Will do and thank you again. This site was the first place I thought of when he contacted me and as always it's been massively helpful. I will be sure to drop a donation.

No he didn't have the tech pack. Just the student account with agreed overdraft. This was the minimum amount and he never asked for it to be increased.

He assures me he hasn't received any form of contact apart from this letter, despite him asking for paperless communication when the account was opened. I'm also going through their T&C's and Fee documents can't find anything with regards to agreed regular payments. https://www.barclays.co.uk/content/dam/documents/personal/important-information/FeeInformation-StudentAdditions.pdf so that seems a little concerning considering this is his first proper account. I'm not making excuses for him not making sure he's properly informed, but if the end result is this, then surely they have a responsibility to make that quite clear.

Hi Andyorch, Thank you for your thoughts. We are sending an email and I will address the points you have raised. The principle for us is that he hasn't had any warning to act. Yes, he has been a little remiss in not ensuring he made some form of regular payment, but he didn't exceed the agreed overdraft and they haven't been at all fair in not ensuring they contacted him prior to removal. Will be interesting to see their response.

Hi Andyorch, Thank you for checking that out. My son would prefer to correspond with them by email as not too confident on the phone, particularly after reading the customer services guide above. We are going to see if they will reinstate the interest free overdraft with a guarantee that it is paid into monthly until cleared. I know we may be urinating in the wind, but I would prefer to give them the option before looking at other routes. If they refuse would is there any guidance on the best, most cost effective way of dealing with this? As a family we can settle the balance immediately, as would be the cheapest option, and then he could reimburse us personally without any interest cost. We would of course close the account immediately and he would never bank with them again, but if that's how they operate then I'm sure they don't really care. It's a shame as I had a 25 year mortgage with them, plus various accounts for 30 years with no problem at all, but times change I guess.

Hi, Thank you for the reply dx100, much appreciated. He hasn't been paying anything in since he was laid off last summer. We would like to resolve this amicably if we can, but are prepared to escalate if we feel they are not being fair. I'm not familiar with SAR so apologies for my ignorance. May I ask how this would help? He obviously wants to settle his debt, but also feels, as I do, that they haven't acted appropriately in withdrawing his overdraft without ensuring they have contacted him to establish why he hasn't paid for some time. We understand that their is also an argument for why he hasn't contacted them, but he was genuinely of the opinion that as the overdraft was interest free, it wasn't accruing and so he wasn't adding to the debt and worsening the situation. I don't think there are any additional charges or interest yet but they may now be applying them I guess. Hi Andyorch, Many thanks for the reply! To be honest I wasn't aware on what the usual T&C's were with overdraft payments as I haven't had one for many years. I fully appreciate that if he hasn't paid anything in for months then they have every right to contact him to find out why, but they didn't. I've uploaded the redacted docs in PDF format. Excuse the delay, not done this for a while. As previously stated we do wish to resolve this amicably, but are prepared to fight our corner if needed. Thanks again Barclay withdrawal of overdraft letter page 2.pdf Barclays Withdrawal of Overdraft Letter.pdf

Thank you so much for the response and wow that was quick! I've forwarded the link to my son and we will both read it shortly. The money (for me at least) isn't the main issue as I and the rest of his family can cover that. It's the way they have gone about this. My son was quite worried that he'd done something seriously wrong, but after reviewing the facts, I don't believe that he has. I haven't found anything regarding a fixed duration of the overdraft and do not believe they have done enough to communicate with him. I have a paperless system with my own bank (COOP) and they regularly contact me by email or phone whenever something needs to be discussed. Your thoughts and recommendations are very much appreciated, and agree that these lessons teach you a lot about institutions you may have had faith in. We will definitely exercise due diligence in selecting which organisations for him to be involved with in the future. Thanks again. Will update with our experience in due course.

Hi, Firstly thanks in advance for any help. First time back here in many years and glad to see the community still active. My son contacted me yesterday regarding Barclays. He has a student additions account and had an agreed overdraft of £500. Like many others he has struggled to find work during the pandemic. His last job was at Asda last summer which he was laid off from around August. He believes it was around this time he was last able to make a payment. To his knowledge at no time did he exceed the overdraft which currently sits at £494.44. He received a letter on the 20th Feb stating that the overdraft had been cancelled and referencing their last correspondence not being replied to. It stated that the amount due should be settled in full immediately including any interest. He told me that he hasn't received any correspondence from them prior to this. Neither has he received any emails, phone calls or text messages, despite his original request when he opened the account for him to be paperless. The reason for his opening the letter late was that he thought it was junk mail, as rarely receives anything important through the post. When we spoke he said that he would give them a call on Monday (today) but I urged caution in him doing this as my previous experiences have taught me it's better to do something that can be documented. He appreciates that it has been some time between payments to the bank, but didn't feel that he had broken an agreement by exceeding the agreed figure and is fully committed to paying off the outstanding amount. He now has a small income from an online streaming platform and is happy to start resuming regular repayments to Barclays. I did Bank with Barclays myself for many years and my own experience of dealing with them was a good one, so I am quite disappointed in how they have acted in this instance, particularly as I recommended them to my son in the first place. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I would hope that we can resolve this situation fairly and amicably, but time will tell.