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Our guarantee for Online Banking and the Barclays app

As long as you do everything you can to keep your account secure, we’ll refund any money that’s paid out without your permission.

Our promise to you

You’re protected by our guarantee when you use Online Banking or our app.

If you tell us a payment from your account wasn’t authorised and ask us for a refund, we’ll check the details and, if appropriate, return your money as soon as we can. When we process your refund, we’ll pay money back into your account, along with any charges and interest, and pay you any interest you might have missed out on.

Please let us know immediately if you think there’s been an unauthorised payment – in other words, a payment you didn’t make yourself, from your account. We legally have to refund you within 13 months of it taking place, but we may still consider refunding you if you tell us later than this.

When we won’t refund you

When you tell us about an unauthorised payment, we’ll look into it and decide if we can refund you.

We won’t refund you if we believe you acted fraudulently. We might involve the police in these cases.

We won’t refund you if you intentionally or with gross negligence:

  • Didn’t take reasonable steps or enough care to protect your payment tools, like your card and PIN, security information or any device that could be used to make a payment from your account – for example, leaving your PIN written down for someone else to see or leaving your Online Banking logged in when using a public computer
  • Didn’t tell us as soon as possible that you may have lost your payment tools. In such cases, we won’t refund any payments made before you told us your payment tools had been lost, stolen or compromised. 

However, if any of the payments are made using your overdraft or credit card, we’ll refund those amounts (unless you have acted fraudulently).

If we refund you but then find out you weren’t eligible, we may take some or all of the money back out of your account.

Unless you’ve acted fraudulently, we’ll refund you where:

  • The payment was taken after you told us a payment tool had been lost, stolen or compromised
  • The payment was made to buy something online or at a distance, such as over the phone, by mail orders or by text message
  • We haven’t provided a way for you to tell us that your payment tools have been lost or stolen
  • We haven’t applied procedures we’re legally required to use to verify your identity when authorising a payment.

 

Authorised push payment scams

An authorised push payment (APP) scam is where:

  • You wanted to transfer money to someone, but were tricked into transferring the money to someone else
  • You transferred money to someone for what you believed was a legitimate reason, which turned out to be fraudulent.

APP scams aren’t covered by our Online Banking guarantee. If you think you’ve been the victim of an authorised push payment scam, please tell us as soon as possible, so that we can try to recover your money or check if we can give you a refund.  

Call us if you’ve been the victim of an APP scam:

  • 0345 050 4585 if you’re in the UK
  • +44 160 452 9410 if you’re outside the UK.

Find out more at barclays.co.uk/fraud-and-scams

Protecting your account

Here are some steps you should take to keep your account safe.

PINs, passwords and passcodes

  • Don’t share PINs, passcodes and passwords with anyone1
  • Don’t write down PINs, passcodes and passwords – memorise them and destroy any letters from us that show them
  • Choose a PIN, password or passcode that’s difficult to guess. Don’t use a simple sequence like ‘1234’, for example, or your date of birth

Your computer, smartphone or tablet

  • Don’t let anyone else use a device that could be used to access your bank details or account
  • Don’t use a shared email account for anything that contains your bank details
  • If your smartphone or tablet uses face or fingerprint security, don’t let anyone else register their face or fingerprint. We treat any transaction on your account that’s authorised this way as authorised by you
  • Take reasonable care when using Online Banking and your app. Log out at the end of each session and don’t leave your device unattended while you’re logged in
  • Install any security updates from your device’s manufacturer and keep its apps up to date
  • Use – and update regularly – antivirus and internet security software on your device.

Everyday banking

  • Tell us as soon as possible if you think someone else has used, or could use, your bank card, PIN or password
  • If you notice anything suspicious on your account, let us know immediately
  • Read any warnings we may give you about fraud and scams, particularly when paying someone new or changing the details of someone you’ve paid before.

Other ways we protect you

  • Our secure log-in protects your accounts when you use Online Banking and the app
  • Your PINsentry card reader or Mobile PINsentry in your app give you an extra level of protection when you use Online Banking
  • We log you out automatically if you don’t do anything in the app for three minutes, or 10 minutes when you’re using Online Banking.

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The Barclays app

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