Barclays Bank taking my benefits

[laalinz]

I have just spend an hour on the phone to Barclays Bank.

 

After checking my balance on Friday 22 October my child benefit had gone into my account so I order some food shopping to be delivered to my door on Saturday 23 oct.

 

Today when the dleivery arrived I was told that there was a problem with my card so I could not have the delivery. (the delivery lady was VERY nice).

 

I went into my online barclays account to check what had gone wrong to discover that they have removed my reserve charges but it was dated 25 October which is Monday!!

 

So I rang them, first adviser but me throught to a manger who's attitude was shocking. Said that the process satrted on Fri to take this money but it does not leave till Monday...............erm its already gone! Said that as I was in finacial hardship I would like a copy of my bank statements or charges, he as good as laughed at me and said that he was not prepared to carry on with conversation. her hung up.

 

I called back, this time to fail the security measures reagrding my account............questions she asked such as works telephone number!!!!! I have changed jobs alot due to a number of redundancies and havn't thought to let them have new numbers, so she hung up on me.

 

I rang back, spoke to an adviser and asked to speak to a manager........was transfered back to yet another adviser who took me through a normal security check and then transfered me to complaints manager.

 

He said that the process to take this money started on Fri................eventually admitted that yes it was taken on Frid but they dated it Monday on my statement. (is this legal)?

 

Informed him that he had took my child benefit and left me with no money to feed my child (don't worry though I do have a enough in another account to feed her).

 

I got my reserve taken off the account there and then. Like I said to him, you give me a £200 reserve but infact you gave me a £120 reserve, he said yeah I suppose that is true. I am sick of paying these changes.

 

My question is how likely am I do be able to claim these charges back. I can easily show I am in finacial hardship with these account and infact the guy I was talking to said that yes I can see you are in finacial hardship.

 

he is sending me two years worth of charges information out as I did reclaim nearly two years ago.

 

I am soooo angry with their customer service department. I ended up in tears after the second woman said I had failed the security check for my account.

 

Thanks

[slick132]

Hi Laalinz,

 

Do you mean they've taken Reserve Fees out of your a/c, or that they've removed your Personal Reserve limit ?

 

If you've suffered default charges while in Financial Hardship you can try and reclaim them. Write to the bank first and, if they refuse to refund them, complain to the FOS.

 

If they've taken money out of your a/c that was paid in as Benefits, you can try and protect this income using the Right of Appropriation. See here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?36790-Is-the-bank-taking-your-Benefits&p=289030&viewfull=1#post289030

 

An urgent complaint to the FOS by phone can sometimes result in the bank refunding quickly but don't pin any hopes on this.

 

8-)

[laalinz]

They took the reserve fees out of my account Slick, but when I spoke to them they said they would not leave my account till Monday as theyhad put Mondays date on my statement, when in fact thay had already removed them on Friday. I removed the reserve amount while I was on the phone tothe complaints manager, as I was sick of paying the fees. It a viscous circle. You go into your reserve they charge you, you pay their charges so you need to go back into your reserve the next month.

[slick132]

OK, I'm with you now.

 

I hope my post above may be of some help to you.

 

8-)

[laalinz]

Your above post is great, many, many thanks.

 

x

[laalinz]

Received a letter from Barclays this morning informing me that on the 26th I exceeded my over raft.

 

"Well of course I am as on the 22 you removed your reserve fee charges and dated it the 24, this resulted in me being over my reserve. I then removed my reserve after getting very annoyed at you"

 

This has been cleared as my pay as now gone in.

 

I was told on the 23rd when I rang to complain about them removing my child benefit that they would send me a list of charges, while I am still waiting for this they did manage to send me a letter to tell me about been over my overdraft.

 

I hate Barclays

 

Looks like I am going to have to put an official complaint into Barclays as they haven't sent me the list of charges as promised.

[slick132]

Hi LL,

 

Give them a few more days to send you the list and then make a formal compalint.

 

8)

[laalinz]

Thanks, will do Slick.

 

You keep me calm

[laalinz]

Still nothing from Barclays regarding my charges

[slick132]

Hi Laalinz,

 

Perhaps a brief letter to Barclays summarising the tel con on 23/10 during which you were promised a list of default charges without the need to pay for them with a SAR.

 

Tell them you require this list within 7 days so you set about reclaiming them on the basis of your current Financial Hardship.

 

Then at least you've put in writing what they said they'd do for you.

