Barclays Fraud and their refusal to investigate + default

dcotterill

I recently checked my credit report to discover a Barclays account that I considered to be in dispute as there was fraudulent activity on the account was listed as a default. This dates back to 2008, somebody paid two cheques into my account for large amounts (something like £9000 & 13000) I have the statements at home showing this. A few days later the same amounts were removed from my account via cheque again nothing to do with me? As a result of this Barclays demanded I pay off my overdraft immediately £1992, I refused to take any action until the fraud was investigated. They then referred the debt to two debt collectors who I instructed to return to Barclays as the account was in dispute. Since then I haven’t heard anything about it until I checked my credit report. I now find that I have been unable to obtain credit for the last five years as this was listed as a default on my credit report. When I initially rang Barclays the staff member said “we can’t touch this”, which I found puzzling.

Where do I stand in all this? I believe I should at least be paid compensation for having my credit rating ruined for five years. Barclays refused to investigate the fraud and gave no reason why. I now believe that in one year the default will be removed from the report (after six years) but am unhappy with this resolution. My point is that nobody other than me should be able to take funds from my account without my say so.

The way Barclays have treated me I feel they are trying to hide something, i.e. possibly a mistake by themselves or that because I can prove that the money was in my account that they may have to pay me the full amount that went through my account without my say so. At the end of the day I can prove that an certain days there was thousands of pounds in my account and then it had been removed by a fraudster. Has my account been used for money laundering? How should I approach Barclays to resolve this?

DevCoder

Overdrafts are repayable on demand though, you should have repaid "under protest".

bengal-stripe

dcotterill wrote: »

......somebody paid two cheques into my account for large amounts (something like £9000 & 13000) I have the statements at home showing this.

.....because I can prove that the money was in my account that they may have to pay me the full amount that went through my account without my say so.

Having one's cake and eating it!

It either was your money or it was not!!!

dalesrider

dcotterill wrote: »

I now find that I have been unable to obtain credit for the last five years as this was listed as a default on my credit report.

So have you actually had credit any declined in these 5 years ?

Strange that Barclays did not look into the fraud. But it could be that the cheques were claimed back by the issuing bank as fraud and not actually withdrawn from your account. In such as case Barclays would have nothing to investigate.
If they were withdrawn from your account then it would require your cheque book.
Then Barclays would have something to investigate.

Why have you waited 5 years to take this matter forward?

meer53

Your post is very confusing.

What debt was referred to debt collectors ? If credits were paid in and then withdrawn again, where is the debt ?

Where is the fraud ? The cheques could have been paid into your account in error then removed again once this was discovered.

What reasons did Barclays give for asking you to repay your overdraft ? (they don't actually have to give a reason but you haven't said why, i'm assuming you queried this with them ?)

Have you been refused credit in the last 5 years ? If not, what is your complaint about ? If the cheques weren't yours, Barclays were correct to remove them from your account, they don't need your permission but they should notify you.

dalesrider

meer53 wrote: »

Your post is very confusing.

What debt was referred to debt collectors ? If credits were paid in and then withdrawn again, where is the debt ?
.

The overdraft. Which was closed, but the OP did not payback when asked.

Jules2012

Write to them, the staff in branch or on the phone can't help you.
Send them a SAR to see what info the hold on you.
However you should have paid the OD back when they asked as its their money.

grumbler

dcotterill wrote: »

...I refused to take any action until the fraud was investigated. They then referred the debt to two debt collectors who I instructed to return to Barclays as the account was in dispute....

There was no anything to dispute as they had the right to demand immediate repayment of the overdraft regardless of any fraud and any investigation.
It's like refusing to pay the overdraft off because it's raining.

Turtle

It seems fairly clear that the cheques were paid in in error then taken out again, as the bank is well within their right to do. I agree you should have been notified but that's it.

They can also demand repayment of an overdraft at any time. You didn't pay it and that's what 'ruined' your credit rating, not Barclays. You never have paid it, so no wonder your rating isn't brilliant, they were never going to just let you off the debt were they?!

Really no idea what you think you need compensating for to be honest.

pqrdef

I don't see why a simple mistake with credits would provoke them to cancel your overdraft - though it should provoke them to reverse the offending transactions.

Seems more likely they were planning to close the account as soon as it was in credit. Probably it was fraud, and cost Barclays £22K, and they think you were involved in it. If you've got a fraud marker, the default is the least of your problems.

But we haven't got the whole story. If money was taken out by cheque, the cheque numbers were on the statement. Were cheques taken from your cheque book? Did a new cheque book go missing in the post?

dcotterill

Thanks for your response, at the time of the fraud I wasn't using cheques and hadn't done so for years i had an old cheque book at home but am sure nobody had access to it. I didn't request a new cheque book either. When all this happened the account was active and although I was only paying in small amounts (on advice from barclays) to keep the account going and not to default. I know this is particularly healthy practice but at the time I didn't want to default so was happy paying in £20 per month just to keep the account going. This is when the fraud happened (I was notified by barclays) they asked me what I had been doing with cheques. I told them it was nothing to do with me and then they demanded I pay off the balance. I wasn't in a position to do this and wanted an answer about what had happened. I still haven't got a response. It only has another year to go on my credit report which is why I'm trying to find out what happened.