Barclays Bank

[Poppy]

I have been a customer of Barclays Bank for over 50 years. Both my son and daughter joined them when reaching the age when they in turn needed banking services. My daughter has now had a very worrying experience with this outfit. To cut a long story short, about a month ago she had her account hacked, and something over £1500 was cleared out of her current account, together with a further £500 from a savings account. She reported that fraud immediately, and met with a stone wall on beaurocrats from the bank. They did, however agree to change all the security questions etc associated with the account while investigation proceeded.
Forms were sent, which she completed and returned by post.
IT HAS NOW HAPPENED AGAIN !, once more just after she has been paid. After over FOUR HOURS on the phone which got her nowhere she went to a local branch of Barclays, to discover that they have NO RECORD OF THE FORMS BEING RECEIVED, and if that wasn't enough, NO CHANGE OF SECURITY DETAILS HAD BEEN MADE! This is quite possibly the reason that the fraudsters have been able to strike again. Oh , and the Police ? A total waste of space, she was given a 'crime' number and they went back to their doughnuts !!

Perhaps someone from Barclays is reading this sorry tale. If so, they may like to reassure me that this is an isolated case and that the way it has been handled is unusual, but my brief search on Google shows that it is far from the case, and that they appear to be the worst of all the banks.

In short why should I remain a Barclays customer, and instead close all my accounts and take my money elsewhere ?

[DaveB]

so sorry to hear that Poppy, my first call would be to the banking ombudsman, followed by publicity, maybe watchdog? or try the money saving expert website I find there is a lot of very good advice on there.

[marshman]

Curiously enough, my experience with Banks after fraud and attempted fraud has been exactly opposite, but all cases are different.. As Dave said, try the Ombudsman.

There is also a Fraud Dept run by the police in London who were also most helpful, but it is too much to expect a local Branch to help - they just do not have the expertise.  All banks have their own Fraud departments and you should contact them IMMEDIATELY. All sounds a bit odd to me.

[NeilB]

I've only had one experience of fraud when my card was cloned and this was several years ago.  Barclays actually spotted it before me and contacted me to confirm the payments, one was in Canada and the other in Malaysia.  Unfortunately I was not on a world tour so they issued a new card and after filling out a few forms I received a full refund.

Try the Ombudsman and kick up a fuss on Twitter, Facebook etc.  I've heard this can produce results.

[grendel]

Ah well, back to stuffing it all in the mattress then,

Over the years I have had several bad experiences with banks, Nat West were the worst, spiralling me into debt, they charged me for going overdrawn, the charges were more than the amount I had gone overdrawn, then they sent me a letter, charging me £25 for sending it- then as I had gone further overdrawn they charged me again for going overdrawn, and sent me another letter.........

after ending up several hundred pounds in the red, for an overdrawn amount of a couple of pounds, my wages went in, by the end of that month I was overdrawn again, and it all went round again, as my wages were barely enough for a new family of 3 to survive on.

I ended up taking out a loan to repay the charges. and eventually after they had repeated this, and I was now several thousand pounds down, so I changed banks, borrowed some money from my parents and paid off the bank, leaving me level, but still owing my parents (thank god for parents).

All of this was a long time ago, before the banks had limits to how many times they could charge you for going overdrawn etc, and its too long ago now to try and claim it back (way before they started on PPI) Barclays is my current bank, and I have had one instance where they stopped my card as they thought it had been used fraudulently (abroad) and got in touch with me, sent out a new card and changed details for me - no problem, and none since.

[Poppy]

35 minutes ago, marshman said:

Curiously enough, my experience with Banks after fraud and attempted fraud has been exactly opposite, but all cases are different.. As Dave said, try the Ombudsman.

There is also a Fraud Dept run by the police in London who were also most helpful, but it is too much to expect a local Branch to help - they just do not have the expertise.  All banks have their own Fraud departments and you should contact them IMMEDIATELY. All sounds a bit odd to me.

This she did - IMMEDIATELY . However the precautions agreed, change of security questions etc were simply not implemented. As you say, all a bit odd - or grossly negligent !  

As for the Police... she asked to be put through to the Met fraud team ' they wouldn't be able to help', she was told !

[MauriceMynah]

I'm with the "Go public and kick up a stink" brigade.

[Polly]

Totally agree, Watchdog BBC or a good route surprisingly might be her local MP

[JennyMorgan]

Listening to the woes of friends I have to say that Barclays would not be my first choice of bank! Agree with Polly.

[addicted]

I once got a very indignant letter from Nat-West complaining that I had gone overdrawn a closer look at my statement revealed that they had been paying my mortgage twice each month. In the same post as their letter of apology was another letter complaining about me being overdrawn!  In my experience there is not much to choose between them. they're all as bad as each other. I always thought it quite significant that when I left school,  banking was one of the few careers that didn't require educational qualifications to offer you a job

 

 

Carole.

