20,000 graduates affected by Barclays mistake

Almost 20,000 young graduates have had their overdraft facilities accidentally removed by Barclays. The bank traditionally migrates graduates from the Higher Education account to the Barclays current account at this time of year.

But an ‘internal processing issue’ has resulted in cash-strapped graduates having their overdraft facility removed and those who have gone into the red are being fined for making ‘unauthorised’ overdraft transactions.

This could be as much as £30 a day but some graduates could be charged £35 per day indefinitely if the transactions have been rejected by the bank. Consequently, this last week a graduate could be faced with £175 in charges.

All graduates affected have been assured by Barclays that the charges will be refunded as soon as possible. A spokesperson said they had been working hard to fix the problem.

The Higher Education account is a graduate account with no monthly fee offering an interest free overdraft of £1,500 in its first year, falling to £1,000 in its second year. Graduates can extend this to £3,000 if they pay 15.6% on the extension above their interest free limit. When they transfer to a standard Barclays current account, they must pay 15.6% on the full overdraft amount.

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