Barclays Bank - Urgent Information Request

Marchitiello

I have had in the past to confirm my tax status several times with Barclays for me and my kids (named on some child regular saving account)… they kept sending me the same form.

anyway, you could use the text messaging facility within the app to ask your question 

Grumpy_chap

Thank you everyone for your comments.

I will take the form into a branch to check whether it is genuine. 

Grumpy_chap

I went into a branch of Barclays today and they did confirm that the letter was genuine, and that they had been receiving a lot of people querying the authenticity of the letter and criticising the poor structure of the communication.

artyboy

Grumpy_chap said:

I went into a branch of Barclays today and they did confirm that the letter was genuine, and that they had been receiving a lot of people querying the authenticity of the letter and criticising the poor structure of the communication.

Shades of what I went through with Amex last year - got a poorly constructed letter threatening to shut down my long held card account if I didn't give them everything up to and including my inside leg measurement and the maiden name of my father's first girlfriend. All in the name of meeting their obligations re financial crime.

Fortunately I'm more than casually acquainted with banking and KYC, so took them to task over the nature of the comms, and the actual information being requested (you need detailed income and other financial information on Mrs Arty, who is just an additional cardholder, really?).

Profuse apologies, some decent 'go away' money for my inconvenience, and admission that a lot of what they asked for wasn't really needed - partly because they'd reused the letter template from another risk related project entirely.

Quite astonishing really, and provides some counterpoint to the oft held view that the banks can ask for whatever they want in the name of KYC, and we're powerless to challenge it. Helps if you have a bit of inside knowledge, but yes, banks are sometimes incompetent and/or over zealous. And it needs calling out!

Perksy5

It's likely your personal information is out of date and needs updating.
There's a big push for business account holders to update their details because of regulatory commitments (and a deadline imposed), without seeing the contents of your letter I presume its that.
Best bet is it call number on back of your debit card or go into branch if convenient.