How to prove that Barclays cashier lied about removing overdraft??!!

Angel89_2

Hi, on my account with barclays they have setup that ridiculous ''Personal reserve'' thing,
where they give you an overdraft of £150, but then they charge your £22 for going into it, £22 for each transaction that takes place in it,
and £22 every 5days that you are still inside it.

(Works out at an annual interest rate of around 126,000%)



I ofcourse dont want to have any of that nonsense on my account,
since i just wanted a normal basic account with no overdraft or anything on it.

I went into my local branch on Tuesday to cancel it,
since they did me for about £80 last month on this, and are taking £66 at the end of this month again,
and i just simply cant afford that from my salary!


The woman took my card and put in some machine at her computer,
typed in stuff on her ecomputer for about 5minutes,
then gave me my card back and told me it was all done and that the 'personal reserve' was removed.



However yesterday i was at the cashpoint and i looked at the mini statement and saw that some direct debit (that id cancelled weeks ago) for £10 had gone out of my account, making me overdrawn by £7! :mad:

(My account doesn't have an overdraft though, so i dont know how it possibly could have gotten 'over-drawn').


I then went to the cashpoint today to test it out and withdrew £10, to see if it would reject it saying there was un-sufficient funds in the account...
(I have a cheque clearing in for £740, but that wont be cleared balance for upto 1week more)

However it let me withdraw £10.

(Its showing 'available balance as whatever amont my account is overdrawn by')



Im now thinking that the lady in barclays just lied and pretended to remove my personal reserve, but didnt really actually do anything,
and since you dont get a receipt for stuff like that i have no proof that i actually ever even asked her to do it! :mad::mad:


But i was just wondering if anyone else has any experience of this happening??

And apart from somehow managing to get a court to grant me access to the cctv footage form the bank that day to show me going in, and a certified lip reader who could view the footage and confirm what the conversation was between me and the bank employee,
which just would never ever be granted in relaity,
what other methods can i use to prove that she lied about removing my personal reseve??!


Thanks

jd87

Well surely the first thing you should do is go back into the branch and ask them to check if it has actually been removed or not. It could be that it takes a while to be processed or any number of other explanations. I don't know how the system works, but surely you should find out the facts before making the assumption that the staff person lied to you.

noh

The Personal Reserve has most likely been removed.
It is still possible to go overdrawn without the PR.
That £10 cash you drew as a test if it took you even further overdrawn will probably have cost you £8 in charges.

The fees are explained on the Barclays web site

Angel89_2

jd87 wrote: »

Well surely the first thing you should do is go back into the branch and ask them to check if it has actually been removed or not. It could be that it takes a while to be processed or any number of other explanations. I don't know how the system works, but surely you should find out the facts before making the assumption that the staff person lied to you.

I dont trust what people who sit behind desks or counters say ever though, as theres simply no reason why you should.

The only thing that i trust is printed and documented evidence about stuff. :A

Since then when it comes to the reclaiming of the illegal charges, a process which will all be done in writing of letters and requiring dcoument proof, there wont be any discrepencies between what i say and what the bank says.

Angel89_2

noh wrote: »

The Personal Reserve has most likely been removed.
It is still possible to go overdrawn without the PR.
That £10 cash you drew as a test if it took you even further overdrawn will probably have cost you £8 in charges.

The fees are explained on the Barclays web site

DO they actually give you an overdraft without telling you though?? :eek::huh::huh:

And if theres 3 types of overdraft,
a normal one that doesn't charge you any fees for being in it and using it,
a 2nd one that charges you for being in and using it but only charges you a single fee of £8s,
and then a 3rd one that charges you £22 every 5days for using it...

How on eath is anyone meant to know which of the 3 they have been 'put in for' without being told??

And more worryingy why on earth would anyone opt for the 2nd or 3rd.. :huh:

jd87

There's a 4th type, an "unarranged overdraft".

noh

jd87 wrote: »

There's a 4th type, an "unarranged overdraft".

That is almost certainly the situation the OP is in.
They have no Personal Reserve and no arranged overdraft.

LeeSouthEast

Just because you don't have an authorised overdraft on your account doesn't mean the bank won't give you money. it just counts as an unarranged overdraft, and you'll be charged accordingly.

Angel89_2

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

Just because you don't have an authorised overdraft on your account doesn't mean the bank won't give you money. it just counts as an unarranged overdraft, and you'll be charged accordingly.

Ah ok thanks..

How do you just opt out of that too then though?? :huh:


Since i dont want to have ANY sort of overdraft on the account at all though.
I already told them that before.

I want the ultimate most basic account that they would give to a 6year old child, that would just block and reject any transactions that would take it over the amount of money in that account.


Does anyone know where you can get that sort of account??
(But when you are in your 20s)



Thanks

seven-day-weekend

But even if they you have no overdraft facility and they don't put you into overdraft, there will still be a charge if they bounce a dirct debit/cheque etc.if you don't have enough money in the bank.

The only sure way is to open a passbook account and have no card at all. Then you can only draw out what is in the passbook, but you won't be able to have direct debits coming out. You will be able (probably) to have salary/benefits going in, but you will have to go into the bank to draw money out. You will have to pay your bills manually.

Or always to keep a reserve in your account.

And don't assume Bank Staff are lying.

LeeSouthEast

What seven-day-weekend said.

You can get a full-authorisation account (like Electron), but even that is no guarantee of not going into an overdraft facility or incurring charges.