Not upheld: account closure and breach of terms complaint against Wise Payments Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S complained that Wise Payments Limited unfairly closed his personal account after he used it to transfer funds from his dissolved company H to a business supplier. Wise closed the account citing breach of terms that restricted personal accounts to personal use only. The ombudsman found Mr S was indeed in breach of terms but considered the closure disproportionate given the one-off nature of the breach and its connection to managing a dissolved company's assets. While upholding Wise's right to close the account, the ombudsman awarded £200 compensation for inadequate notice and poor explanation of the firm's concerns.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman acknowledged that account providers have discretion to decide whether to provide services and that Mr S was in breach of account terms by using his personal account for business purposes. However, the ombudsman found that this was not a case of routine misuse over time, but rather a one-off use to manage dissolution of a company. While the ombudsman agreed Wise could close the account, it should have provided more notice and better explained that its concern was the outbound payment to the supplier, not the inbound payment from the dissolved company. The £200 compensation was deemed fair for the lack of notice and poor communication.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website