Barclaycard says its Channel Islands customers, who were told their credit cards and accounts would be closed, were emailed in error.

Barclaycard emailed its Channel Islands customers overnight to tell them that they could only keep their credit card accounts open if they could provide a UK address.

The email said that otherwise, credit cards would stop working in May and the accounts would be closed in June.

The company has told Island FM this was incorrect.

A Barclays spokesperson tells us:

“We offer our sincere apologies to any of our Barclaycard customers resident in the Channel Islands that may have been incorrectly informed that their accounts would be closed.

We can confirm all existing cardholders resident in Jersey and Guernsey will continue to be supported and there will be no change to the service they currently receive.”

However, Barclaycard says that ringfencing laws mean that no new credit cards will be issued in future to people with addresses outside of the UK.

Ringfencing was brought in after the 2008 financial crisis, and the C.I. offshoots of major high street banks are now considered separate entities.