Problems with Barclaycard

72fins

Hello to everyone,

I am hoping that someone will be able to give me some advice on what action I should take with Barclaycard.

To cut a long story short, I lost my job at the end of August and asked Barclaycard if I could temporarily reduce my monthly payments. They said this was no problem and would send confirmation to me along with a DD mandate to start payment (I contact my other card company at the same time and they completed this request with no problems). Nothing was ever sent to me by Barclaycard and when I spoke to them again they denied ever having contact with me.

I have now made requests several times, via phone at least 5 times (same request as above), via e-mail once (no response) and via post twice (only one response) to make reduced payments. Nothing has ever been done to answer any of my requests. The only response I have received was on December 1st telling me they hoped to resolve my complaint and respond to my letter by December 8th.

In between Barclaycard have harrassed me by phone (calling 4 to 5 times a day), tried to trick me into setting up a DD for a £148 payment rather than a £30 monthly payment.

My most recent contact to do with my problems was with a company called Mercer Debt Collections who called me on 9th of December to threaten me with court action if I did not repay my full debt (now approx £2300). I explained that I could not afford this payment as I have only just started a new job and am awaiting my first pay check. I offered to pay back £30 per month to start off and increase it once I was back on my feet. Mercer's suggested paying £60 per month. I refused and eventually agreed on a fee of £40 per month. As of this moment I am waiting on them to send out confirmation of this.

I am so angry with Barclaycard for passing me to debt collection agency after they have basically ignored me for the past 3 months. Has anyone had any similar problems and what action did they take? Also should I make a formal complaint to the FSA or Financial Ombudsman or both?

Any help or advice greatly appreciate, thanks.

worriedinspain

Mercers is part of Barclaycard. They are not a separate debt collection company.

[Deleted User]

Whn you fall 3 or more payments behind Barclaycard will call you stating they are called Mercers, Barclaycard will never take you to court, they will sell the debt onto another Debt collection agency.

Go and have a look in the Debt Freebie boards and have a look at the templates for payment proposals and suchlike, as far as i can work out though, youve already agreed something with them and this was only two days ago, so just do as youve said you would and they wont "hassle" you, if you dont stick to it, you should expect contact from them.