Not upheld: unauthorised payment / disputed transaction complaint against Barclays Bank UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S complained that Barclays refused to refund a £1,399 Apple payment made on his debit card after he reported his wallet and card missing. The payment was made using the chip and PIN. Mr S claimed he did not authorise the payment and suggested his PIN may have been discovered through shoulder surfing at his workplace where he works as aircrew. Barclays investigated and held Mr S liable for the payment. The ombudsman found it more likely than not that either Mr S authorised the payment or failed with gross negligence to keep his PIN safe, noting the transaction pattern was atypical of unauthorised fraud. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Payment Services Regulations 2017, which make the customer responsible for authorised payments and the bank responsible for unauthorised payments. The ombudsman found that the pattern of spending was atypical of unauthorised card use: the PIN appeared to be entered correctly on first attempt, it was a large single transaction rather than multiple smaller test purchases, and no further attempts were made to use the card despite available funds. The ombudsman concluded it was more likely than not that either Mr S authorised the payment or failed with gross negligence to keep his PIN safe by recording it in his wallet. The ombudsman rejected arguments based on Mr S' vulnerabilities, noting that Barclays offered PIN reminder functionality which Mr S had used.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website