Warning: Barclaycard BT's

Vindiesel

Hi All

Just had a furious conversation with Barclaycard. They are trying to sc*** me on an interest free promo Balance Transfer..let me explain as it's a little complicated:

1st August o/s balance roughly £200
2nd August purchase £350

6th August PAY FULL BALANCE OFF

12th August make BT of £1000



Lo and behold, 1st September, my BT balance is only £750 (approx) even though I have paid nothing off..so I query, and they say my paying off the balance on 6th august only applies when Septembers statement is generated- whereby they use it in the order of payment, to pay off BT's then BT fees, then purchases, then cash charges etc. Now I understand the order of payments, but my balance was effectively clear when I made the BT! So I explained this to them. I also explained I HAVE to pay the bill off in time which I did, otherwise I am charged interest so I am scre**ed either way.

If I did not pay off the bill, I would be charged interest on the full balance, and maybe have a fee charged. If I pay early, I am still scr**ed, as they pay off the BT that I haven't even made yet, so I pay interest on the purchases!

Sooo..I can't win, either way, I have to pay interest. This is clever, but also completely unfair! I have told them that I am closing my account out of a matter of interest. Make this a warning to everyone! Don't do a BT unless you have a completely free account, that you paid off the moneth prior! and be sure!

cheers

normanmark

How long have you had the account? Barclaycards T&C's state that to qualify for the 0% offer you need to do your BTs within 60 days of the account opening.

methusala_2

hi Vindiesel,

Exactly the same situation happened to me with the barclaycard offer of no fee LOB transfer for existing customers.
I phoned barclaycard at least 5 times, speaking with someone different each time and getting the same reply as you got EXCEPT

the last gentleman was more sympathetic. He explained I should have waited, and recieved a statement showing a 0 balance before performing the BT. I insisted that that I did wait for a 0 balance , not a paper statement but an online statement which said 0 balance and the max available to spend. So spend it I did , on a BT.
He went away and eventualy returned to say that his superior had agreed to take the current Standard Balance, which i said shouldnt exist, and crystalize it at the same rate as the LOB rate. 2 months later they re-vamped my balance to show a BT exactly as I had set out to do in the beginning.

I have to say that the previous 4 barclaycard people i spoke to were not based in the UK but the gentleman that sorted it was.

Maybe i eventualy got lucky and spoke to someone who wasnt working from a clipboard.

Incidentaly this is where I first learned that Barclaycard allocate payments against purchases only on the statement date and not when they recieve the payment.

Vindiesel

Normanmark - it's an exisiting customer BT, I have been with them for a while.

Methusla - thats interesting. I did speak to a (British) guy in the call centre yesterday and to be fair, he was helpful, and sympathetic. This was after a frustrating 6 minutes to India to be put on hold for 4 mins, then cut off!
He agreed with me that it was unfair without actually saying so (as i pointed out, he does work for BC and the calls are recorded - i worked for Barclays, so know what it's like!)
Furthermore, he did actually say that they would look at refunding the interest levied - if it was, but could not waive it until it had been charged. This I understand, but it is still inherently unfair, and as a matter of principle, I will be closing the account. (I really don't want to sound petty, but it is a means of short term borrowing. If my hands are tied behind my back, and I have a blindfold on - ie they don't make this clause clear - I can't avoid paying interest unless I can pay it all off, which means there was no point doing the BT).

Thanks all, I hope others avoid this silly situation

Vin