Barclays Bank Policy/Nationwide Policy

Not sure if I am going to get anywhere, but I am going to the Banking Ombudsman over this - which should probably go under the heading of "Scam"!!

Money was paid into one of my Barclays bank accounts, for which I have a stamped, receipted counterfoil in the paying-in book. Three weeks ago when I realised that this money had not been credited to my account I immediately telephoned the customer service department in Coventry. I was promised a call-back the next day at a certain time. The call back came at more or less the appointed time; I was given a complaints number and transferred to the manageress of the branch where the money had been paid in - which was some 20 miles away from my home. She asked for a copy of the counterfoil to be forwarded to her branch. I went into my local branch and they took a photocopy and faxed it up the same day. For the next two weeks I was kept hanging on in telephone queues - trying to find out what was happening - no acknowledgement from the manageress concerned. I then put in complaints - one via the computer and one via my local branch - about the treatment. These yielded a phone call from the said manageress who said that they were still looking into the matter. I asked her if she accepted that the photocopy was genuine. She agreed that it was, but she said that it was against the bank's policy to refund any money into the account until an internal audit had been done to find out what had happened - since the books had balanced on that day! The money concerned was a substantial amount. In many cases I could see that it could mean that someone could be in real financial distress through this. I have not been given any date as to when the bank's investigations will be completed - it could take weeks (it has already taken three weeks!). I said that it was their problem, and not my problem, that something had gone wrong with their system, and I should not have to pay for their inefficiency. The manageress did not budge! I said that on principle I could not leave money with a firm like that, and if the refund was not made by the next day then I would close all but the account in dispute. I went in to my local branch the next day, to check, no luck - and so I closed all the accounts that I had threatened to close!! It made me feel a lot better - but still did not get me the refund!

When I lost money through my Nationwide debit card being cloned - and a whole host of money being taken from my account - I contacted the Nationwide. They actually said to me that they usually keep an eye on any unusual withdrawals from accounts - and having nearly a £1,000 taken out in the space of 5 days, but a luggage company, would fall into this catagory. The money was refunded to my account within a matter of days!

You need to go to the ombudsman for advice Sandra.

Sorry to hear about this Sandra but not at all surprised.

I don't know anything about Barclays but my mother had a similar problem with Abbey (now Santander). She had taken out a bit of cash from her passbook account in branch and didn't check her balance until she came home. She found £1000 approx extra had been taken out. You can imagine the anxiety this caused for an elderly person. No matter how much I 'reassured' her that, as she had not signed for this amount it would have to be returned, she was extremely stressed out about it.

Being typically & stubbornly independent she would not let me help to sort it out and the worst part of all this was the time taken by the 'investigation' they said had to take place and the lack of information coming from them.

To cut a long story short, it took a good few months and lots of phone calls/ correspondence & visits to the branch (by my mother) before the money was returned with no apology or compensation.
We later found out , through the grapevine, that there had 'probably' been fraud committed by a member of staff but we heard no more. I'm afraid that I would not have let them to get away with this so lightly but was told by my mother to leave it as she could not take the worry of it all.

Needless to say she eventually closed all accounts with Abbey and is over-suspicious of every bank account dealing she has had since.
If you read the financial letters in the Sunday Daily Mail financial section, they have a worryingly lot of this kind of thing reported there. You may already know but there's a gentleman on there who investigates situations such as these and gets very good results. I will find out his name & where to write to & let you know later today. He is very scathing of certain banks/ Building societies for not doing enough about what he considers to be 'in house' fraud.

Good luck Sandra. I hope you get better treatment than my mother but I'm sure you will if you 'shout' loud enough.

Thanks Glyn and Jan

I'm very sorry to hear about the case of your mother, Jan - it's horrifying to hear things like this. Any info from the paper would be welcome! I am going to the ombudsman - however I do know that this is not a quick thing - as still involved with one Ombudsman, following my father's death (coming up a year ago now!)

I do find it amazing just how differently these banks/building societies work. One of the other reasons that I put the post on here was that I know that a lot of people use Barclays Bank to transfer money between England and Spain. It is probably going to be more of a nightmare if something goes wrong with one of these transfers - as opposed to dealing with a bank that is close at hand. To be honest, since I have been told by the receiving bank that the books for that particular day balanced .....well!! As you know they can quickly tell if you give them the date stamped number combined with the number at the side of the date stamp.

Oh, the joys of finance!!:(

I will be passing the hat around later!!;)

.

Hello Sandra, I just looked in my Sunday Mail and the person I was referring to is Tony Hetherington - It says :

Quote "If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS. Because of the high volume of inquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send copies, not original documents, as we regret, correspondence cannot be returned."

I have been reading his answers to letters in the Sunday Mail for years and he seems to get very good results &/or offer sound advice. I expect the financial institutions know of him by now and maybe just the mention of a letter to him which could be printed in a National newspaper (in the first instance) could help hurry along a satisfactory solution to your problem.

You can read a few of his readers letters here : http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/money/sea ... re=article

Many thanks for that, Jan!


I will give him a go.




PS Could we have a "Thank You" Smiley??

You're welcome Sandra. I will look into getting a 'Thank you' smiley on here, if it's possible!

Just an update on this!!

On Friday, with steam coming out of his wife's ears, M scoured the internet for the e-mail address of the top man at Barclays - and a long letter was sent to him!!

Result - an immediate response from the second down - he phoned me first thing this morning - and then he telephoned the branch concerned. By 4pm the missing money was in my account - plus compensation!! Seems that it's not what you know, but who you know;)

Yes Sandra, they who have it will always have it