Bank’s euro draft bungle cost £1,500 in just one month
Mrs M.G. writes: I have been a Barclays customer for 35 years and have completed a number of transactions involving my branch manager. Key have been the sale of our family home abroad and the purchase of a home here in Britain.
The manager was aware I was due to complete the purchase and I asked him to let me know how long a euro draft would take to clear into my Barclays euro account. But as his computer was down, he said he would call me with the information.
He did not do so and I went ahead with the property sale abroad, believing that clearing the draft would take about five days, like a similar earlier transaction. But when I went to the branch with the draft, I was told it would take four to six weeks. The manager admitted he forgot to phone me, which has left me with insufficient funds to buy our new home and the prospect of having nowhere to live. THE simple solution would have been a bridging loan, but the big banks no longer offer these.
While you waited for the draft to clear and put about £193,000 into your account, the best Barclays could manage was the offer of a personal loan of £50,000, which was nowhere near enough. You have told me that when you went to the branch, you were even advised that you should return the draft to Spain, where you had sold your home, and ask the buyer to ask his bank to arrange an urgent electronic transfer.
Having already signed over your Spanish home, you were understandably reluctant to part with the draft which was the only payment you had.
With time pressing and the urgent need to complete the purchase of your new property so you and your husband, who is disabled, would have a roof over your heads, you managed to borrow £150,000 from a specialist finance firm at an interest rate of 1 per cent a month.
Meanwhile, Barclays did manage to clear the euro draft faster than expected, in just 16 days. But this still left you with a bill for £1,500 in interest charges for a loan that lasted just one month. I asked staff at the bank’s head office to look into this. They have told me: ‘Having reviewed Mrs G’s complaint, it is clear we did not provide the appropriate information that would have allowed Mrs G to make an informed decision.
‘We have apologised for failing to meet our usual high standards and have offered £1,500 as a gesture of goodwill to cover the costs of the temporary loan.’
By the time you read this, Barclays will already have been in touch with you to arrange the payment. Excellent. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@ mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.