Barclaycard Compensation

ally1986

Hi there,

I'm after a bit of advice about what sort of compensation I can expect to receive from the appalling service I have received from Barclaycard.

I opened a credit card account with Barclaycard in April, with the intention of taking it travelling for six months. I got the platinum account with 0% on balance transfers and purchases for 14 months, and transferred a balance from a previous credit card.

While I was travelling, I was the victim of fraud twice (on a side note: Barclaycard were extremely unhelpful at dealing with the fraud which led me to sending them a letter of complaint) which meant I was issued a new card on two separate occasions.

Last week I logged into my online banking, to notice that my account was £5000 more than what it should have been (£2500 over my credit limit) and I had emails from them demanding that I pay it off immediately. My interest rate had also gone from 0% to the standard 27%. Horrified, I spent the next four hours on the phone, trying to get through to someone who could help me, however every time I got through I would be cut off at some point through the call. The customer service I experienced was nothing short of disgusting. Advisors were telling me that the £5000 was from balance transfers than I had authorised, and they wouldn't listen to me when I was nearly in tears telling them that I hadn't authorised any such transfers.

Eventually I got through to the complaints department, and spoke to someone who looked into the problem. He joked that my account was in 'a complete mess' which I didn't find particularly funny. An hour later and it was found that the balance transfers were duplicates of the one I had made when I first opened my account and were, for some reason, generated by Barclaycard again when the new cards were issued after the the fraud. He said that he would request that the money be refunded but it would take three working days and I would have to call back then. I asked him what impact this would have on my previously immaculate credit rating and he said I would have to contact Experion myself to rectify the situation. I also asked him to revert my interest rate back to 0%, but this still hasn't been done.

This was five days ago, and my account has only just been refunded. For the past five days, I have been left without the use of my credit card through no fault of my own. My interest rate is still at 27%, and my minimum payment is still huge due to the incorrect balance. Calling the UK from the USA has left me severely out of pocket, which they have only offered me £50 compensation for. I am completely at the end of my tether, I am fed up with making countless calls to them, only to get nowhere and end up nearly in tears on the phone to their ignorant staff. They have blocked my card as a precautionary measure, and sent out a new one to my UK address, which is of course no use to me there. This experience is completely ruining my travels, leaving me feeling uneasy about travelling without an emergency credit card, as some companies out here only accept credit. Can anyone offer me any advice as what I should do next? I am considering contacting the financial ombudsman as my letters of complaint to Barclaycard have got me no where.

Thanks in advance to listening to my rant

opinions4u

Compensation should reflect the costs and time you incur talking to them.

Quantify it. Typically the FOS will value time at £10 an hour. Call costs? How much has it cost? Postage costs? Consequential losses? Any bank charges as a result? Add it all up and tell them how much you are out of pocket. This assumes any interest incorrectly charged is reversed. If not, add that on too.

Additionally, if they aren't fault you would be right to expect a goodwill payment on top of any compensation. This is the bit where they say sorry and how much they value your future custom. From the sounds of it, this should probably be in the £100 to £200 range.

On top of that, you have a right to expect them to fix your account and report accurately to credit reference agencies. A letter confirming your CRA files are fixed would seem fair.

He joked that my account was in 'a complete mess' which I didn't find particularly funny

While I can understand you lacking humour, it sounds like he was acknowledging the problem in something of a disarming manner. A much better response than being fobbed off.

This was five days ago, and my account has only just been refunded

Call on Friday. Fixed on Tuesday. Not perfect, but not bad either.

Calling the UK from the USA has left me severely out of pocket

Use the reverse charges option on the back of your credit card next time. As I stated above, quantify the costs and request reimbursement.

ally1986

Many thanks for your reply - I was keen to clarify what sort of compensation I should expect, and you have done just that.

opinions4u wrote: »

Call on Friday. Fixed on Tuesday. Not perfect, but not bad either.

I normally would agree. I was just pretty peeved at spending four hours on the phone trying to resolve the situation, and then having to call them back yesterday to remind them of their error! I think their previous handling of the fraudulent transactions hasn't helped them (During our correspondence about the case, I received a letter from them addressed to a completely different person - this was from the fraud department! Unbelievable!)

To end on a positive note, I have received nothing but excellent service from Santander regarding my current account since being out here. Who would have thought?!

