Thank you for your comments regarding this situation, I should make things clear, before we went away to Poland, I informed Barclays in person at Branch Level, that we would be in Poland and that if there were any problems they could contact us on the such number, which they updated to the system. The card on the 23rd June 2014 was blocked as they suspected unusual transactions, to which we contacted them from that date including branch, customer serivce and fraud team, and the bar wasn't lifted until the 30th June 2014, however after this date on subsequent phone calls no one realised that the bar was lifted, until the 14th July!! Even after spending hours on the phone they told me the card was still blocked and that i risked having it sucked in to an ATM if I tried to use it. We have since discovered a little known fact from Barclays that once a marker has been placed on the account, if they don't get a response from you within 7 days, the block automatically drops off, and the card becomes active again.

Angry Don't trust first trust bank!!!!! Major breaches!! I can't stress this enough, under no circumstances can FIRST TRUST BANK be trusted, they admitted a massive breach of data protection leaving everything avialible for other customers to see, to which I took a photo, this included bank statements, cheques etc.... They then poss forged my partners signature for a credit card application... [removed] They left my partner stuck in Paris when their systems went down.... When we complained they made us wait the full 8 weeks, admitted the breach of data protection, told us we had no right to contact them again, here's 500.00 and told us to leave the bank. This bank already has a large history of dishonesty, please don't use, remove your money and bank somewhere else.

I can't stress this enough, under no circumstances can FIRST TRUST BANK be trusted, they admitted a massive breach of data protection leaving everything avialible for other customers to see, to which I took a photo, this included bank statements, cheques etc.... They then poss forged my partners signature for a credit card application... [removed] They left my partner stuck in Paris when their systems went down.... When we complained they made us wait the full 8 weeks, admitted the breach of data protection, told us we had no right to contact them again, here's 500.00 and told us to leave the bank. This bank already has a large history of dishonesty, please don't use, remove your money and bank somewhere else.

For those wondering if anything else could have been done, upon finding that I could not get to unblock my card, my partner rang to place a temporary overdraft on our account to get us home to which he was told "we don't lend to foreigners" this coming from an Indian call centre, also that when they asked me security questions they couldn't understand Virgin Mobile!!!

recently myself and my partner were in Poland and used our Barclays debit card to purchase flights back online. The bank then blocked the card, when the automated machine at the airport went to validate the card it wasn't valid, I have then spent a considerable time on that day trying to contact Barclays who constantly couldn't understand me and kept putting me from person to person, upon asking to be put through to my branch in Northern Ireland, I was told that Northern Ireland was a separate country and not part of the UK, when I said my local branch they told me no branches in Northern Ireland existed, having spent a considerable amount of time arguing they finally gave me a number to branch that "didn't exist". The branch informed me that the card was blocked and that I needed to call the fraud team to unlock the card, I rang them straight away to be placed on hold for close to 45 mins and the phone being cut off on 3 separate occasions. finally that day I rang the branch again, and they weren't able to lift the block themselves, and told me to try again tomorrow. As were denied check-in, and with no access to money from our debit card, we asked if they would increase our credit card, to which they said that wasn't possible from a non-UK number. we were left in Poland with no access to funds and very little money on us, we continued in vien for the next couple days to no avail, and finally concerned we had no way of paying a mounting hotel bill, my partner who is Polish, was compelled to take a loan for us to get home, in between this I contacted the complaints team, and gave them my Polish number to call and liase with me to resolve the matter, to which they spent 5 days trying to ring a UK number!!! I personally ended up in hospital with stress from all the drama, and having made a total of 11.5 hours worth of phone calls to Barclays from a Polish phone, contacted the branch again who said that we were to keep all the receipts from everything and bring them back and that Barclays would put us back in the position we would have been in had this not happened. This was also confirmed by the complaints team, and finally when we got home was told to head to my branch and take all evidence of everything with me to show the catalogue of catastrophes, and firstly they tell us the complaints handler they have assigned us is on annual leave, and no one knows when he's back, when we asked to speak to a manager, were told Managers' aren't here to talk to customers. From the branch appraisal of the situation we were out of pocket by 5117.49 including the loan and over 500.00 on phone calls. Finally it was upgraded to Level 2 in complaints and she was very helpful and listened to me and told me that they would get things sorted out as quick as possible. I explained that obviously we have bills to pay now and are so out of pocket I had to sell my Ipad, she agreed she understood the urgency and would take steps to resolve with me asap, finally today they ring back and tell me after the complaint has been in for over 4 weeks that as a gesture of goodwill we would like to credit your account with 300.00. I argued and said after everything that had happened this was unacceptable, and threatened to speak to the legal team, then she went on hold, and said well we could do 600.00. I then asked was this the final response to which I was told that it was a gesture of goodwill, and that in actual fact nothing had been investigated at all. After the offer of 600 I telephoned through to our local branch, who told me "they weren't surprised" as Barclays hate admitting they're wrong, and that I would have a long fight on my hands to my money back from them. And that owing to the amount we were down I should ask to be moved to Level 3 complaints for a decision, I upon recieving a further call from complaints told them I wished it escalated to Level 3, she asked me why? I asked the question after everything that had happened, would you accept 600.00?? she said no.. .Then I was asked what was the minimum I would accept..... We have banked with Barclays for a while, I feel totally abused by this "bank" it's dishonest practices and treating customers like dirts is unacceptable in todays unstable banking world. Would love some advice. T