Barclays just put me in 200k debt for no fault of my own

JamesJUK

Been to the bank at 9:30, and then 10am. Nobody knows anything. They're sending emails to various departments at the moment to figure out whats going on.

I asked if I could take my money out, and they said they'd have to make some calls to see, but at present no I can't.

And yes my son gets free medications, but I don't take him to the doctors for minor sore throats, or little coughs. It's a waste of their time, so I buy off the shelf children's medicine which does the trick. He needed it for school today, but thankfully he seems to be well.

This is a nasty situation. It literally fell at the worst time possible. I have my landlord on the phone because her rent is delayed. I've had to scrape the draws for pennies to get bread because our shopping day was yesterday. We're being evicted because the landlord needs to sell the house, so all that's going through court whilst we try to find somewhere else to live.

I just really hope they sort this mess out as soon as possible.

purdyoaten

I think that you are being extremely tolerant of your bank here.

I cannot imagine myself leaving the premises without essential monies for the weekend.

Optimop

Poor form on the banks part - not for putting you overdrawn (clearly a mistake) but not allowing a small withdrawal for you to live off.

I'd be complaining to the high heavens.

JamesJUK

Called FO. Just put this in the reddit post:

11:41: Contacting the Financial Ombudsman to see if they can sort this. Giving up hope waiting for the bank to call. If I leave this unsolved any longer it'll be another night with no money. And this will mess me up today!
On the phone to FO now. Their response was they can't really do anything. They will start the complaint, but the bank has 8 weeks to respond. I said to the lady at the FO surely this is an exceptional case and you can contact the bank directly to get info on this ... she said she was "powerless" at this stage. Great! Im going to go through with the complaint, but they're no help to me right now

They've gave me a reference number, and are going to email the bank urgently. But they've said the bank has 8 weeks to reply.

Electric just ran out too so now I'm even more stuck. Would ask my mother for funds, but she has no account to transfer it too. I hate getting other people into my mess. I have a feeling this weekend will be very messy. But thank God for a supportive family!

JamesJUK

Teacher2 wrote: »

Tell the 'Daily Mail'. That will get some prompt action from Barclays.

I'm doing that now. I was hoping I wouldn't have to but the FO are no help so I feel like I have no option now.

sourcrates

JamesJUK wrote: »

I'm doing that now. I was hoping I wouldn't have to but the FO are no help so I feel like I have no option now.

Ring customer services up and tell them you have no money.


Its no good dancing around writing on forums and calling FOS who cant do anything, get on the phone to them now, this instant, its entirely reasonable for them to make funds available to you, but they cant do this in branch as they have no authority, YOU MUST RING THEM !!!!!!!

JamesJUK

sourcrates wrote: »

Ring customer services up and tell them you have no money.


Its no good dancing around writing on forums and calling FOS who cant do anything, get on the phone to them now, this instant, its entirely reasonable for them to make funds available to you, but they cant do this in branch as they have no authority, YOU MUST RING THEM !!!!!!!

Done it. i've been into the bank with the bank manager and numerous members of staff. The call centre staff have absolutely no idea. The bank manager is now sending emails to senior members of staff to have them look at it.

I've spent hours on the phone to them. Their Indian call centre staff are not trained for this, and have no powers to even do anything about it. They will just pass you to another department and it repeats like that. Barclays owe me £90 in calls from the last thing they messed up.

sourcrates

JamesJUK wrote: »

Done it. i've been into the bank with the bank manager and numerous members of staff. The call centre staff have absolutely no idea. The bank manager is now sending emails to senior members of staff to have them look at it.

I've spent hours on the phone to them. Their Indian call centre staff are not trained for this, and have no powers to even do anything about it. They will just pass you to another department and it repeats like that. Barclays owe me £90 in calls from the last thing they messed up.

Useless crap bank, I`d move accounts regardless of how this pans out, my bank is First Direct, you always get a real person, 24 hrs a day, and there in Leeds, not Mumbai, I can almost Guarantee they would of resolved this issue to my satisfaction in one phone call, beggars belief !!!!!

Sharon87

If that was me, I would stay at the bank and refuse to leave until I got the money that was mine. I'm sure there's legislation that says bank can't take benefits money, I don't know the exact legislation though.

Definitely take it higher up to head office, contact the press, put it on twitter, whatever it takes. I would be asking for a small amount of compensation if this has cost you anything financially (like if you were forced to take a payday loan for example, I would get them to pay to pay the interest). I'm not suggesting get a pay day loan, but it is there for your last resort.

Take a lesson from this to keep money in multiple places, whether that's 2 banks or even a small emergency savings in cash. Banks have been known to muck things up - look at Natwest, they've had 2 issues where people couldn't access their money.

I hope it gets sorted quickly. Just be tough with Barclays, it may not be in your nature, but this is a lot of money.

owlet

While this is going on, go to another bank & open a basic account. Then phone ESA and any other benefits you receive like child benefit & give them your new account details so that your next lot of money can be paid into your new account & is accessible to you.
Do this straight away.