Barclays Reserve

iWilco

Hi All,

My mother has recently contacted me about charges barclays are taking from her account shes in her late 60s and is retired with only a PT cleaning job which she does a few hours a week.

She has a £400 overdraft which due to xmas being hard this year she used and went £30 over xmas without relising it.

It seems barclays have been taking £120 a month in charges and her wages each month are vanishing.

At the moment the account stands at £611 and she has contacted me to look into as its causing her alot of upset and distress.

I have noticed barclays have added a reserve account onto her account this is something she has not asked for and did not know it was on the account.

She went over the £400 purely by accident during xmas shopping and if this reserve wasnt there it would of declined meaning she would not of went over.

I have filled out barclays complaint form 7 days ago and they replyed today advising they do not give refunds or anything other than bank errors and advised 14 letters were sent advising customers the reserve was being added with an option to opt out. They advised there not refunding but have now removed the reserve.

I am going to go back to barclays as i feel this is wrong! she hasnt recieved any letter that she recalls and would not have wanted this!

At the moment i am setting her up a halifax account like my own so she can have her wages paid into so she can surive i feel this is discusting work by barclays.

Where do i stand on complaing about this and what would you guys/girls recommend i do from here ?

Many Thanks

zppp

The Reserve is optional. I believe they were added to accounts and if it was no longer required, it could be cancelled. (hope someone can confirm) If they have an audit trail saying they have sent 14 letters about the overdrawn position on the account, IMHO there is no bank error. Now, although that is probably the case you may want to look at the financial hardship route, to request on a goodwill basis. For this one would normally need to demonstrate a change of circumstances and would need to prove financial difficulty. Further info can be found on the link at the top of the page. (Reclaim £1000's tab > Bank Charges)

Common_Sense_2

i received loads of letters about the reserve from barclays, i'm unsure why your mum claims that she didn't receive any!
as zppp says - your best option is to go down the financial hardship route and in teh meantime, ensure that your mum keeps a better ere on her spending (afterall - Christmas doesn't just creep up!)

StephanieMaria

Common_Sense_2 wrote: »

i received loads of letters about the reserve from barclays, i'm unsure why your mum claims that she didn't receive any!
as zppp says - your best option is to go down the financial hardship route and in teh meantime, ensure that your mum keeps a better ere on her spending (afterall - Christmas doesn't just creep up!)

I dont think theres any need for any remarks about whether christmas sneaks up or not, as I understand it their mother is an older lady so doesnt get paid alot, I think if anything its only 50.00 a fortnight pension, and for the little hours she can work she doesnt get alot of money, and also as she is an older lady she doest understand alot of corrospondance she recieves, which I think is against FSA TCF Guidelines which is out come 3 - clear communication, also Post sale barriers out come 6 "consumers do not face unreasonal post sale barriers imposed by the firms change to a product". I know the lady who is being reffered to and she doesnt often get letters from her bank. She doesnt even recieve statements she has been a loyal customer to Barclays for 20 years and never had an issue before. She of course can take financial hardship route. But as I understand I beleive Barclays are being investigated at the moment anyway. I just feel sad as to how they have responded. However the letter they have issued back does appear that they are willing to investigage further. So I hope they do and can just out of courtasy ( excuse my spelling ) can waiver at least a few charges.

We will see. But any way I am rambling. I just didnt think that was nessicary about christmas creeping up ... we all know that but it depends on an individuals personal circumstances.

slik0000

The Barclay's letters were very clear about the reserve being added and how to opt out of it. Arguably it would have been better had they invited customers to opt in but each statement details both overdraft limits and reserve. The way it works is that the reserve is available for short term and incurs a cost of £22 for each 5 days it is used but there are no transaction fees nor interest due. If you then go over the reserve into the overdraft then interest is due on the overdraft plus a transaction fee of £8 for each returned transaction or one which they have had to pay because it is guaranteed. From what your post says, your mum had already gone £400 beyond what she had in her account and then spent more money which took her into the overdraft.

I don't want this to come across unpleasant but your mum had already spent a lot more money than she had in her account and the reserve is designed to tide people over for a few days if they dip into the red without huge charges being incurred not as a buffer to use up and carry on spending.

