Barclays

jrsga

Hi

I received an email from Barclays about changes that are being applied to my standard account, the only option is to close the account should I not agree. Do they seem fairly standard? I'm particularly concerned about the HMRC part.

Changes to how and when we can make changes to your account
• The length of notice we give you when we make changes to your accounts has changed. If it's a current account or another account used for day-to-day payments, notice is still two months before most types of changes will take effect. If you have an account that is defined as a restricted access account - that is an account where you can't make day-to-day payments, such as direct debits or card payments, or has other payment restrictions - we will tell you:
– at least 14 days before a disadvantageous change to a managed interest rate where your balance is £100 or more. If your balance is below £100, we do not need to tell you personally before we make the change; and
– at least 30 days before any other changes we need to tell you about in advance.
• We've also made it clear that, in some cases such as when a law makes us change an account, we may not always be able to give you advance notice. We may also give you less notice if the change is in your favour
• We have expanded the situations we can move you from one account to another, such as when you are no longer eligible for a particular account, we no longer offer the account, or it is in your interests to be moved to a different account
• We have clarified when we can close or end an account or service, and amended the Additional Conditions for the Barclays Basic Current Account to make it clear when we can close one of those accounts.

[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Clarifications and changes to what happens if you owe us or HM Revenue and Customs money[/FONT]
• We have clarified that we also have the right to take money from your account if you owe it to some other agencies, such as HM Revenue and Customs, who are able to recover debts directly from bank accounts
• If you owe us money, we have the right to take money from other accounts you hold with us. This is called 'set off'. We have clarified that our right of set off applies to money owed by you to other companies within the Barclays Group of companies, not just to Barclays Bank PLC
• We have clarified how we use money you pay us to repay any amounts you owe us.
[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]Changes to the way we use your information[/FONT]
• To comply with new laws, information we provide to Credit Reference Agencies could now be shared with regulatory bodies, such as the Bank of England. The revised agreement makes this clear
• Information we obtain from you may include biometric information. For example, we may use voice recognition technology to identify you and help keep your account secure
• We may also obtain information from your use of our website, such as information relating to the device that you use. We use this to help us prevent fraud and to meet our regulatory obligations
• We are making changes to the way we use your information to increase fraud protection: if you want this protection to assist fraud prevention, we may check whether your mobile phone and card are in or near the same location as each other in order to help us ensure that it is you that is making the transaction
• We may provide identity check services for you where there is a need for the Government, or another third party to confirm your identity and we provide this service on their behalf.

Stevie_Palimo

Would think this is standard across the board with most banks, However I'd be ignoring emails and only checking against hard copy letters in the post for changes to account services.

mgdavid

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

Would think this is standard across the board with most banks, However I'd be ignoring emails and only checking against hard copy letters in the post for changes to account services.

Not if one has specifically chosen to receive 'letters' online or by email rather than post, which Barclays customers can and do.

Shakin_Steve

That all seems pretty run-of-the-mill to me.

Fraud_Unmasked

The T&Cs are pretty standard, however I've never heard of external write-off/Set-off - that process is only normally used where you owe money within the same group.

Any debts you have with external companies/agencies is your private business with them and I can't see how Barclays can just step in and make payments to them. Normally funds are only returned to external companies if they were fraudulent and returned under indemnity - or were paid in error.

Stevie_Palimo

mgdavid wrote: »

Not if one has specifically chosen to receive 'letters' online or by email rather than post, which Barclays customers can and do.

Having a number of accounts that are all dealt with online and not having statements sent to me in the post I do receive notifications like the one listed above in the post and believed it was quite standard within banking regulations that hard copies are sent on T&C changes.

Hopefully eskbanker will be along and will verify the point that I made.