barclays ruined us

[pmml05]

Barclays effectively caused the closure of our limited company after 6 years

with a turn over of £350k p.a. by, closing all linked accounts.

 

despite many appeals from our local business managers

the decision was out of their hands and head office proceeded

this action although the conciqueces were quite clear.

 

Apart from having years of countless charges that we can possibly chase,

this action financially ruined both directors personally,

 

 

I personally banked with barclays for years never once was overdrawn

but as all linked accounts were closed

this also incorporated my own,

everything I had was with them.

 

Barclaycard , all credit cards were barclays bank, loans and account overdrafts were all 'called in' at the same time.

 

the effects were devistating.

to the tune of approx: £54k

and no job because of it. fortunately we are now working again.

 

it had been a battle via CCCS,

all creditors (all barclays linked) have agreed on minimum payments,

except barlaycard who following many many threats of legal action,

held out as did I but have managed to still notch up yet another £2k+ in interest and charges

before finally freezing it. and still didn't go legal accepted a slightly higher minimun payment.

 

We have been advised by a few people to take legal action against barclays.

How likely is it that we could win this?

or get anywhere.

 

We do feel that we have good grounds and have good documented evidence.

Barclays blatently ignored our experts reports on the health and company

and potential submitted to them prior to closing the accounts.

in fact they didn't even reply to our letters or appeals via the local business advisors.

 

Due to circumstances caused by events at the time we were unable to obtain another account and our hands were tied

 

What would be the best course of action that you can reccommend or is it not worth it.

 

To be Honest we have nothing to lose by taking action.

 

look forward to seeng any replies

 

Pmml

[bram stoker]

Hello and welcome. You are able to claim from closed accounts, although you will probably be asked to prove your ID. Hopefully you still have all account details and can send your DPA request if necessary.

 

You may not be able to claim the charges with respect to the Limited company account as these charges were probably itemised, and not penalty charges of the usual manner.

 

Read around the forums thoroughly, the FAQ's and libraries, then start your thread for your claim in the Barclays forum so that we can all follow your course of action, answer your questions there and give general advice.

 

Good luck, and please pop into the Bear Garden once in a while.

Vamp.

[pmml05]

Barclays effectively caused the closure of our limited company after years of trading with a turn over of £350,000.00+ p.a. by, closing all linked accounts.

 

Including the main trading account that was not overdrawn, had no liabilities as there were little facilities on the account and also was joint with my business partner, this account the local business managers did not wish to lose either.

 

Despite many appeals from our local business managers the decision was out of their hands and head office proceeded this action although the conciqueces were quite clear.

 

Apart from having years of countless charges that we can possibly chase,

 

This action financially ruined both directors personally, I personally banked with barclays for years never once was overdrawn but as all linked accounts were closed this also incorporated my own, everything I had was with them.

Barclaycard , all credit cards were barclays bank, loans and account overdrafts were all 'called in' at the same time.

 

the effects were devistating.

to the tune of approx: £54,000.

and no job because of it. fortunately we are now working again.

it had been a battle via CCCS,

all creditors (all barclays linked) have agreed on minimum payments, except barlaycard who following many many threats of legal action, held out as did I but have managed to still notch up yet another £2000.00+ on a £5000 + balance in interest and charges before finally freezing it. and still they didn't go legal as they threatened many times but accepted a slightly higher minimun payment for another 6 months. of £10 pm.

 

We have been advised by a few people to take legal action against barclays.

How likely is it that we could win this?

or get anywhere.

We do feel that we have good grounds and have good documented evidence.

Barclays blatently ignored our experts reports on the health and company and potential submitted to them prior to closing the accounts.

In fact they didn't even reply to our letters or appeals via the local business advisors.

Due to circumstances caused by events at the time we were unable to obtain another account and our hands were tied. now with every account defaulted.

our personal credit is ruined.

We do believe that barclays had a full overview of the consequences closing the accounts. but they did it anyway.

in principal they have caused all of the problems that have followed.

 

What would be the best course of action that you can reccommend or is it not worth it.

 

To be Honest we have nothing to lose by taking action.

 

look forward to seeng any replies

 

Pmml

[barracad]

What is the current status of the limited company? Does it still exist?

 

You wouldn't be able to raise a claim in a personal capacity as the charges weren't applied to your account, they were applied to the limited company. Only the limited company could start action against the bank.

[pmml05]

thank you for your reply.

 

the company is still active but insolvent, so yes we could still put in a claim against them and i presume for lost business as a result and cause for the demise finally.

 

as all of the linked accounts, were mine personally as the business advisors gave me personal loads to help the company out with promises of transfering them to the compnay, it was only on attempting this they decided to close all linked accounts.

 

which caused the damage.

 

they did have a full financial overvieew.

 

and everything was managed prior, yes we had a few debts but they were managed fine.

 

but they did 'crucify us when they decided to make the decision and we couldn't do a thing.

i

f you can suggest anything it would be gratefully accepted

 

Pmml

[barracad]

So were the charges actually applied to the business account or the 'linked' personal accounts?

 

Can you also clarify what you mean by 'linked' - the company is a seperate legal entity, so as far as I am aware they should not be linked in any way.

 

If the charges were all applied to the business account - yes the company will be able to claim them back but I assume as it is insolvent the company's affairs are being dealt with by an insolvency practicioner or official receiver? If so any successful claim would go to them in the first instance.

 

As for loss of business etc you would have to prove that this was caused purely by the unlawful charges - if you had other debts/financial difficulties not telated to the charges then it would be difficult to prove.

[CrispDust]

and I think your general question really is out of the realm of this forum, being a group of people with little or no legal expertise.

Sounds like you need professional legal or accounting advice.

[pmml05]

Thanks fore the attempted help responses, in answer to the one question raised.

