Frozen accounts and blocked payments

Payment services providers – for example, banks and building – are allowed to block payments and freeze your current account if they suspect it has been used:

• as part of fraudulent activity, such as a scam
• for money laundering or other illegal activity
• if a court orders them to do so.

They don't have to warn you before doing this, although in most cases, the measures are temporary.

Read more about frozen bank accounts on the MoneyHelper website.

People come to us for help when their bank or building society has frozen their account or blocked a payment because:

• there was unusual or suspicious activity on the current account
• there were doubts about whether you, the customer, had authorised a payment or other activity.

You may be unhappy because your bank or building society didn’t warn you that they were freezing your current account or blocking a payment. People sometimes tell us that the block wasn’t necessary, and if the bank had called them, it would have been easy to explain or settle the problem.

Our service is free and easy to use. 

1. Before bringing your complaint to us, you should make a formal complaint to the company involved.
2. They must look into things and get back to you within 15 days – either with a response to your complaint, or to explain why they can’t yet give you a response. They then have to send you a response within 35 days. If you’re not happy with this response – or they don’t reply in time – you can bring your complaint to us.
3. Our complaint checker will tell you more about some of the things we need to know to get started and help you make sure you’re ready to send us your complaint.
4. Fill in our online complaint form. Your case will be assigned to a case handler who will get in touch when they start to investigate.
5. To help us consider a complaint fairly, we may ask you for more information later on.

Use our complaint checker

We’ll assess what happened using evidence from you, the financial business and any relevant third parties. We'll also consider:  

• the relevant law, and any regulations and industry codes of conduct that applied at the time
• the reasons for blocking a payment or suspending an account
• the terms and conditions of the current account, including when it may be fair for a payment service provider to restrict the account
• your bank or building society’s policies and procedures
• the reasons given for not contacting you, if you weren’t informed about the block
• any help the bank or building society may have offered you to get you access to your account, such as one-time passcodes or other verification
• whether the block or suspension caused you financial harm or inconvenience
• call recordings relating to the block or suspension of your current account.

Once we’ve investigated, we'll tell you whether we believe you've been treated unfairly or not. And we’ll explain how we reached our decision. 

If we think you've lost money because your account was frozen or a payment was suspended, we'll tell your bank or building society to put things right.

We may also tell them to pay you compensation for any distress or inconvenience you have experienced, for example, because you thought you’d paid a bill but hadn’t.

What to expect