Not upheld: unauthorised overdraft and service quality complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr H complained that Barclays allowed his current account to go into an unauthorised overdraft and provided confusing information about his transactions. The overdraft occurred when a £747.53 payment to Company A was presented on 8 November after Mr H had transferred £585.89 to savings that morning, leaving insufficient funds. While Barclays acknowledged providing inconsistent information during calls and experienced a systems error with an unrelated transaction, the Ombudsman found that Barclays did not cause the unauthorised overdraft. The Ombudsman upheld Barclays' position that customers should monitor pending transactions and that the firm cannot control when third parties request payment. The £200 compensation already paid for poor service was deemed fair and reasonable, and no further remedy was ordered.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The Ombudsman found that while Barclays made errors in providing inconsistent information during calls and experienced a systems error with the Company J payment, these did not cause the unauthorised overdraft. The core issue was that Mr H authorised a payment to Company A when funds were available, but the payment was not presented until 8 November. Mr H then transferred £585.89 to savings on the morning of 8 November, leaving insufficient funds for the £747.53 payment when it was presented later that day. The Ombudsman concluded that Barclays cannot control when third parties request payment and that customers should monitor their accounts for pending transactions. No bank error caused the overdraft, and no overdraft fees were charged.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website