Barclays pulls financial safety net as cost of living crisis bites

Barclays’s current account holders have abruptly been told their overdraft facility will be withdrawn. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Barclays customers claim they are losing a vital financial safety valve during the cost of living crisis after the bank abruptly withdrew their unused overdraft facilities. The bank has written to a number of its current account holders informing them that their overdraft limit will be removed with a month’s notice because they have not used it for 12 months.

Many say they were counting on the provision in case soaring bills tip their accounts into the red. Andrew Davey, who has banked with Barclays for more than 30 years, was informed that his £1,400 overdraft was being withdrawn as he had not used it in the past year.