Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC (trading as Barclaycard)

Decision detail

Summary

The estate of Mr H complained that Barclaycard failed to identify fraud on his credit card account and did not account for his cognitive decline following a dementia diagnosis. Mr H died in August 2020, and his son Mr H1 raised complaints in October 2024 regarding unauthorized transactions, alleging misuse by his brother. Barclaycard had written off the outstanding debt of £7,651.54 in December 2020. The ombudsman found no evidence of unauthorized transactions resulting in loss, as the debt had been written off, and rejected the argument that Barclaycard should have proactively identified Mr H's health condition. While the ombudsman criticized Barclaycard's failure to respond to complaints until December 2025, the complaint was not upheld as no loss could be identified.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while there may have been some misuse of the account, likely by Mr H's other son, the transactions were relatively small compared to the overall account usage. Critically, Barclaycard wrote off the entire outstanding debt, meaning there was no identifiable loss to the estate. The ombudsman rejected the argument that Barclaycard should have proactively identified Mr H's cognitive decline, noting the firm had no knowledge of his health situation and nothing in the transaction pattern appeared unusual or high-value. The ombudsman also found it unreasonable to expect Barclaycard to retain detailed authentication data for transactions occurring more than six years prior, particularly for a closed account.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website