A bank has obligations to pay certain transactions regardless of the state of the account but it may be worth considering if your mum would be better off switching to a basic bank account where she cannot go overdrawn.

I don't think Barclays owe any refund of charges to you as it is your mum who spent money she didn't have. However, despite their reputation in some quarters, i have had an account with them for many years and always found them reasonable if you can get to speak to the right person. I would suggest making an appointment to see the branch manager so that you can put your mums case in person and see if they can assist with finding a reasonable solution

StephanieMaria

slik0000 wrote: »

The Barclay's letters were very clear about the reserve being added and how to opt out of it. Arguably it would have been better had they invited customers to opt in but each statement details both overdraft limits and reserve. The way it works is that the reserve is available for short term and incurs a cost of £22 for each 5 days it is used but there are no transaction fees nor interest due. If you then go over the reserve into the overdraft then interest is due on the overdraft plus a transaction fee of £8 for each returned transaction or one which they have had to pay because it is guaranteed. From what your post says, your mum had already gone £400 beyond what she had in her account and then spent more money which took her into the overdraft.

I don't want this to come across unpleasant but your mum had already spent a lot more money than she had in her account and the reserve is designed to tide people over for a few days if they dip into the red without huge charges being incurred not as a buffer to use up and carry on spending.

A bank has obligations to pay certain transactions regardless of the state of the account but it may be worth considering if your mum would be better off switching to a basic bank account where she cannot go overdrawn.

I don't think Barclays owe any refund of charges to you as it is your mum who spent money she didn't have. However, despite their reputation in some quarters, i have had an account with them for many years and always found them reasonable if you can get to speak to the right person. I would suggest making an appointment to see the branch manager so that you can put your mums case in person and see if they can assist with finding a reasonable solution

Thanks for this one this is really helpful, however again regarding the person going into their overdraft they have a right to do that as that is what its designed for to help out in a difficult time and thats irrelivent if they owed it or not, However I think the point I wilco is asking about is that she never recieved the letter regarding the reserve and wasnt aware she had this on her account. and didnt even realise she had gone over her overdraft... with some accounts as a gaurantee'd payment card of course they do need to gaurantee the payments. But if the reserve wasnt applied to the account these charges wouldnt have been applied.

I think your right maybe if they considered doing the opt in instead of opt out option. It might have proved a better option rather than resulting in their customers leaving. I am fairly new with them and so far I think their service to me has been great. But I am a younger generation as this lady is in her late 60's I think they see things slightly differently. And struggle with this generations ways.

nicholson11

The reserve can be cancelled easily, and Barclays always send out a letter as soon as you start using funds in your reserve (and every 5 working days that you are in the reserve) so I am not sure why you never received any.

However I do not recall ever receiving any correspondence from Barclays stating that the reserve facility would be added to my account.

I have recently tried to reclaim personal reserve charges from Barclays without any success. In 2009 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the banks that bank overdraft charges were considered to be 'fair' in relation to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. However I still consider the personal reserve charges to be unfair, as they cannot possibly reflect the true administrative cost of going over the agreed overdraft limit or the cost of interest associated with using the additional funds, and they are in addition to the standard overdraft charges. Barclays didn't agree with me.

Hope you have more success than I did.

iWilco

I am certainly going to give it ago.

She didnt recieve a letter and for them just to add a service on that she didnt agree to is like the supermarket putting things in your trolly you didnt want!

Yes i know rubbish comparson but thats in my view what its like.

Its her first complaint in over 20 years so i will see if they will do it as a gesture of goodwill until this point shes never been in debt before in her life... 2010 was just a hard year and this topped it off!

I will of course update this post in how things go thanks for the replys!

zppp

iWilco wrote: »

I am certainly going to give it ago.

She didnt recieve a letter and for them just to add a service on that she didnt agree to is like the supermarket putting things in your trolly you didnt want!

Terms and conditions changes are unilateral so long as notification sent regarding changes to the account. You mother could ask them what format and when it was sent. They may well have an audit trail to prove they sent it.

Depending on their response on these points may assist you in any claim against them.