13 and overdrawn!!

CleanShirt

samwsmith1 wrote: »

I don't think it would be to hard for them to add into the code that sends the letter something along the lines of:

IF age <18 then
SendUnder18Letter
Else
SendStandardLetter
End If

sounds simple like that but I still shouldn't think it would be to hard to implement it.

Considering how much red tape exists in running a bank, you'd be surprised how hard it would be to make such a small change. It would probably need to be signed off by 6 managers in 6 different departments.

On the note of the overdraft. It is probably the case that there isn't an unauthorised o/d facility on the account, unless the bank are obliged to pay it ie a debit card payment in the shop.

samwsmith1

CleanShirt wrote: »

Considering how much red tape exists in running a bank, you'd be surprised how hard it would be to make such a small change. It would probably need to be signed off by 6 managers in 6 different departments.

On the note of the overdraft. It is probably the case that there isn't an unauthorised o/d facility on the account, unless the bank are obliged to pay it ie a debit card payment in the shop.

I thought it would be something like that, but the actual code that would probably need to be added would be minimal I would have thought.

At a guess it's so the programmers can't decided to just change what they like outside of whats already there.

DVardysShadow

nitac wrote: »

... Barclays response was quite frankly appaling. They sent a letter to him, using phrases like "escalating debt can lead to financial difficulty" which left him in tears, and when I called them they said that if this was not paid back quickly it would be passed to debt collection... he is 13!!!!!

Although to an extent I am sympathetic, on the basis that Barclay's misled you about whether the account could go overdrawn, I have to say that if he is not mature enough to receive a letter like that, he is not mature enough to have a bank account. This is down to you ....

nitac

Barclays have now agreed to refund the £103 that he was overdrawn. Apparently the payment was requested but was refered to the fraud department (no idea why) who apparently wrote to my son (though I have no idea where this letter is!!). Then for some reason decided to just clear the money with no response from my son as to if this transaction was real or fraud. (it was real).

As he did spend this money and ultimately needs to learn you dont spend money you havent got. He will be repaying this back to Sports Relief at £10 per month out of his £25 spending money.

I am however still livid with Barclays for how this was handled. He recieved 3 letters in 3 days of his account becoming overdrawn demanding immediate repayment of £103 (just over 4 months spends). I await their "official" response to this and actions to be taken going forward to how they handle junior customers.

Suspect their "change of heart" had more to do with me proposing I forward the letters to The Times than Barclays caring about their customers though.

Thanks all for your advice, he will definately not be doing this again! :T

iblametheparents

Did he buy something online which then didn't get dispatched for a couple of weeks?