bankedright.com / Tier 01 · The Freeze
Frozen with no explanation. Here’s your next 72 hours.
You’re in the right place if
Balance visible, available $0
Business account restricted overnight, sometimes personal accounts too, no email, no named reason.
The chat loop
Every support message says “routine check” or “we cannot provide a timeline.” No human, no appeal button.
Deadlines don’t pause
Payroll, ad spend, rent and contractors are still due while your own money is held hostage.
You’re about to make it worse
Angry threads, wrong documents, wrong phrasing. Some moves extend freezes and mark your file permanently.
Frozen when he arrived · Chase + BofA now
He ran a marketing agency on one surviving bank account — everything else had been shut off. We mapped the sequence, flew to the US with him, and he walked out with Chase and Bank of America. Now he sleeps.
What we do in the first week
Stop the bleeding
First hour of the call: what to send, what never to say, which escalation paths actually reach a human, and what to preserve as evidence before you post anything publicly.
Triage what’s recoverable
Freezes end three ways: release, offboarding with funds returned, or a long hold. We map which track you’re on and compress the timeline where it can be compressed.
Stand up replacement banking
Payroll can’t wait for their compliance team. We get operational banking running the same week, built on real banks, so this can never take you to zero again.
Once payroll is safe, the next move is making sure this never happens again: the backup doctrine. Or run the numbers yourself with the freeze calculator to see exactly how exposed you still are.
Frozen by a US bank? File all of this. Free.
This is the part most consultants charge for. If a US chartered bank froze you (Chase, Bank of America and peers), the play is a paper trail across every regulator at once, plus escalation inside the bank. It works because a bank’s legal team reads identical facts arriving from four directions. Fintech and non-US closures route completely differently — that ladder is below, and filing on the wrong one wastes the weeks you don’t have. Both ladders verified against regulator and Wise sources, July 2026.
- 1
File with the CFPB first
consumerfinance.gov/complaint. State exactly what happened, attach copies of everything you already sent the bank, and put the precise timeline in the description. Banks are required to respond, typically within 15 days. Open the link →
- 2
Then the OCC and the FDIC
helpwithmybank.gov for nationally chartered banks, and the FDIC’s consumer complaint channel. Same story, same attachments, word for word. Consistency across filings is what makes the file undeniable. Open the link →
- 3
Get the IMAD number
Ask your sending bank for the wire’s IMAD number specifically. It is the Fed’s own proof that the wire was legitimate and came from your account. Attach it to every filing.
- 4
Escalate inside the bank, in levels
Start with the bank’s own complaint channel (Chase has one at chase.com/digital/resources/complaints-feedback). Then escalate. Then escalate again, until it reaches the executive office. Calling the executive office directly is one of the highest-leverage moves there is, and a physical letter to their office outworks another email. Open the link →
- 5
Add your state Attorney General
One more regulator on the record. In New York, that’s ag.ny.gov/file-complaint. Every state has an equivalent. Open the link →
Closed by Wise or another fintech? Different ladder. Also free.
A fintech or e-money account isn’t a chartered bank account, so the OCC-and-FDIC playbook above doesn’t apply. Your route depends on which legal entity holds your account — and it’s named in your closure email.
- 1
Appeal first — it’s a separate track from a complaint
Wise won’t even open a formal complaint about a deactivation until you’ve appealed. Appeals run through wise.com/appeals — photo ID, a selfie holding it, and a written explanation of what your transfers were for. That explanation is where accounts get buried: keep it factual, minimal, and document-backed. Support can’t see or influence the appeal.
- 2
US: CFPB, then your state money-transmitter regulator
The CFPB supervises large money transmitters like Wise and takes complaints at consumerfinance.gov/complaint — pick the money-transfer category. Then file with your state regulator: in New York, the NYDFS consumer portal. Six state regulators fined Wise US $4.2M in July 2025 over AML failures, so filings land on watched ground. Be clear-eyed: no regulator complaint is documented to force a fund release — what it does is build the record that every later step stands on. The OCC and FDIC ladders don’t apply; Wise isn’t a chartered bank. Open the link →
- 3
US: transfer stuck in transit? That one has legal teeth
A delayed or vanished international transfer (as opposed to a frozen balance) falls under the CFPB Remittance Rule: you can file a formal notice of error up to 180 days after the promised delivery date, and the provider must investigate within 90 days and fix a confirmed error within 1 business day of your instructions. 12 CFR §1005.33 — cite it by name. Open the link →
- 4
UK: final response, then the Financial Ombudsman
FCA rules give the firm 15 business days (35 in exceptional cases) to send a final response; then you have 6 months to take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Calibrate the goal: FOS almost never overturns a closure, but it does award 8% interest when funds were wrongfully withheld, and compensation for poor communication. Open the link →
- 5
EU: Ombudsfin, within one year
Wise’s EU entity is Belgian, so after its internal complaint process the route is Ombudsfin — file within a year of complaining. Handling runs about 90 days and decisions are non-binding, and business accounts largely fall outside its scope. For an SME, the complaint trail is really evidence-building for a civil claim. Open the link →
- 6
Canada, Mexico, elsewhere: check who your regulator actually is
Canada has no external complaint body for payment companies at all — Wise’s own help pages say so; document everything and consider small claims. Mexico routes by currency, not address: a non-MXN dispute from a Mexico-registered customer escalates to the UK Financial Ombudsman, not CONDUSEF. The entity named in your closure email decides your ladder — read it before you file anywhere.
