We frequently hear from angry readers who have decided to move from one company to another because they have been let down in some way or other, but we very rarely – indeed never – hear about companies who decide that they no longer want a reader’s business because the company feels betrayed in some way. This story changes that, however.
A reader called Jake received a call from his very frustrated wife late last month after she found herself standing in their local Lidl, unable to pay for a small grocery shop, because Revolut said no to the purchase.
Jake’s wife first tried the couple’s joint account, and when that card was rejected, she tried her personal card – but there was bad news on that score. She was told that neither one was working and as a result she was unable to cover the €30 cost of the groceries.
As it happened, Jake was outside the Lidl at the time, and when he got the call asking him to come in and help his wife to pay, he “laughed initially, thinking it was something that she was doing wrong”.
We’re not entirely sure he should admit to that – but there you go.
‘The email offered an appeals process. I knew we would be wasting our time in putting through the appeals based on what we are both aware of from Revolut and from reading your articles’
— Jake, reader
Anyway, he went into the shop and immediately saw a long queue building up behind his harassed-looking wife. He took command of the situation, or at least tried to, seeking firstly to pay for the groceries using his card for the couple’s joint Revolut account, and when that failed, his own personal Revolut card. Neither was working.
He stresses that, like his wife, he had more than enough cash in his account to cover the fairly modest cost of the groceries.
[ Revolut sent Elaine’s money to the wrong person, who didn’t return itOpens in new window ]
“Attempting to maintain a level head, while my wife was turning purple with embarrassment, I showed the checkout assistants in Lidl that both accounts had funds,” he says.
We understand where he was coming from on this score, but it probably goes without saying that this information was of minimal interest either to the Lidl checkout staff or the ever-growing queue forming behind the couple.
Jake studied his Revolut app more closely and noticed the reason both their accounts had been blocked was a security check that Revolut had run.
“I managed to resolve the grocery payment issue through a non-Revolut alternative means and the staff were very helpful, and the fellow customers were also very patient,” he writes.
He is not so complimentary when it comes to his bank, however.
“Firstly, Revolut did not provide us with any notification of the security check,” he says. “As you and readers are no doubt aware, the security check totally disables card transactions, ATM withdrawals and all the rest. Of course, if we had known that our accounts had been subject to a security check we would not have used them in attempting to pay for our groceries that day,” he continues.
Anyway, the couple got home and put their shopping away, after which Jake tried to establish why their accounts had been blocked by Revolut and why it had not told him or his wife about it.
“To this day, I have not received that explanation. It is totally unacceptable and has caused a lot of stress, as we were reliant on Revolut as our main banking provider for day-to-day transactions,” his mail says.
His wife suggested he check his emails to see whether there had been any correspondence from Revolut. When he did that, he found they had both received emails warning them that it was not just a security check but that something more serious was happening. He was told that “not only would the joint account be closed, but both our personal accounts would also be closed. Again, these emails were given with no reasons, no context. It is farcical,” he says.
He gives us more details of Revolut’s email, outlining the steps they would need to take to withdraw their funds, how they would need to close the relevant accounts, and how they would have to move money around. What the emails did not include, however, was any reason the couple could understand for the reason they were effectively being fired as customers by Revolut.
We have to say we have never heard of anything like this before. It begs many questions, including, why did this happen? Why did Revolut not tell the couple it was happening?
“The email also offered an appeals process. I knew we would be wasting our time in putting through the appeals based on what we are both aware of from Revolut and from reading your articles. Nonetheless, I proceeded and provided the relevant requests for payslips, etc,” Jake says.
“The appeal lasted four or five days and concluded with a further email on Sunday, June 28th, advising that the accounts would close. This again provided us with the steps to withdraw all funds.”
Jake contacted Revolut and told them he would be making complaints to the company itself and externally. ”What it’s worth, I’m not sure.”
He says that when he contacted us on the last day of last month, there were still funds in the couple’s joint account that were blocked. “We have managed to clear any small savings/pots. We’ve also moved personal account funds to a new and reliable banking provider. I am querying this multiple times a day from Revolut Support as to when these funds in the joint account will be available for us to transfer. This is not a small value they are blocking,” he writes.
He says on the one hand the correspondence from the finfech was telling him that he needed “to proceed with closing the account and transfer all funds out, and on the other they’re not allowing us to do so. It is an absolute joke and is extremely frustrating.”
He adds that he was getting in touch with Pricewatch not in the expectation that we would be able to help, but because he wanted to “inform readers that Revolut have the ability to do this [apparently] without sufficient notification. Both myself and my wife are employed with one salary directly going to Revolut, and part of another salary transferred into Revolut each month from another banking provider. There was no justification for Revolut in carrying out this closure following the security check. Even if there was, they should have provided us with genuine reasons,” he says.
[ Scammers drain woman’s Revolut account and fintech comes looking for moreOpens in new window ]
He concludes his mail by saying he “would urge caution for anyone thinking about opening a Revolut account, or, as many already have accounts, please be aware that they may carry out the same reckless action as above”.
We have to say we have never heard of anything like this before. It begs many questions, including, why did this happen? Why did Revolut not tell the couple it was happening? Why did Revolut not lift the security block when they were alerted to the issue? Why was the provider freezing some of the couple’s money on the one had and telling them to withdraw it on the other?
‘Our analysis was incorrect and we understand that our customer support didn’t meet our usual standard and that a mistake was made by our internal team’
— Revolut
We contacted the company to find out more.
Within days, the couple were told the restrictions on both their personal accounts and their joint account had been lifted and the decision to close all of them had been reversed.
The company said it was unable to tell us – for security reasons – what had happened in this case and what its system controls had flagged, for legal reasons, but once those things were flagged the activity involved was wrongly deemed as suspicious.
Once the red flag was – wrongly – raised by the Revolut systems and staff, a process apparently started that could not be stopped by the couple no matter what they did.
When Pricewatch intervened, the accounts were looked at more closely, and it was quickly established that an error had been made. This allowed the restrictions to be lifted almost instantly and the decision to close the accounts was reversed.
In a statement, the company said it had “robust procedures to offboard individuals who are deemed to be using their accounts for suspicious purposes”.
A spokesman said the company “always operate in strict compliance with local law enforcement and apply enormous investment into our models to highlight suspicious activity in the interests of protecting our customers. This can lead to customer accounts being closed. Notwithstanding, on this occasion, our analysis was incorrect and we understand that our customer support didn’t meet our usual standard and that a mistake was made by our internal team regarding [our reader’s] account. We apologise to [the couple] for the inconvenience and have unrestricted their accounts.”