Barclaycard

billion25

Rafter wrote:

Linda-ann,

Is there any way you can transfer the whole balance off your Barclaycard to another card?

Like most card companies (except Nationwide) Barclaycard will always pay off your low interest balance first, so any cash withdrawls will stay there indefinately at very high rates unless you pay off in full.

This type of 'trick' is totally unfair but once one company does it, the others almost have to follow suit to keep their APRs competitive.

If anyone from the Office of fair trading is reading this (or an englightened card company executive) perhaps you could introduce the following rules industry wide:

1. A minimum payment of 5% - this is a credit card for short term borrowing not a 20 year loan which is how long it will take to repay if you just pay the minimum.

2. The same interest rate for cash and purchases with a 1% cash withdrawl fee - there is no reason (except to make additional profits) why the rates should be any different.

3. A maximum combined limit across an individuals credit cards of 20% of their annual income. Any limit above this would be unenforceable.

4. No risk based pricing - just risk based limits or no card at all if an individual can't handle credit.

5. Amnesty for anyone who currently has more than 75% of their annual income after tax in unsecured debt, with 50% converted to a 10 year repayment loan at say 5% interest to get them back on track.


We moneysavers love our credit cards - we get cashback on our shopping, we make £1000's in interest from stoozing but only because the industry is broken and for every customer like us there is someone less fortunate paying huge amounts of their income to service debt.

This is just wrong!

R.

No Rafter...there are 10 - 20 customers who handle their debt appropriately for evey 1 customer who doesn't. Should the laws beneift the 10% of people who can't handle their debt or the 90% who can?

CharleneUK

I recently signed up to Barclays 6.9% card and also received a letter, but nothing about the 6.9% going up?

I've just sent them an email to clarify.

bunking_off

Daft_Monkey wrote:

But the refusal by Barclays to increase her overdraft facility, even though she has a savings account with them ( just so they can charge her up to £60 for every month she goes over the limit) and the refusal by Barclaycard to reduce their interest rate made me wonder about their motives.

Daft_Monkey

Not intending this to come across as having a pop, but why does your girlfriend have a credit card balance accruing interest at nigh on 28%, while having savings that after tax will be paying 1 or 2% interest? Surely it would make sense to take the savings and pay down the credit card? You mentioned that her bank manager must be smiling whenever she walks in the door....(s)he will be because they're fleecing her to the tune of 25% of the outstanding debt a year.

When I met my wife she was very proud of the £1000 she'd saved...but had £5k on a credit card. She couldn't understand that saving was wasteful if she was carrying high interest debt. It took an awful lot of explaining to her that she'd be better taking the £1000 and paying it off the cards (this was before the days of 0% balance transfers).

Daft_Monkey

bunking_off wrote:

Daft_Monkey

Not intending this to come across as having a pop, but why does your girlfriend have a credit card balance accruing interest at nigh on 28%, while having savings that after tax will be paying 1 or 2% interest? Surely it would make sense to take the savings and pay down the credit card? You mentioned that her bank manager must be smiling whenever she walks in the door....(s)he will be because they're fleecing her to the tune of 25% of the outstanding debt a year.

I know it doesn't make sense to have savings while having to pay huge amounts in interest on debt, but some people do prefer to have a few quid aside to avoid additional borrowing if the need arises. So in this case the only thing I can do is a damage limitation. The savings are being moved to a Nationwide ISA (not the best I know, but it will make a hell of a difference from the Barclays savings account) and the debt to a Nationwide credit card. So the loss will be limited to 0.4% per year. 0.4% too much people might say, but as she doesn't like talking about all things financial and I don't want to complicate things too much, this is how far I could take it for now. It took me about three months to get to this stage, but at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

bunking_off

D_M

Aha, point taken...and well understood on the "diplomacy" bit...

Rafter

billion25 wrote:

No Rafter...there are 10 - 20 customers who handle their debt appropriately for evey 1 customer who doesn't. Should the laws beneift the 10% of people who can't handle their debt or the 90% who can?

