Egg Card - Now Barclaycard Issues - bit of a long one, sorry : (

linzeloo

I'm hoping there might be someone out there who can help me as I've been having major problems since Barclaycard overtook my Egg card account last year.

I was told before the changeover happened in October 2011 that the direct debit set up on my egg account would automatically be switched to Barclaycard and I had nothing to worry about.

Two months after that, I was notified I had missed payments and defaults on my new Barclaycard account. I was obviously pretty upset about this as I knew it would affect my credit ratings and reports. I contacted them via telephone to complain about this and decided to pay off the whole outstanding balance at the same time (it was around £400).

They assured me that they would contact the credit agencies and get the defaults removed as they could see how the errors had occurred. They also confirmed the final amount I needed to pay in order to bring the account balance back to zero, which I paid. I did, at the time, question if there would be any interest to pay after this final amount which they assured me there wasn't. I kept the account open though just until the credit report issues had been resolved. I was told this can take up to 5 months for all my reports to be updated so I kept checking Experian, Credit Expert and Equifax waiting for the changes to be reflected and, yes, this did cost me.

I received a statement last month showing I now have a balance of £52 as a result of default payments and charges on what looks like an original balance of £1 which was left on my account. I hadn't received any statements prior to this otherwise I would have dealt with this sooner.

At this point, I'd had enough and wrote a strongly worded complaints letter basically asking them to sort it out otherwise I will report this to the financial ombudsman. They responded pretty quickly by sending out a standard letter stating they will look into this and will have it resolved by the 18th of July. Up to this period, I've had debt chaser agencies sending me letters and calling me as well as Barclaycard debt department calling me every 2 hours (even on a Sunday at 8am?!).

I took a call from a company called Mercers yesterday claiming to be a 3rd party company Barclaycard subcontract to deal with complaints and debts. After explaining to them the whole situation (again?!), they said they could resolve all the issues, wipe my balance to zero as well as get my credit report updated within 5 working days. Yippee I thought.

I have just received another call directly from Barclaycard Customer Relations telling me they are unable to undo the defaults on my credit reports prior to January 2012. Something to do with the fact I'd made payments? The only payment I'd made was the final one in January 2012 so I don't really understand how this affects amending defaults on my card and reports.

Understandably I was pretty cheesed off and told them this at which point they said the whole issue would need to go to level 2 complaints now (whatever that means?). When I questioned exactly what this was, the operator told me it meant it would all be done via writing now??

Has anyone else been in this sort of situation before?

I really don't know what to do next and have a splitting headache.

Rafter

Unbelievable how there is so little common sense in these big organisations or lack of systems able for them to tell that you reported a problem last year!

I suggest you write again - possibly directly to the head of UK Banking Anthony Jenkins, particularly if you don't get a response on 18 July as promised.

Otherwise you are into the whole ombudsman route. In the meantime I would tell them and their appointed debt collectors to stop contacting you and if they do that you will report them to the police for harrassment.

Hope your headache eases off!

R.

happy_bunny_2

If they haven't resolved your complaint entirely to your satisfaction within 8 weeks from your letter then send to FOS.

I would write to Barclaycard and tell them the above and that you will also be looking for compensation due to the excessive calls.

Post on the debt free wannabe board and someone will give you a template letter to stop the calls if you ask. Also send to mercers as they are probably internal collections.