Blocked Account
Categories: Regulations, Banking
Ever go to an ATM and find out you couldn’t withdraw any money from your account? Hopefully it was not due to having a blocked account.
This means the bank has put restrictions on how much money can be withdrawn, by whom and how often. Perhaps you haven’t paid back a loan and the bank has an agreement with your lender to restrict how much you can take out from your checking account. Or you are a student in a foreign country and have to keep a certain amount in a local account, and can only withdraw up to that amount each month due to foreign exchange controls.
Blocked accounts seem to happen quite frequently to Russian oligarchs who have bank accounts in the U.S. Every time we get ticked off at the Russian government for such things as meddling in elections, spying, or killing people, they get their accounts blocked or frozen.
Frozen is more of a temporary situation, while a blocked account usually indicates it will be a much longer duration.
