Contesting Barclaycard interest-rates hike?

hellome11

Watchwithinterest wrote: »

Hellome11, if you don't mind me asking, how far apart were the two interest rates hikes? I hope we don't have another one on the way...
Thanks!

There was about 8 months inbetween the notifications, so it would have been a total of 9% increase in just under a year

andy.m_2

Regardless of your thoughts or those of anybody else on this thread I offer only 3 comments.

1) Make sure you read the T&Cs as it is spelled out in black and white what they can and cannot do, and what they expect from you in return.

2) Try to clear the balance ASAP and these rises never bother you, easy to say and harder to do but hey ho

3) Try to balance transfer to a sensible "rate for life" offer and then pay it back without adding to it to clear it

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

lisyloo

and I don't know how easy it would be for him to get another card while the Barclaycard is frozen

Well as long as he hasn't been missing payments then his credit report/rating should be intact.
He can get a statutory report for £2 from Experian, Equifax and Call Credit (for a full check you need all three).
I personally don't receommend getting the free trial because if you forget to cancel it can cost a lot more than £2.

However, he travels fairly frequently so a functioning credit card is essential

Some employers do cater for employees that can't get cards.
For example I have a cash advance which is 0% interest from my employer.
You are not the only person that has ever had this problem and ultimately his employer shouldn't be expecting him to bank roll them, so he could ask what their arrangements are without it being too embarrassing.

I too don't think you shoudl complain to the FOS for perfectly legal business.
You may not like it but companies are in business to make money for their shareholders they are not charities.
All you do by sending a completely unnecessary complaint is raise the costs (for people like your partner).

swampduck

This is the only one of our debts that is charging us interest and we were throwing as much as we could at it every month. Five months ago the interest rate doubled and it has just doubled again!!:mad:

We thought it was Barclaycards' revenge - thinking if we were making extra payments - they were thinking we could afford it!!

We cant even take revenge by throwing the money at another debt becaue we're are snowballing. It adds at least another three months to our final payment date for these robbers who kick people when the chips are down.

Swampy

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

swampduck wrote: »

This is the only one of our debts that is charging us interest and we were throwing as much as we could at it every month. Five months ago the interest rate doubled and it has just doubled again!!:mad:

We thought it was Barclaycards' revenge - thinking if we were making extra payments - they were thinking we could afford it!!

We cant even take revenge by throwing the money at another debt becaue we're are snowballing. It adds at least another three months to our final payment date for these robbers who kick people when the chips are down.

Swampy

Was there any particular reason why you didn't reject the rate rise(s)?

swampduck

I didnt know that we could reject the interest rise!!

We do not use the card and we are on a dmp which we created ourselves.

It took a while to get to get this stage and we have gone from 15 debts to 8 debts and we were actually getting somewhere with snowballing.
Barclaycard is the only debt that is now charging us interest and half of the agreed payment is now swallowed up in interest payments - it's just so frustrating!!
It makes me want to throw the extra money that we are paying to BC to another debt just to say nah nah nah nah nah!!!! But it's pointless because it is better to pay the interest bearing debts first.

Swampy

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

swampduck wrote: »

I didnt know that we could reject the interest rise!!

They are supposed to tell you this any time they alter the rate. I think you have 60 (used to be 30) days to let them know. You would not be able to use the card for further purchases but I suspect you're not doing this anyway.

swampduck

I might give this a try - you are right we are not using the card - so it may be worth our while rejecting this.

Thank you


Swampy

Iloathebanks

Hid my head under sand re Barclaycard interest rate increase. Finally called today to ask for a delay on increase till I can organize another credit card. Had to fight hard to get beyond "Customer Service" but was finally put through to another lady who told me that my record had already been reviewed and the increase would not be effective on my account! I asked why I hadn't been informed of this and the response was that they hadn't quite got round to it - my guess is that if I hadn't made a fuss the rate would have increased at any rate. I'm moving my overdraft to another bank - so there, Barclays.

bengal-stripe

Iloathebanks wrote: »

I'm moving my overdraft to another bank - so there, Barclays.

I presume, Barclays will be pleased, you paying your overdraft back.