barclaycard debt advice

gleeb

I have been trying to get reduced payments with barclaycard on a debt of over £3000. I have sent them twice now my list of creditors and what i pay per month etc .. the first time they just ignored it. the second time they said the amount i had left to give them was not enough. it was less than a tenner but thats all i had left each month.
I was at my wits end. so for the last fortnight i have thought what i could do.
they have passed the debt over to mercers debt collection now and out of the blue this morning i got a letter saying i had 48 hour notice to pass over to debt collectors in my area.
am totally stuck and quite upset as to what i can do.

help !

isgman

Don't Panic.. Your Can't Pay waht you don't have. but DO Stick to paying the amount you have said you can pay.. and keep a record of your payments. "they" all ask for More.. someone on this site will give you better info than I can but until then.. keep your chin up and try not to let things get you down..Good Luck

CLAPTON

unfortunately once you default on your debts you will receive all sorts of threadening letter, phone calls, unreasonable demands etc. but you have to just stick to your offer....dont panic and dont be harassed by any one creditor. they will eventually accept but it will take some time.
Are you using Payplan or CCCS??

lynzpower

Are you using one of these? Or going it alone?

Have you done an SOA we might be able to find slightly more for them if you do

gleeb

i contacted cccs a few months back now in regard to my debt problem .. they sent me an info pack and i followed on with what to do from that. basicly just following the advice in the info pack. its all the more confusing now as i dont know whether to send barclaycard my offer or this mercers debt collection that they passed it to .. my heart just sinks when i get a nasty letter like this tho and im doing my best to try and sort it out with them

coral

I have just been through this with Barclaycard and Mercers. Firstly no-one called at my door that I know of, though I had two letters saying they would (one disguised as a birthday card?!) if they do just ignore them. I kept sending the same letter to Barclaycard and Mercers with cheques of £5 as offer of payment. They have eventually accepted a reduced payment of £21 per month (on a £1600 debt) which I am quite happy with. They havent frozen interest or charges though which are around £60 per month, though I plan to reclaim these (see threads on this board) once i've got straightened out a bit.

gleeb

got another letter off mercers a couple of days ago ..
Love the way they put at the end of their commanding letter 'DO NOT ask us again to accept payments lower than this amount.' (£37)

Do i just carry on sending them the same letter with what i can afford to pay ?

Im finding it really hard to stick to any kind of budget at the moment. I mean i got behind with the council tax payments so they just slapped court costs on so i gotta find that now to get back on track.
i suppose i could skip meals to save money lol .. maybe eat something every two days instead of each day.
sigh

g

AGB863

I work for a debt management company and I often have to quote part of the Debt Collection Guidance issued by the Office of Fair Trading. Although it is only guidance debt collectors have to have a licence issued by the OFT to trade and therefore it is expected for them to adhere to the guidance, otherwise complaints againt them could be made and they could loose their licence to trade.

If you have produced a income and expenditure sheet and you have listed all of your creditors and payments being made to them you can write to Mercers and quote this

"under the Debt Collection Guidance issued by the OFT I believe you are in breach of guidence under the section concerning "Physical/psychological harassment - section 2.6.f which states about unfair practices - ie pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments, or to increase payments when they are unable to do so". I can not increase my offer to you and I believe you are in breach of the above code. "

Make the same offer of payment again and wait for their reply.

If you want to see the whole document go to http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/50F06527-9FC5-4610-B385-999D6E2A8950/0/oft664.pdf

samthemanhull

I recieved letters from Mercers but I had a sneaking suspision that Mercers are part of Barclaycard or Barclays. PayPlan (who I am with) informed me this was the case. Mercers evetually backed down and didnt carry out any of the action they stated on the letters. Same with all my creditors really, they eventually back down if you keep sending what you can afford and have sent a statement of affairs. If Mercers (which is part of barclays anyway) eventually refer the debt onto a debt collection agency, which some of my credit card companys did, I found that debt collections agencies evetually back down too if you provide them your statement of affairs and send what you say you can afford whether they accept it or not. The debt collection agencies I had to deal with all kept saying my offers were not enough and then eventually I got letters saying they accept. Hope this helps. Sam

gleeb

i'm really depressed about the whole thing now. had multiple calls to my mobile when i was at work .. they just make you feel like a total loser !
am not going to answer it now .. in fact will leave my phone at home !

caleo

If they are phoning you on your mobile, cold you not answer it, ask them to hold for a sec and leave it in your drawer?

If you have contacted them and expressed your wish that they write to you,they should not be harrassing you in this way!

I have had a card in a lovely lilac envelope saying they are coming to see me this Saturday.

I have got an envelope full of copies of all the letters I have sent to them and to barclays, and at least if they come round, I can be assured that they have received communications from me!!!:j

Saves me some postage, but then again, I doubt they will be coming!!

Caleo