I used to work for Barclays. What's most likely happened is that someone's simply made an error when producing your statements. You can, of course, complain to the IC and so on, but when I had a similar problem on my own account (they sent the wrong month) a call to Head Office Customer Relations on 0800 282 390 meant I had the statements within 48 hours. They can fax them to you if you have access to a fax machine, otherwise they can be sent by 1st class post. It's up to you, but I think the easiest and quickest way to get the statements would be just to call.

But when someone writes a cheque, they know full well it is valid for six months, and so should make sure there's money in their account to cover it for that length of time. With mini-statements from cash machines, and internet and telephone banking, it's not too hard to keep track of your money. As I've already said, I do think the current bank charging system is unfair and the charges are excessive - but I also think that customers are responsible for making sure their account runs properly. If people can't keep track of Direct Debits, for example, then they shouldn't set them up on their account.

No they aren't. A bankers draft or building society cheque can be returned if it is found to be a forgery. Bankers Drafts are not as secure as people think - in a couple of years spent working on a branch counter, I saw three forged drafts.

Talking of guaranteed cheques, I remember reading that in one country (possibly France?) it is a criminal offence to write a cheque without funds in your account, and you can be sent to prison if you do so. Whilst I agree that current bank charges are too high, if they do end up being relaxed, I would like to see a similar law passed in this country. Whilst anyone can forget about a direct debit bouncing, there is absolutly no excuse for writing a cheque knowing full well you don't have enough money to pay it. Maybe prison is a bit harsh, but it should certainly be a crime.

Yes, but on Tuesday, the customer has his money in his HBOS account (it will be there at the start of business). So on Tuesday he gets the interest. On Friday Abbey have his money, and on Monday BACS have it.

No they don't - BACS have it on a Monday. If you want it to be there instantly, it can be, by using a CHAPS payment but unfortunatly this costs money. The interest generated on money in the BACS system is what keeps the system free for personal customers.

I hope your daughter signed the letters, as only she can request this date. If not, this will delay her claim.

Your overdraft is repayable on demand, which means Barclays can ask you to repay it at any time (but would be normally give 30 days notice as per the Banking Code). However, I am not aware of Barclays taking this course of action against any customers so far - other banks have done so.

I would like to see bank charges reflect the cost to the bank for providing the service, with a reasonable profit margin on top. I suspect, if banks do lose the income from penelty charges, we shall see them introducing tariffs for personal customers similar to those paid by business customers. Somthing like: Cheque issued: 50p Direct Debit/Standing Order paid: 30p Withdrawel from other bank ATM: 30p Counter transaction: £1 etc. I would also expect to see all payments that take the account over the limit being returned.

Talk Talk have to be the most incompetent, useless company I have ever dealt with. I have been with them just over a year and when I tried to cancel, it took nearly twenty phonecalls and emails, three cancellation forms and the threat of going to the media before they supplied the MAC which should have been given within five days. During this fiasco, I was promised seven times that someone would call me back to explain the problems, and nobody ever did. Avoid this bunch of crooks and clowns at all costs.

I remember from my banking training that proper records have to be kept for a certain period. This may be a Financial Services Authority requirement, or it may be part of the Consumer Credit Act. If I can find my big book, I'll look it up and post tomorrow.

Kind of. Debits that come out of your account overnight (cheques, Standing orders and Direct Debits) are applied after credits that go in overnight (salary payments etc). Therefore the amount credited will not be taken into consideration when deciding whether to pay a direct debit etc. There should be funds in the account at the close of business on the previous day to cover any payments and avoid charges. I worked for Barclays until last year, but doubt these things have changed since then. If you have Direct Debits, Cheques or Standing Orders due out of your account, you should have sufficient funds available to pay them in the account by the close of business on the previous working day. Note that, at many branches, credits made during the last hour or half hour of business are not processed until the following working day. There should be a notice giving the counter cut off times displayed in each branch. Barclays will pay against uncleared cheques, up to £1000 per customer, provided the account is not marked as high risk. At the start of each day, a list of all items due to go out of accounts with insufficuent funds is generated. Some of these items will be paid anyway (if it's a small amount or if you have run a good account with the bank). You'll be charged a Paid Referral for going overdrawn by more than £5, which was £25 when I worked there but I think is now £30. These are calculated on the balance at the close of business each day - so if a Direct Debit goes out overnight and makes your account overdrawn, you can pay in cash that day to cover it and avoid a charge. If your balance goes overdrawn by a further pound on a subsiquent day, you will be charged another fee. You will be charged a maximum of one fee per day and three fees per month (where month means your statment period, not calander month). I believe that your first paid referral fee each year is now automatically refunded a few days later. That was introduced just before I left, but may have changed now. If an item is unpaid (bounced), you will be charged an unpaid item fee, which is now £35. You will only be charged one of these per day (even if 10 items bounce), but there is no limit on how many per month you will be charged. If you pay in cash that day, it is technically possible for a member of staff to change a direct debit or standing order to be paid, although in the case of direct debits most staff don't know how to do this. Cheque status cannot be changed unless the bank has made an error, and it's early in the day. There's also a "Chaque Guarantee mis-use fee". I don't know how much this is, and only ever saw one customer being charged them. These apply when a cheque is paid which would have bounced had it not been guaranteed. I'm unsure of the rules surrounding these fees as they were very rare. All the above charges are applied on the day the "service" was provided. The same also applies to Student accounts, but the fees are lower. Premier Banking and Business Banking have their own rules, so I can't comment on charges on these kinds of accounts. Sorry for the length of this message...hope it's clear though.

