"If you’re bankrupt or have a record of fraud, you will not usually be allowed to open a bank account. Also, you may be refused permission to open a current account if you have a poor credit rating. However, if you’re bankrupt or have a poor credit rating, you may be able to open a basic bank account.
A bank or building society can refuse to open an account for you. They don’t always have to give you a reason, and there’s usually nothing you can do about it."
This is a general approach, but there are nuances to different situations.
Different Banks have different approaches and policies to CIFA markers - I can’t comment on who has the most laxed policy but I did signpost to a certain bank above who’s underwriters would consider the circumstances.
The guidance to visit Citizens Advice was more directed towards the CIFA appeal.
The OP will need to put up their fight in a branch and make the best case possible. There is an applications appeal process and the same journey via the FOS can be exhausted for the application complaint vs the CIFA appeal.
This is one of my biggest bugbears. It’s Cifas, the “s” is not a plural nor is it a possessive.
You can capitalise it as CIFAS because it was originally an acronym (Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System); but the full, correct name of the company now is “Cifas”, capital C lowercase everything else.
And if someone claims to have worked to have markers removed for others – and is giving out incorrect advice raising false hopes – then the least they could do is get the organisation’s name right.
There’s no nuance involved when somebody commits fraud by submitting forged documents. They either did it, or they didn’t and they’ve confessed that they did. They should be lucky they didn’t end up with a prison sentence.
If you could point out where I’ve given incorrect advice that would be incredibly useful.
I’ve not given any individual advice, merely recommendations on what steps for the OP to take. It’s not giving someone false hope - it’s giving someone the information they need to build the foundations of the arguments they will need to make.
At no point has there been any suggestion for them to argue that they didn’t do what they did.
My comments were to simply explain their circumstances and the vulnerable position their actions have landed them in and ask the reporting bank to take that into consideration.
I appreciate your input. The focus in the thread is to help the OP. I think that’s the best track to keep the thread on moving forward rather than making baseless comments on other people’s suggestions.
I think we should focus on helping the poster here, not getting into too many semantics or judgements.
They’ve admitted what they did. They want advice on how to move on in their lives. What they should have done or why they did things are to some degree irrelevant.
I always thought basic accounts were legally mandated within certain banks. I’d echo advice from others to go into a bank and ask to have a meeting with a banker to discuss all options.
Nationwide seem to be good at this, HSBC is large and offer a basic account so may be helpful.
Advanced notice: this does not apply to OP. This is a general conversation about a situation similar to this by nature.
Hypothetically. If something like this was heard in court?
Subsection (1)(b) requires that the person must make the representation with the intention of making a gain or causing loss or risk of loss to another. (In that the gain or loss does not actually have to take place).
Edit: this is extracted from the Fraud Act 2006
This is a genuine question, and something for us to all discourse about here (@ndrw please also join in).
Is there a loss or a gain - “if” fraud took place during n application for a current account.
Like, let’s consider does it cost a bank to open an account & is it misrepresentation if the applicant lived at an address but forged a proof of address document for an address they lived at?
OP look for small local building societies, like Yorkshire Building society, nationwide FlexBasic and go to branch in person
Try your luck with the appeal but I believe it’s unlikely you’ll get it removed. Don’t apply for main current accounts as you might get banned from those banks themselves by their internal systems when they flag and close your account
Building societies offer savings accounts, and you might be able to get your wages or benefits paid in, but in order to take the money out you’ll probably need to go into the branch. Direct Debits will be out of the question. Some might offer a cash machine card, but the only building society offering a current account, apart from Nationwide, is the Cumberland.