[ranworthbreeze]

5 hours ago, Poppy said:

I have been a customer of Barclays Bank for over 50 years. Both my son and daughter joined them when reaching the age when they in turn needed banking services. My daughter has now had a very worrying experience with this outfit. To cut a long story short, about a month ago she had her account hacked, and something over £1500 was cleared out of her current account, together with a further £500 from a savings account. She reported that fraud immediately, and met with a stone wall on beaurocrats from the bank. They did, however agree to change all the security questions etc associated with the account while investigation proceeded.
Forms were sent, which she completed and returned by post.
IT HAS NOW HAPPENED AGAIN !, once more just after she has been paid. After over FOUR HOURS on the phone which got her nowhere she went to a local branch of Barclays, to discover that they have NO RECORD OF THE FORMS BEING RECEIVED, and if that wasn't enough, NO CHANGE OF SECURITY DETAILS HAD BEEN MADE! This is quite possibly the reason that the fraudsters have been able to strike again. Oh , and the Police ? A total waste of space, she was given a 'crime' number and they went back to their doughnuts !!

Perhaps someone from Barclays is reading this sorry tale. If so, they may like to reassure me that this is an isolated case and that the way it has been handled is unusual, but my brief search on Google shows that it is far from the case, and that they appear to be the worst of all the banks.

In short why should I remain a Barclays customer, and instead close all my accounts and take my money elsewhere ?

Sadly Poppy all banks are tarred with the same brush you will  get very similar responses from other banks, security gets in the way of the account holders but does little to make their systems secure.

It's 2017 and one of the banking security questions is still "whats your mothers maiden name" I ask you! so easy to find out once someones got your details.

Regards

Alan

[VetChugger]

I've had similar experiences many times especially with Grendels overdrawn scenario. 99.99999% of the time these letters are never touched by human hands and automatically sent out by bots!

The machines are taking over the world!!!

[dnks34]

Poppy did your daughter get refunded by the bank on the first occassion? Or is she still out of pocket?

I find this very worrying indeed.  

How is money being taken from any account by someone other than the account holder not a serious matter!  

What amazes me is why the paper trail cant be followed up, if you transfer money from a bank account to another bank account then it has a checkable destination that can then be followed up.....surely!!!!  Also I thought funds could be recalled directly by the bank when its been transfered using an electronic payment.  When money is taken out in cash at an ATM and its in this country its only then you can have a hard time proving it wasnt you.

Knowing the way Barclays works you also cant transfer directly from a savings account to an outside account you have to transfer it to your current account first.  

Someone has clearly got access to her Internet Banking and as her security has been well and truly conprimised on that account I would leave the account with Barclays open and fight to get back whats been stolen then open another account with a completely different bank and have all future payments wages etc paid into that, just to be sure it cant happen again.

The fact this has happened twice is very concerning and Barclays have mishandled it on the first occasion which has clearly allowed the fraudster to help him or her self again.  I would be putting this everywhere I could in the public domain untill i got my money back, i thought Barclays were reasonably good but i might have to have a rethink now to!

Good luck with it Poppys daughter! 

 

 

[Poppy]

28 minutes ago, dnks34 said:

Poppy did your daughter get refunded by the bank on the first occassion? Or is she still out of pocket?

No - that issue is STILL outstanding

28 minutes ago, dnks34 said:

I find this very worrying indeed.  

How is money being taken from any account by someone other than the account holder not a serious matter!  

What amazes me is why the paper trail cant be followed up, if you transfer money from a bank account to another bank account then it has a checkable destination that can then be followed up.....surely!!!!  Also I thought funds could be recalled directly by the bank when its been transfered using an electronic payment.  When money is taken out in cash at an ATM and its in this country its only then you can have a hard time proving it wasnt you.

Knowing the way Barclays works you also cant transfer directly from a savings account to an outside account you have to transfer it to your current account first.  

That's how it was done !

Someone has clearly got access to her Internet Banking and as her security has been well and truly conprimised on that account I would leave the account with Barclays open and fight to get back whats been stolen then open another account with a completely different bank and have all future payments wages etc paid into that, just to be sure it cant happen again.

The fact this has happened twice is very concerning and Barclays have mishandled it on the first occasion which has clearly allowed the fraudster to help him or her self again.  I would be putting this everywhere I could in the public domain untill i got my money back, i thought Barclays were reasonably good but i might have to have a rethink now to!

Good luck with it Poppys daughter! 

 

 

What concerns us as much as anything else is that the fraudster(s) attempted to make a purchase from a high end designer fashion firm on line. She got a call from Barclays querying this purchase and she told them it wasn't her and not to approve the transaction.

