Introducing our agreement, including who it applies to
When you open a current or savings account with us, you’re setting up an agreement.
This is between Barclays Bank UK PLC (or another company we transfer it to) and you
– the person or people we’ve opened the account for.
This booklet contains most of the terms and conditions of the agreement (which we
also call our ‘Retail Customer Agreement’). The agreement covers all our personal
banking accounts and any services we tell you it applies to when you start using
them.
We may also give you additional terms and conditions when you take out an account
or service, such as an arranged overdraft or savings account. Those additional terms
take priority over any others. Our agreement is made up of all of the terms and
conditions that apply to your account and any other services you have with us.
In this booklet, there are two sections.
- Being with Barclays. This contains the terms and conditions that are central to how
we and you work together. For example, they explain how we’ll stay in touch.
- Banking terms. These are terms and conditions that are more specific to how your
current or savings account works. For example, they include how you can make a
payment out of your account.
Please ignore anything in this Retail Customer Agreement that doesn’t apply to your
type of account, or to the product or service you are using.
What about charges?
The Barclays Tariff for Personal Customers (‘Our Bank Charges Explained’) shows
charges for your personal account and services. You can find this Tariff at
barclays.co.uk/rca.
The Barclays Wealth Management Banking Tariff Guide shows charges for Barclays
Wealth Management accounts and services. You can find this Tariff at
barclays.co.uk/wealth-management/important-information/rates-and-fees.
The International Banking Tariff Guide shows charges for Barclays
International Banking accounts and services. You can find this Tariff at
Barclays.co.uk/international-banking/terms
These are what we mean when we talk about the Tariff.
We’ll give you a copy of the right Tariff when you open your account. We won’t
always tell you when charges in the Tariff change, so please make sure you have
an up-to-date copy.
You can ask for a copy of the terms and Tariff at any time. Ask at any branch or
ring us. They’re also on our website.
Your account is just for personal use
The terms in this booklet cover only accounts for personal use. They’re not for
money relating to any business you run. We can close an account (or stop providing
a service) if we find out you are using a personal account for non-personal use.
The only exception to this is if you’re a Barclays Wealth Management Banking
non-personal customer. If this describes you, the agreement does apply to the
banking services we provide to you.
Which country’s courts and laws apply?
Unless we tell you differently, this agreement is governed by English law, which also
applies to setting up our relationship.
If you want to bring a claim against us in the courts, you can do so using the courts of
England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can bring a claim in
the courts that are local to you.
Asking us to make a payment
To make a payment from your account, you need to give us authorisation. You can do
this in several ways, including the ones below.
- Present your card and enter the card PIN (or you may be asked to sign).
- Use an e-wallet security process (such as fingerprint, face or voice recognition) to
release your card details.
- Hold a card or payment device near a contactless payment reader
- Log onto Online Banking or the Barclays app using your security details. Follow the
instructions to complete the payment.
- At a branch, give the information we ask for, including anything we need to
confirm your identity
- Provide your card or account details to someone to make a payment or to
authorise future payments in a way they request (eg online, by telephone, in
writing).
- Give us instructions via a third party. This could be by completing a direct debit
instruction or via an authorised payment initiation service provider.
Sometimes, the law requires us to ask for two separate forms of security check before
we can authorise a transaction. We might have to refuse a transaction if you don’t
give both forms of security when asked to.
We’ll tell you if for some reason you can’t use one of these methods for a particular
account or service. We’ll also tell you if you need software or anything technical to
use payment tools or communicate with us.
If something goes wrong
If we make a mistake
If we make a mistake, we aim to put things right. Let us know straight away if any of
the following things happen.
- We don’t make a payment you ask us to.
- We send more or less money than you asked.
- We send money to the wrong account.
You need to tell us as soon as possible and within 13 months of the payment date.
So long as you do this, we’ll refund you the amount of the payment made. If we paid
too much, we’ll only pay back the difference. We’ll refund any interest or charges
you have paid. If there was any interest on your account that you’ve missed out on
because of the mistake, we’ll pay that back. We’ll back-date this to when the money
left your account. We’ll refund you before the end of the working day after you tell us
or sooner if we can.
We may be able to show that the other bank actually received the payment on time.
If we can do this, the other bank is responsible for correcting the payment to the
person you’re paying.
