barclaycard & leiusure time scam!!!

robbiarti

hello, i recently received my latest barclaycard statement and noticed a transaction from a company called leisuretime for £69 which i knew nothing about. i called leisuretime and they say i sent back a signed document which was sent with a barclaycard statement!
they have now sent me a photo copy of the signature and to my surprise it is mine, it deffinately didnt sign for this so can only think they have obtained it sum other way!
has anyone else experienced this sort of scam from the comany and were you able to obtain a refund from barcalys?
thanks for any info or help anyone can offer me on this!

darkcloudi

I googled leisuretime and it appears to be a website for holidays, someone may have gone through your rubbish and obtained one of your barclaycard statements which you may not shredded and used it to there advantage to make a booking by forwarding it to leisuretime.

Don't belive barclaycard would forward on your details.

You should tell barclaycard that you believe someone may have got your details so they can cancel the card else you will suddenly see more transactions appearing. You should able to get the refund since you never made the transaction.

gemmalouanna

A few months back I got the leisuretime offer with my Barclaycard...free trial and £69 if you don't cancel, I signed up for the free trial as you got money back if you sent them you petrol receipt, once I received my petrol money I phoned leisuretime to cancel and they confirmed in writing and the £69 has not been taken.

Seems strange with your signature on the form and with a statement - I didn't send one so seems very odd!

16DLH61

Hi, I'm afraid this is indeed some sort of scam. We also received our Barclaycard statement which had charged us £69.99 from a company called LeisureTime, which is run by a company called AFFINION INTERNATIONAL LTD, who also run SENTINEL GOLD, a card insurance policy!

We definitely did not sign (as they are insisting) for their package of discounts on tickets, shows, etc, as we never go out to them; and our Barclaycard is used SOLELY for internet transactions.

We have concluded that Barclaycard is allowing LeisureTime to access our card details, along with our signature, which is deplorable, and should be investigated.

We have cancelled our current Barclaycard, as LeisureTime insist that we have signed a yearly contract, but are now considering leaving Barclaycard completely, as they would probably pass on our new card details to LeisureTime for next year.

The reason we suspect this, is that we were also with Sentinel Gold card insurance (also run by Affinion International Ltd) over three years ago when we lived at a different address. In the meantime, Barclaycard informed us that our card was being used fraudulently,(which impressed us at the time), so our card was cancelled and changed. However, Barclaycard must have informed Sentinel Gold of our changed card details, as they sent a renewal to our OLD address, but had accessed our new card details! Fortunately, we were in time to cancel and get a refund on our money for this, but we have contacted Barclaycard Fraud dept, and LeisureTime without any refund so far.

Barclaycard will have people leaving in droves if this association with Affinion Int Ltd continues.

elmophoebe

Yes, this is a scam. Leisuretime are obtaining signatures from B'card using highly devious means.
See this link for lots of rip-off stories and useful suggestions on what to do if you've been scammed by BC and LT:
http://www.jonathanmacdonald.com/?p=2254

withnell

You sign a form when you send back to accept the free petrol / camera offer. You just have to remember to cancel in time. It's not a scam, just enough people forget to cancel to make it worthwhile for them to give decent freebies!

Milarky

withnell wrote: »

You sign a form when you send back to accept the free petrol / camera offer. You just have to remember to cancel in time. It's not a scam, just enough people forget to cancel to make it worthwhile for them to give decent freebies!

That's right, it's not a scam organisation, just one which offers a product of dubious value. Many people here have 'correctly' taken advantage of the £20, £40 or £80 petrol vouchers at not cost. The trick is to cancel immediately you get get these (i.e. well within the first 30 days) and not later. LT must have 'got wise' by rolling up 12 monthly premiums into one annual premium at the end of the 'trial' period. Before, if you left it a bit late cancelling the most it would cost you was one month - £6.99

MABLE

Its no scam unfortunately there are so many thickies in this world they did not understand the offer. I applied and then cancelled a week later. Received cancellation and advise I could use the petrol vouchers. Now whats so complicated about that.

gemma1986

lesuire time is not a scam. The mailshots are signed up to by the members. They just havent read what they have signed. The charge is mentioned next to the the signature box and one or two times in the letter. Also the number to cancel is given aswel. Lesuire time does exactley what it says on the mail shot. Gives you the incentive, 30 day free trail and the information and all the info required to canx without charge. People ahould read what they sign.

Taks

16DLH61 wrote: »

Hi, I'm afraid this is indeed some sort of scam. We also received our Barclaycard statement which had charged us £69.99 from a company called LeisureTime, which is run by a company called AFFINION INTERNATIONAL LTD, who also run SENTINEL GOLD, a card insurance policy!

We definitely did not sign (as they are insisting) for their package of discounts on tickets, shows, etc, as we never go out to them; and our Barclaycard is used SOLELY for internet transactions.

We have concluded that Barclaycard is allowing LeisureTime to access our card details, along with our signature, which is deplorable, and should be investigated.

We have cancelled our current Barclaycard, as LeisureTime insist that we have signed a yearly contract, but are now considering leaving Barclaycard completely, as they would probably pass on our new card details to LeisureTime for next year.

The reason we suspect this, is that we were also with Sentinel Gold card insurance (also run by Affinion International Ltd) over three years ago when we lived at a different address. In the meantime, Barclaycard informed us that our card was being used fraudulently,(which impressed us at the time), so our card was cancelled and changed. However, Barclaycard must have informed Sentinel Gold of our changed card details, as they sent a renewal to our OLD address, but had accessed our new card details! Fortunately, we were in time to cancel and get a refund on our money for this, but we have contacted Barclaycard Fraud dept, and LeisureTime without any refund so far.

Barclaycard will have people leaving in droves if this association with Affinion Int Ltd continues.

Before you begin trashing a company you ned to understand how it works.

Affinion is an affinity based company, in thats products arnt physical but are instead package and insurance based. The way the products are marketed is through their clients - in this case Barclaycard. If any policies or memberships are set up in your name, its usually because a box has either been ticked or not been ticked(this one is popping up more often now as people are wising up) authorisin the setup. With both sentinel gold and leisure time, the only way a policy can be set up is if you call THEM or one is requested on your behalf by the clients to the company. If the practices of the company were out of order, or unfair then Im positive both the FSA and the Financial ombudsman would have had it shut down.

The fact is, despite critisism, if details are passed on and policies/memberships are set up, its either down to the client that requested them, or the customer who failed to notice it was being set up.

Not sure if anyone remembers the old adverts for barclaycard depicting the person being tied to a bed and all his stuff being stolen, with the advert advertisng gadget insurance. This would work in exactly the same way (The product here was called mystuff) and after a given time period it then begins to charge.

If at ANY point do you think something suspect has happened, your first port of call should be your card issuer, as unless you took it out directl, that is where your fault may infact lie.

lisers

Im being charged £79.99 through freemans for a years membership to leisure time that i knew nothing about,they said i signed for it in april and was sent the welcome pack [that i have not received ] and had 30 days to cancle ,i asked for a copy of the signed agreement and they have sent it today and although it is a little simuler i dont think its mine .i am in debt have not ordered from freemans for about a year as they declined my last 4 orders and my disabled husband and i have not had a holiday in 15 years so why would i spend what money i have not got on leisure time,.any one got any advice for me please