Not sure where I stand - Barclays Partner Finance Loan

pcahill87

I'm hoping that someone can help me with this as I'm being driven round the bend by it!

A few years ago I signed up to do a course with Advent Computer Training to do a Microsoft Certificate.

The cost of the course was around £5,000 and because I didn't have that sort of money to pay up front, they arranged a finance loan through Barclays Partner Finance and I agreed to pay it off over 5 years.

Everything was fine at first, I was in regular contact with the staff at Advent as it was a home study course.

About 18 months after I signed up, I stopped hearing from them, which I thought was strange, I continued to plod on with my studies though.

I have since found out that the company itself went bust and is now dissolved according to a search on companies house.

I continued to make the payments as a sort of punishment to myself for getting involved with it in the first place. Until about 6-7 months ago when I became unemployed and fell behind with the payments.

I've been chased by their debt collections team (mercers) and they are using all kinds of bully and scare tactics, including sending people round to my home - I actually laughed down the phone when they mentioned this as I know that they can't do this for an unsecured loan.

I have also found out that the reason the company went bust is because BPF pulled the plug on their funding...so from my perspective, Barclays have pretty much shafted me out of nearly 5 grand and in their eyes they've done nothing wrong!

At the moment the outstanding balance is somewhere around £1300...but where do I stand, am I still obliged to settle this debt, resulting in being £5000 worse off and nothing to show for it, or is there some way of being able to claw back what I've already paid?

CherlokHomes

pcahill87 wrote: »

I'm hoping that someone can help me with this as I'm being driven round the bend by it!

A few years ago I signed up to do a course with Advent Computer Training to do a Microsoft Certificate.

The cost of the course was around £5,000 and because I didn't have that sort of money to pay up front, they arranged a finance loan through Barclays Partner Finance and I agreed to pay it off over 5 years.

Everything was fine at first, I was in regular contact with the staff at Advent as it was a home study course.

About 18 months after I signed up, I stopped hearing from them, which I thought was strange, I continued to plod on with my studies though.

I have since found out that the company itself went bust and is now dissolved according to a search on companies house.

I continued to make the payments as a sort of punishment to myself for getting involved with it in the first place. Until about 6-7 months ago when I became unemployed and fell behind with the payments.

I've been chased by their debt collections team (mercers) and they are using all kinds of bully and scare tactics, including sending people round to my home - I actually laughed down the phone when they mentioned this as I know that they can't do this for an unsecured loan.

I have also found out that the reason the company went bust is because BPF pulled the plug on their funding...so from my perspective, Barclays have pretty much shafted me out of nearly 5 grand and in their eyes they've done nothing wrong!

At the moment the outstanding balance is somewhere around £1300...but where do I stand, am I still obliged to settle this debt, resulting in being £5000 worse off and nothing to show for it, or is there some way of being able to claw back what I've already paid?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2235193
Check this thread out...

pcahill87

Thanks for that. Will have a proper read of it when I get home from work.

Spoke to barclays earlier this morning about it, I've escalated my complaint so gonna see where that leads. ..probably to a dead end no doubt.