garyjames

Hi all,

I am hoping someone here has had a similar experience and can recommend a solution.

In short, I found out today by my folks in the UK that Barclays Bank have closed my Uk Barclays Bank account.

There was over 2,000 pounds sterling in my account when I left the UK in January 2010.

How can they do that???

And where has my 2,000+ pounds gone???

I haven't had any problems with my HSBC or Halifax account so why Barclays???

How can I get my money???

I am currently in Australia and have been here since March 2010.

Very much hoping somebody here can give me some advice.

Kind Regards,

Gary

Pollyana

a) Why are Barclays telling your family not you??

and b) have you asked Barclays! What do they say? Have you been using the account or is it dormant?

aries

I suggest you contact Barclays and ask, also if necessary, provide them with documented proof that you should still have money in the account. Are your parents receiving your bank statements and letters and opening them? If so the account will be documented. I constantly receive a mountain of paperwork from Barclays, and every month receive a statement from the Commonwealth Bank in Australia.

swans

Same dormant account rules as they have in OZ,except I think it is 3 yrs in the uk and 7 yrs here or the other way round.

Santander sent me a letter saying they closed my account in jan this year.they took over Bradford and bingley when they went belly up.There was around 3k in the account.

If your parents was the last address they had then that is where they sent the letter.

Bit of a carry on to prevent fraud but I had to send them a copy of my passport,a copy of the original pass book and other bits and pieces.Seemed to be the same info as opening an account.

Eventually I got it back,the same will happen for you.The letter will have the contact details for dormant accounts department,you can either phone them or do everything by mail.Santander would not use e-mail as I suspect that would also be open to fraud.They are looking after your interests.From memory you still get interest etc on the money and they re-open the original account once it is all sorted.

Geordie down under

lynx1979

In short the government gets it but you can get it back but you may need to show proof of accounts as they are only kept on record for 6/7 years I think. Same happens in OZ but they are meant to notify you beforehand, either way good luck matey

Tr1boy

HSBC (UK) just froze one of my sub accounts, even though the other two main accounts are active. I think the letter said two years of inactivity. They did give me a one mth warning warning so I quickly logged in and shifted that 75p as soon as I could

When we were in Oz a few years ago, HSBC also wrote to Mrs TB and advised her that they the had suspended her account due to some suspicious circumstances. Basically we came to the UK for 3 mths in 2006, Mrs TB opened a UK account, put a decent sum of money in and then transferred it back to Oz, with zero activity since. IIRC it was about 1yr later.

We had to write a letter explaining the activity and getting the account active again was relatively easy, the bit that was extremely hard though was finding out what the actual problem was in the first place. Nobody would explain, they just kept saying 'we can't tell you'. Finally got hold of someone with an ounce of common sense and got it sorted. But we had several late nights of fruitless phone calls.

The reason we missed the letter was because it was sent to my parents' address as per usual, they always forwarded anything from the bank and if it was at a time we weren't expecting anything, I would get them to read it to me. It was just bad luck that this particular letter either didn't arrive at my parents' house, or Mum lost it in her unique filing ahem, system

Ironically, we have just switched to Barclays as we felt the service we used to get from HSBC was not there any more. Been very happy with the switch so far, but I suspect when it comes to this stuff, al the banks are handcuffed by the same legislation.

SillyOldBag

I recently received letters from Lloyds about my two bank accounts saying that I needed to phone them on a specific number if I wanted to keep the accounts active - I didn't have to speak to anyone just key in numbers etc... I was given a month or something like that to do it in or the accounts would be deactivated. There's hardly any money in the accout (unfortunately) I just like to keep the accounts open just in case I go back.

cresta57

Just a quick question on this dormant account thing:
If I were to set up a direct debit from my U.K account to my wife's U.K account & simply bounce say 50 quid between the two accounts each month [neither of us pays fees] would that be sufficient to prevent it being classed as dormant?

Pollyana

Dunno, but if you want to test it, set up a DD sending £50 to my Lloyds account each month for 6 months. If that keeps my account alive I'll consider sending back the bit I haven't spent, a bit at a time

Tr1boy

I think based on my experience it would, yes.

aries

Yes . . . any transaction and amount keeps the account active.

Gordon Barlow

It's a worldwide thing. Here in this British colony (Cayman, in the Caribbean), after a mere SIX MONTHS of inactivity an account becomes dormant. But we can either put $10 in or take $10 out and that bumps the a/c back into play.

Grayling

We had an account closed here after a year of inactivity (HSBC). We had to go into the branch with ID to get it reopened.

We now make sure there is, at least, some token activity with all our accounts

Kiwipaul

I've got the opposite problem as over the years I've had numerous saving accounts in Oz chasing the best interest rates and when I find a better one I move my money to that new a/c. But I still receive statements from these old a/c even though the balance is zero.
Some insist I write a letter before they will close the a/c (won't accept email even a secure mail using their website) it really pi??es me off.

NigelS

I have the same problem with Barclays. I wrote to them 4 times and called them numerous times. They do their best to keep your money and each time I call them they come up with another solution which they say will take three months but I don't get my money. Recently I visited a branch and they filled in a form for me which I posted to them. A month has passed and still nothing. My experience just confirms that Barclays are thieves and do not intend to give the money back.