Barclays CIFA Marker

CIFAproblem

Hi, I know this is a very discussed and talked through subject on here with many questionable OP's.

I have read through around 40+ threads regarding this on this forum and others and thought it's best to make a post with my own personal issues/scenario and seek help.

I had been with Barclays since the age of 16 this all occurred after being with the bank for little over 5 years, on roughly June 2017 they put my account on hold, seized over £4000, then seized over £12300 from 4 sets of wages and in the end put a First Class CIFA mark on my name and kept the money.

Now for the longer version and explanation: I have been with my partner since we were both 16, so by the time this all happened we had been together for 5 years with regular transactions between our account of anywhere between £1 to a few thousand for either bills or savings or whatever is needed really. In June 2017 she took out a loan from HSBC (who she banks with) and we were using a portion of that loan to buy her a car, and also pay for plane tickets for a holiday, we didn't have the cash immediately available so we was going to take the interest hit for couple months and clear the loan.

When she sent £4000 to my account, this was flagged by Barclays and my account was frozen I did not realise until a couple of days later when we found a good deal for flights etc and the payment wouldn't go through, upon visiting bank I was told I had to prove where the money came from. I tried to explain and also listed that there was over 5 years of transactions between me and my partner and I had on one occasion sent £8100 to her account even. Barclays refused to listen demanded proof of where the money came from so we provided the signed documentation from HSBC and her bank statements. It took them 4 to 8 weeks to review all of this in their back office team which has no telephone or direct dial options for any customer service team or branch staff to use and contact them.

I was then told this was not enough and HSBC needed to contact them and confirm, we spoke to HSBC and our local HSBC which is coincidentally around the corner from the same Barclays branch I bank with and had the manager call and confirm, this was again reviewed for 4 - 8 weeks by the same team.

I was again told it was not enough and a specific team had to call (think it was their fraud prevention team) through the help of HSBC staff we managed to make this happen which took around a week to set up, and this was reveiwed again for 4 - 8 weeks by the same secret team at Barclays.

Following this I was told HSBC needed to provide a letter stating and signed by my partner to say she sent the payment willingly etc etc so this was done and signed by the HSBC manager and my partner and delivered to Barclays through HSBC headoffice, reviewed for 4 - 8 weeks again.

Meanwhile monthly wages kept coming into the account I didn't hold another bank account and due to what I was told by Barclays was the ongoing investigation I was refused by other banks in opening an account. Barclays assured me all I needed was a letter from employer stating they payed me and how much and they would release those funds, I provided a letter every month and 4 months worth of wages were denied to me every month.

Around 8 week after the letter from HSBC was received by Barclays I got a letter in post saying my account was to be closed and to bring proof of any funds and I could collect them, argued for weeks on end and managed to get my 5th months paycheck out only the rest was seized by Barclays.

Following all of this I lost my job as couldn't get payed and couldn't open a bank, no bank would even tell me why just point at T&C, after having a mental breakdown over the phone at a Natwest staff member she told me to check CIFA and explained what it was, I requested the information from them and it turned out a First Class fraud mark was put on my name. I couldn't open any bank or access any financial service anywhere. I had small loans and general credit (mobile, insurance) all went into debt and defaults my partner was at uni at the time so couldn't support us both, massive strain on our relationship and my family life also fell apart.

I was on a salary of £3500+ a month after tax as a 24 year old in recruitment having worked in this field since I was 16, I worked hard to get to where I was and it was all taken from me, eventually my car was impounded and auctioned due to above said debts, and I was never able to do anything, I was advised by CIFA to request removals and reversals and final letters from Barclays to resolve this, Barclays never once replied to a single email or letter I have copies of over 14 sent from then until now, I went through hell and back so far, was helped by our local GP through anxiety and depression.

Recently advised to take this up with FSA who was shocked by what had happened and opened a case with Barclays who have been given 8 weeks to respond with a final letter and FSA will then look into the matter, it has been 5 weeks no response from Barclays yet.

What can I actually hope to achieve here am I just screwed for good? What is the likelihood FSA will actually help me rather then hang me out to dry also?

Any and all help is welcome, my life has been ruined at the age of 24 everything I worked for since 16 gone for no reason.

Sorry for such a massive wall of text I didn't want to leave anything out.

alphabravocharli

If i remember correctly you can dispute CIFAS marker to CIFAS and bank has to provide sufficient proof that there was a fraud. If what you are telling is true it would be very easy to convince CIFAS that it is unjustified and they can remove the marker.

One thing what reason your partner gave when she applied for the loan.

EachPenny

CIFAproblem wrote: »

Hi, I know this is a very discussed and talked through subject on here with many questionable OP's.

I have read through around 40+ threads regarding this on this forum and others and thought it's best to make a post with my own personal issues/scenario and seek help.

I had been with Barclays since the age of 16 this all occurred after being with the bank for little over 5 years, on roughly June 2017 they put my account on hold, seized over £4000, then seized over £12300 from 4 sets of wages and in the end put a First Class CIFA mark on my name and kept the money.

Now for the longer version and explanation: I have been with my partner since we were both 16, so by the time this all happened we had been together for 5 years with regular transactions between our account of anywhere between £1 to a few thousand for either bills or savings or whatever is needed really. In June 2017 she took out a loan from HSBC (who she banks with) and we were using a portion of that loan to buy her a car, and also pay for plane tickets for a holiday, we didn't have the cash immediately available so we was going to take the interest hit for couple months and clear the loan.

