A mother revealed she ‘almost had a heart attack’ after realising her bank account was overdrawn by £1million.
Kameka Smith-Barrett, confirmed her digital banking falsely displayed she was owing £500,000 and £500,000 current and savings account.
The mum-of-two, said she felt deflated by Barclays bank’s handling of the mistake after offering ‘no explanation as to what went wrong’.
Kameka, who works as a mental health support worker, claims both bank accounts were also locked for 10 days while an investigation took place by Barclays - and meant she had to borrow money from friends and family to buy food and pay bills.
The 30-year-old said the investigation took place from November 29 to December 9 but she has yet to hear from Barclays.
Kameka, 30, told BirminghamLive : “When I logged on I realised that a large amount of money had disappeared. All I could see was £500,000 overdrawn on both accounts.
“I almost had a heart attack. I thought ‘this is really bad’. It’s horrible, I was shaking.
“I’ve just had a baby and didn’t need that stress.”
Kameka has made a complaint about her service but is still waiting on a response from Barclays.
“I don’t know why you’d have an overdraft at that limit anyway,” she said. “I don’t even have an overdraft on my account.
“I’m not the Prime Minster or a footballer. I don’t get a huge amount of money! Now I’m on maternity leave.
“I gave Barclays time to investigate. I’ve just had a baby and I had no money to buy food. It took so long to find out what was going on.
“They said that someone would call me and update me, but that hasn’t happened.
“I made a complaint but to get no answer was crazy. They aren’t saying anything. It’s very stressing.”
Barclays told BirminghamLive that “activity on the account” led to a review - but the negative balance “was not actual debt, just a precaution.”
The bank also apologised to Kameka, who has two children, son Jaquan, eight, and baby Verona, for the inconvenience caused.
“Having reviewed the case, I can confirm the activity on the account prompted a routine review. While this review was undertaken the accounts stated a negative balance,” a Barclays spokesman told BirminghamLive.
“This was done to safeguard the funds whilst the internal investigation took place. The negative balance on the account was not actual debt, just a precaution.
“The customer credit file and financial history have not been affected. As a regulated firm, we are subject to certain regulatory obligations which can require us to withhold transactions or services, or at times block accounts.
“We may place safeguards such as above on any banking facilities, at any time, as detailed in the Customer Retail Agreement. We’re unfortunately unable to provide any additional information regarding the safeguards placed on the account.
“However, I can confirm all safeguards have since been removed and the funds have been returned. I appreciate this has been an extremely difficult time for our customer, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience that may have been caused.”
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