- 7
Everywhere: moving money out beats every filing
A scheduled closure usually gives about 90 days to move money out while the card still works — use them. A balance still inside at closure comes back through a refund request plus “security checks,” officially up to 90 working days for ACH-funded balances, and real-world reports run weeks to months. Nothing any regulator does is faster than you moving the money first.
Want the exact letter that moved Chase?
We'll send you the letter template that worked, free. It's the same one from our own case files.
One offer · One price · Frozen founders jump the queue
The Unfreezable Founder Blueprint
- Compliance Read & Sequence Map. Your exact order, mapped to your passport, residency, entity and revenue. ($2,500 value)
- ITIN-First Fast Track. The piece that gates everything else, done right the first time. ($1,500 value)
- Real-Bank Opening Playbook: Chase / BofA / Amex. Chase, Bank of America, Amex: documents, scripts, and the one planned US trip, mapped to the day. ($3,500 value)
- Redundancy Build. Two to three real banks plus backup processing. No single off switch anywhere in your stack. ($2,000 value)
- Freeze Playbook. The written break-glass plan for the day any institution flinches. ($1,500 value)
- Points & FX Stack. The ceiling math on your own spend, once the floor is solid. ($5,000/yr value)
- 60 Days Direct Access. A human who answers, not a support chat loop. ($2,500 value)
- Bonus: all corridor playbooks, incl. the Paraguay Money Stack. ($500 value)
- Bonus: 48-hour frozen-proof audit. ($750 value)
The Banked-or-We-Keep-Working Guarantee
Follow the sequence, and if you are not holding real US bank accounts within 60 days of completing your steps, we keep working free until you are.
Step 1 · $0 to apply Apply. Compliance read before any payment. You never pay for a sequence we cannot execute. Back within 48 hours.
Step 2 · $7,500 Build. Paid in full when the build starts. Starting immediately is what makes the 60-day guarantee possible.
Step 3 · Within 60 days Banked. Real US accounts open — or the guarantee kicks in and we keep working free until they are.
Real scarcity: 5 founders per month. Hand-built sequences, real capacity.
Real urgency: The price rises every 5 founders. It never goes down.
Frozen right now? Same price, jump the queue, same-week start.
“If you want to learn something, someone else has already made the mistakes. The time and the money you pay is paying for avoiding all of those.”
Replies within one business day. Frozen founders jump the queue.
Straight answers
Can you get my money released?
No one outside the institution can force a release, and anyone who promises that is lying to you. What we do: put you on the fastest recovery track available, stop you from extending the freeze with wrong moves, and make sure payroll runs while it plays out.
How fast is same-week, really?
Triage calls are held within the same week you book, usually within 48 hours. The replacement banking sequence starts the same day as the call.
My personal accounts froze too. Is that normal?
Common with fintechs when a business trips a review: linked personal accounts freeze in the same sweep, exactly like the founders on our homepage. It changes the playbook, so tell us upfront.
Why did my bank freeze my account with no explanation?
Almost never because of anything you did wrong in the moment. Banks and fintechs run compliance algorithms that flag patterns, cross-border ownership, high volume, a changed country, and freeze first, explain later, if at all. The most common response you’ll get is a scripted “routine check” with no timeline, because there usually isn’t a human who owes you one yet.
How long can a bank keep my account frozen?
There’s no fixed deadline, and anyone who promises one is guessing. Freezes end one of three ways: released, offboarded with funds eventually returned, or held for a long time with no update. That uncertainty is exactly why filing the regulator complaint ladder early, and standing up replacement banking, matters more than waiting it out.
Does the CFPB take complaints about Wise, Mercury, or other fintechs?
Yes. The CFPB supervises large nonbank money transmitters and accepts complaints against them at consumerfinance.gov/complaint, and state money-transmitter regulators take complaints too. What no regulator complaint is documented to do is force a fund release — it builds the official record that appeals, escalations, and any later legal step stand on.
How long can Wise hold my money after closing my account?
A scheduled closure usually gives about 90 days to move money out yourself. A balance still inside at closure comes back via a refund request after “security checks” — officially days for most funding methods but up to 90 working days for ACH-funded balances, and real-world reports range from weeks to several months when an AML review is running. There is no single guaranteed number.
Can I open a new Wise account after they closed mine?
Generally no. Wise’s own terms make opening a new account while restricted or suspended a violation in itself, and they reserve the right to refuse future service after a closure. The realistic goal after a Wise-initiated closure is an orderly release of your funds and a clean record elsewhere — not reinstatement.
Is a frozen account the same as a closed account?
No. A freeze stops your access while the institution decides what to do; a closure ends the relationship outright, sometimes after a freeze, sometimes instead of one. Either way the money is out of reach for now, and the fix is the same: get replacement banking running immediately instead of waiting to find out which one you’re in.
Your life doesn’t fit banking’s boxes. Stop paying for that with fragility.
Real banks. Correct sequence. Redundancy by design. The founders who sleep well are the ones an algorithm can’t switch off.