can they do this?

kezzygirl

Hello all,brief history. A year ago Hubby and I entered into a dmp with cccs.Barclaycard agreed to lower hubbies interest rate to 6.9% and mine to 12.9%.

This month,with no notice from them,they have raised hubbies interest rate to 12.9%,therefore raising his total interest a month to £22...when we are only paying £42 a month!(agreed lower repayment).

are they allowed to do this?I was under the impression that they have to give 28days notice or does that not count as they agreed to lower it in the first place due to our financial difficulty?

Thanks in advance

miss_lisalou

I have the same problem with Barclaycard and my DMP. I had this card for years before starting the DMP and it was always 6.9%.
1 year into my DMP (which they accepted from the start without any problems) they hiked the rate up to 12.9%, again I had no letter in advance advising me of this.

As I understand it - no, they shouldn't do this if you are on a recognised DMP. After a very frustrating phonecall with them I was shocked to hear that they raised the APR because my monthly repayments (set out by the CCCS on day one, which Barclaycard agreed to) now exceed the minimum monthly repayments they would request from any other customer were they not on a DMP. A bit of a weak argument this as inevitably sooner or later my fixed monthly repayments would exceed their usual minimum monthly requirement - and is surely a very positive thing anyway?!! CCCS advised me to write to them, give them 6 weeks then go to the Financial Ombudsman, so it's just the waiting game now......

telboy99

I had a similar problem with Barclaycard.They upped my interest to 12.9%( from 6.9%).
I sent them a formal complaint letter .They still refused to lower the rate although they did credit back 3 months of interest charges to get me off their backs.
My next move will be to ask them to default and close the account so that interest can then be stopped.This appears to be the only way that they will then stop interest.
They are my worst creditor as ALL my others(23 in total) have stopped interest.Fortunately my balances are low with them but i will still persevere until i get the interest stopped. I am not worried about them sending me a default notice as my credit file is shot and i NEVER want to borrow money again anyway.

kezzygirl

Default and close the account?would you still be able to pay off the balance gradually?or would you have to pay the full amount at closure?
please advise as I think this would be good for us to do...we never want to borrow from them again either!

miss_lisalou

It would be likely that it would go to a debt recovery collector, who freeze all interest and charges as long as you meet all the repayments they agree to with CCCS. However, this decision is purely with B/card, and at present, like with my own, they have no interest in taking that route as you are meeting the repayments and they're earning interest from you each month (and happily put the APR rate up when they feel like it!). Catch 22 situation and extremely frustrating.

miss_lisalou

Did you ever resolve this matter? I heard back from B/card about mine today - they admitted it was their "error", put my APR back down and refunded the amount they've over-charged with an extra £50 on top for the hassle. So worth pursuing with them.