Barclays Bank Reserve charge's

[paul.cominscoch]

My wife and I am on pension credit of £217 a week.

We live in private accommodation and our rent is £575 a month.

The council pay £81.02 per week + £20 a week Discretionary Housing Payment.

Barclays Bank have put a reserve on our account of £150 and

I have been charged reserve charge's by Barclays

Bank of up to £22 a time, which were

unaffordable to me and have been trapped in a

cycle of incurring charges which only added

to my financial hardship.

On Monday the 18 Mar 2013 I cancelled my reserve and today my wife received a texed saying we were being charged anther £44 pound and we do not no what for.

This is eating away our rent for the 14 Apr 2013 and now there is only £24 pound left in our account.

Are Banks allowed to make these charge's on some one on pension credit?

[Andyorch]

Time to move and end your relationship with this grasping Bank...open a new account not connected and transfer your credits and debts...plenty more fish in the sea.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[slick132]

Hi Paul C and welcome to CAG.

 

I think you should read this article - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?557-Letter-for-an-application-for-consideration-for-hardship

 

In the past year or two, have you spoken to the bank to say you were having financial difficulties in meeting priority payments like rent, council tax, utilities, etc.

 

Alternatively, could it have been apparent to the bank that you were having FD's from signs like :-

 

1. You incurred Reserve Usage Fees more often.

 

2. You went into overdraft, whether authorised or not, more often.

 

3. The RUF's have created a spiral which brings on more RUF's.

 

[paul.cominscoch]

Hi slick132 and thank you for your reply.

The account only started last year, 27 Oct 2012.

We have an appointment to see some one this coming Monday 22 Mar 2013 at 13.30

All they are going to do then is explain to me what the last to reserve charge's was for after me cancelleing my reserve.

What my wife was told yesterday from a bank clark that the last 2 reserve charge's are from the 25 Jan 2013 and 26 Feb 2013

I intend to use this appointment to explin to them were having financial difficulties because of these reserve charge's of 22 pound.

Is it true they are not allowed to use payment's paid into my account Rent from the Council to pay off their reserve charge's? And also, is my pension credit not clast as a benefit and also not be used to pay off reserve charge's?

I found this to day "section 187 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992" And this "There is an Act of Parliament which over-rides banks taking charges from your account if you are in receipt of any of the following benefits." I'm not sure how far this will go with my Bank on Moday. I will not use it just yet. But Just wait and see how this appointment go's on Monday.

I was also thinking of giving them a copy of this latter,

 

[insert name and

address of bank]

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

Account number: [insert the number of the bank account you are writing to reclaim from]

 

I am writing to request that you repay all the charges in relation to direct debits, unauthorised overdrafts and standing orders that have been applied to my account from the 27 Oct 2012

 

section 187 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992

There is an Act of Parliament which over-rides banks taking charges from your account if you are in receipt of any of the following benefits.

• Income Support

• Tax Credits

• Child Benefit

• Job seekers allowance

• Incapacity benefit

• Disability living allowance

• Attendance Allowance

• CSA payments

• Other DWP payments.

.This includes Rent paid into my account from Ceredigion County Council

These social security benefits are granted to stop hardship and are designed to meet basic day to day needs, and are exempt and are protected under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 sub section 187. from arrestment in terms of section 187 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (see Enforcement of Civil Obligations in Scotland, Scottish Executive report, at paragraph 5.245).

 

Section 45 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 Chapter 21 part 1 is an identical provision to the said section 187 of the 1992 Act. This stipulates that the banks can not apply any charges to money received as benefit, and any such charges are unlawful and therefore disallowed.

 

 

It just needs to be filled in. Could you advise me, is this information crect?

Thanks again.

Edited March 23, 2013 by paul.cominscoch

[paul.cominscoch]

Hi Andy and thank you. I'm sure you are right but I don't have sufficient evidence of identity, like a pass port or full driving driving licence with a photo.

Regards.

paul.cominscoch

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Paul, and welcome to CAG!

 

The Barclays Reserve fee is one of the most grasping there is - a complete and utter rip-off. You really must leave Barclays as soon as possible.

 

Since I joined CAG in 2008 I have been hoping there was some way to challenge the charges and your post above has amazed me. Hopefully as you are in receipt of benefits the bank should follow the Social Security Administration Act 1992, Section 187 and refund your charges.

 

However, your post may have helped me and thousands of other people if the charges can be challenged by anyone in receipt of Child Benefit.

 

I closed my Barclays business account leaving an overdraft of £500 ish, and they can sing for it, but like you I incurred a staggering number of Reserve fees, well in excess of the £500 and have been absolutely furious that there appeared to be nothing I could do about it.

 

On one occasion I was technically £2.37 overdrawn for about 12 hours because I took £30 out of a cash machine having miscalculated. I only actually needed £20 and funds went in the next morning, but of course that cost me yet another £22.

 

I have a huge pile of letters and statements and have never added up the total of Reserve fees, but it must be well over £1,000. In some months they charged me four or five reserve fees and this of course completely wiped out my entire Child Benefit.

 

I asked for my overdraft facility to be returned and they refused saying that if I didn't want to pay the reserve fee I shouldn't use the reserve. People use the reserve because they have no choice - no-one would use it unless they had to - and for Barclays it's a nice little moneymaker. A £250 arranged overdraft wouldn't make them anything like this amount of money.

 

Andy and Slick, what do you think? Would it be possible for anyone who has lost all their Child Benefit in Reserve fees to demand that Barclays repay it because they have been in breach of Section 187 of the Act. Child Benefit goes directly into a bank account so it's easy to prove who has been receiving it.

 

Thank you, Paul.

 

DD

[paul.cominscoch]

Hi and thank you. Don't raise your hops just yet because I'm still verry uncertain about the law. There is so much about on the internet that just blows my mind and understand verry littel about it all.

