Today, living without a checking account is almost impossible. You have to pay the electricity bill, collect the payroll, pay the mortgage... Therefore, ending the blocked checking account can cause many problems.
If the bank blocks the account, the client will not be able to withdraw money, pay with a card, attend to their receipts or receive transfers. It is as if, suddenly, the client was left without an account... and without his money. Of course, you will regain access to your funds when the bank unblocks the account, but this process can take several days. A time during which, unless you have a second current account in another entity with some balance, you will not be able to meet your financial obligations.
But, what are the reasons to end up with the blocked bank account? While it is true that banks can block an account as long as they have a justifiable cause, there are a number of precautions that can be taken to avoid giving it a reason, explain the experts at the financial comparator HelpMyCash.com.
Banks are required to identify their customers. And that means not only asking for their DNI, passport or NIE when they register, but also making sure that the documentation is kept up to date. For this reason, when the identity document expires, you have to take the new one to the bank so that it can be digitized.
Banks usually send a notification to their clients when their DNI is about to expire so that they remember to update it. The problem is that these messages often go unnoticed or the client directly ignores them. Result? Blocked account.
In these cases, the Bank of Spain considers that the penalties should be gradual, so before completely blocking the account, the entity should require the client on several occasions to update their documentation or restrict only certain operations.
In general, accounts for individuals are designed for customers to manage their day to day. That is, pay your bills, pay for the purchase of the supermarket, domicile the gym fee, save, withdraw money... However, if the bank detects that its terms and conditions are being breached and that the client is carrying out an operation that does not correspond to the profile that you have declared and that does not fit the conditions of the product, you can take measures, either for breaching the terms of the contract or to prevent money laundering.
Receiving large sums of money, especially if it comes from abroad, can raise suspicions. In those cases, anti-money laundering alarms can go off and the bank can ask the client to justify the origin of the funds, they explain from HelpMyCash.
In reality, any activity that raises the bank's suspicions can cause the entity to request certain documentation, such as the income tax return.
A blocked bank account can cause a lot of damage to the client, especially if they have bills to pay. In addition, the blockade can come at any time. Although it is true that as a general rule the bank must notify before carrying it out, on many occasions it blocks first and then informs.
For this reason, HelpMyCash recommends having a secondary account in another entity with a minimum of money in case the main account fails. "Thus, we will be able to pay for supermarket purchases, withdraw money and pay bills while the main account is not operational," they point out.
Of course, if the use that is going to be given to that account is going to be punctual, it is recommended that you do not have to meet any requirements in order not to pay commissions. Accounts without payroll can be a good alternative.
The Smart Account of EVO Banco, for example, does not charge commissions even if the client does not directly direct their payroll. Nor is it necessary to domicile any receipt. The customer will receive an innovative free card that allows both debit and credit payments, as well as withdrawing money at thousands of ATMs. It can be opened in a few minutes via the internet.
