Bank repeatedly cancelling money transfer to a different bank

Peggy0628

Hi, I have question on behalf of my neighbour.
She's got a saving account with Barclays paying measly 0.01% interest. She's opened a saving account with another bank paying 1%. She set up a payment from her Barclays acc. into the other bank's account via online banking. The next day she found out her access to online banking has been blocked. She called Barclays, they told her they blocked it because of a suspicious payment. She explained she wanted to send her money to her other account. They restored her online access and told told her the payment was cancelled so she had to set it up again (they were unable to process the payment over the phone). Next say, she again found out her online access was blocked. Again she called them, explained everything, got access restored, set up new payment as the one she made earlier was cancelled and next day same thing happened again... Why are Barclays making it so difficult for her to transfer her own money elsewhere??? She's unable to get to a branch (local one was closed years ago and the one in different town is only opened when she's at work so can't get there unless she takes a day off work - she doesn't want to do that). She's only trying to transfer a bit over 10k so not exactly huge amount. Is there a way round it? At what point does a payment become suspicious? She transferred 1k into the other account in the past without problems so she's considering setting up multiple payment of smaller amounts just to get the money over. She's been a loyal customer of Barclays of over 25 years and she's fed up with this. First they don't increase the % rate even after BoE raised the rates (they still only pay 0.01% when BoE rate is 0.75%) on the variable rate account and now they won't let her move her money to a bank paying decent rates and keep blocking her internet banking access. She understands they were careful with the 1st payment but why keep cancelling the others when they confirmed the situation with her? This saga has been going on for a week now and she just want to get this sorted... Thanks for advice.

masonic

Is she trying to transfer it directly from her savings account or via her current account? It ought not to matter if her savings account allows transfers to any other account, but a transfer from a current account is more of a common occurrence. I'd suggest she raises a formal complaint that she's being prevented from exercising her choice to move her money to a more competitive account. Has she considered telling Barclays she wishes to close her account and have the proceeds paid to this new account?

[Deleted User]

Peggy0628 said:

 At what point does a payment become suspicious? 

At the point at which the bank deems it to be suspicious.

Has she tried transferring it to another account first? It's an extra step, but it might solve the current problem.  Either that, or transfer smaller sums.

Peggy0628

The money is in her current account (she transferred it there from her saving account few days before setting up the original payment as that one did not allow payment, only transfer to a linked CA, saving acc. now closed).

kazwookie

The problem is   'the just over £10K.'

Suggest she moves £8k today, and the rest over the weekend.

masonic

Peggy0628 said:

The money is in her current account (she transferred it there from her saving account few days before setting up the original payment as that one did not allow payment, only transfer to a linked CC, saving acc. now closed).

Then Barclays is being unreasonable and a formal complaint would be the next step. Do make sure she claims for interest at 1% from the date she tried to send the money from the first time until she eventually is able to transfer it.

masonic

kazwookie said:

The problem is   'the just over £10K.'

Suggest she moves £8k today, and the rest over the weekend.

For personal accounts, Barclays one-off Faster Payments limit is £25,000

Peggy0628

kazwookie said:

The problem is   'the just over £10K.'

Suggest she moves £8k today, and the rest over the weekend.

How do you know payment over 10k are suspicious for them but 8k is not? There is no info anywhere on their website or T&C as far as she knows that states limits. There's a limit on how much you can transfer per day but the amount's a lot higher than her bank balance. 

Daliah

She should raise a formal complaint with Barclays. Whilst Barclays are considering the complaint, she should just make multiple smaller payments (not all of the same amount) to shift her money to Virgin.

And perhaps consider switching to a different bank.

refluxer

Yes, the Faster Payment limit shouldn't be an issue with the amounts you're talking. The issue here is that large payments are triggering Barclays' anti-fraud measures.

In my experience with Barclays, the amounts you can get away with without this occurring can vary and it can be a trial and error process in order to find a solution. The difference in my case though is that the worst I've experienced is the transaction being blocked, until I've either spoken to Barclays' anti-fraud team or confirmed the transaction is genuine by replying to a text message. I've never been locked out of my online banking and if I was, I'd find that equally frustrating.

If £1000 payments into the other account have been successful, I would personally just transfer it in small, individual payments of £1000 each, spread over a couple of days. Not exactly ideal but way less hassle than your neighbour being locked out of her account again.

xylophone

She's got a saving account with Barclays paying measly 0.01% interest. She's opened a saving account with another bank paying 1%. She set up a payment from her Barclays acc. into the other bank's account via online banking. 

Time for a formal complaint. 

She gives details of what has happened  and asks to be compensated for her time and for the interest foregone while the money remains in the savings account with Barclays.

https://www.barclays.co.uk/complaints/