Reclaim Barclays Bank Charges

[citizenB]

As far as I can see, one way or another you would have been hit with the charge, so I guess I am missing the blindingly obvious as well.

 

 

That aside, if others had any comments to make then they would have already made them. So it is obvious they agree with slick's assessment of the situation !

 

There is an example of unfair treatment regarding charges in the BCOBs articles linked in my signature. It might be worth your having a read to see if it will be of any use to you.

[dx100uk]

whats the £5 'bank charge' you mention caused the issue?

 

an account fee?

 

dx

[Mrgreengenes]

OK, now three of the site team have replied. Many thanks for this.

 

dx100uk, £5 was what I spent online. It is this transaction which has caused the charge.

 

Forget the the overdraft and charges for it. It is only relevant because Barclays have used it as an excuse to charge me unfairly.

 

Anyway, to simplify the situation, I will describe a fictitious scenario more simply:-

 

My online bank statement at the beginning of a day shows a current balance of £25. The current cleared balance also shows £25. I now make a payment to vendor A of £5. My current balance is still £25 but my current cleared balance now shows £20. The £5 for Vendor A has been put into a holding account and should be allocated to Vendor A awaiting his application to bank for his money. This £5 is no longer available to me as my current cleared balance shows the reduction.

 

Now, the next day, along comes Vendor B who takes out £30 from my account reducing the current cleared balance to - £10, or £10 overdrawn. Barclays do not charge customers for going overdrawn. (Please don't allow this to cloud the logic in this scenario.)

 

The next day Vendor A applies to the bank for his £5. But, as my account is now overdrawn, Barclays bang on a charge of £8 saying that they have paid it "even though there were insufficient available cleared funds in your account."

 

Now, my argument is this. At the time of purchase from Vendor A, there was sufficient funds for the purchase and I have a printout of my statement proving this. I also have a printout from Barclays showing all of the outstanding transactions on that day. The amount is exactly the same as the difference between my current balance and the current cleared balance.

 

Therefore, how can the £5 be part of my current cleared balance one day and then be charged for due to insufficient funds the next day? Is this not an example of unfair treatment by the Bank under BCOBS?

 

This must be happening to many customers in a similar situation. Do I have a case to take action against Barclays? Would it be worth my while complaining to the Banking Ombudsman over this?

[slick132]

Hi MrG,

 

You don't say if the transaction with Vendor B took place before or after the one with Vendor A and I think this would affect your fictitious scenario.

 

Surely you need to say when the transaction with Vendor B took place and when the Vendor applied to the bank for the £30.

[Mrgreengenes]

Day one :- I make a purchase of £5 from Vendor A. Current cleared balance £20

 

Day two :- Vendor B takes £30 out of my bank. Transaction completed. Current cleared balance £10 overdrawn.

 

Day three :- Vendor A applies to bank for £5. Current cleared balance still £10 overdrawn as money should have already been allocated to Vendor A.

 

Then I get a letter from from Barclays detailing the charge.

Edited April 28, 2013 by Mrgreengenes
Simplify fictitious scenario

[Mrgreengenes]

Are you aware that you are being spied on by Barclays whenever you use their site? Most cookies are legitimate.

 

First of all go to the very top right hand corner of the online website. You will see a tiny blue link which says cookies. Click on that and you will see that you have a choice of what cookies to allow or not. The top line is essential cookies you cannot disable.

 

However, last month my account transactions were no longer visible. All I got was a page with the Barclays watermark on it.

 

I went through the online help desk procedure and eventually they told me I had to uninstall then reinstall ALL of my browsers as the fault was present in all of them them. Luckily I did not do this. I found the problem myself.

 

I use a programme called "Do Not Track Plus" downloaded from a trusted website. This programme prevents companies from spying on you without your permission. Google have been doing it for years but not on my computer. Google Adsense are spying on YOU right now unless you have DNT+ or a similar programme installed. Even Facebook tracks some websites you are visiting which have nothing to do with Facebook. Anyway, back to my solution.

 

DNT+ list any companies who are attempting to spy on your online activities. I found that two companies called Test and Target and Omniture spy on you while you are using the Barclays website.

 

When I enabled spying from Test and Target, I was able to access my account transactions. When I disabled spying from T & T again, my transactions were hidden from me. Therefore, I feel that Barclays are using cookies or scripts, or whatever the little programme is called, to spy on our online activity without our knowledge or permission. Most users won't be using DNT+ or a similar programme so they won't know about the spying activities. Omniture remains blocked without any adverse affect.

 

What is even more sinister is that the website will not work if the spying is disabled.

 

Does anyone know if this is a breach of the cookie policy that was recently introduced? Has anyone else had similar experiences?

[Conniff]

In accordance with UK regulations, there will be a notification that they are using cookies and that to continue use means you agree to their use.

 

All UK websites have to show this.

[Mrgreengenes]

In accordance with UK regulations, there will be a notification that they are using cookies and that to continue use means you agree to their use.

 

All UK websites have to show this.

 

The programme may not be a cookie. If it was why does the site not work without it? Also I have disabled all non essential cookies.

[renegadeimp]

Sure its not Javascript it's blocking?

[slick132]

Hi Mr G,

 

In response to the reply you made in post #12 before you edited it, I DID read your post #10.

 

I'm not clear why you describe the two transactions differently. With regard to Vendor A, you confirm the date of purchase and the date the Vendor asked for the money from the bank.

 

But for Vendor B, you simply say they took the money from your a/c on day 2.

 

In your example, can you confirm when you made the purchase/transaction with Vendor B.

 

[Mrgreengenes]

Vendor B's payment was a regular payment set up previously. It is the same situation as in Post 5.

[Mrgreengenes]

Sure its not Javascript it's blocking?

 

I don't know what programme is being blocked. The main point is Barclays are employing a 3rd party to spy on it's customers without their knowledge.

[slick132]

Hi MrG and thanks for explaining that.

 

I now understand the point you're making and agree with your view.

 

I also agree you should demand that Barclays refund any amount taken regarding the £5 transaction. They reduced your available a/c balance to acknowledge the anticipated removal of the £5. When the £5 was taken by Vendor A, your cleared balance would not have altered and your overdraft would not have increased.

 

I would make an initial demand making the basic points. If they fail to respond as required, I'd then send an LBA giving them a final 14 days to respond. In the LBA, I'd threaten direct court action using the BCOB Regulations to recover the charge. If they fail to respond as required, take court action using BCOBs without further warning.

 

Write to Barclays HQ by Recorded Del'y so you have proof of postage.

 

I assume a charge was made by the bank for Vendor B's transaction and agree that it should hav e been made.

[Mrgreengenes]

Thank you for your answer. I will follow your advice and let you know the outcome.

 

I apologise if I sometimes come across as a bit cheeky. You are only trying to help, which is very much appreciated.

[prawn sandwich]

hi, i have this EXACT same problem with barclays but when i try and argue my point no one gets it?! every month this happens to me at least on one transaction. ive noticed that online transactions and transactions over the weekend cause this alot. i see this post was from a while back, did anything come of it??

[dx100uk]

hi, i have this EXACT same problem with barclays but when i try and argue my point no one gets it?! every month this happens to me at least on one transaction. ive noticed that online transactions and transactions over the weekend cause this alot. i see this post was from a while back, did anything come of it??

 

it might be more prudent to

start a new thread

 

dx

[Mrgreengenes]

This topic was closed on 03/07/19.

If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there.

If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened.

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