Barclaycard taking money from non-existent agreements - has this happened to others?

Colin_M_2

In September 2008 I was checking my Barclaycard statements (something I rarely did). I found regular amounts going out I could not account for. I telephoned Barclaycard and was informed this was my payment protection insurance. I knew I had not taken this out so quered it. I was told that there no doubt that I had – the customer services person could see my agreement. I asked for the payments to be cancelled and a copy of the agreement. The payments were eventually stopped but no copy of the agreement received. This was despite numerous calls and letters from me formally requesting this requesting this under the terms of the Consumer Credit Act. These, and letters from the Financial Ombudsman, were all ignored by Barclaycard.

I eventually obtained a copy of my agreement with Barclaycard from another organisation. This confirmed that I had opted out of the payment protection policy. Yet Barclaycard had taken ‘premiums’ for this non-existent policy for 10 years. Despite this evidence Barclaycard refuse to apologise or accept the policy did not exist. They provide no other explanation and continue to ignore my letters. They have now, after more than a year of letter writing, offered to refund my premiums but only on the basis that ‘there were some inconsistencies in the way my policy was set up’. In order to receive a refund from them I must sign an agreement that accepts this as a full and final settlement of my complaint. They make no apology and they deny the agreement did not exist, despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

This leaves me wondering how many other people have lost money through spurious agreements Barclaycard have set up. If I had not, through sheer luck, managed to obtain a copy of my agreement from a third party I would never have been able to prove this. I can't help but wonder if this is something Barclaycard are trying to cover up. I'd be very interested to hear if there have been other similar experiences.

hippey

You mention 'another organisation' without explaining who that was. I think there is a bit of blame on both sides.... You for not checking your statements and B'card for doing the dirty in the first place.

You could always bring a civil case in the County Court for repayment of the fee's. If you have all the evidence then it should be straight forward.

Colin_M_2

Thanks for the advice. However I do think there is a considerable difference between a) being lazy about checking statements, and b) witholding information, deliberately concealing and distorting the truth, repeatedly ignoring the law and illegally retaining money in order to extract concessions.

I have considered legal action but , as has been pointed out to me, although I would certainly win there is no guarantee I would also be awarded costs which could be considerable.

My main reason for posting is that I am puzzled why Barclaycard should go to such extra-ordinary lengths to shut this down unless there were many other people who have also had money taken from their accounts under bogus 'insurance' policies. That is why I am asking if anyone else has been similarly affected.

BlueAngelCV

The same thing happened to me. They just wouldn't accept that I didn't take it out (I know I didn't, I absolutely never agree to things like that). At the time I just wanted to ignore all my finances so once they cancelled it I didn't press the matter.
However, a couple of years later I noticed that they were doing it again.
This time I had the letter from them confirming it was cancelled the last time so managed to get them to refund it.
I think that they are doing it to lots of people on the basis that even if some don't realise they will make quite a bit of money.
And yes I know I should check my statements but if it's an account I don't use where the only transactions are me paying my dd each month then I don't usually bother.

gt94sss2

Colin_M wrote: »

I have considered legal action but , as has been pointed out to me, although I would certainly win there is no guarantee I would also be awarded costs which could be considerable.

You still haven't explained who this 'other organisation' is.

However, how much money do you think Barclaycard owe you? Your claim may be able to go to a small claims court which doesn't cost a lot..

Regards
Sunil

Colin_M_2

Thanks for that. I suspect this is a deliberate policy. They tried extremely hard to stop me cancelling the policy and obtaing a copy of my agreement. They have also told the most ridiculous lies during this process, which of course they never commit to paper when I ask them to (e.g. we cannot cancel the policy, it is held by a company based in southern Ireland, we have no telephone number or street address from them, only a P.O.box number).

If I find this has happened to many other people I think there many be grounds for forcing a police investigation. It seems to be there is something very murky at the heart of this.

Colin_M_2

You are right I haven't explained who the other organisation is. Firstly I am really not sure why it is so important to know how I obtained it (though I am sure Barclaycard would like to know).

Secondly, I of course have every legal right to receive a copy of this but I am not sure if stating publicly how I obtained it would create problems for others within their company. That is why I am not saying how I obtained it.

Surely the more important points are that the document clearly shows that no policy ever existed and that barclaycard withheld this information and deceived.

It may be appropriate to go to the small claims court. Any advice on that would be helpful.

Again, if this has happened to others I would like to know.

gt94sss2

Colin_M wrote: »

It may be appropriate to go to the small claims court. Any advice on that would be helpful.

Details of the Small Claims Courts can be found here and are very useful, especially if you want to claim less than £5000 (as the costs are relatively low)

You can also lodge a small claims court online here

EDIT: You may also want to discuss your case with the Financial Ombudsman Service who can investigate cases where someone has complained to a financial institution and is unhappy with their response.

Regards
Sunil

Colin_M_2

Many thanks. I will follow that up. The amount involved is right on the limit.

Colin_M_2

From a quick read trawl around the internet it would appear I am far from alone in this. There seems to be numerous reports of Barclaycard staff having set up insurance schemes for others in a similar manner where it had been declined. I am therefore more keen than ever to contact others this has happened to, in particular if they have evidence of this. There is a very clear dividing line between sharp practice and fraud. One is unethical, one is illegal.

Colin_M_2

The more I look into this the more cases I read about of Barclaycard staff apparently setting up bogus PPI insurance schemes.

Part of the problem is the weakness of the Ombudsman, which operates as little more than a messengerboy for the banks. Thus there seems to be no enforcement of the law.

I am becoming increasingly convinced there has been significant illegal setting up of insurance schemes that Barclaycard management cannot have been unaware of and have taken no action to prevent. I would assume this is a criminal offence.

If anyone else has suddenly found Barclaycard were charging them for PPi they had been unaware of I'd be interested to know about it.