A National Australia Bank customer of 30 years was shocked to receive a letter telling him the bank was closing his account in six weeks for no reason.
Shane Lucas, 49, received a stark notice on Tuesday telling him he had until October 14 to close all his NAB accounts. After that, the bank waited two weeks before doing it for him.
“You will have until October 14, 2023 to withdraw the remaining funds from your account(s) and to repay any funds you owe us,” the bank wrote to Mr Lucas.
“If accounts and services have not been closed by October 19, 2023, we will close your accounts and services.”
“I received the letter on Monday and I was like, what the hell is that?” Mr Lucas told Daily Mail Australia.
Shane Lucas was shocked to receive a letter from his bank telling him it would close all his accounts in six weeks.
“I called NAB three times and asked ‘what is going on here?’
“He was a young guy and he was pretty good and we talked about it and he was pretty stunned.
“He said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’
The NAB letter said the account was being closed “in accordance with section 143 of the Code of Banking Practice”.
Article 143 of the Code of Good Banking Practices states that a bank “may close one of your accounts according to its terms and conditions if this account is in credit”.
This section states that the bank will give you reasonable notice, “pay you the amount of the account balance”, but may charge “a reasonable amount” for closing the accounts.
Despite promising to pay the customer the amount remaining in his account, the letter told Mr Lucas that any remaining funds could be “transferred to the Commonwealth Government as ‘unclaimed money’, and that amounts less than $20 could be transferred to the NAB Foundation.
The letter gives no explanation as to why NAB is deciding to close Mr Lucas’ account
However, if one owed the bank money, the account would remain open until the debt was settled.
At the bottom of the letter, NAB states that all queries should be emailed to its accounts closure section.
“Our branches and call centers are not able to help you in this matter,” warns the bank.
Mr Lucas said he did not know why his personal and business accounts were closed.
“I’m as straight as they come,” he says.
” I dont drink. I don’t go to the pub. I am not playing.
“I’m just a family man running a small business. My bank account (and I) cannot be cleaned out.”
“I pay my suppliers and I am paid by my customers. I haven’t written “duck” on any of my transactions.
An NAB spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday it does not comment on individual cases.
However, they clarified that any money they sent to the Commonwealth Government could be reclaimed “by the rightful owner” at any time.
Major banks have terms and conditions that state that customers cannot use their services if they engage in conduct that, in the bank’s opinion, is offensive, harassing or threatening to others.
Mr Lucas said that after reading this in an NAB brochure, he made a complaint to that local branch about why the bank should be allowed to do this, but was dismissed as “stupid “.
He has since been told that closing the account was not a punishment for raising this objection.
According to Mr. Lucas, this single letter is the only communication he has from the bank regarding the impending closure of the account.
“There’s no email, there’s nothing in internet banking, there’s no notifications,” he said.
“What if I was abroad and hadn’t received this letter?
Frustrated by the lack of communication, Mr Lucas went to his local bank manager.
“He looked through my personal and business accounts and there’s nothing there,” Mr Lucas said.
“He couldn’t see on his screen why they closed my account, so the agencies don’t get any information.”
“When I said ‘is it because I brought Bitcoin?’ He said that was probably the problem.
An NAB spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia it would comment on individual customer cases.
NAB announced in July that it would stop “transactions made to high-risk cryptocurrency exchanges” to save customers from a “scam epidemic.”
“If you attempt to make a payment using your NAB Visa credit or debit card to any of these exchanges, the transaction will be declined and a message stating ‘Transaction refused by issuer’ will be displayed, as well as ‘a question and an answer on the ad. said.
There was no question of closing the accounts.
Mr Lucas said he had not sent money to a Bitcoin exchange in some time.
“I’m a shrimp, not a Bitcoin whale,” he said.
“I’m not a big multi-millionaire. I’m just an average guy.
Mr Lucas says after that he was done with NAB and asked around, only to find that some banks refuse to do Bitcoin transactions.
“Go ahead and play.” You go to the pub. You can go to a brothel with Asian sex slaves, that’s fine with them, but you can’t buy Bitcoin? » said Mr. Lucas.
“If I’m going to buy a car and it’s a lemony car and a bad investment, that’s my choice.
“If I go and buy Bitcoin and I buy at the top and sell at the bottom, then it’s a bad investment, that’s my choice.”
“No one holds a gun to your head and says you have to buy this or you have to see that.”
“It should be a free society where we have the right to buy what we want. I’m not doing anything illegal.
