Just spoke to Financial Ombudsman - their quote "everyone is entitled to a basic bank account" They are not the people to deal with this - passed me to Condumer Direct spoke to Consumer Direct 5 minutes later "banks have the right to refuse to give you an account" they said to contact the Local Government Ombudsman - who will no doubt pass me on to someone else. This is a joke.

There is some information, but unfortunately not a solution, here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15794539

The problem is she can't open an account IN ANY BANK that is the problem, even the co-op cashminder account has been rejected, there is something going on here and I don't know who to turn to. The banks will not say why she can't open an account with them, even the most basic accounts with no card cheque book or overdraft are no good and every bank is rejecting her. Please help - what do i do next. Her credit score from Experian is fine - its not that so what is it and who would know and if she has done something wrong why have the police not been in contact with her.

My suggestion is just to visit a few high street brances and, hopefully, if the first one says "no", the next one will say "yes". If she asks for a debit card or overdraft the criteria will be more strict than if she asks for a basic current account.

Thank you so much for replying - but which banks do you suggest she should try as she was told that she is going to be "blacklisted" from opening an account at any bank - which would include the main banks and most building societies - would the Co-op be any good, surely the blacklisting would cover all financial institutions. She can't get a post office account as she needs to be on benefits which seems a bit like discrimination against people who aren't on benefit.

Thank you

My daughter had an account with the Halifax, her card was stolen and some money was put into her account by someone else by cheque, a large amount which they didn;t bother to check why all of a sudden she had that amount in her account, and then amounts totalling the amount of the cheque were withdrawn by someone. The Halifax closed her account and suspected her of being involved despite the fact that they know it wasn't her who withdrew the money. They have told her that. She opened an account with my bank Barclays about a month ago and Barclays have now writtento her to tell her that they are closing her account next week. The problem she has is that her EMA payment has to be paid into a bank account in her name and now she is unable to open a bank account with any bank so she has been told, the EMA will only pay by BACS into a bank account, what can she do. The post office can't help we have tried that already. What about a credit union would they have an account she can open or is this "ban" on her going to cover every type of bank, is there any sort of currect account she could open toget her EMA paid in. She has no other money as she is at college, please help getting desperate. She hasn't done anything wrong, the fraud people are investigating but its the fact that this has happened without any proof that she has done anything wrong - i thought you were innocent until proved guilty. She has tried to get her credit report from Experian but as she had to put my bank card details on the form they are querying it - I really want to take all my money out of Barlcays and go with a more ethical system - are credit unions any good.