Barclays have just frozen my account

charlybarly

colsten wrote: »

You need to decide whether you are self-employed or retired or semi-retired or whatever.

I can understand your comment, I didn't explain myself fully.

I have taken retirement in the sense that I have cashed in a company pension from a previous employment, however, this on its own is not enough for me to live on, so I am continuing with my self-employment, albeit at a lower level than before.

charlybarly

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I don't bank with Barclays, but is there also an option to hear a list of recent transactions like there is with some of my providers?

The problem is they have barred access to my account, I have tried phone, iPad and PC all without success.

YorkshireBoy

charlybarly wrote: »

The problem is they have barred access to my account, I have tried phone, iPad and PC all without success.

I'm having a bit of trouble keeping up!

As I understand it, you couldn't log on so you rang them.

Whilst hanging on you were told your balance by their automated telephone banking service.

And you're now saying that SINCE THEN they've blocked your telephone access now too?

charlybarly

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I'm having a bit of trouble keeping up!

As I understand it, you couldn't log on so you rang them.

Whilst hanging on you were told your balance by their automated telephone banking service.

And you're now saying that SINCE THEN they've blocked your telephone access now too?

Sorry lol!

I will try and give a timeline with all pertinent info:

Wednesday - I attempted to withdraw £10 from an ATM and was declined (the first time this has ever happened)

Rang Barclays on Wednesday, lady said it was likely the chip and pin was worn out (she said my account appeared to be ok), so she said she would send out a new card.

After I spoke to her I tried another ATM and successfully withdrew £10 with the "worn" card.

Between Wednesday and Saturday (today) I continued to use the old card at ATM's and in shops without a problem - so it would appear that up until Saturday afternoon (today) my card and account were in good standing.

This morning I got my new card in the post, with a friendly letter explaining the usual stuff when you get a new card. No mention of any problems.

At 12pm today I used the old card at a shop, spending £8.05 without a problem.

After lunch I came home and started to update my online accounts with the new card number.

First off was my Ebay account, to my surprise the new card details were "declined" by Ebay, they stated that if I attempted again to input the new card details I would be likely to be frozen out of my Ebay account, no reason was given.

Spooked by this, I tried to access my Barclays current account on my iPad (which I have been doing for ages, several times a day, without a problem)

I was not allowed access to my account on the iPad, and was given an error code of RG21L

Decided to call Barclays to try and sort it out. The man I spoke to seemed a little confused and after about five minutes of trying he said he couldn't get into the system to see my account, he seemed to think the system he was using was causing the problem, not that there was anything wrong with my account as such.

I told him I would wait a couple of hours and try again.

I rang again and in the course of trying to speak to a human (y'know the drill, press 1 for this, 2 for that, state your sort code, blah, blah) an automated voice, unbidden, gave me my current account balance, which was something like £8300, now, I wasn't sure exactly what I had in my account, but when I last looked on Wednesday it was about £6400 - so it seemed a little high. There was certainly no payments due into the account that would have brought it up to that level.

So, a couple of hours later I rang again, spoke, of course, to a different person. Gave them all the security info and finally he was looking at my account. It was then he dropped the bombshell - "your account has been suspended, I cannot give you any reason, or answer any questions, you will get a letter in 3-4 days explaining our decision" (paraphrasing)

So that's where we are.

JGUK

I would get a complaint in if I were you, if you're absolutely sure that this 2000 odd pounds was nothing to do with you, then I have a feeling that the bank has made an error and you need to get this escalated so someone can get it rectified.

https://www.help.barclays.co.uk/faq/making-a-complaint/how-do-i-make-a-complaint-.html

Is how to start the complaints procedure with them.

The problem you're going to have is if this 2000 is tied to anything suspect, even if it is nothing to do with you, Barclays are known to be quite trigger happy with simply closing accounts, even when the customers aren't in the wrong.

charlybarly

Thanks for the link, ironically I cannot complain because in order to complain you have to log in, I am not allowed to log in...etc.

djpailo

charlybarly wrote: »

Thanks for the link, ironically I cannot complain because in order to complain you have to log in, I am not allowed to log in...etc.

https://www.help.barclays.co.uk/faq/making-a-complaint/how-do-i-make-a-complaint-.html

You don't need access to online banking to complain.

jumperabv3

Sounds to me from your story that the lady who sent you a new card because the old one was "worn" according to her - she caused a problem as well and it wasn't only the transfer of £2,000 that was the problem there.

I personally try to avoid calling the banks, I don't feel like banks are run by human beings, so just like a robot I do everything I can online and I think the last phone conversation I had with Barclays was several years ago....

But if it makes you happy whilst I do use Barclays now I did get my Halifax account closed but the reason for it was much more obvious lol:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5494413

Apodemus

I wonder if the problem is that you continued to use the old card after it was reported to be malfunctioning and after it should have been cancelled by the bank. Partly their fault but I can see that the system might throw up all sort of alarms, when a new card has been issued and the old one continues in use.

beckstar1975

WTS exactly, I inadvertently used an old card after a new one had been issued and this invalidated both cards and had to wait for a further new one to be sent out.

Not sure about the account under review though. Good luck