i opened a bank account 2 years ago, with barclays bank i was 15 at the time i think.

my problem, well 3 months ago (i was 17) i looked online at how much i had in my account and to my surprise i had -35.45

then again checked this month i had -65.98

i know what is taking money out of my account but how do i have an overdraft, i didn't apply for one and the student card don't come with one,

what do i say to barclays? is it thier fault for letting them take the money? or should they have stopped when i had nothing in my account?

i hope a banker here can help

You need to go and see them in the morning. There may have been an overdraft on the account as standard, regardless of whether you asked for it or not.

ahh i thought you cant have a overdraft if your under 18?



someone please help

do you have any direct debits or standing orders?

as these can be taken by the company without checking with the bank, thus creating a negative balance

and some banks charge!

You haven't signed up to one of their monthly packages, like Additions or something, which attract a fee?

Having a problem with your bank account is like getting a warning light on your car. Take it to a dealer (Go and speak to your local branch).
They have the tools to see what has happened and can help to sort it out. Luckily for you banks don't charge labour to sort out problems

(Barclays employee btw)

I had a similar problem, didn't look at an account for about 3 years and then got a letter telling me I owed them £60-odd.
Problem was that an ATM had allowed me to go about 60p overdrawn, even though I was 17 and had no overdraft, then they charged me for that, then continued to charge for a while.
They can't offer you any form of lending until you are 18, and you can't agree to have it put on in future either- so I think legally they can't let you become overdrawn, but I might be wrong. Banks have authorised limits for every account- e.g. a £100 ovredraft, but also a sneaky unauthorised limit that they will honour: say if you go £10 over your o/d they will let that happen then charge you for it, thus building up the problem.

I phoned up and had everything sorted in 5 mins, but I had to get on my high horse and be firm with them, and it was first direct, who are ok (I used to work there).

My recommendation, go tell them you cannot be held responsible for it if you did not specifically choose to have an o/d after the time you turned 18. It depends a bit on how the money has come out too, if it is just charges from them then they have discrection to refund them straight off, but if it has come out by some other means it might be harder to sort out. But you'll be surprised how helpful bank staff can be if you are nice to them.

Good luck, hope it goes well.

killyourmama said:

But you'll be surprised how helpful bank staff can be if you are nice to them.

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Just a shame most people don't realise this Which is why I don't slag Fiat techs off, I can imagine the **** they get off customers is similar to what I get...

i'm with barclays and never had a problem, i've always said banks are one of the best places to get customer service. you always speak to someone who knows what you need, is able to do something about it, and is even willing to do it there and then. finding someone who can do any one of those 3 is asking a lot in most places. my only problem with banks is the call centres, they dont have the authority to do anything about anything, but you're increasingly forced to deal with them. my personal bank account manager (suzan ) was great for years, i had her direct dial number and could speak to her about anything anytime (such as extending my overdraft while on the way to loveparade in 2000 and having the cahs ready to withdraw half an hour later!! wow). but now i'm not allowed to ring suzan i get redirected to the call centre. so now when i have a problem i simply go into my branch and tell them i dont have the internet of a phone. it works and they deal with my problem there and then (even though i have internet banking and telephone banking )

I'm doing a stint in a call centre just now and know exactly what you mean about competency and being nice to people- we get the worst of both! Oddly, in my case (HSBC) the call centre staff are actually better trained than the branch staff (if you are lucky enough to get the uk call centres)- so they are recruiting branch staff from the call centres for the new branches, from counter staff to managers!
The worst thing about banks etc is when people aren't clear or don't understand what's happening, that can be staff or customer, it gets both sides frustrated and makes communication break down.
Whether you are dealing with a call centre or branch staff make it clear you know what you are on about and what you want- & if they don't know ask for someone else- it's the same problem of patchy job competency that gets people peeved at Fiat dealers, banks, everywhere! I work beside folk who don't know their @rse from their elbow & are total jobsworths, but I try to make sure I help everyone I speak to- it's a bit of a lottery, sometimes calling back later is the best bet!

killyourmama said:

it's a bit of a lottery, sometimes calling back later is the best bet!

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thats the only way to survive a call centre experience. if you get a braindead nugget put the phone down and try again.

jug said:

thats the only way to survive a call centre experience. if you get a braindead nugget put the phone down and try again.

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One bit of luck for me is that I know exactly what they should be doing with my account at HSBC, so I can shout instructions if I get a muppet & tell them what to do- it can be fun! (not allowed to touch my own account, whyever not? )

jug, did they give you any reason why you can't call Suzan anymore? Because our manager Lucy has the branch number and her work mobile on her business cards for customers...

she said all telephone queries regarding my account had to go through the call centre because it was now barclays policy, this was back in 2004. i even asked nicely and she said i couldnt call any more

maybe she was just sick of me ringing her

jug said:

maybe she was just sick of me ringing her

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or sick of the heavy breathing and "what are you wearing?" phone calls

guilty

I'm moving away from HSBC as im insulted at their level of customer service on the phone which are always eastern call centre's that don't understand f**k all. I got a phone call last night at 10:30 pm saying thay they bounced a Direct Debit and I tried saying I directed funds out of my Cash ISA he was like cash what.... So i just hung up on him I got pissed off . So im going down natwest today to set up an account as all their call centres are british .

i work for a bank
i cant comment for barclays but can tell ya how we work

all customers have an agreed overdraft facility (which can be zero)
if you try and use a cash machine and you have no miney nothing will come out, if you try n do a transfer/pay bill noting will come out,
however if it is a direct debit you have set up of you have made a meastro/solo paymet then it is the banks responsibiliy to ensure the 3rd party recieves thier funds as they may have released goods or service on the streanth of this.

wether you have an overdraft facility or not you can still become over drawn.

some customers will dispute this, stressing that the bank shouldnt have let the money go out if they had no funds, but as i sed above if its for instance to pay for ur tesco bill how dould tesco feel if u left with all ur shopping and the bank then later decides to rejects the payment ( meastro are not processed automaticaly)

now if ur under 18, u shouldnt have a switch card anyway. so it couldnt be that.
id go to your bank and pay money in to cover then amount, and ask to speak to someone about wether u wil be charged or not, at which case just explain that you were unaware that this could happen .
most banks these days are happy to refund charges spesh if its ur first time

hope that helps

Well put Alaina, Barclays is pretty much the same as that. And we automatically refund your first charge as long as you haven't been charged in the last 12 months

thats true, it also applies to visa electron, which is why i managed to get £2000 over my overdraft during my first year at uni. the student's union would give me £50 cashback every day no matter what my bank balance was. i had a friend who's bank asked for his card back because he did this so much, but he kept the card and kept on withdrawing cash weeks later. eventually they closed his account and tried to say he had taken the money illegally. i dont see how its theft if you use your own card to withdraw money form your own account, but he got in a lot of trouble because he failed to reuturn the card when asked to. end of the day, we needed money and they kept giving us cashback, we couldn't resist it (young and dumb ). i still havent paid it all back nearly 7 years later!