Unknown Back dated charges for Barclays safety deposit boxes

Zch

Need some advise people of MSE land....

My mum had a safety deposit box with Barclays that she went to arrange to collect this week. Upon arrival at the branch she was told that the safety deposit box service was removed in 2013 and they had written to her advising of this and to make arrangements to collect her box or it would be sent to a central storage facility. The letter never arrived, and that was because they had sent it to an old address that we had left well over a year ago, even though she had been into her local branch at the time and changed the address with one of the ladies at the desk.
Barclays are now asking for £500 to get the box from the central storage hub, and have been charging her at £20 a month + interest for 15 months without her knowing. Barclays are demanding £1200 for the charges and interest and a further £500 to get her property back, all for something she hAd absolutely no idea about as they didn't update her address, so she never got any letters.

As you can Imagine my mum is fairly distraught about the whole thing as if she had known she would have taken the action earlier to get the box out. She has an open call with their main office, but is worried about what the outcome is going to be. She can't afford £1700, it's just not on.

Any tips would be great

Thanks. Zoe

Aquamania

Zch wrote: »

Need some advise people of MSE land....

My mum had a safety deposit box with Barclays that she went to arrange to collect this week. Upon arrival at the branch she was told that the safety deposit box service was removed in 2013 and they had written to her advising of this and to make arrangements to collect her box or it would be sent to a central storage facility. The letter never arrived, and that was because they had sent it to an old address that we had left well over a year ago, even though she had been into her local branch at the time and changed the address with one of the ladies at the desk.
Barclays are now asking for £500 to get the box from the central storage hub, and have been charging her at £20 a month + interest for 15 months without her knowing. Barclays are demanding £1200 for the charges and interest and a further £500 to get her property back, all for something she hAd absolutely no idea about as they didn't update her address, so she never got any letters.

As you can Imagine my mum is fairly distraught about the whole thing as if she had known she would have taken the action earlier to get the box out. She has an open call with their main office, but is worried about what the outcome is going to be. She can't afford £1700, it's just not on.

Any tips would be great

Thanks. Zoe

Don't worry, and tell your mium not to worry either if she is. It sounds like she has done exactly the right thing by attempting to contact the bank about this situation.

Let us know the outcome from the phone call once contact is made, and then ask further questions if needed

Of particular interest would be howcome your mum has been charged 15 months fees when this report plublished last April ( a little over 10 months ago)
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2312085/Barclays-tells-safe-deposit-users-clear-out.html

implies the service was not going to be phased out until Christmas 2013.
That is reinforced by this earlier BBC item:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17224846

Even if 15 months of charges can ever be justified, it would be interesting to understand how 15 x £20 = £1200, as it only came to £300 when I went to school.

If the safety deposit box facility was withdrawn from your mum 15 months ago, then the question is, has she paid the annual fee within the last 12 months such a box would formally have incurred?

Zch

Thanks Aquamania.
Barclays continued to take the £15 a quarter until they 'withdrew' their service.
The costs are mounting as they are charging just over £18 a month in interest for charges we know nothing about, so on top of everything has used an overdraft on a dormant account...

Will keep you posted on the outcome, let's hope the Barclays people see their error and give us our box of stuff back and void the charges.

Thanks. Z