Barclaycard "closed" account

justme2212

Hi, I got into financial difficulty in the middle of last year and could not pay any creditors for a few months. In November, I paid off the arrears on my halifax card and my barclaycard, bringing them both into credit.No futher problems from halifax but I had received a text from barclaycard saying that if I did not bring the account up to date, then my account "may" be closed. I duly brought the account upto date I have been paying the monthly amounts due since, regularly logging into my online "account" and it has been saying in credit by £XX etc. At the weekend I tried to use my card for a small purchase well within the "credit limit" showing, yet it was declined. I sent Barclaycard a message asking why and received a reply today informing me that the account is in fact closed !! Can they still show "available" balances on a closed account ? No mention of when the account was closed and I have had no letter to say as such ! Can they still accrue interest on a "closed" account (as the email said they intend to do ? ) To all intents and purposes my account appears to be open and in credit, is this simply so they can continue to add interest ? At what point will the amount not increase ? Surely if the account is closed then interest cannot accrue ? Im miffed because I have struggle so hard to get back into credit with my debtors and the £300 + I have paid to a closed account could have been more useful elsewhere. Any advice please ?
Many thanks in advance.

CLAPTON

I am a little confused by you saying your CC is in 'credit'; does that mean that you owe them money?

If so then yes
-they can close the account to stop you spending more money
-yes they can continue to charge the current rate of interest
-yes you must continue to pay at least the minimum payment each month until the debt is paid off; aftet this the a/c will be fully closed

Svenena

If the account is 'closed' in the sense of you not being able to use it any more, you will continue to accrue interest on the remaining balance, so you are not worse off from having to continued to pay, and will need to do so until the balance is cleared.

justme2212

CLAPTON wrote: »

I am a little confused by you saying your CC is in 'credit'; does that mean that you owe them money?

If so then yes
-they can close the account to stop you spending more money
-yes they can continue to charge the current rate of interest
-yes you must continue to pay at least the minimum payment each month until the debt is paid off; aftet this the a/c will be fully closed

Hi yes, I owe them money but am not over my credit limit, am confused as to why when I log in to my account it says I have an "available" balance ? At no point have they written to say the account was being closed and during communication with them in December they did not say the account was "closed" Surely if the account was infact closed there would be no available credit ?
many thanks

InsertWittyName

I 'closed' my Barclaycard at least a year ago (rejecting an interest rate increase).

It works exactly how you've described it - the page for me is exactly the same with available balances, credit limits etc.

Essentially it's 'closed' for new borrowing, everything else is as it was previously.

amydoodah

Some of the last posts sound very similar to my own situation. I also heard that my Financial Advisor had the same problem and had to write to Barclaycard threatening them with the FSA in order to get the problem stopped. I will be doing the same.

I closed my account in 2011 with a zero balance however despite being closed it kept accruing £0.04p interest each month. I tried overpaying by £1.00 to clear this but although the balance went to £0.00 it still kept accruing £0.04p interest each month. I have rung them around 10 times to complain but despite crediting my account all they could suggest was that I set up a Direct Debit to try and clear it. This has not worked and now I just pay them 4 pence every month for nothing on a closed account!

I know I am not alone here and if this is happening to thousands of people then it's a nice little scam for Barclaycard! I don't understand why no one has picked this up and investigated this further, especially given all the bad press that financial institutions are getting at the moment.

I had no problems closing either of my Halifax or Nationwide credit card accounts and certainly will not touch Barclaycard ever again.

Dabooka

amydoodah wrote: »

Some of the last posts sound very similar to my own situation....

Except they don't really do they? The OP has had an account closed to new spending but it still has a balance due. The OP will be paying that off and then Barclaycard will close the accoutn completely. When and if they're charged 4p / month then your posts will be similar.

What was your FA's complaint to the FOS about? The 4p thing or closing the account?

Savvy_Money

I have to agree with the above poster. In response to the 4p charge, if you have cleared your balance you still owe some interest. This is normally shown on the next statement. Once you pay the interest off in full your balance becomes a proper 0. If you are still paying 4p after all of this because Barclays keep charging you 4p on a 0 balance then technically Barclays are illegally obtaining funds from you for no reason. If this is the case I suggest a strongly worded letter to Barclaycard (copying in to Head Office), and if no further action is forthcoming, FSA and/or proper legal representation. However I can't understand why anyone would pay 4p just for the sake of it - I wouldn't