Sorry I did not see you name any where?

But thank you.

Regards.

paul.cominscoch

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Paul,

 

Don't worry. I'm not raising my hopes but I do think it is a very interesting argument and it's not one I've seen before.

 

I'll wait to hear what Slick and Andy think, and I might call the FOS and see what they think about it on Monday.

 

Regards,

 

Daniella

[paul.cominscoch]

PS Found your name! Thank you Desperate Daniella.

[Desperate Daniella]

I have never thought about Child Benefit as a 'benefit' in the same way as other benefits but I do know from FOS that they are not supposed to take money from your account for offsetting, for example, before you are allowed to pay your mortgage/rent, utility bills, tv licence, council tax, work travel and, of course, food, though Barclays wouldn't care if you starved. As one particularly nasty Barclays/Mercers debt collector told me once, if I didn't give him £50 towards my credit card balance there and then he would have debt collectors banging on my door the following morning, despite the fact that I told him it would leave me with no money at all, and my daughter at the time was four.

 

Obviously that was before I found CAG.

 

If you have come across something which could make Barclays stop charging this reserve fee to anyone receiving benefits, including Child Benefit, and they have to refund those charges when they have taken them from benefits in the past, you'd hear people cheering all over the UK.

 

DD

[paul.cominscoch]

I know and thats why I find it so hard to believe. My problem is this, this law date's back to 1992 and my no longer apply. For instants, Social Security no longer exists. I do hope I can find all the answers I need befor my appointment on Monday the 25.

Regards.

paul.cominscoch

[Desperate Daniella]

There have been some amendments, but I can't see anything about this section being amended.

 

Actually, although you may get some more information in the meantime, you can phone the Financial Ombudsman first thing on Monday and tell them about it, and they will give you a complaints reference number which you can quote to Barclays. You can phone their Customer Services Head Office - FOS will give you a number to get through to the proper office, not the call centre - and hopefully they will sort things out before you have to go to the bank. Every time Barclays took money from my account for offsetting I phoned FOS, quoted the reference number to Barclays, and Barclays put the money straight back. I only wish I'd known about the Child Benefit issue because I have never raised that with FOS.

 

DD

[paul.cominscoch]

OK thank you for that I will give them a try. I am sure of one thing thouh, I was told by Ceredigion County Council here in Aberystwyth that Bank's are "not" allowed to take rent they have paid into your account and use it for any other reason than Rent. But, I can see it all now, the Bank will say "We paid last months rent useing the reserve to pay the rent with and tolk next month rent to pay back the reserve" lol And it go's on and on!

[Desperate Daniella]

That is outrageous. Make sure FOS are aware of this. Barclays are completely out of order and I am glad you are fighting back.

[paul.cominscoch]

Gone are the days when Social Security posted benefits out to them that needed it, and the Council posted rent checks to pay the rent yourself, and when pensions were paid by pensions book, when Banks were only used to pay your bill's your self!!

[Desperate Daniella]

It's called progress.

[matt v atos]

It's called progress.

 

Its called being ripped off !

[Desperate Daniella]

Its called being ripped off !

 

I said that in Post 7

[matt v atos]

So you did sorry:oops:

[Desperate Daniella]

We are in total agreement.

[slick132]

Hi PaulC,

 

First things first - please answer the Q's that I asked in my post #4 above.

 

Re the meeting at the bank, you'll probably meet a junior member of staff who will explain why you incurred RUF's and how you may avoid them in the future. They'll probably have no discretion about refunding the RUF's.

 

You should take the chance to hand in the Letter of Appropriation so the bank is warned that any further payments into the a/c for housing or other benefits must not be used to pay the RUF's.

 

As well as trying to stop Barclays charging you more RUF's, we can see if anything can be done to get some of the charges refunded.

 

However, you MUST focus on moving your banking elsewhere. You need to have all your income paid into a new a/c You can then leave Barclays to whistle for payment of their RFU's and any other charges they've hit you with.

 

Check out what's on offer with basic bank accounts - there are several to choose from if you look around.

 

Edited March 23, 2013 by slick132

[paul.cominscoch]

So being ripped is progress then, for the Bank's! So your both right!

[matt v atos]

Get your money back mate then stick two fingers up to them

[paul.cominscoch]

Hi slick132

Look I have dyslexia and it's hard enough trying to explain what it is that the Bank is doing to my pension credit and rent from the Council. I read your post and find it hard to understand. I think you are asking, Did question 1 2 and 3 cours me to be charged for useing the Banks reserve?

Well, my answer would be yes.

Also I can tell you, the Bank never told me about the reserve and that I would be charged a fee of £22 pound for useing it until I got a letter from the Bank saying what I was being charged for! By itself, this cannot be legal. On the other hand, I cannot prove it ether!

 

About the notice of appropriation. It say's to right everything down that is said. How can I? Also what is the address of the customer services departmen for barclays bank?

OK I think thats enough for now.I must try to understand this letter of appropriation and try to fill it in.

Thank's again slick132

Best Regards.

paul.cominscoch

[slick132]

Hi Paul and I'm sorry if my posts were hard to understand.

 

My most important question is this - Have you sent Barclays a letter or told someone at your branch that the Reserve Usage Fees are causing you Hardship.

 

You can print off a copy of the Letter of Appropriation and sign it. You can then take it with you to the bank to give to the staff member. Here's a link to the letter - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?36790-Is-the-bank-taking-your-Benefits&p=289030&viewfull=1#post289030

 

Fill in your own name and address and you can just address the letter to your local branch. Then take it with you to the meeting.

 

Next week, try to find a new basic bank account that you can open as soon as possible. You can then get your pension credits and rent payments paid to the new account where Barclays cannot touch it.