Barclays keeps falsely charging me then refunding it when i complain.

hayz_2

Barclays are charging me £8 everytime they say im going overdrawn, but Im not going overdrawn. Its happened at least 5 times and everytime i call them and compain, they refund it. They have just recently done it again, I recieved 3 letters yesterday saying I was overdrawn after 3 direct debits tried to take out the money and couldnt because there was not enough in there, BUT THERE WAS at least £200 in there, which is plenty for the direct debits.

Now its affecting my credit score/report because its coming up saying i have lots of late payments on my bills. im trying to buy a house and because of my credit score theyre reluctant to lend me hadly anything because they say i can keep up with payments.

where do i go from here? i dont want just a refund i want them to pay for giving me a bad credit score, and to stop doing it to me

dunstonh

Are you drawing against uncleared funds or paying in the money the same day as withdrawals?

hayz_2

On my statements online, over the past month it has never said i have gone overdrawn, even the days they say i have gone overdrawn at the end of the working day i still have enough money in and more for my direct debits and money ive spent to come out.

dunstonh

That doesnt answer the question though. Are you paying in the same day or drawing against uncleared funds?

hayz_2

really sorry. I dont understand the question, I havent paid anything into my account apart from my wages that go in each week. Im not drawing against uncleared funds. The end of the day balance is showing that there is money in the account - enough to pay the direct debits due out, it is also showing that there is current cleared funds.
hope this helps, thankyou for your help, really appreciate it.

the_insider

Do the Direct Debits go out on the day you get paid? Dunstonh is asking because the debits will be applied to the account before the credit (your wages) go in. Therefore, for a short time you are over your limit. If this is happening you need to move all of your Direct Debits to the day after you get paid.

jamesd

When banks pay bills they pay the bills before they credit your account with the money going in. So say you had:

bill 100
bill 200
pay 400

The bank would try to process them in that order and unless you had 300 in the account on the evening before they could refuse to pay the two bills because the pay hasn't arrived in the account yet. The end of day balance, or even 9AM balance, would show the 400 in there and the two refused bills.

The 300 in bills is trying to draw against the uncleared 400 pay.

There are three usual ways to deal with this:

1. An overdraft facility so that they bank pays the bills by using the overdraft temporarily, then clears the overdraft when it processes the pay credit.

2. Arranging to have the bills come out one day later.

3. Arranging to have enough money in the account on the evening before so that the bills will be paid from that money even though the pay hasn't reached the account yet.

They do it like this because your pay is also a bill coming out of someone else's account, so they do all the bill taking then put in all the credits once they have taken the money. Otherwise they would have the impossible task of trying to reorder all of the bills across every bank in the country to try to find some order that pays the maximum possible number of bills. Computer programming doesn't have any effective solution to this particular problem so the banks use the next best alternatives that I've described above.

The overdraft facility is the best option if that's available to you. It avoids having to tie up your money and you can then pretend that the pay is arriving before the bills and mostly relay on end of day balances again. Provided that all of the debits during the day don't total more than the overdraft limit plus previos evening's balance.

hayz_2

I always make sure there is enough money in the account the night/day before its due out. Every time they have charged me there has been plenty in there for example . . . I had £320 in there the night before then they have tried taking out 3 direct debits . .. £44 , £18 , £81 - but even at then end of the next day I still had £300 in there ( i spent £20 that day)
thats why im confused.

dunstonh

There are three usual ways to deal with this:

Or a 4th way by having a number 2 account (or budget account as they used to be known).

A couple of days after payday a standing order pays the total amount of your fixed bills into the number 2 account. All your fixed bills come out by direct debit over the following month from the number 2 account.

The good thing about doing it that way is that you know your bills are paid and whats left in your number 1 account is yours to spend (bar items yet to clear!).

hayz_2

But if we have already made sure we have enough money in our account they shouldnt charge us, this has happened a few times and they have refunded us because they have been wrong, but this time its affecting out credit score and we are having trouble buying a new house, but it isnt our fault. Its just so annoying that they can keep doing this and we have to suffer from their mistakes.

jamesd

hayz, it seems that you need to ask them to explain in detail how this is happening. With the money in the account the day before it shouldn't happen so they need to find out how it's happened and explain it so you can do whatever it takes to avoid it.

Dunstonh, yes, personally I use a bill payment account for most of my regular fixed or nearly fixed amount payments. Those with large variations come from a different account with a large overdraft facility. Most of my what's left to spend amount goes into savings and the rest on one or more credit cards so I can schedule paying those bills as well.