Reclaim Overdraft Fees from Barclays
If you were stuck in your Barclays overdraft for months on end, paying interest you could not realistically clear, those charges may have been unfair. Under FCA rules, banks must monitor for customers who make repeat use of their overdraft and take steps to help, not keep piling on interest. If Barclays kept charging you while you were clearly struggling, or gave you an overdraft you could never afford, you can complain and ask for the interest and charges back. The claim is strongest where there is a clear pattern of hardship; it is weaker for one-off occasional dips into the red. You send the complaint yourself, it costs nothing, and you keep 100% of any refund.
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Your rights
This is not a guaranteed-win 'bank charges reclaim' of the kind that ended around 2009. Your right rests on FCA rules: the Consumer Credit sourcebook (CONC) requires lending to be affordable, and the FCA's overdraft remedies (which took full effect in 2020) require firms to identify customers making repeat use of their overdraft and to take steps to reduce the harm, rather than profit from it. If Barclays failed to do this, you can complain. If they reject you or do not give a final response within eight weeks, you can escalate free to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). FOS can generally consider complaints made within six years of the event, or three years from when you reasonably should have known there was a problem. A typical successful outcome is a refund of overdraft interest and charges plus 8% simple interest, and removal of any related negative credit-file markers.
Step by step
- 1Download your Barclays statements (via the app or Online Banking) for the whole period you were overdrawn, and add up the overdraft interest, fees and charges you paid. Note any times you told Barclays you were struggling.
- 2Send a written complaint to Barclays (in-app chat, secure message, the complaints form on barclays.co.uk, or by post) stating the overdraft was unaffordable and/or that they failed to act on your repeat overdraft use, and asking for a refund of interest and charges plus 8% interest.
- 3Give Barclays up to eight weeks to issue a final response. Keep copies of everything and reply to any request for information promptly.
- 4If they reject the complaint or the eight weeks pass with no resolution, refer it free to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of Barclays' final response.
What they'll say, and your comeback
“Our overdraft charges were all clearly disclosed in your terms and conditions, so they were fair.”
Comeback, Disclosure is not the issue. FCA rules require the lending to be affordable and require you to identify and help customers making repeat use of an overdraft. I am complaining that you failed those duties, not that the price was hidden.
“You never told us you were in financial difficulty.”
Comeback, Your own data showed repeated, prolonged overdraft use. The FCA's overdraft rules put the duty on you to identify repeat use and intervene; I should not have to flag what your monitoring was required to catch.
“These charges are too old for us to consider.”
Comeback, The Financial Ombudsman can generally look at complaints going back six years, or three years from when I reasonably became aware of the problem. Please assess the charges within that window.
FAQ
Will complaining affect my Barclays account or credit score?
Complaining is your right and a bank should not close your account or penalise you simply for raising a legitimate complaint. If your complaint succeeds, any unfair overdraft-related markers should be removed, which can improve your credit file rather than harm it.
Do I need a claims company to do this?
No. The complaint to Barclays and any escalation to the Financial Ombudsman are both free and designed to be used directly by consumers. A claims firm would take a cut for work you can do yourself, and you keep 100% doing it yourself.
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A self-serve tool, not a law firm. General information, not legal advice.