Money with Barclays frozen !

[blueowl]

Hi everybody

 

Just another Barclays customer who has had a detrimental amount of funds (£132,000) held in Barclays' God awful reconcile process. I know from reading up on this forum that they are performing AML checks and give you absolutely no information over the phone about this, other than the bog standard scripted 'your funds are with Head office & we are looking into the matter' spiel!

 

Just my 132,000 pence worth anyway for whoever is in a similar situation...

 

Have a business account with Barclays since last year & started trading online in April this year. To date, business has been really good and have generated £132k until 2 weeks ago, the 12th June, and payments were being sent by Swift & IBAN into my account from my online payment processing company who are based in the USA, similar company to PayPal for those who are unaware.

 

Anyway, went into a local branch a fortnight ago asking for a £90k withdrawal (wish I hadn't now as this is what most likely caused alarm bells within Barclays, as admittedly, it does smell of money laundering in their eyes) but needs must as I have suppliers to pay and wanted to treat myself to a new car hence requesting such a large withdrawal. Lady at the cashiers desk said fine, come back in a few days as we have to order in such a large amount of money so I thought nothing of it and carried on with my business before going back into the branch to collect MY money. Low & behold, she told me, sorry, but we can't issue you with the funds, they're with head office who will contact you.

 

In blind panic, I checked my online banking which I saw £132,000 held in reconcile and sent to COVENTRY OPS so I called up telephone banking who passed me over to the complaints team who told me that they've lodged a complaint and somebody from head office will be in touch, this was on the 12th June. Heard nothing from Barclays head office until the 18th when they tried calling me but I missed the call and it was a private number so I was unaware of who it was. No message was left so I wasn't aware it was them until I called up to check on the complaint a few days after on the 21st & the lady told me that they'd tried to call. Apparently they also sent a letter but I haven't received it. Anyway, I've been contacting them every few days ever since to find out why nobody has bothered to call me back, or write to me, but keep getting fobbed off with 'complaints can take UP TO 8 weeks to be resolved' 8 weeks! I have since written emails to the customer relations team who have issued me with another standard response of 'responses will be sent out in the mail for security reason within 5 working days'

 

I really feel like I'm banging my head against Barclays' brick wall as they just aren't responding, or taking their sweet time too. In the meantime, the same company who have been sending me my weekly payments for my online trading, are still able to do so as my account is still active, I'm just afraid to try and use my card in case the funds I have left over, will also be sent to reconcile. I have bills to pay, rent to pay, food to buy & not to mention the general distress & panic at being treated like a criminal for running a legitimate business whereby the source of payment can be easily verified, if Barclays get their butt in gear!

 

I've read up on other Barclays customers' issues with the same problem on this forum, albeit, the amount of funds in question were nowhere near as large as mine, their issues got settled within 7 days, so it's really distressing that my complaint can potentially take 2 months to be resolved. I won't have a business in that time!

 

Guys, does anybody know what I can do or do I just have to grit my teeth and wait for them to get their backside in gear? Would going to the FOS help?

 

If anybody can shed some light on this issue, then I'd be extremely grateful.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

i just had same thing happen to myself for £2360.11 this last week can you update me what i can do , thinking of taking legal action where should i go to get advice , not happy with barclays

[slick132]

High Blueowl and welcome to CAG

 

Your post has been moved into your own thread.

 

Can you give us a bit more info, eg business or personal a/c, whether you pay in large sums to your a/c regularly, whether your account sees overseas transactions in or out, etc.

 

What have you been told by the bank and what Dep'ts have you dealt with.