bank has taken all my redundancy money and left me penniless and with an overdraft

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

Yes they almost cetainly can do it. If you have money problems always have a current account with a bank which is not connected in anyway to the bank/s you owe money to.
If you explain to them the position (redundancy not a windfall money needed for day to day existance etc) they may return some of it.


This thread explains it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1530191

little_oak

mjm3346 wrote: »

Yes they almost cetainly can do it. If you have money problems always have a current account with a bank which is not connected in anyway to the bank/s you owe money to.
If you explain to them the position (redundancy not a windfall money needed for day to day existance etc) they may return some of it.


This thread explains it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1530191

Sorry to be a bit of an idiot but if i have an agreement in place ( in writing) can they suddenly change that. have spent all night looking for the new rules and they seem to say only if i have missed a payment and only the ammount of that missed payment or have i missed read it. By the way i hadn't even missed the payment when they took it.

www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk publications set off rules

mjm3346

Barclays terms and conditions


http://www.barclays.co.uk/ImportantInformation/TermsandConditionsforPersonalCustomers/P1242558103284

Section 8 covers set-off, this is just a bit of it

"you have failed to pay us any amount you owe us on an overdraft, Personal Reserve, credit card.."

although you have agreed lower payments you have failed to pay them the amount you owe when it was due (in the past).

Hopefully they will respond positively when you contact them, still get another account as a backup anyway.

little_oak

Have just tried to ring Barclays, who tell me i need to talk to barclaycard and then put me through to an office that is shut.

pure_dead_dopey

Little Oak, might be an idea to go to the CAB, there was a lot on TV at the weekend about this and the fact that it puts people in very precarious positions financially. As its "on message", I'm sure CAB could try to make a couple of phonecalls and get the bulk back. They are allowed to do it but they are not allowed to plunge you to no money, this is their own hardship guidelines, when you phone CAB say you will go to the media if necessary, never hurts to let them know you know what you're talking about. and definitely get that bank account changed to somewhere you don't have any debt, and always remember that the banks have their best interests at heart, certainly not yours!

let us know how you get on.

dancingfairy

Hi - you need to get a new account with a bank you don't owe money to and sorted asap. You need to try and get hold of someone in Barclays to sort this out but how easy it will be I don't know. If you get nowhere with them then you will need to get a complaint in in writing to them and await their response. If they still fail to sort it then you can get in touch with the FInancial Ombudsman Service but this is not going to be a quick fix.
IF you do manage to get the money back off them then you need to withdraw it all as soon as possible and get it into the new bank account you will have set up.
I also would write to the people you have direct debits with and let them know the situation - get them to cancel the direct debits as you will incur further charges and send them what you can - even if it's just 1 pound and let them know you will be in touch as soon as possible. You could even mention to them that you had money ready for the bills but you have been a victim of a setting-off procedure.
When you have got your new bank aco!!!! set up you need to change across any benefits etc you are receiving.
df

little_oak

Hi

Unfortunately I didn't see any of the stuff on telly nor had the posibilty crossed my radar. I thought I had got it all under control and done thing right when I got made redundant last time.

Wth regard to todays situation, I got off the phone to them about 10 miins ago and they siad they would only refund me just under 1/2, which is something, but because I didn't know they had taken it and paid some debts/bills off in the last few days I had gone into an overdraft. This means when I get it back I will have to pay interest on the days I was overdrawn and still only have around £800 credit unless I want to go back into the overdraft facility. (morgage is £900 and can't get JS £'s until December because the money was in 'lieu of notice' as wasn't entitled to 'redundancy'.)

Although I wasn't even trying to avoid the debt just to get them to talk to me back in Jan I asked for an executed credit agreement and all that has ever arrived was a short statement of acount and a set of terms and condtions for the relevant card. So when I finsihed the phone call with Barclaycard I decided to ring the Ombudsman aswell. Because of the lenght of time since I first started trying to talk to Barclaycard (last September)they are sending out a first letter to them today.

So a lette from FO and some of my money back in the bank in about 3 days and I am feeling a tiny bit better than i did at midnight. However i am thinking of taking the money out when it gets there as I do have a credit union facility I just can't pay the bill as easily with that. I may even include the o/d facility (maybe not the later but will see just really angry and upset at the moment).

Not sure if I should continue paying any of the barclaycards now that FO is involved. Any advice on that?

Thanks in advance

little_oak

thanks, was doing that as you posted. see previous post

hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say!! Can be very expensve though:eek:

churchrat

You really should open a new account with a bank that has no connection with any of the companies where you owe money. All are entilted to use setting off to reclaim thier money, no matter what agreemant you "think" you have with them. Never forget that they are not there to help you or make your life any easier in any way.

If I were in your shoes I would take any money left in the Barclay account ( I would include the od as well, but thats just my opinion) and open a new simple account elsewhere. The co-op seem to have a good option.

I hope that you are keeping ALL communication with them in writing, as they often say that they never agreed anything with you over the phone, or say that you agreed something completly different to the agreemnt you thought you had.!!!

Do you have any money coming in at the moment?

little_oak

Hi

fortuately I had manged to pick up 9hrs of swimming teaching this week but the money wont be paid to me for another 2 months as I have to invoice at the end of the month and then wait 28 days for settlement. If i can get it every week I can end up with around £400 before tax and NI and the end of that time.

At the moment I have £400 left on my od facility and they say they wll put the money back in 3 days but i'll need to wait and see. None of this months bills have yet been paid. So not looking good at the mo.

Hopefully the letter from th FO wll have a greater affect.

Up side if any is that I have got an interview to go to next week so fngers crossed. That's what so gutting about thier behaviour I was paying them and had already managed to get somewhere in terms of settle all debts and blls but thier action has now put me at an even greater risk and in bigger problems because I am gong to have to break the agreements I put in place with other creditors.
:mad: