Barclays Internal Scam??

Ergates

flo22 said:

They emptied your account of funds but you had to pay off the overdraft?  This is confusing. If there was a debit balance there were no funds to empty.  You say you had never used the overdraft but then you say you had to pay off the overdraft - which is it?

Did they just remove the overdraft or was there an actual transaction moving funds somewhere?

If it is, as it appears, Barclays who have done this, then they haven't "drained" the account or the overdraft - they've just temporarily updated the account status.  The OP didn't have to pay off the overdraft and wouldn't have been charged interest.

It's possible that any money the OP put into the account after the event was also locked away.

grumbler

Ergates said:

grumbler said:

MEM62 said:

 first port of call is a formal complaint to Barclays.  

And say in this complaint that you hold them financially responsible for all consequences of failed DDs (if any) and mention the idiot that told you to "scramble to find funds to pay off the overdraft".

OP didn't say anyone told them to do that.

Yes, I seem to have misread the post.

Regardless, there is no point in depositing any funds to the account as they are likely to disappear in the very same fashion as the original balance.

Ergates

grumbler said:

MEM62 said:

 first port of call is a formal complaint to Barclays.  

And say in this complaint that you hold them financially responsible for all consequences of failed DDs (if any) and mention the idiot that told you to "scramble to find funds to pay off the overdraft".

You can, obviously, say whatever you want in a complaint - but whether the OP has a case or not will depend on what is was that triggered the action by Barclays.  Banks have a legal obligation to monitor their accounts for certain activity and act if they have reason to suspect certain things are happening.  If their suspicions are reasonable then you don't really have any recourse against them. 

Blame the crooks who make such things necessary.

grumbler

Ergates said:

grumbler said:

MEM62 said:

 first port of call is a formal complaint to Barclays.  

And say in this complaint that you hold them financially responsible for all consequences of failed DDs (if any) and mention the idiot that told you to "scramble to find funds to pay off the overdraft".

If their suspicions are reasonable then you don't really have any recourse against them. 
Blame the crooks who make such things necessary.

The crooks make such things necessary for all banks. Only few banks are notorious for acting in such arrogant manner.

Even if the suspicions are reasonable actions have to be reasonable too.

Shakin_Steve

grumbler said:

Ergates said:

grumbler said:

MEM62 said:

 first port of call is a formal complaint to Barclays.  

And say in this complaint that you hold them financially responsible for all consequences of failed DDs (if any) and mention the idiot that told you to "scramble to find funds to pay off the overdraft".

If their suspicions are reasonable then you don't really have any recourse against them. 
Blame the crooks who make such things necessary.

The crooks make such things necessary for all banks. Only few banks are notorious for acting in such arrogant manner.

Even if the suspicions are reasonable actions have to be reasonable too.

Reasonable is subjective. As has already been posted, Barclays do this while investigating what they see as suspicious activity. I don't think the ombudsman would uphold any complaint about this, it's really just the same as denying access to the account by 'freezing' it, although I admit the bit about the overdraft would be a bit scary.

We should commit this thread to memory, because there will be others who post up exactly the same situation in future.

eskbanker

On the one hand, Barclays is in the same boat as all other UK financial institutions in being subject to KYC/AML legislation, which necessitates a degree of confidentiality in the event of accounts being scrutinised, i.e. account holders can't be tipped off about exactly what's happening.

However, on the other hand, other banks seem to be able to handle this by freezing accounts and blocking access, rather than the approach that Barclays appears to to adopt sometimes, whereby access to the account is still available, allowing the account holder to see a huge unexpected (but essentially faked) withdrawal and believe that it's something that needs to be countered with a significant deposit, which would appear to have been accepted.

If OP had simply been informed by Barclays that the account was blocked, pending investigation, then to my mind that's far better than the way the bank actually did handle it, so, regardless of what the original root cause of the investigation was, to my mind Barclays need to be held accountable for the clumsy way in which they dealt with it....

GTR_King

When a bank empties your bank account it is usually to pay off an Overdraft loan credit card charge back E.G money paid/transferred in error 

they are legally allowed to do that to pay a debts off,

any complaints you make won’t usually Make the bank change their mind,

so have you recently used your overdraft or had a loan with the bank? 

The way the bank has handled it seems fair if it’s for debts & they don’t have to say the reasons why.

Are you struggling with money due to debits, 

Any more money you put into your Barclays account will go to pay your debts off (if you have any)

so best to open new bank account and speak to Barclays about how to pay them back? 

eskbanker

GTR_King said:

When a bank empties your bank account it is usually to pay off an Overdraft loan credit card charge back E.G money paid/transferred in error 

they are legally allowed to do that to pay a debit off,

any complaints you make won’t usually Make the bank change their mind,

so have you recently used your overdraft or had a loan with the bank? 

The way the bank has handled it seems fair if it’s for debits & they don’t have to say the reasons why.

Are you struggling with money due to debits, 

Any more money you put into your Barclays account will go to pay your debit off (if you have any)

so best to open new bank account and speak to Barclays about how to pay them back? 

In the context of bank accounts, 'debits' and 'debts' are two totally different things, so your post is confusing, but OP makes no hint of debts....

GTR_King

my bad mate meant to say debts I know he made no hint of debts, 

but that's usually why banks take your money so lets see what op says 

BeerSavesMoney

Why would Barlcays use the overdraft in this scenario? Surely removing the facility is the responsible option for them?