Money taking 5 weeks to leave my account!?!?

DazedAndConfuzed

I've just been completely stung by Barclays who took over £600 out of my account today because apparantly I made various purchases online in January and the money wasn't collected by the recipients. The money was then put back into my account 10 days later (strangely enough they can't prove this) and now all 13 companies have applied to take my funds out yesterday?

They don't think there's anything a little bit strange that all 13 companies decided on the same day to re-apply for the money. Or that I've already received all of the items bought.

I've spoken to some of them (Sky and Scottish Power being 2 of them) and they said they received the money early January when I paid online.

My issue is that I've been monitoring my bank account closely and this has thrown my budgeting right out of the window as Barclays took 5 weeks to show these transactions on my statement (I assumed my 'current cleared balance' was the money I had, irrespective of what was waiting to be claimed)

Anyone know the best way to kick off about this? I'm now heavily overdrawn even though I stated I didn't want any kind of overdraft facility and can't even get money out of my savings as transferring it into my current account will just reduce how overdrawn I am.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

rb10

When you make a debit card transaction the money does not leave your account instantly.

Shortly after you make the transaction, an 'authorisation' for the company to take the money is put on your account and the money is deducted from your available balance. This means it's just 'reserved', as Barclays know that it's likely that the money will leave in the next few days.

A few days after that, it will actually leave your account. This is when it appears as a line on your statement.

BUT, if the company does not claim it at the time, then the authorisation will drop off (i.e. your available balance increases again). However, the company still has the right to claim the money. And they have now done this. However, the retailer still has the right to claim the money, as you have given them permission to do this.

From what I can see, this seems to be no one's error but yours. Did you not realise that you hadn't paid for £600 worth of items? Did it not strike you as odd, and that they might therefore try to claim the money a little later than normal?

When you authorise a company to withdraw money from your account, you are responsible for ensuring that the money is in there until they take it.

I think this should be taken as a lesson for the future.

noh

Nothing to complain about.
You have received the goods and services and you need to pay for them.

(I assumed my 'current cleared balance' was the money I had, irrespective of what was waiting to be claimed)

That was your mistake.


If you were monitoring your account closely why, when you knew you had made these purchases, were you unable to spot that they hadn't yet been debited from your account?

opinions4u

DazedAndConfuzed wrote: »

My issue is that I've been monitoring my bank account closely

Clearly you haven't. Sorry.

Anyone know the best way to kick off about this? I'm now heavily overdrawn even though I stated I didn't want any kind of overdraft facility and can't even get money out of my savings as transferring it into my current account will just reduce how overdrawn I am.

I think a polite approach is the best way.

1) The shopping is your responsibility - the cost is yours.
2) The fact that you are overdrawn is because you didn't leave enough funds in your account to cover your spending.

If the bank charges you, which they may well do - and be within their rights to do, you are relying on goodwill to get any charges waived. If you "kick off" you are unlikely to achieve your objective.

The situation you describe does sound unusual, but it doesn't change the fact you spent the money and didn't leave the funds in the current account to cover that spending.

DazedAndConfuzed

My point is that Barclays have a record that when I made the online purchase, the money was put aside for the various recipients but as far as I can see it was never credited back to my account to be taken at a later date. I've asked Barclays about this and they can't see my balance ever going back up due to the funds not being collected.

If I can prove that the funds weren't credited back to my balance from this 'pot' then they will investigate.

Plus, to make things a bit weirder, a few of the recipients have now said they received the money when it was originally sent in January (Sky said they would've written to me if it wasn't in their account within 7 days), so why is the transaction only now showing on my account?