Why your money is not safe in a Post Office account

I received a rather rude shock courtesy of the Post Office this morning.  With no notice whatsoever I was informed by e-mail that my account had been suspended and there was a contact phone number at the bottom of the page.  I didn’t immediately ring the number as this smelt like a scam, so I used another phone number to talk to the Post Office and they confirmed that the number was correct.  So here begins the nonsense.  My account had been suspended as there had been no transactions on the account for 3 years.  There is a very simple explanation for this.  The money in that account was part of the lump sum I received when I took early retirement from the University.  I put my money into that account both for the (supposed) ease of access and for the (now) pitiful interest  It was when I opened the account a relatively high rate of interest.  That is the sort of account where you usually put lumps of your cash that you don’t want to spend immediately.  No problem I thought – they immediately suspended my account – so they can immediately reinstate it can’t they?  No they can’t.  I am now waiting for a letter – yes that’s correct – in this age of digital connection by phone, FAX, e-mail, Skype – they are sending me a letter with instructions on how to reinstate my account.  This was quickly becoming not a sick joke but a very serious matter.  So “they” were able to see that there were no transactions on my account – but “they” couldn’t see that I logged onto my account EVERY month as I filled in my own monthly financial “snapshot”.  Are you being serious Post Office – you really couldn’t see that I was regularly accessing my account even though there was no transfer of money?  That makes you even more incompetent and even less qualified to be dealing with my cash.  So right at this moment my cash is in limbo.  I am very glad I logged on to see how much was in there just a few days back or they might be informing me there is very little in the account.  They might try to inform me that anyway – then the fun will really start!!  I have informed Watchdog (BBC1), Rip Off Britain (BBC1), the Financial Ombudsman and the Financial Conduct Authority regarding the totally unacceptable and highly unprofessional way the Post Office does its daily business and I hope at least one of this lot can give them a very severe talking to.  In the meantime, if you were thinking your money is sitting safe in your Post Office account just waiting for you to come along and use some of it – think again.  My strong advice to you is withdraw all of your cash – right now – and put it in a Bank.  The other half of my pension lump sum is in a Lloyds account, also untouched – and have they decided without notice to suspend my account?  No they haven’t.  And I know for a fact that they would have had the courtesy to contact me before doing anything as drastic as suspending my account to find out exactly why the account was not being used.  Unprofessional and totally unworkable – Post Office you are a complete disgrace and you are not fit to be handling peoples’ money.