Help! Revolut robots have £10,000 of my money!
K.H. writes: I am a UK national, living and working for myself in Spain. Most of my clients are in the UK and pay me in pounds sterling. But Spain uses the euro, so I have an account with the Revolut bank which lets me operate in both currencies. On October 4, Revolut ‘temporarily disabled’ my account for unspecified ‘security reasons’. I only found out when I was refused access. I tried every day to contact Revolut but there is no phone number available and the online chat facility just churned out the same robot message saying Revolut needed to check a few things. Meanwhile, Revolut has more than £10,000 of my money, and living without this is a real struggle.
I RECEIVE letters and emails like yours regularly. They always mean the same thing: you are suspected of money laundering, so the bank has frozen your account while it investigates you and your transactions. You are guilty until proven innocent.
Because it is illegal for the bank to ‘tip off’ any suspected money launderer, it always gives vague replies, along with worthless assurances that you will soon get access to your cash.
This is now so normal that I wonder why the banks bother to try to keep it secret. Any real money launderer knows exactly what it means when their account is suddenly blocked.
I tried to discuss this with Revolut, and ask what the bank expected you to live on while it carried out its secret investigation. And like you, I found that it does not reply to emails, and the only published phone number takes you through a useless series of options that were no help at all. Its only premises are in London, and outsiders, including customers, are unwelcome.
Finally, I sent an old-fashioned letter by signed-for snail mail, addressed to
Revolut’s Russian-born boss Nikolay Storonsky.
I told him I intended to publish your letter, and to comment on the advisability of entrusting money to his bank that has no branches, no public offices, and no phone number that connects to a human being, yet which cheerfully freezes customers’ cash without explanation.
This worked. Well, up to a point. Revolut told me: ‘Our security systems continuously monitor all accounts to keep our customers safe from fraud, and will sometimes flag suspicious activity which can result in a temporary suspension of the account.’ So there you are – Revolut left you cashless to protect you.
Happily, Revolut has finally restored your account. Less happily, the bank has realised you are married so it has frozen your wife’s account, holding about £2,500. The moral of all this is that none of us should keep our cash in just one bank, or we risk being left penniless if the bank chooses to freeze the lot. And think twice before depending on a bank that relies on robots and algorithms rather than human beings.