Three days later the goods were delivered - TO HER . Somehow the purchase was sent to her address but another persons name and mobile number was on the paperwork. By various means we were able to establish a name and an address linked to this purchase..... neither the Metropolitan Police ( it's the bank's problem) or Barclays were interested  - 'until the debit appears on your account'. It hasn't ! 

As for Barclays being reasonably good - look at this  !   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3272061/Barclays-four-times-likely-deny-fraud-victims-refund-banks.html

[LondonRascal]

I would say that in your daughters case Poppy, she has not suffered a 'bank account hacking' but appears to have suffered a more serious case of her identity being cloned or partly being used by someone.

If it was just a case of some money being taken from her account then that would mean her account had been compromised - but the fact something was purchased using her account but then delivered to her means whoever is doing this has a great deal more personal information that just her bank account.

There are a number of ways this could have happened so she needs to think very carefully of where the leak could have begun and how deep it may go. 

Do you use any services with any third party companies that have been in the news in recent months having suffered a theft of personal information from their customers?

Have there been any odd telephone calls, emails or text messages which might alone seem just a bit strange and harmless but over time might add up to snippets of information being given that together will reveal more such as her full name, address, name of her family etc. Had she signed up for anything - bought anything through something seen on the likes of Facebook?

I'd certainly run a credit check to see if any loans etc have been attempted to, or have been taken out in her name but for further resources and help go to the Action Fraud website here: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

This goes deeper than Barclays, who are clearly not doing as much as they can in the circumstances and I would consider having the account stopped with them and open another account with another bank - this is now very easy and free and done in 7 days.

This is clearly a very worrying matter and sorry I can't help more.

[addicted]

When we bought our present boat, we transferred the necessary funds from various other places into our current account to facilitate the purchase. As when we've done this before, we got a call from the bank (Lloyds) wanting to know why there was so much money in the account and what were we going to do with it., I explained and was told " You do realise that that is an awful lot of money to have in a current account, and if it is  compromised in any was while it is there it is entirely your responsibility" My husband was livid when I told him of this conversation and phoned the manager immediately, making his feelings known. the manager confirmed what we already knew that it was arrant rubbish. and even though he had been told we  were away on holiday proceeded to send an apologetic bunch of flowers to our house where they sat on the doorstep  advertising our absence until my neighbour noticed them and removed them, I told her to keep them by way of a thank you .

My daughter used to own an estate agency in Highgate North London and had more bank accounts than you could shake a stick at, Landlord's contingency accounts, absentee landlord's accounts etc. ,Barclays  made so many errors she used to receive flowers ands wine  virtually weekly

. On one occasion when we were cashing  in an ISA over the counter at our local Barclays, we were overpaid by over £2000.00. in cash. When we pointed out the error the response was "what are you going to do with the money you have  drawn out? We had thought a "thank  you may have been nice!

 

 

Carole

 

 

Carole

[thingamybob]

Barclays are not in my best books either.

A while ago I had an account with ING which was transferred by ING to Barclays for some reason. Barclays sent me a letter welcoming me to the bank and cheerfully informed me, and to my horror, that they had signed me up internet banking. I sent a letter back to the headed address on the letter saying that I would not touch internet banking with a barge pole and demanding that they cancel internet banking.

Two weeks! later my letter was returned to me by the Post Office with the note saying "Not at this address". I went to my local Barclays branch and explained the situation and was told that they could not handle the business as it was a postal account. I asked the counter staff as to who I should write to. She went away and after a few minutes came back with a telephone number to phone. One saving grace is that she told me I could use their telephone to make the call. I called the number and after three quarters of an hour of listening to crappy music I eventually got through to an obviously out of this country call centre. 

I had already established my identity at the counter but the person at the other end of the telephone would not accept my identification. I was now beginning to loose my rag! Slowly raising my voice in stages in a bank full of customers I began to tell this person exactly what I thought of Barclays. Eventually the Manager came out and took over the conversation and he would not at first accept her identification. After about twenty minutes my internet banking was cancelled.

Having myself worked for another large financial organisation for many years I am amazed at this treatment of a customer:

       1/ Using out of date stationery.

       2/ Not using the Post office facility for forwarding letters.

       3/ Not asking the customer if he/she wanted the facility.

       4/ Messing a customer around without a word of apology.

 

By the way, Santander are just about the same but that is another story.

[LondonRascal]

Interesting reading different views on banks and the industry - I don't remember the last time i needed to go to a branch, and am considering moving my current account to Atom - a bank that is just an App - with very few staff, no branches - not even a call centre.  Simple, easy and secure with 1.50% on their 1 year saving account which is very good when compared to other with other banks.

This is just one such Bank but expect to see more App only banking spread this year.

[thingamybob]

I do not have an account with them but Metro Bank seem quite good. It appears they are very good on customer service and appreciate their face to face personal service to customers in their branches.