Posting here for traffic. I can’t actually believe what we’ve experienced with Barclays Bank over the last few weeks. I really just need to vent. My DH is self employed and has not been able to work for 6 weeks (and counting!) due to COVID-19. We knew he was due a tax rebate because he’d overpaid in the previous tax year. It was a decent amount that would really help us right now. On the first day of the new tax year we did his tax return. HMRC were absolutely fantastic and paid his refund within a few days.
DH logged in one morning and it was paid and in his available balance. I am 30 weeks pregnant and we need to start getting things ready for baby. DH logged on to his banking app the next morning before we started shopping online and suddenly the rebate money was gone! DH phoned the bank. We were on hold for FOUR hours. When we finally got through we were told that HMRC requested the money back. Cue total panic! We called HMRC and they said they had done no such thing. They said they could never just take money from someone’s account and that it must be a problem on the bank’s side. We got in touch with Barclay’s again and this time we were told there was a ‘glitch’ in the system and that thousands of people had had their HMRC tax rebate payments put on hold. They assured us it would be rectified within 48hrs. Within 48hrs it was not rectified. Things had now actually got worse because suddenly DH couldn’t use his account at all. No transfers, cards blocked, no access. We then received a text to say that they know it’s ‘not ideal’ (they actually used those words!) but all HMRC payments were being returned to HMRC and that everyone would be able to access their accounts within 4 days. It has now been nearly a month since this all started and we’ve only just been able to access the account from today. Still no money from HMRC.
I have to say that HMRC have been fantastic though. They told us that Barclays security systems rejected all of their payments and that they would be sent back in due course. They’ve been as helpful as they could possibly be and so friendly. I’m just so upset because we’ve had no money for food, all of our direct debits bounced and we’ve not had a single apology from the bank or even an acknowledgment that they’ve messed up. It’s been an absolute nightmare! All of the Barclays advisors have been downright rude. If COVID-19 wasn’t the only thing that mattered right now I’m sure this would be on the news, thousands of people locked out of their accounts for weeks with money just blocked for no good reason!? I just needed to rant somewhere! On Barclays Facebook page a few people have spoken up too. I just can’t believe how flippant they’ve been. The last few weeks have been hell.