Full and Final Settlement With Barclaycard

champiain

Hi,

Im new to the site so go easy on me! About a year ago my debts started to mount up and spiral out of control after i lost my job for 4 months and i decided at the beginning of last year to move back with my parents to get myself out of debt so i could make a fresh start financially. I have since got myself out of about £4500 worth of debt on 3 credit cards and 2 overdrafts, it is a great feeling to know im getting somewhere with it.

I still have around £3000 to go, about £2500 of which is on a Barclaycard visa. I did contact Barclaycard about 7 months ago and they put me on a payback plan of around £30 a month with the interest stopped (and obviously the card is frozen). However with this amount each month i will never get rid of it and would rather save up and offer them a lump sum to pay it all off in one hit. What do you think my chances of doing this are? Should i wait unitl it gets passed on to a debt colleciton agency? If i offer them a lump sum will they cancel the payment agreement? I really want to get rid of this last hurdle as soon as possible, but obviously i dont have £2500 lying around but feel i could save around £1500 in a few months to offer them?

Please help!

:-)

GeorgeUK

You could say that the money for the full and final settlement (not a partial or short settlement) is coming from a 3rd party.

You can usually get a better reduction if the debt is with a DCA, but making the offer won't harm anything. They usually review your account once a year so you will need to be aware of that incase they start looking for more than just £30pm

Sagaris

Sorry to be negative, but your chances of getting a full and final settlement with Barclaycard are zero - I know someone who tried this a few months ago and got a very snotty letter back from them, saying that payment in full was the only thing acceptable. But to be helpful and cut down the amount of time the debt would be paid over, they would accept payment in full, just like that!!!

If people could pull lots of money out of thin air, they wouldn't need to be on a DMP!!!!

Oh, and even though they are on a DMP, Barclays still would not freeze the interest!!!!

RenB21

Barclays froze the interest on my husbands card for a couple of years but then they started charging again. No warning either and they won't freeze it again. I think it is at least reduced as at 12.9%.

heatherks

RenB21 wrote: »

Barclays froze the interest on my husbands card for a couple of years but then they started charging again. No warning either and they won't freeze it again. I think it is at least reduced as at 12.9%.

Could always try . Barclaycard were on e of the worst i have dealt with ....they did that to me gave me minimum repayment plan then upped the interest after 6 months so back to square one
and wouldnt take the interest off until i contacted CAB .... but have been paying them £30 a month then i get my latest statement and it says £7 they want this month .... dont know what they are playing at ...dont really want to phone them either

fatbelly

Barclaycard will pass the debt to Mercers - their in-house debt collector.

Mercers do offer settlement deals. 75% should be achievable, maybe better if you persevere.

It sounds like the best plan may be to commence the £30 arrangement and see if you can save on the side.

champiain

I think i was delaing with Mercers, but the statements are coming straight from Barclaycard? Does that sound right, because apart from actually turning up on my doorstep once and leaving a sh*tty note (by mistake by the way - i had already put in place a payment plan) through my door saying they'd be back. Does that sound right that the debt is handled by Mercers but i get the statements from Barclaycard?

If this is so, how do i contact Mercers?!

thepedestrian

fatbelly wrote: »

Barclaycard will pass the debt to Mercers - their in-house debt collector.

Mercers do offer settlement deals. 75% should be achievable, maybe better if you persevere.

It sounds like the best plan may be to commence the £30 arrangement and see if you can save on the side.

I have managed to scrape enough money together to offer a Full and Final settlement with BARCLAYCARD ( being dealt with thru MERCERS ) - which one of their operators have verbally accepted over the phone

My sticking point is that they wont give me anything in writing before I actually pay them the lump sum - only afterwards - a verbal agreement only

where do I stand ? - what is there to prevent them from taking the lump sum from what I owe them and carry on hounding me for the rest or selling it to another company - with only a verbal agreement from an operator who wont even give me her full name ?

GeorgeUK

There is nothing at all to stop them just taking the money - don't send it unless you have something in writing.

Don't try to do this over the phone. You should write in to them making your offer and your terms - full and final, not liable for remainder etc. There are a few templates on the site or your can use the one from the nationaldebtline website.

lozzam

I thought it was only me having problems with Barclays. After 4 years on a DMP they started adding interest again and nothing I say will get them to budge. At the moment it is only 3% so I didn't want to kick up too much of a fuss in case they increased it.

I had been thinking of trying for a F&F but based on the advice here it doesn't seem worth trying until I get a bit more cash than I have.

thepedestrian

GeorgeUK wrote: »

There is nothing at all to stop them just taking the money - don't send it unless you have something in writing.

Don't try to do this over the phone. You should write in to them making your offer and your terms - full and final, not liable for remainder etc. There are a few templates on the site or your can use the one from the nationaldebtline website.

Yes - thanks ,I did send a template letter to Bcard and Mercer offering the amount as full and final - but Mercers say they will not put anything in writing until after I have handed over the lump sum