ASK TONY: Metro bank froze my account and it has £30,000 stuck in it! 

Metro Bank froze my business account without explanation and won’t tell me when it plans to give me back access. I have been unable to use the account for more than four months.

I contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service, which has so far failed to look into my case. I discovered the problem when direct debits began failing. I phoned to be told my account had been suspended ‘pending a review’ and that the bank would contact me to ask for further details ‘in due course’.

Despite my repeated calls and a letter to its chief executive, it was almost a month before the bank wrote back asking for proof of my UK address and details of my personal travel for the past six months.

My wife is Ukrainian and we had been to visit her family in Crimea. This led to further questions about which cities I had visited.

It has been three months since I provided this information and nothing has changed. I opened an account with another bank to avoid going into debt with my VAT.

As things stand the account holds, in effect, my entire company profit for the previous financial year, which is the money I use to support my family.

A. H., London.

You tell me you had £30,000 tied up in this account, which Metro Bank arbitrarily froze.

It is one thing for a bank to have security concerns, but quite another to freeze an account for several months.

This appears to be happening with some of the challenger banks. Perhaps their fraud detection is not as sophisticated as that of the larger, older banks.

Metro Bank unfroze your account when I made contact, but it has not offered a sensible explanation of why it was locked for so long.

You suspect the Metro Bank app tracked your holiday. That might sound a bit James Bond-esque, but a bank spokesman confirms it uses ‘opt-in location services to help distinguish between trusted and fraudulent behaviours’.

The spokesman adds: ‘Customer location (available when the app is in use) forms part of our fraud prevention controls and is used purely for these purposes.’

I told the bank that you should be paid a considerable sum in compensation and have cited guidelines laid down by the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The bank offered £750 but you decided to take legal advice. I have warned you to be sure the cost of your solicitor does not outweigh any benefits of compensation. You have your money back and are closing your Metro Bank account.

A Metro Bank spokesman says: ‘We’re really sorry about what has happened. We never take a decision to suspend a customer’s account lightly but we appreciate Mr H’s frustration at the time [the bank] has needed to take to review the situation. The service he received wasn’t up to the usual standard.’

I was told I cannot file my tax return on paper from this year and it must be submitted online. I do not own a computer so do not know what to do.

My return is a simple one. My pensions are taxed at source. Apart from registering my charitable donations, which differ each year, the only other detail I have to report is a small amount of taxable money received from some building society accounts.

S. N., Rochester, Kent.

Whoever told you that you must file your tax return online is wrong.

I checked with HMRC which confirms: ‘Mrs N does not need to file online, and nor does anyone else. Everyone is free to file on paper if they wish.’

If your tax affairs are simple you may not need to file a return.

If you are a basic-rate taxpayer there is no benefit to registering your charity donations, as basic-rate tax relief is claimed by the good cause under the Gift Aid scheme. However, extra tax relief is available to higher- rate taxpayers.

Basic-rate taxpayers can also receive up to £1,000 interest a year from taxable building society accounts without paying tax. Higher-rate taxpayers can receive £500. Cash Isas do not need to be declared.

If you think you no longer need to file a return, call HMRC on 0300 200 3310.

I overcame my fears and at 85 decided to have broadband installed. I chose Shell Energy Broadband for £18.99 a month. My neighbour helped me to set up the box, which was supplied on December 27, but my iPad could not connect.

I complained, and in the meantime paid £40 for two SIM cards for my iPad and mobile to tide me over.

I heard no more so on January 13 rang again. I was offered £15 and told leaving would be expensive.

L. A., Croydon.

Yours is one of those cases where I have to say: how can you expect a company to help you if you won’t speak to them?

I asked Shell Energy Broadband to resolve your issues, but you did not want to speak to the resolution agents on the phone.

I appreciate that dealings by phone can be difficult as you get older, but you should give companies a chance.

A spokesman told me: ‘This made the situation harder to resolve but we got there.

‘From what we could tell, there was a small drop in service when she first made the complaint, which we quickly resolved at our end.

‘From what we could tell, the issue was with her devices, but we helped her with that.’

You have been credited for the time you had no service.

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