You can re-apply for the Additions account - it's no longer credit scored, because it doesn't include an automatic overdraft any more. So anyone can have one. You have to pay a fee though, and the account features have changed a lot over the last year, so read carefully on the Barclays website to see if it will still be useful. There are three different types of Additions account available, each offering different features for a different price. To apply, just call into your branch or call telephone banking (08457 555 555 - if you don't have a membership number, just hold when it asks you for one, and after prompting you, it will connect you to an advisor who can take your details). In terms of your overdraft and card, then you may be able to get these back too, if your account is now back on the straight and narrow. A Personal Banker or Telephone Banking will be able to tell you if you can have them back - they're credit scored products but staff can look on a screen to see what you're eligable for, based on the running of your account. If you're getting paid referral fees then, depending on how many you've had, that will affect your chances. If you've had items returned unpaid recently, that will mean it's not likely you'll be agreed. However still check with them as I left Barclays last year so the policy may have changed. Whilst talking to them, mention that you're planning to shop around to see if you can get your loan cheaper - they may then be able to offer you a better rate to keep your business. But again it depends on the running of the account. In terms of the fees - claim 'em back following the advice from this site. I would suggest you don't mention the issue of fees if you decide to apply for an overdraft, however. Do the applications first, then send the letters. Lwt me know if you have any luck.

When I worked at Barclays, on "internal" documents most charges were shown as COM (Commission). They may also be shown as ADV which means the charge was applied manually and not automatically. Note this refers to Personal Accounts - I'm not sure how business banking produce their statments, because obviously those customers get more charges (for services they've used as well as penelties). But if you see COM, then that's a charge.

The Head Office Customer Relations team is probably best to write to - these people deal with serious complaints. Any complaints recieved in branches that the staff can't deal with are passed to them anyway. Because Head Office is the top of the chain, they have to deal with the complaint - they can't pass it on to anyone else because there is nobody above them. The Leicester, LE87 2BB address is known within Barclays as "Open Sort and Distribute". Any post sent to a Barclays branch should end up here where a team open it and forward it to the relevent department for action. DPA requests go to Radbrook Hall, copy statement requests go to Barclays Service Centre in Glasgow and complaints go to one of the Complex Query Centres or Head Office, depending on the nature of the complaint. If your letter is addressed to a named individual, it will be forwarded to them, but if the letter actually contains a general request (such as a copy of a statement), it will then be forwarded to the relevent department for action. Most outgoing post will use the Leicester address - only a few departments use their own address. So you'll see leaflets etc telling you to write to "Savings, Leicester LE87 2BB", even though Savings is based in Liverpool. I personally wouldn't bother writing to the branch manager as they only have limited discretion to refund charges, whereas Head Office can refund whatever they want.

I didn't have a lot to do with business banking, but I believe it's the same thing. A charge for going overdrawn or exceeding your limit. But they don't call it that any more, and if they can't explain what the charge was, they'll probably have to refund it. Having said that, when your complaint gets to someone more experienced, or someone digs out the old T&Cs, I'd expect them to realise and then explain to you why you were charged.

Was it a Student Account? Barclays used to use the phrase "Account control fee" to refer to Paid Referal charges - those charges you incur for going over your limit. But I can't think of any Barclays accounts where the fee is £12, except possibly student accounts (it was £10 when I worked there, but maybe it's gone up since)?

I used to work for Barclays. The fee is £5 per request per account. So you can request copy statments going back to the day your account is opened and so long as it's only one request, you only get charged £5. Call centre staff have no discretion to waive the charge, some branch staff do. If you have a Platinum Banking account there is no charge. If you have a few other products (savings/insurance/mortgage etc) with Barclays you may qualify for a free upgrade to Platinum Banking.

I never saw a DPA request. I had a couple of people say they wanted certain information and quote the DPA, but it wasn't necessery for them to actually make a DPA request as the information they wanted was available to them anyway. That's another reason we ask why people want things - why pay £10 and wait 40 days to find somthing that you can find out for free?

I left the bank before people started re-claiming charges, but I did used to ask why people wanted copy statments. The reason I asked was sometimes, the information they wanted was available elsewhere. If so, they may be able to get their answer quicker. Also some customers asked for copy statments to use as proof of previous address when applying, for example, to rent a house. Our copy statments don't show the address, so by asking why the customer wanted them, I could 1) save the customer £5 and 2) save them waiting a few days for somthing that would be useless to them when it arrived.

I used to work for Barclays. For most branches any post recieved in the branch is forwarded to the Leicester Customer Service Centre to be dealt with. In a few parts of the country there are local customer service sections who deal with post and phone calls, but these are being phased out in favour of the Leicester address and the 08457 555555 phone number. If you look on your bank statment you'll probably see the Leicester address at the bottom for correspondence.