Bank has taken my redundancy money and left me overdrawn and penniless

little_oak

Last year i lost my job and was left with a number of debts. I put in place a repayment plan of £10 a month for all my creditors and have been paying them off regularly at that rate and when i got a new job in Feb was able to settle some of the main ones such as mortgage and car which i need for work. Unfortunatley I was made redundant again in August. I deposited the cheque into my barclays account about 10 days ago and I just checked my bank online so that I could pay my credit agreements and mortgage as usual. when i saw the balance i find that I am overdrawn because Barclays have taken almost £4000 to pay towards my barclaycard master card debt. This is one of those I have a payment plan in place for. I now have no money at all to pay any other the other creditors, my mortgage, car, food, electricity, gas council tax nothing!!! I don't even get any benifits because I got redundancy. Can they do this? I thought they could only take the payment that I have agreed wth them. ie £10 each for the two barclay cards.

Please help what can I do now!!!!

mjm3346

you may get better responses in the debt-free wannabee section--Edit I see you already have posted there.

diable

You should be able to claim benefits when made redundant.

molerat

little_oak wrote: »

Can they do this?

Yes, read your account T&C's re the right to set off. You should have moved your current account away from Barclays if you had other debts to the group. Best do it now as if any more largish sums go into the account they will have that as well.

little_oak

diable wrote: »

You should be able to claim benefits when made redundant.

Can't claim as hadn't been there long enough for statutory redundancy pay so firm did me a 'favour' and gave me two months money in 'lieu of notice'. Now need to wait until the 2 months are up as have technically already been paid till end of November.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

molerat wrote: »

Yes, read your account T&C's re the right to set off. You should have moved your current account away from Barclays if you had other debts to the group. Best do it now as if any more largish sums go into the account they will have that as well.

Just an extra word. This is true in this case. But barclays can not take all this money if it is found to be used for food and daily living.

Many people do not know this but you should still make a complaint to the bank. They will then look into this.

The above from molerat is still true but some exceptions will still get you some money back.

You next option should be to open another bank account elsewhere to put your JSA in.

getmore4less

little_oak wrote: »

Can't claim as hadn't been there long enough for statutory redundancy pay so firm did me a 'favour' and gave me two months money in 'lieu of notice'. Now need to wait until the 2 months are up as have technically already been paid till end of November.

Not for JSA that is normaly payable immediately as long as you have ben terminated(which PILON sugests)..


Not smart having a current account with a company you owe money.
That's a lesson learnt.

ninky_2

unfortunately banks can take money from one account to pay for another account that is in debt (e.g. a credit card). to avoid this happening it is best to have accounts and credit cards / loans with different banks.

sorry to hear this has happened to you. i hope things improve soon.

peterbaker

It is a sign of the times, isn't it? You had a special payment plan agreed and they take the money anyway.

Clearly they need it more than you do, perhaps to pay that American investment banker they just named as the new CEO.

TEDDYRUKSPIN certainly has a point worth exploring.

But there may be another angle also worth looking at. Did Barclaycard by any chance use an existing 'Direct Debit Mandate' to take the money? If you can see that it was a "Direct Debit" on your statement and not some other type of debit, as a parallel tack to the formal complaint that TEDDYRUKSPIN suggests, you might go into a branch and tell them to immediately start a Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme claim to have the debit quickly reversed because it was taken without your consent. If you do, then don't get into any debate while you are there about, or be swayed on their take on, the why's and wherefore's. Tell them (if it was a DD) that you insist a claim under the scheme (which is a universal scheme protecting you from merchants who take money from your current account against your wishes using a DD given to them for another purpose ... it just so happens that the merchant is Barclaycard, another part of the same bank, but I don't think that will protect the bank from the rules of the scheme).

Remember that my suggestion might only work if the type of transaction they used was a Direct Debit.

You can make the complaint suggested by TEDDYRUSKIN separately and obtain a complaint reference number for that one and if you don't hear anything quickly you can call them on 0800 282390 to chase them.

For the DD Guarantee claim (if it was a DD - check the transaction description on your statement online), just insist that they set the process running for the DD Guarantee Scheme claim there and then and get them to show it to you on the computer before you leave. That scheme is not so much a complaint scheme as a routine procedure for fast corrections when money is wrongly taken by DD. It might work, and if it does, it could be quite fast.

If it wasn't a DD but just a smash and grab then a DD guarantee claim won't be possible I'm afraid.

If you do get the money back one way or another, then move it away from them immediately so they don't try it again, and do make sure that the old payment scheme remains exactly satisfied (£10 per month) without a single break ... you must keep your end of the bargain.

little_oak

peterbaker wrote: »

It is a sign of the times, isn't it? You had a special payment plan agreed and they take the money anyway.

Clearly they need it more than you do, perhaps to pay that American investment banker they just named as the new CEO.

TEDDYRUKSPIN certainly has a point worth exploring.

But there may be another angle also worth looking at. Did Barclaycard by any chance use an existing 'Direct Debit Mandate' to take the money? If you can see that it was a "Direct Debit" on your statement and not some other type of debit, as a parallel tack to the formal complaint that TEDDYRUKSPIN suggests, you might go into a branch and tell them to immediately start a Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme claim to have the debit quickly reversed because it was taken without your consent. If you do, then don't get into any debate while you are there about, or be swayed on their take on, the why's and wherefore's. Tell them (if it was a DD) that you insist a claim under the scheme (which is a universal scheme protecting you from merchants who take money from your current account against your wishes using a DD given to them for another purpose ... it just so happens that the merchant is Barclaycard, another part of the same bank, but I don't think that will protect the bank from the rules of the scheme).

Remember that my suggestion might only work if the type of transaction they used was a Direct Debit.

You can make the complaint suggested by TEDDYRUSKIN separately and obtain a complaint reference number for that one and if you don't hear anything quickly you can call them on 0800 282390 to chase them.

For the DD Guarantee claim (if it was a DD - check the transaction description on your statement online), just insist that they set the process running for the DD Guarantee Scheme claim there and then and get them to show it to you on the computer before you leave. That scheme is not so much a complaint scheme as a routine procedure for fast corrections when money is wrongly taken by DD. It might work, and if it does, it could be quite fast.

If it wasn't a DD but just a smash and grab then a DD guarantee claim won't be possible I'm afraid.

If you do get the money back one way or another, then move it away from them immediately so they don't try it again, and do make sure that the old payment scheme remains exactly satisfied (£10 per month) without a single break ... you must keep your end of the bargain.

Hi
Just checked on line and it says DEBIT the same as it does when it take charges and interest. So Probably not a goer. Will check in branch tomorrow.Thanks for the hint anyway.

little_oak

Hi guys
just to let you know two positives.
1) barclays gave me back half (still means that to pay bills next month I will need to use overdraft but better than nothing)
2) FO is dealing with my compaint as a request for full return of money

thank you all for your help, I will keep you posted as to if I am succesful but suspect that it will take the full 8 weeks to get anything else out of Barclays (by which I mean a letter not the money)