Problem after changing banks

illustrious

Three years ago I decided to change banks from Barclays to Nat West. No problem I thought, Barclays would transfer my account to Nat West and away we go... or so I thought until opening yesterday's mail. Having heard nothing at all from Barclays in the interim 3 years (no statements etc - although I have moved house twice) yesterday I received a letter from them saying my account (which I had taken to be closed) was not in order and that I owed them a 3 figure number and unless I did something about it within 7 days they were going to do all sorts of nasty things (all of which posed no threat because they were all now handled by Nat West!). It seems crazy to me that after all this time Barclays can contact me with such a threatening letter. Why, if this was the case, haven't they contacted me before - they clearly knew how to contact me or I wouldn't have received yesterday's letter???

Tixy

Have you recently applied for new credit or financial products? It may be that Barclays have only just found out your new address?

Probably best to ask them for a statement to show what the debt consists of so you can decide how to tackle it.

Then once you know this you could explain that you had made an error and assumed the account was closed/ or that you forgot to close it. They will probably be willing to accept a repayment plan, if some of the balance is charges & interest they may accept a reduced sum from you.

Unfortunatley they are within their rights to chase you for this debt for at least 6years.

Usually when you switch banks the bank you are joining will arrange for DDs, SOs etc to be transferred, after which you then just have to notify the old bank that you wish to close your account, and providing there is no balance they would action this. Barclays would not have transferred the account to Natwest.