I have a current account with Barclays which I left dormant with
-£146 (using a -£150 overdraft limit after finishing as a student).
In January 1999 a statement was returned to Barclays marked gone
away, yet I continued to live at my address. I received no
information about my current account till I moved house and reported
my change of address. My current account had been marked 'gone away'
by Barclays.
Barclays have now issued a termination of overdraft notice for £320.
During this time interest had been charged on the account taking me
over the agreed limit and incurring automatic monthly charges of
£20. I have received statements for a loan I have with Barclays, as
well as information outlining the expiry of my student status,
moving me from a graduate account to a standard account. I received
no notice of any charges or interest during this time, and no
statements for my current account.
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Do I still have to pay the charges and interest incurred
if I was not sufficiently informed of my accounts
status? Or, do I have to take responsibility for not
monitoring my account?
Reply
I'll deal with your last point first. You do have to
take responsibility at all times. Barclays only have to
send you a statement as agreed. If the last statement
was returned 'gone away' and they stopped sending
further statements, they acted correctly.
As to the status of your account, if you were AWOL as
far as Barclays were concerned it is difficult to
understand why they looked at your account as a live
account. After all, how many accounts have banks frozen
over the years because they seem abandoned and
accumulate interest to the detriment of the banks annual
profits!
The question of interest is not so straight forward. In
this type of situation, common sense is more important
than who is right or wrong. A £146 overdraft escalating
to £320, an increase of £174, is ridiculous and should
have been frozen at some early stage. What is the true
damage to Barclays? They have every right to interest
say £30 and an administration charge of £24, a round
£200. Offer them this figure in 'full and final'
settlement. 'Most' lenders would accept this.
