Barclays being a nightmare

MarkS_4

Hi - I would like some help if possible with regards to a situation that I am in at present. To bring you up to speed I was working for one of the emergency services for @ 8 years up until 3 months ago when I had to resign due to an on going back problem. I have now been unemployed for almost 4 months as I am having to wait for an operation to sort out some discs in my lower back.

I have gone from a pretty decent wage to a grand total of £57.90 a week, this is supposed to pay for a personal loan, my mortgage and everything else that goes with owning your own home. I feel pretty desperate at the moment!

However, as I have been banking with Barclays for over 10 years I know my branch manager very well due to a number of dealings with the bank in one way or another. I have always had a good credit with the bank and have borrowed a large amount loan on several occassions with no problems paying them back....until now. I went to see my branch manager and to be honest she was excellent, she phoned the collections part of Barclays and explained my situation, and that I would be having problems paying my loan for a period of possibly several months until I have had the surgery and got myself back to work. This was agreed by the call handler but since then I am geting several phone calls a day from this same departent and each time I have to go and explain my situation to a new call handler....I have eached a point where I no longer answer the phone when the number appears.

I was then advised to go back to my branch to fill out an expenses breakdown, which I did and this was relayed back to this department in Barclays. I was then told that I have to get a reference number from the Citizens Advice Bureau in order to stop these automated calls.

This is my next step...however I need to know where I stand with not being able to pay for the personal loan each month, not only the loan but also my mortgage (well not yet but its getting close).

Any advice on either the loan or mortgage/benefit etc would be very very helpful.

kind thanks

ps..I have used all my savings up until this point paying for my mortgage as that is more important in my eyes than the personal loan which luckily is not secured on my home.

jonesMUFCforever

Why did you resign rather than go on the sick?
Did you not have any type of insurance to cover your mortage, loan or have some sort of payment protection?
I really feel for you at the moment but can't really find an answer to help you.

I also wish that every person happy to have cancelled their PPI policy on these boards could be made to read your posting.

I would go to CAB to check that you have applied to all the benefits that you are entitled.
Good luck with your operation.

SparciaM

I work in the collections deparment and can tell you that the calls will stop once they know that you're with the CAB, but they'll only stop for 2 weeks.

How much do you owe? You can do a resolve loan (with collections), which is a consoladation loan over a max of 10 years at your interest rate or lower and that would consoladate your Barclays acc and Loan in one. If not, you'll keep getting called, then in 3 months you account will be passed to recoveries and then sold on.

Your bank manager wont be able to do anything, as as soon as an account goes into collections that department has full control. Be warned that your DDs, SOs and cards may be stopped in the next few weeks if no money is received by the collections department.

Problem is that we've had a new CEO and he's obsessed with making/collecting money and nothing else. So people will canx everything to get you to pay and even threaten legal action etc. Best thing to do is see how much you owe and how much you can afford and call collections to negotiate. They will do a temp 2 month plan of a min of £10 a month to stop calls etc and get some money into acc, but you can only do that once every 12 months.

MarkS_4

SparciaM wrote:

I work in the collections deparment and can tell you that the calls will stop once they know that you're with the CAB, but they'll only stop for 2 weeks.

Hi and thanks for the info...may I ask if this is the case with all banks?

The problem that I have is that how the hell can I get Barclays to understand that £57.90 a week will not cover everything that I have to pay for?

Also all of my SOs and DDs where moved to another bank account a good while back and the only SO that was set up with Barclays was the one that paid for the loan. I have no credit cards with them only a card and acheque book which does not get used.

The other problem is that its not as if I have refused to ever pay them just that I have been upfront and honest about my situation and I said that this would be resolved once I have had my operation and got back to work.

The thing with banks is that they are the first to chuck money loans at you but when you get into a difficulty they turn to evil, if they expect me to pull money out of my backside then they'll be lucky and even if I could do that then the money would go towards my mortgage.

Apologies for the latter part but this really pee's me off with banks, and if i'm going to be honest when I last applied for the loan inquestion the girl at the bank nudged up my income with a wink and a smile in order for the large ammount to be accepted....so where's the responsible lending by Barclays??

jonesMUFCforever

So now you are party to a fraud are you?
Nudge nudge wink wink you knew that your salary was inflated but who asked for the loan and why did you not correct the member of staff?

regularsaver1

You signed for the loan, knowing that what was keyed was wrong

So did you have insurance, or not?

Do you not get sick pay? or were you sacked for attendance?

MarkS_4

i wouldn't say that I was party to fraud, she knew what my wages where, but what i'm saying is that the way that the application was handled was a bit blase - and if she was more on the ball would I have got the loan? Thats my point, im sure we have have all kept quiet in times of need if being quiet meant getting something that we where desperate for at the time, thats my mistake and I own upto it but as for someone that is working in a professional capacity then they should stick to their role.

no I was not sacked I resigned as I was already six months into a long term sick spell. I never have had insurance protection as all the loans I have had before where paid off before the term ended or in a lump sum.

To behonest I came on here for help not a third degree into what is ethical or not. I'm sure that the not one person on the planet is virgin white so at this moment i'm not really in the mood for a case of morality.

Anyway, I have been given a number by a member of staff at Barclays and payment plan has been set up and is about to be put into effect.

ps.....a note to SparciaM - no disrespect but some of the advice that you responded to seems to be wrong from the conversation I had with a Barclays PCS advisor. He actually put my mind at ease after your post left me in a bit of a panic.

SparciaM

Mark, what were you told on the phone.

Maybe you got a different team I work in, but our manager is obsessed with "Don't care about the customer, get money money money" I'm not like that, I actually talk to customers and try and get them to understand what will happen, what has gone wrong and what I can do to help, but the business (across all banks) is moving to collect as much money as quickly as possible, due to imparement and people claiming charges back - as now people don't care about missing a loan payment or going overdrawn as they don't pay any charges for the privelage.

In regards to the loan application - yes the girl was wrong, but bank staff are targeted on selling, so if she can get you a loan then she'll get a nice juicy bonus that month. You should've corrected her to make sure that the loan you got was good for you. I would never lie about income or stuff on a loan otherwise I'd end up with more money than I can pay back.

jonesMUFCforever

Talking about morality - how come you have changed ALL your direct debits to another bank bar the Barclays loan one?
Porkies here porkies there you know where they will land you don't you?

MarkS_4

SparciaM wrote:

Mark, what were you told on the phone.

Hello again, as you probably know Barclays have this automated ring back, and to this date I have spoken to possibly over 10 different people and when I got another call last night I went through the same rigmorol BUT...this chap basically couldn't understand why previously no-one told me about a company called Payplan. I then went on to ask him that if I only make some part of the payment would my debt be passed onto a debt recovery service? he replied "No" and as long as Barclasy can see that I am making every effort to keep them in the loop then it would not get to that stage. Also I asked how long can this 'deal' go on for and he replied as long as Payplan are involved. I also asked him about credit ratings etc etc and he said that these would not be affected as barclasy are recieving payment from a plan set up by this specialist company?

MarkS_4

ejones999 wrote:

Talking about morality - how come you have changed ALL your direct debits to another bank bar the Barclays loan one?
Porkies here porkies there you know where they will land you don't you?

what the hell has that got do with you :mad: . I have been with Barclays for 11 years and with the Alliance & leicester for over 4. For you information not that its any of your business had an offer at the time which was more attractive than the rates Barclays where giving what are you a saint, I told you before you want to preach find a soapbox I'm not interested if you cant offer anything worth while.