CLAPTON

I know this doesn't help at the moment but when I walk to my local shops I take two cards with me, if I get in my car I take 4 and when I travel abroad I take 6 ( 3 debit and 3 credit)

experience has should that this isn't complete paranoia

ally1986

CLAPTON wrote: »

I know this doesn't help at the moment but when I walk to my local shops I take two cards with me, if I get in my car I take 4 and when I travel abroad I take 6 ( 3 debit and 3 credit)

experience has should that this isn't complete paranoia

I should be covered with what I have got (one debit, one Travelex currency card, one Canadian account, and this Barclaycard), I just would feel happier once this is sorted. I accept that human error will occur, I would just like decent customer service to accompany it, not phone calls that leave me frustrated, angry, and helpless at 3am LA time!

But yes, next time I will definitely be taking more than one credit card (with none of them being a Barclaycard...)

Curr946

opinions4u wrote: »

Typically the FOS will value time at £10 an hour.

This simply is untrue.

I work for a large bank in their customer relations department dealing with complaints regarding savings accounts. I can tell you right now FOS do not pay compensation by the hour.

YorkshireBoy

Curr946 wrote: »

This simply is untrue.

I work for a large bank in their customer relations department dealing with complaints regarding savings accounts. I can tell you right now FOS do not pay compensation by the hour.

The FOS don't pay anything. They may make an award (which the financial institution must then pay) to compensate for time spent by the customer in attempting to resolve the issue. This comes under the 'distress and inconvenience' heading. See here...

allowance for consumer's time

In awarding compensation, we sometimes make allowance for the time the consumer needed to spend to put things right – though not usually for the consumer’s time in dealing with us. This will normally be at a modest rate (around £50 to £100 a day, and not more than £10 per hour).

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/distress-and-inconvenience.htm

richard734

[EMAIL="david.walker@barclaysplc.com"]david.walker@barclaysplc.com[/EMAIL] the new Chairman and [EMAIL="david.chan@barclaycard.co.uk"]david.chan@barclaycard.co.uk[/EMAIL] MD of Barclaycard
Email them both and your complaint will go through to teh Directors Complaint team. They will have the power to resolve your issues and investigate further.
The Directors Teams have a lot me leeway to do things like the Experian Corrections etc than teh standard complaints and retentions teams do.
Quicker and easier than FOS, but it depends on what you want to achieve - resolve your issues or cause Barclays as much grief as possible?

Curr946

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The FOS don't pay anything. They may make an award (which the financial institution must then pay) to compensate for time spent by the customer in attempting to resolve the issue. This comes under the 'distress and inconvenience' heading. See here...

picking hairs.... so, to pick some back.


"They may make an award (which the financial institution must then pay) "

No, the bank can refuse and appeal. This would then pass from an adjudicator to the ombudsman and the customer may have the case looked at in about 6-12 months

"In awarding compensation, we sometimes make allowance for the time the consumer needed to spend to put things right"

To clarify, yes the bank will pay D&I, but there is guidelines. The point i was making was the FOS do not award a blanket £10 per hour spent dealing with your complaint. Its all part of the D&I payment. The complaint would need to going for some time before FOS would ask the bank to pay for time separate to the complaint.

opinions4u

Curr946 wrote: »

This simply is untrue.

I work for a large bank in their customer relations department dealing with complaints regarding savings accounts. I can tell you right now FOS do not pay compensation by the hour.

I did use the word "typically" as I realise that it isn't an exact science.

To clarify, yes the bank will pay D&I, but there is guidelines.

These include a fair outcome for the customer.

The point i was making was the FOS do not award a blanket £10 per hour spent dealing with your complaint.

If you lay it out clearly in your complaint and the FOS upholds a complaint then they will almost certainly award that amount. They aren't keen on exceeding it, but will in certain circumstances. If you don't ask, you might not get though.

Its all part of the D&I payment. The complaint would need to going for some time before FOS would ask the bank to pay for time separate to the complaint.

Any bank with any standards should ensure that the outcome is fair for the customer. If they've messed the customer around for several unnecessary hours common sense dictates a payment for those hours.

While I would object to a demand for excessive goodwill / compensation, I object more to a company getting itself into a haggling game when it is clearly in the wrong and the customer is merely asking for what is fair and reasonable.

No, the bank can refuse and appeal. This would then pass from an adjudicator to the ombudsman and the customer may have the case looked at in about 6-12 months

It sounds almost like a threat to stop the customer going to the FOS in the first place.