Consumer complaint received 2024-03-28
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE (AZ)

Hello, I applied for a XXXX XXXX credit card with Barclays Bank on XX/XX/XXXX. I was approved and I asked that the card be sent to my XXXX XXXX XXXX because Id be out of town. Once I received the card to the XXXX XXXX XXXX I attempted to activate the credit card by calling in. At that time I was told that there was a hold on the credit card account and that I could not use the card until I sent in documents to prove my identity. I was told to send a copy of my ID, Social Security XXXX, and bank statement with my mailing address in it. I have faxed and mailed in copies of my ID, social security card, and bank statements multiple times in XX/XX/XXXX and was told it was not received. On XX/XX/XXXX I went to my bank and asked them to fax the documents and Barclays informed that the documents were received but that they could not see the ID clearly because it was faxed. On XXXX, I was told that if I did not pay the {$99.00} annual fee for the card by XX/XX/XXXX that it would be reported as unpaid to the credit bureaus and it would have a negative impact my XXXX XXXX. I was forced to pay this fee even though Barclays staff has not removed the hold on on the credit card so that I could use the card. I paid the fee on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I re faxed the ID and was told it was never received and that I now need to send a bank statement that matched the address on the original credit card application. 

On XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX I mailed the ID and poor of address documents for the address on the original credit card application as I was told the address document needed to now match the address on my credit card application instead of my physical address. I mailed it twice because I was told it was not received the first time. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and was told the document was received but that now I need to send bank statement documents with my physical address instead of my mailing address and now I need to send another copy of my social security card because it has been 30 days since I sent my social security card, as if my social security card is going to be any different, it is issued at birth and does not change. Just completely absurd. I asked if I could just close the account and have the {$99.00} annual fee that I paid returned, as I have never used or had access to the card due to them refusing to remove the hold. I was told the account can not be accessed at all by them because it is on hold. However, they were able to access the account over the phone to accept payment of the {$99.00} fee on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I have sent in multiple documents and contacted Barclays over XXXX times and have spent over {$30.00} on copying, faxing documents, and mailing documents priority mail. All of the information I have sent to Barclays matches the information on my credit report and thus I dont see why I need to even send anything but I sent it in anyway as requested to no avail. I have multiple credit cards with different credit card issuers and banks, and I have never had any issues like this. I have more than proven my identity to Barclays, however they continue to remove to take the hold off of the credit card or to close the account and return the annual fee that I paid. Each time XXXX contact Barclays, I am told something different. I am sure I can not be the only one dealing with this and it seems like they want to charge customers an annual fee but never allow the customer access to the card and just retain fees illegally which is fraudulent.