Barclays have just frozen my account

bigadaj

masonic wrote: »

I've not come across it before. I've only ever been asked to send such documents by post or take them to a branch. Most banks in my experience won't even enter into account-specific discussion by email. Some have a secure messaging facility, while others require you to phone them, write a letter or go into branch.

I agree with you on the point of banks phoning customers and not having some way of identifying themselves.

Yes, I probably wasn't clear, it was the general approach of banks or really their staff.

It's probably a lack of training but after being questioned about identification you would expect a spark to ring somewhere in a bank employees brain. It could be time pressures or simply an element of stupidity but the lack of awareness of the potential for fraud and the potential scale and impact on that individual as well as more widely is pretty shocking.

charlybarly

I e-mailed the documents last night (Wednesday), I got an (automated) response but nothing from a human yet.

charlybarly

UPDATE
So, it has been six days since I mailed the documents to Barclays, no human response in that time.
Then...today (Tuesday) I casually try and log in to my account on the iPad and amazingly I am let in, my account is there to view as normal.
First thing I check is the payments that have caused all the trouble, two payments on the same day, one of £10, one for £1540 paid in by (there's two names listed, I won't reveal them here)
Neither name means anything to me, nor do they turn up on google as any kind of fraud caper.
Here's the thing, the money paid in was paid out again (withdrawn by Barclays) THE VERY NEXT DAY, that is the 1st August.
So, I have fretted for 23 days without any sane reply from Barclays.
On the face of it I am now back to normal. I will be closing my account with Barclays and submitting a complaint.

scottishbank

great news. do not close your account yet. wait for the complaint to go through the whole process and once you are satisfied with the outcome close your account. good luck!

jonesMUFCforever

Don't close it .......switch it and get paid more dough!

charlybarly

UPDATE
Went into Halifax and have arranged a meeting on the 5th September to transfer my business to them, as is common they do all the leg work so standing orders should transfer smoothly (fingers crossed!)
A bonus is I get £100 for moving.
Still not decided if i'm even going to bother complaining to Barclays, I think the whole thing might be a fruitless waste of time.

DesG

Thanks for updating!

IMO You need to go through with the complaint, the banks need to understand it is not ok to freeze someones account just because a third party screws up a transfer and falsely claims fraud to retrieve the money.