Please help barclays took all money out my account

Whiteknight

allpine99 wrote: »

no not barclaycard dont have a barclaycard and its only a few hundred pounds on each card that i owe

Could you not use your credit cards to feed your family and get petrol for work. You mention that you only owe a few hundred pounds on each card so surely your situation is not as desperate as you make it out to be.

In a few days your money should be back in your account you can pay the few hundred pounds off your credit cards as you were planning on doing.

None of my business and off topic but why have so much money deposited to your account to pay off credit card bills of a couple of hundred pounds?

d.ross_2

It seems that this only happens with Barclays (unless anyone knows any different). I'm with Lloyds TSB, and each time I have deposited large amounts into my account, they have called me. They seem more interested in me setting up a savings account to transfer the money into than any possibility of money laundering.

allpine99

i weas looking to buy a car thats why im keeping money in case one came up ast a garage then i could pay it on my card .

allpine99

i have had this account for twenty years and its not unusual for me to have a few thousand pounds in at atime its just outrageous for thenm to clean out my account they didnt eve tell me and when i have rang them they just sound like parrots saying there is nothing they can do .

d.ross_2

If it is only Barclays, then I would change bank.

allpine99

i am changing banks but at this moment in time i still dont know where my money is i have rang them 5 times and they said they would get onto it immediately and they would ring me back on my mobile to tell me whats going on that was thursday and i have still not heard anything from them im so angry took all MY money for no reason and left me ad my family pennyless

d.ross_2

allpine99 wrote: »

i am changing banks but at this moment in time i still dont know where my money is i have rang them 5 times and they said they would get onto it immediately and they would ring me back on my mobile to tell me whats going on that was thursday and i have still not heard anything from them im so angry took all MY money for no reason and left me ad my family pennyless

I would contact the financial services ombudsman. It simply isn't on that they can empty your account. It is your money, not theirs. So it is theft.

allpine99

i have contacted them they said it is wrong but they have five days to respond which still does not help matters they just dop what they want total disregard for me its not fair .

d.ross_2

allpine99 wrote: »

i have contacted them they said it is wrong but they have five days to respond which still does not help matters they just dop what they want total disregard for me its not fair .

Well that sounds like Barclays all over.

WestonDave

Putting aside the specifics for a moment to try to explain what may be happening - under legislation aimed at preventing money laundering and/or funding of terrorism, all banks (and other organisations) have to follow certain procedures. One of them is that if a transaction raises suspicions, it must be reported to SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) and their clearance gained before it is allowed to proceed. During that clearance process they are not allowed to "tip off" the person involved as to their concerns. Once it is cleared it all carries on as normal and no explanation will ever be given because they are legally prevented from doing so.

Out of that basic requirement, its likely that individual banks - in this case Barclays - have set up electronic triggers that will alert them to things they think are high risk, and invoke some kind of internal procedure potentially leading to the SOCA clearance procedure. It sounds like its possible your £7k deposits have done that, and they have therefore effectively frozen your money to prevent you hypothetically passing it on to Al Queda or other such unlikely nonsense. Once it has gone through the procedure internally where someone actually looks at it, realises its daft and clears it (as its unlikely to get referred to SOCA) it will be put back with some kind of token apology.

So it sounds like as far as Barclays are concerned, they won't actually do anything however much you phone and hassle them until their processes are completed, probably because they think they are following procedures they are required to. In fact its just their inept and random implementation of the legislation which is causing this problem.

In practical terms phoning them will just run up your phone bill and won't get you money for food etc. You have little option but to borrow money from elsewhere, and try to recover it from them afterwards. In terms of a complaint, I personally would be pushing this all the way - wanting a proper explanation as its clearly not a system glitch, its something they have set up and is not working properly. If they don't come back and admit that then I would treat it as a complaint not satisfied and take it to the financial services ombudsman if you can (and can be bothered by then!)