Your payment might have gone through Confirmation of Payee (see page 30 for what
this is). If you were told under this process that the name matched the sort code and
account number you provided, and this was wrong, you may be entitled to recover
any loss. In those circumstances, please contact us.
If you give us incorrect account details
If you give us wrong instructions, or tell us to make the same payment more than
once by accident, you’re responsible.
We’ll try to help you get the money back. We may not always be able to do this, but
we’ll do all we can. We may charge a fee for tracing, recalling or cancelling a payment
(you’ll find this in the Tariff).
If we can’t get the money back, we’ll give you all the information we have about the
transaction. This is to help you reclaim the money, unless the law prevents us. We’ll
ask you to put the request in writing.
If payments are late
If you ask us to make a payment in the UK or the EEA in euro and it’s late arriving,
please tell us. For information on the times transactions should take, see sections 1
and 4 of the Banking terms. We’ll contact the other bank and ask them to make up
any interest their customer has lost. This is to make it the same as if the payment had
arrived on time.
If we get a payment for you from another bank that isn’t credited to your account
when it should have been, we’ll immediately credit your account with the right
amount and make the money available to you. We’ll also refund any charges you’ve
paid and refund or pay any interest we owe you. You’ll then be in the same position as
if you had received the payment when you should have done. For more information
on when payments will be credited to your account, see sections 2 and 4 of the
Banking Terms.
If we make a mistake on a payment to someone else under the UK Direct Debit
Scheme, we’ll refund you for that mistake. The rules for this are set out in the Direct
Debit Guarantee. This guarantee is on the direct debit form or confirmation given to
you by the person you’re paying.
If you ask us to trace a payment, we’ll do this and let you know the outcome. This is
normally free – but there may be a charge if the payment instructions you gave us
were wrong.
If someone takes an unauthorised payment from your
account
If you think a payment from your account wasn’t authorised (for example, someone
else made it), you must tell us as soon as possible. You can ask us for a refund. By
law you have a maximum of 13 months to tell us. You should keep an eye on your
account for anything you don’t recognise and can’t explain.
Unless we have reasonable grounds to think you’re not entitled to a refund, we’ll put
your account back as if the payment hadn’t happened. This includes refunding the
payment amount, refunding any charges and interest you’ve paid, and paying you any
interest you’ve missed out on. You won’t have any further claim against us.
We might have reasonable grounds to think you’re not entitled to a refund when
you ask for one. In that case, we may look into your claim further before giving the
money back. This could include asking you to give us some information in writing,
sometimes by electronic means.
However, we’ll provide you with a refund of the payment amount as soon as we can.
This will always be by the end of the working day after the day you tell us about the
unauthorised payment. The only exception is where we reasonably suspect you have
acted fraudulently and we notify the police or another person permitted by law. If we
don’t provide a refund in that time, we’ll look into this as quickly as possible. If we find
that the payment was indeed unauthorised, we’ll refund you and put your account
right straight away.
You won’t be entitled to a refund if you have acted fraudulently or you have
deliberately or with gross negligence done the following things.
- You didn’t keep your payment tools secure.
- You didn’t tell us as soon as possible that you have lost your payment tools,
especially if you think someone else might have been able to find them. We won’t
refund any payments made before you told us of the loss or the danger that their
security had been compromised.
However, if any of the payments are made from your overdraft, we’ll refund the
amount that came out of the overdraft (unless you acted fraudulently).
We can reverse or readjust a refund if we discover you were not entitled to all or some
of the amount refunded.
Unless you have acted fraudulently, we’ll refund the money if:
- it was taken after you told us a payment tool had been lost, stolen or compromised
- we haven’t provided a way for you to tell us your payment tools or security details
have been lost or stolen
- we haven’t applied procedures we’re legally required to use to verify
your identity when authorising a payment, or
- the payment was made to buy something online or at a distance.
If you’ve been the victim of an APP scam
If you think you are the victim of an APP scam, tell us as soon as possible. We’ve
signed up to a code of practice called the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code for
APP scams. This means there are some situations where we can reimburse you if it’s
happened to you.
We aim to tell you whether you’ll get your money back within 15 working days from
when you tell us about the APP scam.
Please be aware, though, that in some circumstances we may not be able to
reimburse you under the Code.
If your account is compromised completely, you will be required to perform verification for a new account.