Barclaycard & minimum payments

gettingtheresometime

Has anyone else had an email from Barclaycard basically saying that as you've paid just minimum payments for 18 months, if you pay just minimum payments for another 18 months the card would be cancelled & any amount owed would be repayable on demand?

Unless I dreamed it I've had one of these but can't find it now.

The amount owed isn't a huge amount in the grand scheme of things but I'm slightly concerned

sourcrates

Hi,


What is it that concerns you about this ?

Willing2Learn

Hi,

See the MSE article: New rules to protect those in debt mean your credit card may be suspended if you only make minimum repayments

gettingtheresometime

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,


What is it that concerns you about this ?

I'm guessing it's the fact that they could, theoretically, demand that the whole amount is repaid - and if every company that I have a card with decides to follow suit, whilst the individual amounts aren't great the total amount would be more than I could deal with.

I'm also concerned how it would affect my credit history.

[Deleted User]

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I'm also concerned how it would affect my credit history.

It will improve your credit history, as it will avoid the minimum payment marker.

Always pay more than minimum.

Willing2Learn

If you are doing a snowball for your CC debts, then set up a Standing Order for £1/month on the cards that receive the minimum payment by DD. Then you can't fall foul of the new rules.

sourcrates

To avoid this action you only need increase your payments by say a few pounds, just slightly more than the min payment.


Its all down to affordability, and to stop people taking on more debt than they can comfortably repay, these measures are a positive step forward, although people who live in the credit bubble, will not all see it that way.

Hopeless_Case

We've just had that email from Barclaycard, but we've also just tranferred the balance to a 0% card, and Barclaycard is clear.

We were planning to just make the minimum payments on the 0% balance and put the rest in an ISA, and then pay it off in full just before the end, but we'll make sure that we pay a bit more to avoid this happening again

gettingtheresometime

Willing2Learn wrote: »

If you are doing a snowball for your CC debts, then set up a Standing Order for £1/month on the cards that receive the minimum payment by DD. Then you can't fall foul of the new rules.

I did actually wonder if it would be that simply to get around the situation.

What I think I will do is set up the payment to be a set amount, above the current minimum payment - I don't spend on the cards so theoretically the minimum payment should decrease - and see what happens.

Thanks guys

Ergates

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

if every company that I have a card with decides to follow suit, whilst the individual amounts aren't great the total amount would be more than I could deal with.

It's not a matter of the companies deciding to do this. The FCA has introduced new regulations that mean that lenders have to do this - they are legally obliged to do it and will face heavy fines if they fail to do so.

worriedDan

I have had this email too. Like a lot of us, I have a 0% balance transfer on my Barclaycard. I have changed my payments to a fixed amount £5 above my lst minimum payment.

In reality, I can't see CC companies demanding the full balance on demand. Surely that would just lead to loads of insolvencies?

In reality, how many of us who don't pay our full balance each month, could actually afford to clear the whole balance? When my debt free journey started we owed over 50K on cards. Imagine if all of our CC companies had asked for this to repald in full! We would have had to declare ourselves bankrupt!

My understanding is that they would close the account and allow the customer to keep on paying off the balance, without the option of spending more on the cards.