Can i sue Barclays for messing up my credit rating

Eternity70

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum and was wondering if I can get answer to my question.

Basically I worked very hard for 5 year and saved some money to apply for Mortgage and once I had decent amount to apply for mortgage and for a house that was in my financial limits (took me a year to find this house). I applied for Halifax mortgage. Everything was going as planned and we were happy with the mortgage rates etc. Halifax ran credit checks and they were happy.

When the mortgage advisor was forwarding my case to the underwriters they found that Barclays have added a credit card to my name and someone has taken £5000 out of the card. Halifax rejected my Mortgage because my credit history failed.

I chased Barclays Fraud team and they assured me that the account was fraudulent and is locked and they will advise Experian etc to remove the entry and I will get letter etc from them explaining all this. Barclays removed the entry from Experian credit report, but is not giving me letter explaining what happened.

It’s now 2 weeks and I have not received anything from them and when I called them they said they will contact me and I still have not received anything.

I contacted Halifax and asked them to re-apply my case to the underwriters as now Barclays card is not showing on my Experian credit report, but they now want a letter from me explaining all this, a letter from Barclays what happened (Barclays is not giving me that letter) and letter from police, Police is saying use the ref number we gave you, we don’t issue any letter. We will update you but that will take 30 days.

And now on my credit report it says “1 incident of fraudulent activity reported” which was not there before.

I worry the house I went for I am going to lose. I will get interest rate from Halifax that will not suit me and pulse the hours of work I invested in getting the mortgage sorted is all lost, just because Barclays made a mess for me.

My question is can I sue Barclays?

Thanks in advance.

Kind Regards.

Carl31

Had you made an offer on the house? Apart from a failed credit check, I cant really see any financial loss you have suffered. What would you be suing for?

somethingcorporate

What would you sue them for? what is your provable financial loss?

asajj

You can complain by following below link
http://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/complaints-and-compensation/how-to-complain

There was a similar case couple of years ago where someone's rating messed up due to a laptop purchase. It took him years to win the battle. In the end he won and didn't have to pay legal fees but there is a possibility that you may lose as well. This case, it will be costly to you.

Also why Barclay's is not giving you the letter - did they explain?

antrobus

Eternity70 wrote: »

....My question is can I sue Barclays?
....

Of course you can sue Barclays. It's a free country.

Before you do however, you should have a look at previous cases such as Smeaton v Equifax and Gatt v Barclays Bank.

In this case, it would appear that someone has obtained a credit card in your name for the purposes of defrauding Barclays of £5k. That's not really their fault, you know. Given that they have corrected the record as soon as it was bought to their attention, I'm not convinced that a court would find Barclays at fault in any way.

ACG

You can complain and will probably get some sort of gesture payment but were not talking hundreds or thousands.

This is why I now ask for EVERY client to get a copy of their credit report before applying.

Go back to halifax and tell them that barclays do not issue what they want and the police will only provide whatever it they provide. If you can not get this through with Halifax you may need to go elsewhere.

I suspect until this gets resolved one way or the other then you may need to find a lender who will accept it as it stands... I do not have enough information to say that withany sort of conviction but lenders usually take what is on the credit report as gospel until proven otherwise.

sinizterguy

You can sue Barclays. But you won't 'win'.

Voyager2002

antrobus wrote: »

Of course you can sue Barclays. It's a free country.

Before you do however, you should have a look at previous cases such as Smeaton v Equifax and Gatt v Barclays Bank.

In this case, it would appear that someone has obtained a credit card in your name for the purposes of defrauding Barclays of £5k. That's not really their fault, you know. Given that they have corrected the record as soon as it was bought to their attention, I'm not convinced that a court would find Barclays at fault in any way.

The point is that Barclays are refusing to provide a letter confirming what has happened. To that extent they are at fault.

Rather than suing them, I suggest following their complaints procedure and if that fails involving the Ombudsman service.

Thrugelmir

Eternity70 wrote: »

It’s now 2 weeks and I have not received anything from them and when I called them they said they will contact me and I still have not received anything.

2 weeks is only 10 working days. Be patient.

Eternity70

Hi All,

Thanks for your replies,

Carl31 - Yes our offer of 330K is accepted and we have already carried out the surveys and paid for it.

Barclays is beating around the bush and is transfering me from one department to another saying the concerend deprtment will contact me. I understnad its only been 10 working days but this is serious issue and fault is at their end for not implementing extra security.

I have nothing to do with Barclays so why am i dragged into it. If some one robbed them they should tighten their security and not rob me of my credit rating.

Thanks for the advice guys, I will take complain route first and if nothing good is coming out then i will sue them.

asajj- thanks for the link.I will start from their.


Kind Regards,

steve1500

Under the Data Protection Act information must be accurate & up to date.