There is that for sure!
Given the way fraud checks are getting strictly, I reckon it’ll be all but impossible to transfer money in less that five years 
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I owned a co-op bank account two weeks ago and have made a total of 3 payments since then.
Two payments were £1 to setup new payees, and the third was a larger transfer to an existing payee (my monzo account). All these payments were blocked. A 100% failure rate 
Co-op notified me by email on the first occurence but I received nothing for the second and third. The payments just sat there, but I could see something was wrong as the transaction date always showed as today…
In each case I had to speak to fraud for around 15 minutes going through the script (which is entirely there to absolve themselves of any responsibility if the transaction turns out to be fraudulent) … It’s amusing the first time and I understand that it could stop someone losing money, but quite frankly I’m sick of it now so will be closing my account…
This is what I think @ndrw said in another thread, these checks are getting so onerous that eventually you won’t be able to transfer anything to anyone without signing some sort of waiver every time. Not every transfer is a scam.
I could understand:
- high amount to a new payee that does not have the same name as you and isn’t a recognised business
- repeated high value payments in a short space of time
If they need to put a checkbox or warning on the payment page then fine, but blocking it entirely is excessive I feel.
I have wondered what sort of information they have when doing these checks. Can they see the age of the recipient account? If it was opened 3 days ago it would be more suspicious than one opened 5 years ago. And if paying a business, can they verify the reference? I had a payment to Amex blocked once, I wonder if they can take the reference (which will always be the card number when paying a bank/credit card provider) and query that with Amex to see if the account owner name matches.
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How I feel when I’ve been asked if I know who the recipient is when I’m trying to transfer my own money:
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Well, at least I got my money, can’t say the same for the 13 minutes of my life I spent on the phone however…
As soon as the next switch offer comes I’m out.
(also found it funny that the person on the phone asked me what the recent £125 credit on my account was 
)
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“How did you get the account details f the account you’re transferring to”
- My card which is sitting right in front of me…
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Q: “can you tell me what is the likely outcome if this transaction turns out to be fraudulent?”
A: “There is a likelihood that the money will not be recoverable and I will lose it”
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Q Can you tell me the outcome of this transaction if it turns out to be fraudulent?
A We will have somehow slipped into a parallel universe because it is my account here but presumably that of my doppelganger there.
That’s the only reason I still have one open.
Opened last November for the switch bonus, and then twenty minutes on a security call when I tried to transfer that £125 to my own Monzo account.
Ludicrous. Told them so too, not that it would have any effect tbh.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that they block all payments to monzo … But I daren’t test it out… 
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We still have a joint account with Smile. Now only kept for paying in cheques and sending the money to Monzo, but they have never blocked a payment. Don’t know if it makes a difference that we’ve been with them for over 20 years so they have more history to look at.
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As you say, maybe its due to age of the account and setting up new payees and those being Monzo accounts… but it’s a pretty galling experience… Ive never had payments blocked with any other bank…
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After about a month of constant blocks they now block next to nothing. I think I had an exchange deposit (fair enough) and a deposit to Raisin blocked since (bit more annoying)
i also had the existing payee flag as fraud. With me being the payee.
I had to go through the telephone call which asked questions like “did i coerce myself into making the payment” and “do i know what would happen if the transfer to myself turned out to be fraudulent”
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I am feeling terribly left out through not having any of these calls now!
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Did they also tell you that if someone was standing next to you telling you what to say to hang up immediately and call the police?
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Yep, that too!! Seemed out of place for £1 transaction, going to an account in my name, which had already payed into the co-op. . But hey, they assured me their fraud systems were working correctly…
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As if, in that situation, calling the police is something you’d easily be able to do 
.
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I think I probably can guess the answer, but…in coop bank app, can you see pending transactions?
Nope, you just see the value that’s pending but no list anywhere unfortunately.
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