Agree that perhaps 10% don't manage their debt appropriately (ie they default or go bankrupt) but there are a huge number of customers paying high rates of interest over a long period of time with a credit card, when they would be a lot better off with a low interest loan.

Linda-ann doesn't sound like she is irresponsible in any way, she is just being charged loads for a relatively small amount of debt in order to fund the cost of stoozing, borrowers who do default and banks that have allowed credit cards to be used in ways that encourage people into more debt funded by high charges, fees etc.

R.

COS

linda-ann wrote:

I have checked my barclaycard on line and guess what they have also increased my credit limit must be hoping I will spend more with an increased interest rate ,right I think not ! God loves a trier as they say lol.

It also states on the same letter that Barclaycard are responsible lenders and will limit customers whom they think are a risk. To increase your limit with out consulting you after they have the cheek to increase to such levels is appalling.
Barclaycard continue to rip the customer off so I will be following the clan and billing them for unfair charges ie: Barclaycard put interest on your account which then puts you over the limit and so charge a futher twenty pounds. They tell me this is legal! is it? as i have requested their terms and conditions twice and still have not received them.

The money i get back will certainly go towards paying the card off and this card will certainly be binned, also my family are doing the same.

BarclayCard have stitched them selves up this time. Last week i moved my current and business accounts from Barclays because of the poor service and inferior overseas call centers also the fact that they say that they are allowed to take DD'S and Standing orders out of my account 5 days before they are due


PS . Reading the post from THE BOSS. You seem to overlook the fact that Barclaycard charge customers for going over limit when it is they who have applied the charges ie: interest and put the account overdrawn.

Barclaycard advised me that i should keep one hundred pound in my account at all times to act as a buffer, strange practice as its the only Bank which have advised me to do this.


:mad:

COS

billion25 wrote:

No Rafter...there are 10 - 20 customers who handle their debt appropriately for evey 1 customer who doesn't. Should the laws beneift the 10% of people who can't handle their debt or the 90% who can?

Selfish attitude, i'm alright jack comes to mind when i read the above remark.

Believe it or not we are in a recession of many years which is artifically been propped up by lies and spin to encourage a false economy.

Housing market slumping due to the fact that first time buyers are becoming rare.

Cost of living going up ie: fuel bills by over 200 pounds a year

Interest rates will shortly be increased.

Debtors on the increase due to fanancial losses ie: Unemployment increasing.

But of course this is the fault of poor Joe Blogs, who to some people due to their ignorance seem to think that they are not effected by the above.

It is the greedy leeches who have reaped off these folk for so long but now the chips are down blame them, similar circumstances in the 1980's.

To continue my point, Nurses. It is a well known fact that many have incurred huge debts during their training and now they are struggling to pay them back with no chance of getting on the housing ladder for a very long time but of course they must be irrresponsible as they can't handle debt but can save lives.

Enough said:mad:

daveboy

Then there's Sainsbury's Bank who have dropped their minimum repayment from 3% to 2.25% from the end of August.

Along with that, gambling transactions are classed as cash advances.

So, here's the other end of the scale. Are Sainsbury's Bank doing this in the hope people will only pay the minimum and therefore pay more interest?

All card companies are there to make money, which is why both Barclaycard and Sainsbury's Bank, which I hold, have zero balances. That way, I cost them money!

mroller

Daft_Monkey wrote:

I know it doesn't make sense to have savings while having to pay huge amounts in interest on debt, but some people do prefer to have a few quid aside to avoid additional borrowing if the need arises.

Still doesn't make sense to me.
What you are saying is that she is borrowing now so maybe she will not have to borrow in the future!

She would be better off using the savings to pay off the CC, to avoid paying interest and penalties. (after a few months she would have 100s of pounds more on her current account)

If something unexpected happens and she needs money she can then spend on the card! it's so obvious to me.

Just my opinion