Barclays Partner Finance double-dipping

drmiket

Hi,

I am looking for email details for Barclays as they have been rather naughty and forgot to cancel my direct debit once I paid them in full. I have only found this out after coming away on holiday, too far away to ring and clear it up.


History

I cleared the debt in whole on 31/5/12 and verbally confirmed there was nothing more to pay and asked for that in writing.

They then took the final payment of £64.51 AND a first direct debit (due on 1/6/12) of £35.51 both on the 6/6/12, by coincidence the same day I left the country for a long holiday.

Ideally you relax when on holiday - that's it's job, but I'm having trouble doing. Very conveniently they only list phone numbers on their contact page (on cfs-uk.com)

Has anyone here dealt with these lovely people and have email for them?

The alternative is to write a nice postcard complaint but they will doubtless send the reply to my home address in the UK.

Mike

[Deleted User]

so you didnt cancel the dd?do so now then sort the refund out when you get back

antrobus

Just contact your bank (the one that pays the DDs on your behalf) and claim under the direct debit guarantee.

drmiket

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I cancelled the DD imediately when I found out and contacted my bank by their secure message system, but they appeared to just ignore my query answering a second question instead.

I repeated the question and they have indeed honoured the payment back under the DD guarantee.

Note to self - don't rely on a company to remove the DD that they setup once the contract is over.


I have a second issue with Barclays regarding their "early repayment charge".

I wanted to avoid paying it at all, so I checked here on MSE and found a post confirming my theory albeit from 2009: you pay off everything bar the first DD due. e.g. the first payment is £50 and the debt £500, you pay £450 before the due date and then let them take first and only payment.

I did this, and a week before first payment I get a letter telling me I have only a small payment left which is £68 - clearly adding the 29 quid but without mentioning it at all. I rang them up and the young guy promptly told me yes that's it and "it was a good job you didn't do that or you would have been charged interest on the whole amount".

I accepted his word and paid, but am wondering in hindsight if he was right. If I had paid £999 on a debt of £1000, they can't process the DD but surely then they only charge interest on the remainder?

You'll have to forgive my naivety but I only use credit/loans once in a blue moon (3 times in my life so far) and the previous times never had charges or "forgetting" to cancel DD issues. Has credit become that much more aggressive??

thanks,

Mike

cardiffgrad1

I used to work for BPF - often people would phone up to settle their account when a DD was already pending to go out. Nothing we could do to stop it.
I learned to check for a pending DD and take that off the settlement fig. so that the customer didn't overpay. But a lot of people didn't do that.
It's simple enough to fix - you just claim the money back from your bank and cancel the DD.
As to the £29 fee - I take it this was a 'buy now pay later' deal. No, you can't get out of paying this. I'm sure this would be in your contract and if you weren't happy..why did you sign it?
BPF are a business...if you paid back exactly what they'd loaned you..what would be in it for them?
The thing with 'buy now pay later' is yes, you will get hit hard and charged interest on everything if you don't pay back excatly the right amount within the specified period.
That's how it works with these deals..they're good as long as you use them in the right way and pay within the specified period.
BPF are there to make money out of customers, not to be their friend. Surely you appreciate this?

drmiket

Hi cardiffgrad1,

Yes I do appreciate it. It's fair enough if that's the fee, then that's the fee. I would appreciate it if they were more upfront with it by stating - "we charge £29 for this product" rather than hide behind "early settlement". They are 100% business but I also expect their main reason in offering loans is for the people who don't pay on time and are charged big fat lumps in interest. As I said above, having taken similar "buy now pay later" deals out before without charge I was slightly miffed and thus hoping to avoid it if at all possible.

If the charge is truly unavoidable even when paying on time (thus not early) then fine. It's perhaps splitting hairs but perhaps it's just hopeless optimism on my part!

thanks,

Mike

AdamJK_2

I've had dealings with BPF in the past - some windows and doors on buy now pay next year.

I have to admit that I was caught out by the early settlement fee of £75. It wasn't explained to us or even mentioned in passing. Sure enough through it was buried on page 2 of the small print at the back when I checked a year down the line.

On the bright side though it £75 wasn't all that much for the lesson of making sure I read every last bloody word before signing anything now!