Barclay Card Account Closed for No Reason!! Grrr

s.anwaar

Dear credit card annoyers,

Today i received a letter from Barclaycard saying the following.

Dear Mr. Xxxx

"After careful consideration we are sorry to have to tell you that we have decided to closed your Barclaycard account(s).
Under the terms and conditions of your Barclaycard either you or us can end the agreement at any time. This letter is notice that we are ending this agreement with you immediately.

Your Barclaycard freedom terms and conditions also says that when this happens, you will also lose any Reward Money you have earned on your account.

We will continue to send you monthly statements and you will need to keep making at least your minimum payments every month until you've paid off your balance. If you stop making your payments, your account may be transferred to a debt collection agency. In some circumstances, there may even be legal action.

You will need to destroy your card and cancel any recurring transactions that you have set up on this account: no more payments will be made. Please write to companies concerned, as they will only accept instructions from you.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss your account and the outstanding balance please call us on 0844 811 9111.

If you having any financial difficulties you may be able to seek assistance and advice from a fee free debt management company such as:

Citizen Advice Bureau: <<etc>>
Play plan:<<etc>>
Advice UK:<<etc>>
Trading Standards office:<<etc>>

Kind Regards,
Xxxxx
Central Review Team

Now my hurtful feelings are as follow:

A. I have been banking with Barclays since 2006. Have well maintained account since than that's why barclay offered me a pre-approved loan of 20K, which i accepted as i needed it that time. So far all payments are being made through direct debit. Means, no problem at happy puppy both me and barclays.

B. They offered me a credit card as well which i accepted and have been using well since than and paying all monthly full bills on time through direct debit no problems at all.

On Friday the 15th Oct i used my card last time and since than it's been declined every time i used. Called so many times to 0844 811 9111 but none of them were able to give me the satisfactory answer. Finally went to branch and unfortunately they said we can't do anything you have to speak on the phone, that's what we do if we have any problems.

Logged couple of complaints but haven't had any response yet. Spoke to the online guy again and actually forced him to get some details why the card has been blocked, good man he tried hard enough and come back with this statement which i have no clue what it means.

"You are not meeting the credit lending criteria of barclaycard, hence your account has been closed"

I asked him to explain and he said sorry i am unable to provide any more information however, Review team has also sent you a letter to explain in bit more details so you just have to wait. <<letter's contents are above>>

Now my questions are:

A. I never missed any payments, have been making full payments ever since i had the card. why the hell on earth someone in the review team would decide to close my account? because i didn't pay any interest ever since i had the card or am not using full credit limit everytime,..what?

B. The standard question, will my credit history be affected?

C. I have recently asked to change my credit limit, may be twice in last 6 to 8 months. They did but obviously not as much as i requested. Can this be a reason?

D. I have been living at my current address since 2006.. I'm sure there must have been people living in this house who were/are under debts, could that be a reason, if yes than i dont understand why they issued me a card and loan at first place?

E. Do you think is it worth going to Citzen Advice bureau and get them to support you and have your account re-opened?

Any inputs, thoughts are highly appreciated.

I have applied for Tesco card online and they approved straight away though but am still very upset. I always wanted to stick with one as it really makes your credit history looks good. My first ever address ever since i moved into UK. Have secured job, paying everything on time, no outstanding debts with anyone in any form or shape, GOD knows what else they want from a genuinely reasonable/responsible citizen.

Thanks for Reading/inputs.

Rupert_Bear

They will have a very good reason for taking drastic action. Get a copy of your credit file. I know they get regular updates from Equifax.

s.anwaar

you mean credit history report or credit file from Barclays? would appreciate if you let me have your thoughts on my questions....

Jammi

This sort of thing happens everyday even to those with a very good credit record, so try not to take it personally.

It would appear that something has come to Barclays knowledge, that they were not aware of at the time of the original application, or there may have been a change in your circumstances, material or immaterial, that means they no longer consider you good credit risk.

You should obtain a copy of your credit reports from Experian and Equifax , and see if there are any errors on there. You can obtain them from both agencies for free on a 30 day trial basis, otherwise you could pay £2 for the statutory reports. The fact that Tesco have offered you a card means its probably clean, however you may want to check anyway just for your peace of mind.

I dont beleive its worth your time to approach the Citizens Advice Bureau to get the account re-opened. They are unlikely to be able to help, and in any case Barclays are free to choose who they wish to do business with.

You don't build a good credit history by simply sticking with one credit provider. You do so by paying you bills on time regardless of the provider.

Check your credit files with the Credit Reference Agencies if all comes back clean, embrace Tesco as your new Credit card provider and move on from Barclaycard.

PNPSUKNET

Have you been in the uk before? or were false details at any point given to them

Degenerate

s.anwaar wrote: »

Your Barclaycard freedom terms and conditions also says that when this happens, you will also lose any Reward Money you have earned on your account.

This particular clause reeks of unfairness. An accumulated balance of reward points could have significant value. They're entitled to close your account, but if it's not for misconduct then you shouldn't be penalized.

s.anwaar

Thanks for your comment Jammi.

I didnt apply for the barclay card at first place they offered me... If for whatever reason am not a good credit risk anymore than why the keep offering me to top up my loan which is only one click away on my online banking accounts prepaid offers... I'll definitely get my credit history report and see what they says..
Hope i have not been put into the black list...

Thanks for your comment PNPSUKNET

No i haven't this is my first time in UK,.. NO, Never.. If i had why would they offer my 20K Loan, i have been paying all installments on time without any delays whatsoever... i hope they not going to close my current account once i have paid off the loan... hope not..

Thanks for your comment Degenerate...

This is total unfair... i dont give a !!!! about reward points though they are few £'s... they have not penalized me, they jsut closed my accounts and they said in the letter if i dont pay my outstanding payment then they will pass my details to debt collector agencies which is definitely not going to happen as the official outstanding bill is due next month and than automatically paid off in full via Direct Debit..

my only concern is, this whole situation is not going to cause me any problem in obtaining future credits..

Thanks again all for your comments..

powerone

what sort of things where you buying on the card?

s.anwaar

Thanks Powerone..
Nothing big ... the only big payment i did was for my university fee for about 2.2K during my barclaycard life..that's it...

KingElvis

Sounds like a computer based decision to me, you've probably done something that they don't like....no idea what.

Tesco is a top card so go with that, I would.

s.anwaar

Thanks king elvis. But i would still like to find out the root cause of the cancellation.