Fighting for your money
Revolut locked me out just as I needed to sell gold to raise deposit on home
QI have a premium account with the fintech company Revolut that lets me manage and invest my money online. I hold £150,000 there.
I have been asked in the past to provide various bits of information to confirm my identity. I was recently asked, after transferring some larger amounts into the account after being paid, to provide bank statements and tax returns showing proof of where the funds came from, which was from the limited partnership where I am a partner.
I did this, it was accepted, and all was fine. I was then asked to provide details of all trades carried out in the past few months in cryptocurrency on the Coinbase platform and my share brokerage account. I have deposited money into those accounts from Revolut but never the other way around. I queried why it wanted this information as it has nothing to do with where my funds derived from. I went on to Revolut’s chat service via the app and was told I would be contacted by “a member of a different team” but I wasn’t contacted.
My account was then locked and I can no longer view it. The only feature available in the app was the chat and I got no response from a human being for nearly a week. I then managed to make contact with someone in the chat but they have been no help whatsoever, saying only that “someone will help me soon”. But they can give me no time frame and they say that no more information is required from me.
They keep trying to close our chat to get rid of me. I have tried to contact the company on Twitter too. I was told that they would flag my case, but everything has since gone silent. I am in the process of buying a house and need access to the money to exchange on the property, including closing a position I’ve been holding in gold, which has fallen in value while I have not been able to trade. – RW, London
A
It can be stressful getting your financial ducks in a row in time for the exchange and completion on the purchase of a house. So when you were preparing to sell the investments held in your Revolut account to fund the deposit on your “forever” home in Devon, the last thing you needed was to find yourself unable to trade – especially as you watched the gold price slide.
I asked Revolut to look urgently into your case and find out why you could not access your account. It soon came back to say it had reviewed your position and had restored your account, adding that the initial decision to shut you out was “incorrect”.
It added that the company was reviewing its procedures to ensure the same thing wouldn’t happen to other customers. A spokesman apologised for your experience.
Once you got access to your account again you sold your gold holding as planned – but for a lot less than if you had had access earlier.
Although Revolut’s apology was welcome, I thought this was not enough and suggested it consider making up for the loss you had incurred. It agreed to do this and refunded you £8,184, the difference between what you sold your holding for and what you would have got had you sold it when you intended.
The spokesman added: “I know this does not make up for the trouble he experienced but I hope that it at least helps.”
You were thrilled at this news, but a few days later came back to tell me the frustrating news that you had been locked out once more. I contacted Revolut and it quickly unblocked you, saying it was a mistake – again. Although you think the company offers a “fantastic” product, you told me you had decided to remove your money for now because you felt you could not face the stress of being locked out without warning.
Revolut said that at any given time “a very small number of our 15million customers around the world may have their account suspended”. It said this could be the result of a breach of its terms and conditions or the security checks that it carries out as a regulatory requirement.
Is a £1,000 bond bought in 1986 worth anything?
QMy father-in-law died in October and among his things we found a certificate for a £1,000 TSB investment bond taken out in 1986.
I have contacted various banks to establish whether it is still in force, but none of them recognised his name or the policy. This should be simple to unwind but we are not getting very far. – TH, Luton
A
I established from the industry organisation UK Finance that responsibility for the TSB bond lay with Lloyds Banking Group. After some detective work it found that the bond had been surrendered in 2007 and £3,944 had been transferred to your father-in-law’s Halifax account.
Lloyds is sending you £150 as a goodwill gesture, which you plan to donate to London’s Great Ormond Street hospital, which you have had reason to attend over the past few years.
Anyone who thinks they may have had a bond but lost the paperwork can trace it (for a small charge) using the Unclaimed Assets Register, run by credit agency Experian.