 

8)

[laalinz]

Emailed Barclays Customer Relations department today as said this:

 

I rang on the 23 October to enquiry about a transaction that you had taken from my account (my child benefit) with regard to your charges.

 

After speaking to four different people and been cut off twice I eventually spoke to a very helpful gentleman called Gareth who said he was a customer relations manager.

 

After long conversation with Gareth and after explaining my financial hardship situation, he said he would send me two years worth of charges information to my home address.

 

I have yet to receive this although you did manage to send me a letter about been over my overdraft (which resulted after I removed my reserve on the 23 October that was on the account)

 

Please can you arrange for the list of charges to be sent to my home address as promised by Gareth. As I am currently in financial hardship as you will see from my current account.

 

I look forward to hearing from you

[laalinz]

at Barclays.

 

They have today sent me three letters regarding transactions on this account. Hope I manage to explain what they have done.

 

They sent me a letter on the 3 Nov telling me that the had refused a £10.00 cheque due to insufficent funds (checked on line this is not the case on that date)

 

Second letter telling me they had refusesd a DD for home insurance on the 4th due to insufficent funds. Both this and cheque credited back to account on 4, on my statement this is credited just before a payment I made to Avon (yes I am a Avon lady). Now the 3rd letter tells me that they have paid this transaction to Avon even though there was insufficent funds. This is not the case this transaction leave me with just under £8.00 left clear as they have credited the cheque and dd to account on the 4th.

 

They have charged me £8.00 each for these transactions total of £24.00. It seems to me that they are fiddling around with my transactions for maximum fees.

 

I am more then fuming about these

[slick132]

Hi Laalinz,

 

Not sure what others think, but the balance as per your internet banking doesn't necessarily show the correct CLEARED balance that's available on your a/c.

 

So what you think looks like them fiddling with balances and dates could be their system showing slightly different figures.

 

On the other hand, they may be playing (automatically) with figures to their best advantage.

 

There's certainly nothing to stop you going into your branch and asking for a clear explanation. If they don't explain it clearly enough or you think you're being fobbed off with nonsense, tell them so.

 

8-)

[dx100uk]

yep.

 

i'd fire off the notice of appropriation letter soonest too.

 

dx

[laalinz]

Hi Slick and dx and thanx for your replies,

 

Slick I know you are right and that is how they are going to explain it to me. I was spitting feathers and sometimes venting it out on here does wonders to calm me down .

 

I now have a other account with Lloyds and am all good to go, just need to change my DD etc over and inform tax credits, wages department of where I would now like them to send MY (not barclays) money, from now on.

[laalinz]

Still no charges information.

 

Although did receive a letter yesterday regarding them juggling my transactions around to their advantage. Just basically saying what Slick said.

[slick132]

If you've had no response, send a further email saying if they don't respond within 7 days, you escalate your complaint to the Barclays CEO's office.

 

8-)

[laalinz]

Cheers slick, as always you know and give good advice.

[Spit]

Good to see you are changing banks.

[laalinz]

Trying to get a handle on it Spit, thanks

[laalinz]

Have today, made arrangements for wages, child credit and tax credit to go into other account. Hubby is going to ring and changing all household DD's to his account. Have sat tonight and filled in forms for a DMP with CCCS

 

I will still be fighting the sharks all the way for charges etc but I am taking control back

 

my debt

[slick132]

Hi Laalinz,

 

Way to go

 

8-)

[dx100uk]

10/10

 

what a change from your 1st desparate posting attitude well done.

 

dx

[laalinz]

Thank you.

 

It is only through you wonderful people on here I have found courage to face my debts head on and tackle them.

 

The first scary step was counting them all up and admitting I was over my head!

 

Thank you so much

[laalinz]

My employer has made a boob and put this months salary in to my Barclays account.............I will be seeing about this tomorrow.

 

My question here is that Barclays have taken fees from this salary. They have charged me 2 reserve fees dating 1 Oct till 1 Nov @£22 totalling £44. I went into my reserve on the 11 October but I phoned and cancelled reserve it on the 23rd October so why are they charging my from 1 Oct till 1 Nov?

 

I am sooo sick of Barclays Bank, they shouldn't even have had the chance to get there hands on any money.

 

the bit on your statement that says reserve has today changed from 0 to n/a. Still no sign of my chargers information either, although they have seen fit to write where its concerned about me owing them money eveytime.