Barclaycard disaster

botleys

WARNING IDIOT ALERT

Many moons ago I got a Barclaycard, and probably used it but not for much. I am also one of those people who doesn't bother with the finances leaving to my wife. Now I have suddenly taken note as I am struggling and have found years of Barclaycard statements which seem to be spiralling upwards into debt all thanks to interest/charges and the minimum payment trap.

I need to rid this quickly. Has anyone else suffered this? If so what's your advice?

Would you think a chat to Barclaycard may help lower the fees?

sourcrates

Hi,

Barclaycard seems to be the thorn in many people's sides of late.

Is this your only debt ?

Because different advice would apply if you had numerous creditors.
We will go on the theory that BC is the only one you have for the moment.

So, best advice, if your struggling, is to inform your lender of this, you should do this in writing, and be as detailed, but to the point, as possible.

Now they will react in one of many ways, they may offer a short term solution, or something more longer term.
It depends on your personal circumstances, how much you owe etc etc.

If it's going to take you a while to repay what you owe, you should ask them to freeze interest and charges, also to refund previous charges.
If you don't ask, then you don't get basically.

That's a basic first step, but without knowing more about your situation it's impossible to advise further.

botleys

Thanks for your response Sourcrates.

It would appear from my oldest statement dated 2011 that i have not purchased anything since then but have racked up a debt of around £860 on charges thanks to only paying the minimum.

I will contact them and take your suggestion of removing the fees or freezing them.

Many thanks.

National_Debtline

Hi botleys


In order for Barclaycard (or any other creditor for that matter) to consider relaxing interest and charges, they'll usually want to see a picture of your income and outgoings, alongside a covering letter of the sort suggested by sourcrates above. There are lots of different budget templates out there - you can find ours at:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/steps/step2/Pages/Step_2_11.aspx


Dennis
@natdebtline

botleys

Thanks for the link Dennis.

I am in the process of assessing my debts and using a 'snowball calculator' to assist in identifying which should be tackled first. I will take advice from your website and hopefully sort this out.

Many thanks all for your advice.

Puddylove

Hi
I'd go steady on contacting Barclaycard unless you are in debt trouble which your post doesn't state. Doing so will adversely affect your future ability to get credit (if that matters to you).

If you can pay the debt off, by budgeting, that may be a good plan depending on your circumstances.

If you post a SOA on here, I'm sure you'd get useful feedback.