Family forced into poverty after bank’s $2.1M overdraft mistake

nypost ^ | 04/25/2018 | Adam Bennett

[ChicagoConservative27]

A British family of five has been forced into poverty after their bank froze all their accounts when an error left them $2.1 million overdrawn.

The Livermore family have been forced to go to food banks and live off handouts from friends and relatives for nearly a month after a blunder by Barclays left them $700,000 overdrawn on each of their three accounts.

Paul and his wife, Kayleigh, both 31, have struggled to provide for their three children, ages 11, 8 and 7, for almost a month after the mistake on Easter Monday, which is a national holiday in the UK.

The three Barclays accounts were all in credit before the mistake saw them listed as overdrawn by almost $700,000 each — making it possibly the largest overdraft in the world.

Each account had a negative balance of around $700,000, but Paul insists he never had an overdraft but had agreed to an emergency $14 buffer with the bank.

[Cementjungle]

This is why I don’t keep all my savings in one place. Also, I have overdraft protection turned off on my accounts.

[Retvet]

Wish I was their solicitor.

[Sacajaweau]

I agree with you 100%....Sounds like they “suffered”...BS

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

They did not have 2.1 million disappear as they never had 2.1 million in the bank in the first place.

The bank is showing an over draw for an impossible amount. What were they suppose to have done, taken it out at an ATM?

Since they are not millionaire then the bank has no motivation to move quickly to fix their mistake.

And they probably do not have much money stashed in their mattress aside from loose change and some of that they already had to hand over to the bank for an overdraft that never could have happened.

[ssaftler]

It was settled ON THE PHONE in 15 minutes. You connect directly to the manager and/or the President.

This may work for smaller financial institutions, especially if it is locally owned and operated. However, we're talking about Barclay's, one of those "Too Big to Fail" places from about 10 years ago. Trust me, I worked for one of these TBTF places until they decided to purge a lot of us high-paid 55+ people for a bunch of 20-nothings who would work 16 hour days for half my salary. Four years later and I still get upset when I think about the circumstances...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Perhaps either or both of your could explain how you reached the idea that a facilities assistant or, as we call it in the US, a building manager, with an average wage of $17 an hour, is a millionaire?

Perhaps as an addendum you could explain why you would think that having all three of your accounts frozen and being on a monthly pay schedule would not leave you short of funds?

In what world does that make sense?

[Jack Hammer]

Note to self: DON’T bank with Barclay’s.

[Excellence]

As a former teller at Crocker Bank I can tell you they don’t exist any more for a very good reason.

[Right Wing Assault]

A few years ago I missed my online payment by minutes, on a very small purchase, on my Sears card. They charged me a $49 late fee and wouldn't waive it. I opened that account on April 1, 1978, so I didn't want to close the account, the flagship of my credit card fleet.

I now despised Sears more than ever, so I just stopped using it except for an occasional use. I hadn't used it for a longer time than usual, so I got a letter from them saying my $24,000 credit limit was reduced to $2001! ZERO warning. I guess they wanted to get rid of their high limit customers. That lowers the credit score, which was excellent.

They said I could apply for an increase in my limit. The pricks turned me down even though I had a very high credit score AND they had done a hard credit check on me. This dinged my credit score, but not too much, but it pissed me off even more. I contacted them and they refused to fix it. I am hoping they crash ASAP.

The funny thing is that they lost money on the deal. You wonder why they are failing, besides selling crappy tools?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL...as a long-ago customer, I understand the reasons, too.

[jiggyboy]

Lots of RTFA needed here today.

[jiggyboy]

Why do you feel competent to post your blather when it’s obvious you didn’t even get through the title?

[Valpal1]

They aren’t rich, and they didn’t have 2.1 million. The bank debited each of their 3 accounts by $700K = 2.1 million for unknown reasons.

The bank has a problem, internal fraud or external hacking. But in the meantime, they haven’t fixed the families accounts or unfrozen their actual funds and Dad had been paid his monthly salary at the beginning of the month so it’s tied up too.

I’d have been filing complaints with the regulators after 24 hours.