Barclays Default

Dan5490

Good Afternoon,

Me & partner have been saving hard over the last couple of years and we're almost ready to buy our first home (...just have to find it now). I had a week off last week to sort out some savings accounts etc. and decided to check my credit rating taking advantage of one of these free trails. Got my score it was 'good' and everything seemed correct apart from 1 negative which was 'one of your accounts is defaulted or delinquent' which was marked on a Barclays Bank Account.

I haven't used everyday banking with Barclays since 2008/2009 however I do have a savings account with them. I went down to my nearest branch to investigate, turns out I had a young persons account which was my first bank account my mum had set up for me when I was 16? When I turned 18 the account automatically changed over to a normal everyday adult account. Apprently when this happened I had some sort of subscription on the account which I'm assuming bounced? Causing the account to go £52 overdrawn. The account sat in this state untill Barcalys finally closed the account and wrote off the debt in 13/07/2013.

My problem is I had no idea why/how this happened? I didn't get a lot from the lady who worked in the branch but that might be because I had worked myself a fair bit in a bit of a panic. I can absolutely confirm that I haven't received a letter from Barclays regarding this account for atleast 4 years. I don't know why this account wouldn't have been charged more times for being overdrawn (Barclays told me I was only charged once in 2008?) I say this because if I would have been charged I would have got a letter?

So this will stay on my record for 6 years starting from 2013 for -£52 that happened in 2008? I'm having a very hard time accepting this. I currently have a fair bit of savings which I started as soon as I started full time work in 2012 I would have never allowed this to happen if I would have known. I'm super worried now that I'm going to get denied a mortgage because of this, I have a read that most high street banks won't touch anyone with such a mark on their record.

I understand that it's apparent that it's my fault that the account was in that state. I do however fail to see how I've missed this. I file most letters I receive and have all of my Lloyd's statements from 2012 I have zero letters regarding this account. I just don't understand AND IT WAS ONLY £52:(

I have the relevant department address for Barclays which I'm going to write too. I've since offered Barclays money which they denied due to the account being closed. As I wanted it to be atleast 'settled' on my credit record. Does anyone have advice on this please?

Thanks for reading. Regards, Dan

cmssbrie

I'd write a formal letter of complaint to their customer services team. If they fail to take you seriously, write to the CEO or a member of their Senior Leadership team - in turn, it will be handled by the service agents at the 'Executive Team' who I have dealt with a couple of times and they have been pretty reasonable.

It may all boil down to the T's & C's of the original account you had (i.e it may say in there that 'on your 18th birthday, the account will automatically upgrade to a paid for account and you will be charged a monthly amount for the account)' - but ultimately they should have been sending you statements and letters stating you have missed payments - which it doesn't sound like they have....