Barclays are not on with what they did !!!

braken2000

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

im not happy with barclays one bit. I have been a customer with them for 3 years and thought great, now i am of age (18), i will get myself a debit card cos electron is alright but not brilliant. So i go in and the SA (sales advisor) was very helpfull, she took my details and closed one of my accounts to consolidate them into one. She then tried to open a standard current account and said 'okay, theres a problem'. The problem was i had went unauthorised overdrawn by 18p in one month and the same happened a couple of months previous. I thought nothing of this when this happened, but they are now refusing to give me a current account and im not happy, she said i could wait for 6 months for this 'bad crdit' to dissapear. What do i do, i think it has affected my chances elsewhere as nationwide and lloyds would not have me either. Is it something im doing wrong, and also should they inform me if i go overdrawn when its unauthorised or are they allowed to keep me in the dark.

any help would be nice

tom

frepol

Go back and ask to speak to somebody a bit more senior who might over ride the computer. How could you be overdrawn anyway on an account for under 18s? The reason that Lloyds and Nationwide rejected you is probably due to the fact that you have no credit history - I doubt being overdrawn by 18p is going to kill your credit rating. Way round that is to open a basic account somewhere else then run it impeccably for 6 months then apply for an upgrade.
What about your parents' credit history - good, bad or ugly? If it's good then great. If it's bad, then consider getting a disassociation from their credit history.
By the way, consider getting a Capital One credit card to start building your credit history. Will probably only give you a limit of £200 and you may even need to pay a deposit. However, they report positive (and negative) conduct of the account to the credit reference agencies which means that you will build up some positive credit history that other lenders will be able to judge you upon. Just make sure that you pay it off in full each month as the interest rate is usually very high!



Can somebody please explain to me how it happens that you can become overdrawn with solo and electron. I thought that these cards were supposed to check your balance each time, yet I keep hearing of people who manage to go overdrawn with them and then getting hit with charges.

bellagio_2

Do you have a regular income showing as a credit in your account each month? Generally speaking to qualify for a connect card the a/c must run satisfactory for at least 3-6 months, ie no returned items, unpaids or unauthorised overdraft as well as at least a few hundred pounds crediting the a/c each month and evidence of credit/debit turnover. Also does the bank have up to date details about you regarding your employment situation/status? If you are satisfying the criteria above and have no adverse credit history it may be worth checking your credit file with experian. If this comes back ok then ask Barclays to appeal the decision. Hope this helps.

braken2000

im a student with a part time job, i usually get about 200 punds a month, they know all my working details as that is why i started the account, i thikn they are conning me somehow, but hey what am i going to do, im not goin to stay with them unless they do something out of the ordinary for making me feel like i have done something seriously wrong,

frepol

Student (A - Levels or the like) so are you going to University in September? If this is the case then probably better to keep your powder dry so that you can apply for the student accounts (and Barclays will take your hand off if you try to open one of these).

braken2000

i see, i do want to go to uni, depending on a-levels, ill give them a call and see what the crack is, and if to no avail im going to see a senior CA and make a formal complaint, im going to try and get something out of them and then close my account. thanks for the help everyone

frepol

Don't lose your temper or get their backs up! Look at from their perspective - you go in shouting the odds - if you were sitting at their desk would you be arsed in helping out?

Go in again and politely explain the situation and drop in the fact that you are intending to go to university in September but that you will need a proper account whilst you are at university (implicit threat that they will not have your account!) Also flag up your regular credits to the account and explain (to us as well!) how you managed to become overdrawn on a cash card / electron account.

bellagio_2

To be honest if you are only working part time and doing a-levels the electron is the right card for you. Barclays have to be responsible and giving you a card that could guarantee all of your cheques for at least £50 each isn't responsible. Around late August time if you can confirm your uni place Barclays will upgrade to their student a/c which comes with a connect card and overdraft facility.

frepol

Barclays have to be responsible and giving you a card that could guarantee all of your cheques for at least £50 each isn't responsible.

seconded!

braken2000

i dont know how i got an overdraft, it was when i first opened the account and an electron card was a fun idea, i must have bought something and then something else and gone down to nill on the account, she said it can be done, but surely if they dont allow overdrafts on a simple account they would not allow it to proceed with any transaction on a UPG. To be honest they were not very clear, but according to someone at nationwide they said that it would not affect my credit rating but my points, ot just seems that in carlisle no one takes electron, i think i will try the calm method and see where i get, thanks everyone for your help

newfoundglory

I have seen various stories of people with Electron and Solo cards who have managed to go slightly overdrawn (ie, simply drop below £0). I don't know how true they are, but it seems to make sense that the system does have its faults here and there - I think you will find it is possible in certain situations to go overdrawn, but that Electron and Solo stop overspending in the huge majority of cases.

I shouldn't think that the Barclays thing has effected your credit file - you can check by getting a copy from both Experian and Equifax; the Barclays current account is probably not even shown on there. This would mean that what the Barclays employee is saying must refer to their internal scoring system for account upgrades (which is probably based on points for good positive behaviour as Nationwide might have suggested to you - you get enough points and your account is upgraded - go overdrawn and the points might go back to zero kinda thing).

Unauthorised overdraft, whatever the amount, is not good bahaviour. It simply shows the bank you cannot manage your own account properly.

If there is nothing on your credit file, you could potentially go to another bank with a clean record - but that doesn't mean you will get a full account with debit + cheque guarantee card.

Barclays is one of very few banks which provide a £50 guarantee... most banks won't provide less than a £100 guarantee facility on their debit cards (Nationwide included). You might have trouble finding a bank which will give you a full account with £100 cheque card given your age, income and risk; unless of course you have a significant amount of savings. At least, they probably wouldn't provide you with a full account until after they have seen a certain amount of "good behaviour" similar to what Barclays was looking for. Hope this clears it up for you a bit.