Been charged for a 8 yo unused account

ArnoldSideways

Hi folks. I've just been stunned to find a letter charging me an overdraft fee for an account which I believed I'd closed in January 2000. The bank (Barclay's) believes that I was £10 overdrawn and despite saying nothing about it at all for almost nine years has just charged me £20 something pounds overdraft fee. I can't dispute this as last year I destroyed all my bank records relating to this account as they were over 7 years old.

Does anyone have any idea why they would suddenly decide to raise this issue? It's not the charges as such - if I owed the money I would certainly pay it - but why seem to wait until I'm in the position to do nothing about it, so I simply have to accept their word for it.

alanq

I wonder if the original debt still applies, let alone the charge, if this is the first time it has been mentioned in 8 years. Aren't claims usually time limited to 6 years? Certainly worth challenging I would have thought.

I wonder if this has come to light because of a clear out of dormant accounts. Banks have been trying to track down people with dormant savings accounts ahead of the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act coming into force.

ktflosspot

Hi,
I've had simillar with barclays this week too.
My account hasn't been active for five years and i got a call fromthem saying that my account had been overdrawn when i had closed it and have whacked on £196 in charges as i never had an overdraft.
I asked for a letter and a breakdown of the charges and it turns out I owed them 98p back in 2003 !!!!
They informed me that if i didn't pay it this week they would just take the money out of my other barclays account.
In 5 years i have never had a letter or statement for that account.
Can i do anything or do i have to chalk it up as bad luck ?

SFX_Student

Right, its sounds like you have both been charged with the new Personal Reserve Usage fee. This is a new system Barklays implemented on the 18 August 2008. Previously there was a £5-£10 buffer on accounts without overdrafts. so if you went overdrawn within this amount no fees would be charged. It sounds like your dormant accounts have been within this buffer for years and now that the new fee system has been introduced you have been charged £22 for every five working days since the 18 August. This has happened to thousands of people and is being investigated by Barklays. I would certainly recommend you write to Barklays and explain you believed the accounts were closed and perhaps that you are willing to pay the amount you were overdrawn but not the fees. As far as i'm aware all cases where this has happened are hoped to be resolved by 30th September.
Also if you have any problems with them saying you were sent a letter to inform of the new charging system, tell them you did not receive it.

Hope that helps, PM me if you need any more help.

pasti

Ring Barclays customer relations (0845 609 0806). They will check account activity over the last 6 months. They should have already been picked up as dormant though and be in the process of being refunded.