When she sent £4000 to my account, this was flagged by Barclays and my account was frozen I did not realise until a couple of days later when we found a good deal for flights etc and the payment wouldn't go through, upon visiting bank I was told I had to prove where the money came from. I tried to explain and also listed that there was over 5 years of transactions between me and my partner and I had on one occasion sent £8100 to her account even. Barclays refused to listen demanded proof of where the money came from so we provided the signed documentation from HSBC and her bank statements. It took them 4 to 8 weeks to review all of this in their back office team which has no telephone or direct dial options for any customer service team or branch staff to use and contact them.

I was then told this was not enough and HSBC needed to contact them and confirm, we spoke to HSBC and our local HSBC which is coincidentally around the corner from the same Barclays branch I bank with and had the manager call and confirm, this was again reviewed for 4 - 8 weeks by the same team.

I was again told it was not enough and a specific team had to call (think it was their fraud prevention team) through the help of HSBC staff we managed to make this happen which took around a week to set up, and this was reveiwed again for 4 - 8 weeks by the same secret team at Barclays.

Following this I was told HSBC needed to provide a letter stating and signed by my partner to say she sent the payment willingly etc etc so this was done and signed by the HSBC manager and my partner and delivered to Barclays through HSBC headoffice, reviewed for 4 - 8 weeks again.

Meanwhile monthly wages kept coming into the account I didn't hold another bank account and due to what I was told by Barclays was the ongoing investigation I was refused by other banks in opening an account. Barclays assured me all I needed was a letter from employer stating they payed me and how much and they would release those funds, I provided a letter every month and 4 months worth of wages were denied to me every month.

Around 8 week after the letter from HSBC was received by Barclays I got a letter in post saying my account was to be closed and to bring proof of any funds and I could collect them, argued for weeks on end and managed to get my 5th months paycheck out only the rest was seized by Barclays.

Following all of this I lost my job as couldn't get payed and couldn't open a bank, no bank would even tell me why just point at T&C, after having a mental breakdown over the phone at a Natwest staff member she told me to check CIFA and explained what it was, I requested the information from them and it turned out a First Class fraud mark was put on my name. I couldn't open any bank or access any financial service anywhere. I had small loans and general credit (mobile, insurance) all went into debt and defaults my partner was at uni at the time so couldn't support us both, massive strain on our relationship and my family life also fell apart.

I was on a salary of £3500+ a month after tax as a 24 year old in recruitment having worked in this field since I was 16, I worked hard to get to where I was and it was all taken from me, eventually my car was impounded and auctioned due to above said debts, and I was never able to do anything, I was advised by CIFA to request removals and reversals and final letters from Barclays to resolve this, Barclays never once replied to a single email or letter I have copies of over 14 sent from then until now, I went through hell and back so far, was helped by our local GP through anxiety and depression.

Recently advised to take this up with FSA who was shocked by what had happened and opened a case with Barclays who have been given 8 weeks to respond with a final letter and FSA will then look into the matter, it has been 5 weeks no response from Barclays yet.

What can I actually hope to achieve here am I just screwed for good? What is the likelihood FSA will actually help me rather then hang me out to dry also?

Any and all help is welcome, my life has been ruined at the age of 24 everything I worked for since 16 gone for no reason.

Sorry for such a massive wall of text I didn't want to leave anything out.

A few questions:-

Why did you lose your job because you couldn't get paid? If your account was blocked/closed then you could have got the money paid into your partners account.

Who have you actually complained to? It is unlikely to be the FSA.

Something seems 'odd' about this. If you and your partner had been together for 5 years and regularly transferring money between you, then a payment of £4000 from her to you should have been easy to explain and verify.

Either Barclays have made a massive mistake, or else there is something else going on here which you either don't know about, or else have chosen not to mention.

CIFAproblem

CIFA directed me to Barclays I initially tried to appeal it through them with no luck.

Our whole argument was off the back of 5 years of transactions between myself and my partner my local Barclays branch manager was dumbstruck by all this at the time, I battled it for over 7 months to no avail because it seemed so ridiculously unfair.

The company accountant refused to pay into an account I was not named on, apparently a business is allowed to do so.

CIFAproblem

To clarify I took this up with the Financial Ombudsmen Service, autocorrect turned it to FSA.

alphabravocharli

Then to remove CIFAS your only option is to take them to court.

CIFAproblem wrote: »

CIFA directed me to Barclays I initially tried to appeal it through them with no luck.

Our whole argument was off the back of 5 years of transactions between myself and my partner my local Barclays branch manager was dumbstruck by all this at the time, I battled it for over 7 months to no avail because it seemed so ridiculously unfair.

The company accountant refused to pay into an account I was not named on, apparently a business is allowed to do so.

CIFAproblem

As a side note, I forwarded all emails sent by myself with the documentation attached (and I asked the Barclays and HSBC staff members to cc or bcc me into the emails and documentation they sent when we were verifying all of this) to the FOS alongside any other emails and letter I could find including the email from Barclays branch manager stating the issue was with that particular transaction from my partner.

CIFAproblem

Is this aside from the case being put forward by the FOS?

alphabravocharli

It is very rare for FOS to take customer side in such cases. May be there are exceptions but i never heard of.

CIFAproblem wrote: »

Is this aside from the case being put forward by the FOS?

CIFAproblem

So what do I do next?

CIFAproblem

Also is this whole thing by FOS just a waste of time after all?