 

yes Barclays, tied the totally independent Limited company account in with the 6 other accounts that I had.

 

I may add that this account also had another signatory, who was also separate.

was not overdrawn or run badly.

 

my personal accounts had never been overdrawn and all loans etc were serviced and had no bad history. except one they had overlooked that was pretty much disused that was overdrawn for 10 months and to be honest neither us or barclays noticed it until the time whereby they decided to close all 'linked'

accounts, and this included the limited compny accout.

 

an independent finacial advisor wrote a report and along with the local business managers could not see why they should close this account.

despite appeals/ from both the company and advisors on our behalf, barclays didn't even comment and when the date set arrived. they closed the accounts.

 

due to circumstances we were unable to get another account, in the mean time forced to operate a COD basis only which crippled our business. and payments due etc..

the company did not have a great deal of debt however the continuance was made impossible by the banks decision and the timescale in effect killed us..

 

yes there are charges obviously on both business and personal levels but these actions by barclays to close an independent entity account, caused us to lose our main source of income at the time and everything else that followed..

 

I have no idea if this is a fightable case and if we were to come up with a claim against the bank what stance they would have on it.

 

We believe the bank acted irresponsibly, having the total finacial overview that they had they would have known the results of this action.

 

it was made clear to them before hand an there was no mercy.. in fact very little if no response...

 

Pmml.

[henrysdad]

I think you are going to have to be quite clinical in deciding what can be claimed and what is going to be impractical.

 

Firstly, you imply that you think you have a claim against Barclays for closing all the accounts due to "forseeable" consequences. That will be difficult to prove as they will claim they acted on banking grounds as per their terms etc. Unless you are very skilled in the law you will need a solicitor and its difficult to find a good one and even harder to afford them. I imagine to mount such a case would easily involve a five figure sum. From your postings I doubt that this one has legs.

 

However, what may change this overview is if the level of charges we all contend are illegal caused the account situation which led to the account closures. So you need to concentrate on calculating the six years charges as described in the FAQ's on here and getting those back. When you succeed on this, you must bear in mind that your refunds will go into the account on which the charges were incurred so will be offset by any overdraft on that, or associated, account.

 

If you have control of the limited company (ie its not in liquidation) then you can reclaim the charges as a director on the company's behalf. Again, any refunds will go into the company account.

 

Your situation sounds quite complicated in that there are various accounts, personal and company, as well as different signatories. I presume you had issued a personal guarantee to the bank on the company account and they may be relying on that association to the linking of accounts to which you object. If they called upon you to pay up as guarantor, there may be a term in the guarantee document allowing them to dip their hand in your other accounts. If there is no such link then their action in the linking may be questionable.

 

You need to be hard-headed and practical - do not let your anger influence your actions. The truth is you probably need legal help which you almost certainly can't afford unless you can get legal aid.

[pmml05]

thank you for that , and yes the key is to tread very carfully to find the correct angle of approach regarding the grounds for the action.

 

no we had no gurantees to the bank everythig was unsecured.

 

yes even with a signatory and a clear legal separation they still placed the company account under the same 'linked accounts'

 

this does seem to be the key to this and as a result the damage that followed.

bare in mind this account had no liability for barclays to leave alone.

 

I do believe that they had initiated an exit strategi on me and this fell under the the same umberella. so therefore i have decided to isue DPA letters on all accounts and look at three separate cases, 1 the company action. 2. my personal action . and 3. my partners action and see what light it throws up.

as there was a lot of internal meetings re: this account and due to barclays silence we could never find out why..

 

I do belive if this was put before a judge even on a minor count that the overall blame may actually fall on barclays. certainely for my personal situation, as everthing i had was with or connected to them. barclycard monument sky etc..

 

I would have at least thought that there are grounds for irresponsible lending practices..at least however none of the above defaulted accounts are taking any further action. they have all accepted min payment offers to date, we shall see what the DPA revieves I suppose and then think of the best way to take it further..

 

Pmml

[henrysdad]

I am sure that the careful and thorough approach you are adopting is the best course of action.

 

It does seem a slightly odd case - like a jigsaw with a missing piece or two.

 

I would still put the idea of seeking damages for "ruining" you at the very back of your list of things to be on this case as it will, in my opinion, be very difficult and expensive to prove.

 

Good luck.

[GRAZEL]

Hi Vamp,

 

Excellent site, thanks for your help.

 

I wrote my data protection letter to Barclays and got confirmation they will send my statements for my personal accounts however I also asked for the same for our Limited company. They replied stating thet the DPA does not cover requests for information held on limited companies.

 

Is this correct? I'm not sure I understood your reply above.

 

Many Thanks,

 

Grazel.

[GRAZEL]

Does anyone know please? thanks

[thewifeandI]

This is correct - there's a different letter for a business claim in the templates area.

[thewifeandI]

Probably a good time to start a thread in the Barclays forum for best advice and support.

[GRAZEL]

Thanks.

[pmml05]

Nearly 10 years ago Barclays closed all linked accounts personal and business leaving all debt payable immediately.

no offers to resolve or agreements following just all due immediately..

 

No one has ever taken me to court,

all sent to various DCAs

all set up minimum plans and I have left it that way.

 

 

we are taking 45k debt here, killed my credit capacity at the time, all unsecured.

 

Its time I now took action to get rid of these as Barclays have just re-submitted some of the various to the same DCA.

. so now in one place.. for about 26k

 

What would you suggest,

 

 

I've never been in a situation to be able to take them to court as it wold cost me too much to do.

or so ive always thought

any advise Please

[citizenB]

You might find it better to start a thread of your own. This is an information thread and will probably not be responded to.

[dx100uk]

merged with your existing threads from 2006 when it happened