Barclaycard "Debit Adjustment" !

huginn

Hi!

I recently got a Barclaycard Initial Visa, basically for the express purpose of mending a poor credit rating by spending a little and paying off full balance each month.

Thanks to my previous 'lack of success' with credit cards, I was given an enormously generous credit limit of £260.

I was fine with that, and set up a direct debit to pay the full balance each month. All was going well until one month Barclaycard made an error and paid £400 into my account for apparently no reason whatsoever.

To cut a long story short, I thought the money had been put in by a family member and spent it.

This month, without any mention from Barclaycard (no phone call, email, carrier pigeon, nothing), they took £400 back, leaving me over £500 in debt.

I suspect they will apply a charge, and of course interest as well for this bill I can't pay immediately.

I spent the money and was careless about checking whether the money was indeed from a family. However, what leaves a bitter taste in my mouth is that Barclaycard are now profiting from their own error.

I don't really want to continue using their service because I don't need this kind of administrative hassle every few months, + their callcentres are awful and all they do is keep sympathising and apologising and refusing to do anything.

Can anyone tell me where I stand here?

Really I'd like to send them a letter explaining my situation, with my cut up card, a request to close my account, and a cheque for £260 - which as far as I'm concerned is the maximum debt I would have ever incurred without the help of their administrative error. To me this seems a fair solution, but I'm wondering where this leaves me legally?

If this path isn't wise - any alternate suggestions or an explanation of where I stand are most appreciated!

jonesMUFCforever

Legally you have a debt of £500.
The £400 was never yours to spend and has to be paid back.

To be honest it does seem that you have not learnt from past lessons as how to deal with credit and with respect it will be better if they block your card and put markers on your credit files to prevent you taking out further credit.

withabix

It probably wasn't an error by Barclaycard.

It will probably have been an error made by a customer who has made a payment to the wrong card number. This has now been reversed.

It wasn't your money to spend.

You've really got nobody to blame but yourself.

huginn

Well to my utter amazement, when I finally got through to the right people at Barclaycard, they were an awful lot more helpful than you lot!

They offered me an acceptable solution without passing judgement *cough*

a solution which will allow me to pay off the debt in a short time frame without occurring interest or charges due to the erroneous transfer and subsequent removal of money into my account.

They agreed with me that removing £400 from an account with a £260 limit without contacting me before the fact was unhelpful to say the least, and we came to a reasonable agreement.

oh and one last thing

jonesMUFCforever: "To be honest it does seem that you have not learnt from past lessons as how to deal with credit and with respect it will be better if they block your card and put markers on your credit files to prevent you taking out further credit."

Dude, why don't you stick to the topic instead of taking veiled personal stabs on a financial advice forum. If this is what you think, then 'with respect' bloody write Barclaycard about it. I can assure you they disagree.

Be honest with yourself, is that advice to me, or is it a sanctimonious little pop at me, which helps absolutely no one and solves nothing?

Robert_Sterling_3

To be honest I have nothing to add.

gomer

I blame Bonnie Langford.

huginn

"I blame Bonnie Langford"

Me too! :money:

naijapower

I blame the blameless. lol lol

jonesMUFCforever

Well done for coming to an agreement about repaying the debt BUT why did you spend money that was not yours?
You have not commented on that.
Have a pop at me if you like - I don't care.