Barclays credit nightmare!

Barclays credit nightmare!

9:48 AM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago 13

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Barclays put bad credit on my file 154 times while the Financial Service Ombudsman are investigating them, even though I OVERPAY my mortgages!

I am not the only person to be affected. Customer accounts managed with the bank’s Trinity IT system did not accurately record monthly loan repayments, resulting in the bank wrongly flagging customers in arrears and marking down credit records shared with credit agencies.

Borrowers were left unable to secure new loans or move to other lenders, including over the past two years when interest rates have soared. In one case, Barclays mistakenly issued seven monthly defaults on 22 mortgages on a single borrower’s credit file.

The high street bank has informed one affected customer that it is “unlikely” to resolve the problem before the end of 2024, when it plans to move clients to a new system.

It all started in 2017, when I first became aware of the problem. At the time, Barclays said the matter had been resolved. However, the issue worsened when I attempted to remortgage the three properties held with a different lender two years ago.

In 2021, I was offered a mortgage rate of 1.49 per cent on the three properties only to have a credit check fail. I am now paying more than 9 per cent having been placed on tracker rates.
I have not slept for three years. I can’t get a credit card, a phone contract. Normally my credit is clean. I have been reduced to handing out leaflets to passers-by in front of my local Barclays branch decrying the situation. Once, I glued myself to the counter in protest.
The Financial Ombudsman has upheld complaints made by me, while public records show it did so for similar complaints made by at least two other customers. In July, it ruled Barclays should pay me £1,300 and the difference between the current market rate and the one I would have been able to access had he not been flagged in arrears. This would come on top of some £1,600 in compensation he had already received.
Barclays said it had provided a “dedicated point of contact” as ordered by the Financial Ombudsman. It declined to comment on why Roberts had been informed his account would not be migrated to a different system until the end of next year.
The full story can be read here in the Financial Times (for some users this may be behind a paywall)

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Comments

Mick Roberts

10:29 AM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago

The FT journalist wants to hear from more people affected if they are out there, please let me know.

Blodwyn

10:30 AM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Barclays are a shambles and nightmare to be avoided.
A few months ago, they summarily closed a local farmer's business account without explanation. That account had been opened in 1916 by my farmer's grandfather. For over 100 years I am told it had been in constant credit.
After a month they sent him a cheque for about £20,000 (no interest for delay), being the closing balance. Since then, we have learnt that this was by no means an isolated incident.
It seems Barclays don't want personal customers but just big businesses which transact everything online and make them a huge profit. Personal service is a no-no.
They were one of the banks 'spoken to' by a Treasury Minister as to their conduct. Whatever was said was ineffective as they plough merrily on without any care in the world for account holders.

JeggNegg

11:01 AM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago

are there any other UK Banks we should be looking to avoid?

Blodwyn

11:14 AM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Cocks at 05/10/2023 - 11:01
I believe someone commented we should all go to a Building Society such as Nationwide. They still have the odd branch open! I am with them for my personal account and they are invariably helpful and friendly and pretend to be pleased to see you!

Freda Blogs

12:06 PM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago

The new challenger banks such as Starling are good bets in my opinion. They have newer systems and aren't struggling to prop up old ones. So far my experience has been good.
I too had a Barclays business account - now closed - and whilst I didn't have the problems experienced by Mick Roberts, their customer 'service' was appalling.

Mick Roberts

12:31 PM, 5th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Freda Blogs at 05/10/2023 - 12:06
That's the right words, Propping up the old systems.

All the Trinity 6 digit accounts are held overseas. The UK people cannot even see them.

The Subject access request SAR, our data, GDPR is help overseas. They really cannot understand a thing. Barclays should have been shot down for this.

Kate Mellor

11:08 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

I'm surprised any landlord can get any credit cards or personal loans anyway with all the BTL mortgages on their personal credit reports! The only borrowing I can get approved for is a BTL mortgage and my most recent credit rating was so perfect I took a screenshot. But I can't get approved for car finance for a modest new vehicle, or a credit card approved when I moved banks. I had to keep my old credit card account from before the days that lenders stopped classing BTL loans as business loans. I had to buy my car with CASH!! That wasn't how I wanted to allocate my business cashflow, but I was lucky to be able to do that.

Blodwyn

11:15 AM, 6th October 2023, About 7 months ago

Shakespear wrote something about killing all the lawyers. Let's dig him up and set him on the banks, then modern politicians ...........

moneymanager

11:58 AM, 10th October 2023, About 7 months ago

If this misinformation is public, doesn't it constitute a libel?

JAH71

0:19 AM, 2nd January 2024, About 4 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 05/10/2023 - 10:29
I've had similar issues reporting late on 11 btl accounts each month for 4 years.

Not only credit reporting issues, I've had 2 credit cards revoked due to credit scoring and have been unable to refinance £200k for 4 years, resulting being put under special measures by Barclays, whilst I have currently a clean credit score, the rates and availability 4 years ago are far from acceptable in today's market.

Looking to pursue further actions ! I'll speak to the journalists

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