Account allowed to go in the red for 9 yrs ?

cworried

I am new to the forum so if this has already been covered somewhere else I am sorry. Received a letter out of the blue yesterday saying current account was £172.74 dr and had not been put in order. After panicking and checking joint current acct, I realised the details did not match. This is my husbands old barclays account which I found an old cheque book for dated 2001. We moved in 2004 and so apparently correspondence has been going to the old address for 3 years. My husband is sure he had closed this account but to be honest I have no idea but surely a bank would not allow an account to remain inactive and slip further into the red for this length of time without contacting the owner ? has anyone else had anything like this happen to them ?

never-in-doubt

cworried wrote: »

I am new to the forum so if this has already been covered somewhere else I am sorry. Received a letter out of the blue yesterday saying current account was £172.74 dr and had not been put in order. After panicking and checking joint current acct, I realised the details did not match. This is my husbands old barclays account which I found an old cheque book for dated 2001. We moved in 2004 and so apparently correspondence has been going to the old address for 3 years. My husband is sure he had closed this account but to be honest I have no idea but surely a bank would not allow an account to remain inactive and slip further into the red for this length of time without contacting the owner ? has anyone else had anything like this happen to them ?

If the last time the account was used was over 6 years ago (5 for Scotland) then he should send this letter to them:

14. Statute Barred Debt (England & Scotland) otherwise i'd be acting daft and sending this: 15. Prove it Letter
because it's surely almost statute barred, if not already going on the dates supplied.

cworried

Thank you, we are going to the bank this afternoon to see if there is any proof this debt is even his.

jonesMUFCforever

So you found an old Barclays cheque book and a statement - what further proof do you need?
It is also a prerequisite in closing a current account that you return any unused cheques to the bank - you still have it in your possession so it is unlikely that the account did close.
It is also surprising that after all this time that they did not send this debt to a debt collection agency a long time before this - check his credit files.

I do agree that if there has been no contact at all since January 2004 then it is statute barred - but check the dates carefully.

usedandabused

investigate this fully and fight tooth and nail i say