Barclaycard - omg.

mommy2princess

I've had a Barclaycard for a few years now. In October 2011 I transferred the balance to a better deal with Natwest, and wrote to Barclaycard to ask them to close the account.

In January 2012 I got a text message informing me my payment was late, despite the account being closed (as far as I knew!) and me not using the card since October!

I logged onto my account to find that they had added "card protection", a late payment charge and interest, totalling about £60.

I immediately rang them to complain and the lady I spoke to agreed to refund the charges. I asked her to remove the default notice from my credit report and she said she couldn't do that.

I then used creditexpert to look at my credit report and they agreed to add a statement saying that the default is in dispute and kindly asking lenders to ignore it.

I wrote to Barclaycard in January to complain and have heard nothing since.

Surely they should remove the default as they have accepted responsibility by refunding the charges? This is outrageous, you can't charge a closed account! And even if they didn't close it in error, they should have noticed the balance transfer and lack of use!

What should I do? This "default" is wrecking my chances of getting a mortgage!

Incidentally the exact same thing happened to my sister (with a store card) and they refunded/removed the default!

YorkshireBoy

Credit cards are never 'closed' to CPAs, which by the sound of it is what you had.

You didn't cancel the "card protection" with the provider (eg Sentinal or CPP) and so they charged it to the account as notified (presumably 12 or 36 months ago when you took it out/renewed it).

Barclaycard haven't "accepted responsibility" by refunding the charges (assuming that's all they've refunded, ie not the £60?), they've given you a refund as a goodwill gesture...and that's why they won't/can't remove factual information from your credit file - because you did miss a payment. However, I'm puzzled as to why you didn't get a statement?...maybe you were 'paperless'?

Apologies if I've read a little too much between the lines, but your situation (as you've described it) arises all too often on this board.

mommy2princess

Hi there,

Barclaycard refunded the entire £60 - so the card protection, late charge and interest. I'm not paperless, they're just rubbish at sending me statements!

YorkshireBoy

mommy2princess wrote: »

I wrote to Barclaycard in January to complain and have heard nothing since.

So wait out the 8 weeks (imminent?) and refer the complaint to the FOS.

tomsco

mommy2princess wrote: »

Hi there,

Barclaycard refunded the entire £60 - so the card protection, late charge and interest. I'm not paperless, they're just rubbish at sending me statements!

How do you know the issue dosn't lie with Royal Mail? Printing out and sending statments would be a very automated process, so if you had previously been recieving statements, then there shoudn't have been any problem with this statement being sent.

And as mentioned, you didn't cancel the card protection, so Barclaycard rightly allowed that charge to be applied to the account, as well as the following charges for non payment.