Consumer complaint received 2021-06-02
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE (NY)

The following letter was sent to Barclay 's on or about XX/XX/XXXX, and they failed to respond, or otherwise rectify my complaint : In XX/XX/XXXX, I was made aware of a discrepancy with respect to the balance on my Barclays credit card ( Account Number ). Upon further investigation, I discovered a multitude of charges between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX that we did not make, resulting in a balance of approximately {$4500.00}. The balance should have been approximately {$2000.00}. 

In an effort to rectify this issue, my wife ( with my permission ) called customer service at the end of XX/XX/XXXX and had an unpleasant conversation with a customer service representative. The representative was more interested in disputing our contentions then she was in getting us to the right department to handle the matter. We were only able to convince her that our claims were legitimate when we explained that several charges were incurred out of state while we were on a mandatory quarantine and confined to New York State due to Covid-19. 

Ultimately, we were transferred to the Fraud Department and went through every charge in the relevant timeframe, disputing multiple charges that clearly werent ours. The Fraud Department promised to investigate.

Shortly thereafter, we received a letter from Barclays indicating that our claims were substantiated. However, upon inspecting our bill and noticing that our minimum monthly payment had not gone done, we inquired again. Apparently, only a portion of our claim was substantiated.

We asked again for all of our allegations to be investigated. We then received another letter in XX/XX/XXXX and a phone call indicating all of our claims had been substantiated, but it would take up to three months to see changes to our account. To date, no changes have been made to our account balance or the minimum payment due. 

In summary, I uncovered fraudulent charges that Barclays admitted were improper, yet nothing has been done to remove the fraudulent charges from our account balance. We even cancelled our credit card in XX/XX/XXXX and have not activated our new replacement cards for fear that we would again be victims of fraud. 

I have been very patient waiting for Barclays to finally conclude their investigation and remove all fraudulent charges that appeared between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. It has been over a year since this issue was brought to the attention of Barclays, and seven months since they informed us that the fraudulent charges would be removed. This is unacceptable. 

Therefore, I expect Barclays to remove all fraudulent charges from my account immediately. There is no excuse for this lengthy delay, which has entirely been to my and my familys detriment during a global pandemic. Failure to do so could result in me contacting the NYS Office of the Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission, and/or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

I will only accept a written response to this correspondence, at the address indicated above. 

Finally, I would ask that each payment made since XX/XX/XXXX be audited and any portion of each payment necessitated by the fraudulent charges be applied to the ( legitimate ) principal balance.