Why is my account blocked / frozen?

Like all payment providers or banks, we are legally obliged to block or freeze Wirex accounts from time to time. 

While having your Wirex account blocked or frozen can be inconvenient or distressing, please rest assured that it’s not something we do lightly. It’s difficult not to take something like this personally, but the truth is that accounts are usually disabled to protect your funds or personal information from suspected fraud or criminal activity.

We get a lot of questions about this on our social and community channels and wanted to clear the air. So, why do we suspend or close accounts?

We are required to by law

As a regulated payments company, we abide by the most stringent and up-to-date laws, regulations and rules – that means freezing or blocking accounts that show any signs of suspicious activity. This isn’t just Wirex policy – it’s a legal obligation. 

The same regulatory requirements prevent us from telling you why we’ve blocked / frozen your account. Again, this is a legal obligation – albeit one that is extremely frustrating if it happens to you. 

While we can’t tell you exactly why your account has been suspended, it’s usually done for the following reasons:

We suspect fraudulent or criminal activity

If our system detects any sign of fraudulent or criminal activity, we’ll suspend the account to protect other customers’ security. This will also happen if an account or customer is flagged as high-risk by other financial institutions or our own system.

Your money or data is at risk

We employ anti-fraud monitoring tools to keep your money and personal information as safe as possible. If our system suspects that someone other than you has access to your account, we’ll freeze it until we’re sure it’s secure.

Law enforcement tells us to suspend an account

Sometimes the police or regulators will ask us to freeze accounts as part of ongoing investigations. It goes without saying that we comply with all such requests from the relevant authorities.

What to do next

Even the most advanced fraud detection systems are not 100% accurate. If you believe your account has been frozen by mistake, please get in touch with the Support team. We’ll investigate and make amends once we’re sure that nothing untoward has taken place.

If you have any more questions about freezing or blocking accounts, don’t hesitate to ask our Support team.