Please help barclays took all money out my account

meer53

d.ross wrote: »

I KNOW THEY HAVE THE RIGHT, BUT THEY ARE DOING IT THE WRONG WAY, THAT CAUSES DISTRESS TO THEIR CUSTOMERS........can you read and understand this???????

I understand your post 100% Please explain to me what the right way is then ?

As for your comment about me loving Barclays, i took them to The FOS about the customer service i received from them, and they found in my favour.

allpine99

The bankers drafts were from my brother HALIFAX building society the first one for £4000 cleared last monday they never touched that it was still in my bank account all week then the second one for £3000 cleared on thursday morning , i used my debit car thursday dinner time to buy some number plates for my BMW from WILLIAMS BMW as someone had cracked them thy cost me £25 then at 4pm i went to the hole in the all and withdrew £10 the balance on my account was still over £7000 then at 6pm went to tesco and tried to pay for £30 food shopping and all the money was gone and had to put shopping back .

d.ross_2

meer53 wrote: »

I understand your post 100% Please explain to me what the right way is then ?

OMG....I'm off to find a brick wall to bang my head against.

warehouse

Why don't you two stop having a "my d*ck is bigger than yours" contest and stop hijacking the bl**dy thread. You're both pathetic.

PaulW922

Hysteria aside (and there is a lot of it here) I agree that this is almost certainly the result of Barclays anti-money laundering controls (AML). To try and give some perspective as to how it works and maybe explain why Barclays have acted how they have, and probably having the effect of making e allpine feel even more angry:

All banks must operate the anti-money laundering regime and it is a tough one both here and elsewhere in Europe and the US. Our system in the UK is based not upon amounts but on suspicion, and that suspicion is on the part of the bank itself, not the police, or SOCA or HMRC or anyone else. It is all relative to the account in question. Now, that might sound fine in theory but in reality most banks could never sit down and look at each individual transaction that goes through every account every day so they put mechanisms in place and I reckon allpine's transaction may have triggered one or more. (nobody from Barclays is going to tell us what those controls and triggers are)

How Barclays choose to implement the rules is up to them, but if they were to make payments out of funds that they suspected were from crime (and that does not mean that I am saying alpine's money is from crime) they would potentially be committing an offence. That is probably why they have chosen to move the money to a holding account whilst they investigate their suspicion. Suspicion is the lowest form of evidence - it is not even the civil standard. Furthermore it may not be Barclays now looking into the source of the funds.

It is also absolutely correct that the bank cannot say that a referral for AML has been made - otherwise they will have committed an offence as an OP has already stated (Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 section 333!).

The timescale for all this as referred to in previous posts is actually a maximum of seven working days not five, but it probably will not take that long to sort out as long as everything is fine.

allpine is very concerned because the cheques come from identifiable sources. I understand that but in the grand scheme it makes no odds. There is a stage of money laundering called layering (sometimes known as 'washing' where money goes from one place to another) and that is what I suspect the bank will be guarding against.

The point above is made that a money launderer would not post details of the transactions here. Well, actually, there are lots of web sites about how to launder money (not MSE of course) but that aside, Barclays are not going to start ploughing through all the posts on all the forums on the off-chance they will find something.

Why did Barclays take the additional £193 you had in the account too? I have no idea and I see no reason for them to do so other than someone just found it easier to put the whole balance into a holding account - or they didn't check or even think about it. That is not really acceptable and I am sorry it has caused you such difficulty. When you have your funds back you may wish to ask about that.

Although the methods of applying the AML rules if Barclays own business decision it is not theft to place this money in a holding account for AML purposes, despite what has been said above. The regulations are the law and that is that.

Im summary I am sure that you feel very concerned and very aggrieved and if I were in your position I would too. I am equally sure that references to money laundering and the Proceeds of Crime Act are not making matters easier. However please accept the assurance of myself and others here that (the £193 aside and assuming this is Barclays AML controls) there is nothing you can do about this - you just need to wait. You can scream and shout, you can write and phone, you can go to the police but at the end of the day, you will need to wait - they will not tell you anything and they will not go any faster - it is probably out of their hands now anyway. (And the police will guess what has happened as quickly as the rest of us here have).

As a general bit of advice to others who may find themselves being questioned by bank staff over transactions, or requested payments in or out of your account in future - you may find these questions intrusive, and you may not like the attitude of the bank or it's staff but it is always worth telling them what they want to know, as more than likely it will allay any suspicion about the money or transactions and let you go on with your day-to-day affairs.

Finally, like some other well informed posters above, I do know absolutely what I am talking about here.

allpine99

When i rang them as soon as i found out my money had gone which was at tesco stores at 6pm they said they were sorry but they could not tell me where my money had gone and i had to ring back the next day as the dept had closed , how do you think i felt all night , i could not sleep because even barclays did not know where my money was then wen i rang them first thing in morning they said same thing ,thats no way to treat loyal customers, all they said was its gone to a contact centre in manchester part of barclays group , i asked them to explain why all they said was that they could not tell me and i wOuld have to wait five days, can you imagine how i felt my life savings gone and they could not tell me wherer or why? its only since i have come on here and mentioned it and you are presuming its because of money laundering suspicions that i feel at ease , i hope this is the case as i know i have nothing to worry about because i know the money is legit from my brothers building society .

grizzly1911

allpine99 wrote: »

When i rang them as soon as i found out my money had gone which was at tesco stores at 6pm they said they were sorry but they could not tell me where my money had gone and i had to ring back the next day as the dept had closed , how do you think i felt all night , i could not sleep because even barclays did not know where my money was then wen i rang them first thing in morning they said same thing ,thats no way to treat loyal customers, all they said was its gone to a contact centre in manchester part of barclays group , i asked them to explain why all they said was that they could not tell me and i wOuld have to wait five days, can you imagine how i felt my life savings gone and they could not tell me wherer or why? its only since i have come on here and mentioned it and you are presuming its because of money laundering suspicions that i feel at ease , i hope this is the case as i know i have nothing to worry about because i know the money is legit from my brothers building society .

I know it doesn't help but the font line staff, you have been talking to, would probably be disciplined, if they had opened up, like some people here have.

Don't be too hard on them.

I am sure all posters here want to see this resolved quickly in your favour, as I am sure it will be, from what you have told us.

allpine99

this is my first time on this forum and it is very good thank you for your views they are appreciated

meer53

Paulw922's post was very well written. I'm pleased we've been able to try to shed some light as to what may have happened, but please follow up with Barclays the fact that you might incur charges because of this issue, if i was dealing with this and everything was ok, i would make sure that you weren't out of pocket and that any payments due out were paid as normal. But then i don't work for them !

clairecymru

I had similar problems with santander. Had a cheque from my mother in law for £10,000 to pay of credit cards. Santander froze my account which had £700 of my own money in it. Five direct debits bounced and i had no cash. Even after clearing me of any wrong doing after conversations with my mothre in law and her bank, they still could not unfreeze my account until five days. Their answer to me getting access to money was to open another account with them with a £500 overdraft limit. They did try and charge me £125 for unpaid direct debits but did see sense in the end and reversed the charges.

I can sympthase with the OP. It is a very stressful situation to be in.