Barclay card nightmare, help desperately needed please

wohic

Since my father had a heart attack in 2000 and lost his taxi business my parents have been trying to pay off a barclaycard bill of a little under 2000, paying every month on average £35 (mum is 69 and dad 80) over the 11 years the bill has shrunk by about £200 due to interest payments. when the illness first happened they froze the interest for a while but then reinstated it. I found all this out today and rang Barclaycard asking if they could at the very least freeze the interest so they have a chance of paying this back but they insist that they will not do this, i desperately want to help them as my mother is in tears over this and its a huge burden on her, sadly i am not in a financial position to do this so here i am asking if there is a way to reduce the payments or even get the debt cleared due to the situation ?
Many thanks in advance.
Julia

grizzly1911

Sounds like they have had their pound of flesh many times over.

I used to work in financial services and I find this a little unjust - providing what you say is the whole story. if the payment record is less perfect then you may not get very far. You do not say whether any other business or personal debts were/are outstanding to Barclays Bank itself as this may also affect the position.

If it were me I would put a letter to Barclaycard complaints initially setting out your parents position. Appealing to their better nature and hilighting the hardship your parents have/are suffering. 11 years at £420 per year is some payment and perhaps they should consider writing off the debt. Include a covering letter of authority to discuss their business, with you, signed by your parents.

A credit card debt would normally be unsecured and would normally be in a sole name.

See what they say.

If you feel they do not make any fair gesture escalate it to Bob Diamond at Barclays Head Office, recorded delivery, and repeat your concerns.

Again if no joy consider going to the Ombudsman and possibly the Daily Mail Personal Financial help pages.

richard734

or email directly at [EMAIL="robert.diamond@barclaysplc.com"]robert.diamond@barclaysplc.com[/EMAIL] as CEO of Barclays or [EMAIL="david.chan@barclaycard.co.uk"]david.chan@barclaycard.co.uk[/EMAIL] as CEO of Barclaycard. this should get you through to the Directors Office complaints team, and while I cant guarantee they will do what you want, they have a LOT more power to assist you and resolve your problem than the call centre agents.

Good Luck

grizzly1911

Richard thanks for adding the escalation addresses.

Agree with the call centre staff but might be nice to give the management at Barclaycard a chance to sort it before they get their "ears" kicked though;)

wohic

Thank you all very much for the advice, I have composed a short email to send directly outlining the problem so now i need to just wait to see if it gets acknowledged