Got a phone call from the manager of my local branch last week inquiring into some payments in & out of my account. He said he was already aware I played poker for a living given the regular withdrawals to my account for the last 3+ years. He wanted to ask what my relationship was to a couple of close friends of mine who also play poker for a living and why I need to send/receive money from them. I won a live MTT recently for 60k+ euros, they had a piece and I shipped it to them from my bank account (standard?). I explained all this to him and he understood, explaining he was getting it off head office. I have banked here for 16 years btw, joining them when I was 10! He said that is fine and thanks for honesty etc., but to calm down on the account transfers as they don't like it. I receive a phone call today from him, to inform me that head office have sent down a 'Close Account' notice. he said I would be receiving details in the post, but he was just calling to give me a heads up on the whole thing. He said I will have two months then everything will be closed, apologising & explaining it all came from head office. I am shocked quite frankly, and was informed there is no appeal process.

Like to hear if this has happened to anybody else?

What UK bank should I be looking to join now?

wow that's ridiculous..I'm also with HSBC and withdraw large amounts regualrly....might be time to consider switching too if this is the attitude they have.

gl finding a new account

Wow that is weird... Maybe Barclays or Natwest.. thats who I'm with and have had no problems.

JayC - ty

L0st - When you joined them, did you list your occupation as poker player?

UK are very strict with regards to Money Laundering issues (obv not saying that you were when transferring to friends, but might look to them). Prolly closed for AML reasons for xers, rather than deposits and withdrawals from sites. Your bank manager seemed pretty open about it, so give him a call back and ask of this was to do with the xfers.

Might take his answer into consideration when u open a Barclays, or whatever, account when paying out wins to stakers.

he shouldn't really say anything about this as he could be accused of "tipping off", a criminal offence.

btw the concerns are almost def with the account being used for the "layering" stage of money laundering, where money is moved through various accounts to disguise its origin.

This is nothing to do with playing poker, it is legal and they dont care. There is some other reason - if you're legit and really sure your friends are legit then dont let it drop. 'there is no appeal' may be technically true but its basically rubbish, be persistant. The top level of problem sorters is normally in the chairmens office, work your way up to that level if necessary. You may have trouble opening an account elsewhere so this is probably something you cant just let drop.

If on the other hand you or your friends have been doing something dodgy then be a bit scared as they will probably have reported you to the authorities.

I am with HSBC and have large amounts going in and out from pretty much only poker sites i signed up with them when i was a student but ive been with them 6 years now and have never had any issues suprises me alot that they are trying to close your account i would go with Barclays or Natwest had bad experiences in the past with Lloyds

I am with HSBC and never had any problems - I think it was the transfers that got flagged and caused your problems.

Juk

Your contact at the bank sounds like a standup dude. Id ask him for some off the record recommendations for a new bank.

If you're looking to get a new bank account avoid Halifax. I bank with them and they cancel my card about once a month due to using the card for gambling transactions. It's pretty annoying having to ring them every month to get it reactivated and they say there is nothing they can do to stop it.

HSBC also closed my bank account and told me I was never allowed to open another account there just because I used the account to deposit and withdraw to pokersites.

sign up with moneybookers.. deposit to moneybookers and they dep/withdraw on poker sites using moneybookers then into your bank. No issues with using that for poker or large p2p transfers either

oh man that sounds disastrous. i just opened up my hsbc account 5 months ago and am planning on doing some similar large transactions with it fairly soon... so it sounds like my case would be a lot worse than yours. ****ty story op, ty for heads up.

Do UK banks hate money lol? I really hate their stance of 'we don't like transfers' rather than judging the case on it's merits.

It sounds like you explained yourself well enough to your bank manager. Maybe he was unable to explain it as well to his head office. If it was me I would want to speak to them directly but this might not be possible I guess.

I'm at RBS (currently owned by us ) and haven't had problems, but I've not done many bank transfers to other players (probably no more than £2-3k).