Barclays Bank - Watch Out!

Extant

Merlinexcalibur wrote: »

Had trouble with this a few months back. Barclays angle on this was 'we sent all information out in a mailshot in June/July' when I told them I'd never heard nor seen such documents. Which I never did. So unless the post office failed to deliver, am I meant to be psychic and know all this?

There were at least two mailings to every customer. One announced Personal Reserve and then the next gave you what your limit would be.

On top of that, it was marked up on all Direct Channels - online banking had a notice on the log-in page, telephone banking had recorded messages. Hell, we even produced brail notifications.

Most people got them fine and just didn't bother to read them.

as five days hadn't elapsed since the account was overdrawn yet Barclays claimed it had, so their version of working days is different to the rest of us mere mortals it seems, on the other hand I wasn't faced with the terror of such astronomical fees.

It's based off your balance at the end of each day. So if your balance at the end of Monday is in reserve, the five days starts and you are charged. You then have until the close of business Friday to come out of reserve before you are charged again.

I really don't see how this can be fairer as they claim. It makes your situation worse if you are overdrawn by placing you into more debt. The only people who benefit is the bank.

It's fairer because it is a distinct product and service - take it or leave it. Under the old system, we would allow you to spend up to a certain amount that only we knew. If you then spent that amount in five pound increments, you'd get charged every time, so you would have no idea what was going on.

Now, under reserve, you have a set amount that you can go to, and you know the price for it and how long you have it for. £22 buys you an extra £150-£1000 of spending power for five days, regardless of how much you use it. Don't like it? Turn it off, and we'll charge you on a different scheme which is still cheaper than pretty much every other bank and credit card company.

If you want a detailed example of how it can work out cheaper for charges, I gave one earlier in this thread.