Customer drove back from France to confront bank

A FORMER university lecturer has travelled from his French home to London in an attempt to unblock a bank account, amid criticism of complaints processes at digital banks.

Clive Mira-smith, 70, drove almost 500 miles from Auvergne to Canary Wharf in an unsuccessful effort to have £15,000 that had been locked in an account with Revolut released.

His account had been blocked since September, but Mr Mira-smith exhausted all avenues of complaints.

Saying it was like “being confronted with a brick wall”, he took the extreme step last month of getting in his car and driving to Revolut’s headquarters.

Customers are increasingly complaining about being locked out of accounts too quickly by digital banks.

The Financial Ombudsman Service said it currently has around 70 open cases of customers who have complained about access to Revolut accounts and about 100 from customers of Monzo bank.

Mr Mira-smith, a former anthropologist with University College London who has been receiving treatment for blood cancer, said the problems with Revolut had caused stress that has had negative effects on his health.

He said: “They told me that the issue would be sorted out in a few days, but weeks later the funds were still frozen. Christmas came and the plans I had made for my son and myself had to be cancelled for lack of money.”

Revolut recently contacted him to say it was closing his account and returning the remaining funds to the accounts they came from. A few days later he found that his ex-wife and daughter’s accounts had been frozen.

A Revolut spokesman said that customer accounts could be suspended due to either a breach of its terms and conditions or as part of its security checks. He added that the bank is expanding its customer services.