Transactions from a supposedly closed account

gracieharry

Hope someone can help as my bank isn't giving me the answers I want.

On the 27th May, I visited my local branch to close my Barclays bank account.

I had opened an Abbey account 7 months earlier and had tried to get one direct debit to switch but despite calling the company and cancelling the direct debit via online banking, they were still taking money from my Barclays account. It was £32 overdrawn when I closed the account but, while in the branch, I paid the outstanding amount, the interest on the overdraft and the branch retained my card with assurances that it was closed.

On the 19th June, I received a letter telling me that my account (the closed one) was £52 overdrawn. I knew that the company had not withdrawn any funds because they had sent me a letter stating that Barclays had told them my account was closed. Needless to say I was puzzled. The same letter also told me that, as I was in the Barclays Reserve amount (Reserve being something I had never wanted), they would charge me £22 for every period of 5 days that I remained in it.

I tried to call customer services but was blocked because my security question answer was wrong. Not sure how. My mother's maiden name is the same as mine so I never use that - I use my grandmother's maiden name and it's automatic to reply with that as the maiden name and I never say that it's NOT my mother's maiden name.

I checked my online statement - I didn't think I'd be able to because the account was closed but I could log on. There were three transactions dated the 10th and 11th June, two for mobile top ups and one for an online store. The company who didn't cancel the direct debit asked was also on as a debit and then a credit but before the three fraudulent transactions.

Needless to say, I went to the branch today with a print off of my online statement, the letter from the company and the original bank letter that stated I was overdrawn. The employee could not explain it other than the transactions might have been made before I handed my card in on the 27th May but that she could treat it as a fraudulent transaction and get me to sign some forms. once it was accepted as fraud, the balance would be taken back up to 0 and all charges would be cleared.

Can someone please tell me the following:-

Will they be able to tell whether my details were used before or after the 27th May for the transactions dated the 10/11th June on my statement?

Why would they change my security question answer without my knowledge? it's been changed to my surname (admittedly, also my mother's maiden name but THEY don't know that!)

Why wasn't my account blocked from further transactions upon closing it when the direct debit was blocked?

Why, if those transactions were outstanding, as the employee stated they could be, did it not tell the person closing my account on the 27th?

I have written to Barclays but having been fobbed off by them more than once (one of the many reasons for leaving the bank), I'd appreciate a little info from other people before I accept any response from them.

Mark_In_Hampshire

From your post it looks as if your account was not, in fact closed when you requested. I say that partly since you still had access via Online banking and were able to log on and see your transactions and partly because of the bounced DD. I'll come to that..

I believe that yes, they can tell when a card transaction occured (as opposed to simply the date it was debited).

The bank would seem to be right in pursuing the chargeback route for the card transactions. From their perspective, even if you'd handed back the debit card it's possible that you had registered those details online with the companies and were able to conduct those transactions even without the card. It isn't entirely clear from your post whether you made the card transactions or not; if you did then you would be liable for them, if not then the charge back will get the account reimbursed.

There may however be a fee for the bounced direct debit - if the mandate was cancelled then it wouldn't show as a debit then a credit, it just wouldn't show at all. You say you had cancelled the mandate online, but as you've found, there is no way to permanently cancel a direct debit mandate with any certainty, as the payee can just carry on setting it up again and trying for money.

Had the account been closed then the direct debit should not have shown up at all - the closure of the account should trigger the cancellation of any mandate, hence my earlier point that it doesn't look like the account was actually closed. If the payee tried to set up the mandate again on the closed account then the bank should have refused it, so in any event that one looks like it's a problem for the bank not you (in terms of fees for the bounced DD).

You might like to think about not transferring that direct debit and paying that company, whoever it is, by other means going forward!

There is another possibility though which is possible identity fraud (the changing of the security password) but that's a serious co-incidence given the run of events.

One wonders if the bank employee managed to somehow lose your documentation and cards hence the new card debits, change of security details and the fact it didn't get closed, but then I'm probably extrapolating much too far there! There's just one thing I did pick up though - at the start of your post you say you went to the branch and closed your account and later you say "the person closing my account". If that was not you, and you gave them your details and cards: are you certain that person did indeed close your account?

gracieharry

To answer your queries:-

I did not make the transactions. Two were mobile top ups, neither for the company I use and the third was a website selling body piercings. As much as I wish I could have piercings, I faint at the sight of anything going through my skin. As you can imagine, as a blood doner, it can cause problems!

By "the person closing the account", I meant the personal banker I was talking to in the branch.

The company was the NHS pre-payment service for prescriptions. When they couldn't get the money, they wrote to me and I sent a cheque back to them (with complaint letter because I had sent them a new DD mandate for my new account back in February, as well as calling them a month later at which point they said they were in the middle of changing it over!)

I'm not a fan of Barclays, to be honest. The reasons I left was for unhelpful telephone customer service, their fraud protection system blocking my account every month for regular payments (to BarclayCard - not the same company, I know, but still) and simply for not being open on a saturday, a big thing when you live in a rural location!

The person I spoke to on Saturday was incredibly unhelpful. Firstly, they asked for my 16 digit number and then spoke over me to berate me when I said I didn't have it. If they had let me finish, I was trying to explain that the branch had my card. Then when the security question was wrong, I slipped up and mentioned that it was my grandmother's name so he berated me for that too saying he asked me for my mother's name and I should give that to him. I explained that I don't use that because it's the same as mine and that my first answer, my grandmother's name, was the correct one. I spelled the name for him and said, are you sure that's incorrect? He just reiterated that he needed my mother's name and that he wasn't going to take my grandmother's name. He shouted at me, I shouted back and hung up. Needless to say, until I spoke the personal banker in the branch today, I thought that maybe he had misheard me (not a native english speaker and I'm a "geordie", albeit without a strong accent) or was just being a pain. I do wonder if he changed it before blocking the account but using my grandmother's name is more secure - there's loads of people who have unmarried mothers and therefore, have their mother's maiden name as their surname!