luck

[friendlydude01]

Hello Pelen,

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. Yes the bank gave notice of 2 months to close the business account and till then i can use the debit card.
But after a week the bank informed they are also closing the personal account in same bank. when i called them they at first said i needed to talk to business relationship manager . when i spoke to her she said she can only give information about business account but is not responsible to personal accounts.
i then called the personal accounts department and after many telephone calls i was told it was the business accounts department that decided to close my account after review and because of that the personal account is also going to be closed. and they blocked my account and card, i cant use them. only dd and s/o goes out.
But again a letter came from personal accounts department that there was suspicion of fraud. i did not report any fraud nor i believed there was any. this was shock to me. they said i have to find another bank to do business with.
i went next week to another bank /santander..to open or switch account.
it was not possible as they had ruined my credit. he said i wont be able to open account in any bank until i have that info of fraud flag in my credit and unless the llyods bank remove it.
i m so confused, angry and lost. it seems no one has any idea what to do but only know similar things has happened to someone they know.

this is not right and not fair.
my business account was not used very much ..as there was few transactions, i get money from 3-4 clients and i used that money for myself as they are the only source of income atm.Am i not allowed to do that. i am trying to improve my business and grow but this is like cutting carpet from underneath and just the opposite of what they should be doing to help the businesses.

Partly i think maybe because i helped my friend pay money overseas via switzerland and canada in past few months for purchases and fee payment.
also i had 2 cheques deposited into my account but they were in my name and from related party.
i can expain each and every transactions...but i dont know what their criteria is to make such decisons.
I am genuinely baffled.

More over... i am worried it will affect my visa status and the application for my dependant from overseas and ultimately my ILR.
Surely there should be a way out of this mess, but i am not finding any.

Any comments and contributions are most welcome. Who should i contact, even my lawyers seems out of clue.??

[Malik44]

You don't need to worry about just try to
open personal and business bank account with other bank
and keep safe all previous bank statements.
Its normal sometime banks close bank accounts its part of the contract bank can close account any time and normally they don't disclose any information as well.
Best way is when you open new accounts used switching services and tick the option to close previous account. Switching of bank accounts took normally 14 days.your direct debits any balances automatically shift to new bank account.

[Subtle]

I cant say if your application is going to be affected or not but I believe you should sort out the fraud allegations with Lloyds bank before anything. Trying to open an account in a different bank will yield you nothing and wont make this fraud allegation go away (it would stay in your credit history for 5+ years unless Lloyds remove it before).

If you believe you have been a victim of unfair trading standards, then you can always seek advice from your local citizen's advice bureau and get this thing sorted ASAP, otherwise you may jeopardise your ILR application.