Barclays Additions/Plus/Active

JanineM21

I made a complaint about mis sold PBA, I had just a free bank account originally with no overdraft, In 1998 took out the Barclays additions at £5 a month this was so I could get a guaranteed overdraft, I wasn't interested in the other stuff that came with it, think it was accidental death benefit, will writing service and green flag breakdown cover. In 2004 my bank account was compromised through foolishly answering a spam email, I went into the branch and explained this, they recommended closing the old account and opening a new one, they told me all direct debits, standing orders etc would be automatically sent across, however Barclays no longer offered Additions, this had now changed to Active,it had more benefits and cost more, but I was guaranteed the overdraft facility as before so I agreed. I had this until 2013, when I cancelled this on my account as they had upgraded this yet again without my consent and the cost were now at £15. In 2016 I made a claim for mis sold package bank accounts, they paid out on the additions from 1998 to 2004, but refused t pay out on the other bank account which everything was transferred to, I have been constantly ringing and fighting this since, they are now saying I am out of time. is this correct

eskbanker

If you pulled the plug on the packages in 2013 then they can indeed reject a new claim now on timebarring grounds, in that they can do so three years after you were aware of the misselling.

However, it sounds like you're asserting that it's not a new claim - was their recompense for 1998 made in full and final settlement and did you accept it? On what grounds did they reject the 2004 missale?

JanineM21

Yes, they paid out in full for the previous bank account, but they rejected my claim for account this was transferred to, the claim was put in all at the same time.
The reason for rejecting was.

1) I had used mt debit card abroad, during the time I had the benefits of Travel Insurance
2) I purchased a passport and made a payment for a holiday with my debit card, so had the added benefits of peace of mind insurance
3) I made cash withdrawals abroad and my statement shows foreign currency withdrawals
4) I used the overdraft facility
5) my bank statements show regular payments for fuel

Which makes me laugh, as I told the man in the branch, I am not interested in other benefits just need an overdraft, I am already with the AA and have been since 1998, I purchase annual Travel Insurance , The Extended warranty was a con, I purchased a washing machine which broke down after 15 months, I remembered I had extended warranty cover on electrical appliances, so I rang to get this sorted and I was informed I had to have purchased this on the debit card to be covered, paying ion credit card didnt count.. The Accidental Death Benefit and Will Writing service were abolish, this is what used to happen, the would bring in new benefits and do away with some of the benefits and upgrade your account , with the new name i.e Active plus which would cost more each month, you never got a phone call or a letter asking if you wanted this service, it was just automatically upgraded, I never questioned this as I didn't want to lose the overdraft facility, which at the time I did use quite a lot. I am more miffed that I was never told the PBA was actually optional and I could have had an overdraft but would have had to pay a one off set up fee or higher interest rate, in the long run this would have been a lot cheaper, as the benefits were useless to me.

eskbanker

If they rejected the claim for the 2004 missale back in 2016, you could have referred it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at the time rather than "constantly ringing and fighting this since", but only had six months in which to do this, so that route is no longer open to you.

So, if Barclays aren't accepting your arguments (and they're hardly likely to change their minds two years down the line), then your only other option at this stage is to sue them, but think very carefully about whether it's actually worth doing so - looking at this as a neutral observer it's not clear to me that you'd win, even if you could eventually have saved money paying separately for an overdraft (they're not under any obligation to supply their cheapest products).

JanineM21

On their letters it stated if there is anything else ring and we will re open, so I did, and they told me they would look into this and come back to me and they never did, so I asked a Ascend finance to look into this as I felt I was getting nowhere, Ascend rang me to tell me Barclays had told them they had paid me out in full, which was incorrect, so they said they couldn't do anything else, so I rang Barclays again and I put everything in writing to them, they then said it has passed the 6 months and it is up to them whether they allow the Ombudsmen to look into this or not, I have found new evidence which makes their response a lie and I have recently sent this to them via resolver