Can't totally close Barclaycard Account

WestonDave

Can someone help me with this one (or more accurately my wife).

Long ago when she was a student and banked with Barclays she got a Barclaycard. Since we got married and had kids we looked at it and decided it no longer suited our needs so it has lain dormant. We realised that it was still attracting a charge for card protection (lost stolen etc) and have had a bit of a fight to get that closed down but have now succeeded and told them we wanted the account closed which apparently they did.

We have now received a letter from them stating that the account is closed but we have a £3k credit limit. On phoning them they say this is part of their terms and they keep this in place for 3 years. Given that we have a stooze thing going elsewhere we don't really want this on our credit records as it may reduce our ability to get credit elsewhere (especially in the current troubled times). They can't reduce the credit limit because that is what it was when the account was closed.

2 Questions - firstly will this affect other credit applications and secondly has anyone else come across this or are they trying to pull a fast one?

Thanks in advance!

Moggles_2

I'm a longstanding Barclaycard customer with no experience of closing this particular card, but I cancelled my Monument account last year (whilst still owned and operated by Barclaycard) and simply received the usual correspondence confirming closure as requested.

Has your wife checked her credit reports to see whether the account is shown and marked "settled"? This, after all, is the information UK lenders see, when you apply for new credit facilities. (For help, see the *How to obtain credit reports* sticky.)

WestonDave

Thanks - will have to do the credit report check but will leave it a week or so to ensure it has had a chance to be updated.

Did a bit more googling after I posted here, and found a BBC news report raising concerns about this as long ago as 2003. Apparently they won't fully remove the account from the system until a year after the last card issued expires - if you have a relatively recent card which lasts 2 years then this accounts for the 3 year delay. Barclaycard said at the time its a "service" so people don't lose out if they've forgotten about subscriptions etc, but personally I think in times of identity and card fraud this is a daft idea. The BBC report was about someone who only discovered this when someone accidentally charged something to her "closed" account (they had quoted the wrong number or something) so clearly this is going to happen!

Interesting to find out if this is just Barclaycard or whether other accounts do this!

Moggles_2

WestonDave wrote: »

Will have to do the credit report check, but will leave it a week or so to ensure it has had a chance to be updated.

Unlike credit searches (which appear on your credit file more or less in realtime), this type of data can take up to a month.

Note: if her files are not up to date, she can telephone the CRAs afterwards quoting the reference numbers & dates and they'll advise her of subsequent changes over the phone.

Moggles_2

WestonDave wrote: »

Did a bit more googling after I posted here and found a BBC news report raising concerns about this as long ago as 2003. Apparently they won't fully remove the account from the system until a year after the last card issued expires - if you have a relatively recent card which lasts 2 years then this accounts for the 3 year delay. Barclaycard said at the time its a "service" so people don't lose out if they've forgotten about subscriptions etc, but personally I think in times of identity and card fraud this is a daft idea. The BBC report was about someone who only discovered this when someone accidentally charged something to her "closed" account (they had quoted the wrong number or something) so clearly this is going to happen!

Interesting. Still, provided that the CRAs record your wife's account settled, applications for new credit from other lenders will not be affected.

Please keep us posted