Barclays

colsten

I can't profess to have read every word of the latest post but I tend to conclude that

1. the drastic reduction of the Barclaycard limit is almost certainly a consequence of what Barclays consider a complaint about the overdraft
   
   
2. the next step could well be that Barclays request the immediate repayment of the overdraft
   
   
3. it would be sensible if the OP / their partner converted the overdraft into a loan, as a matter of urgency. That way, the debt can be repaid at a sensible cost

Dr_Crypto

Why don’t you contact the assistance team and see what can be arranged? I may have read this wrong but it seems that your partner is not in a position to service this debt and you are looking for them to stop adding fees and interest and thus allow him to try to rest it.
I’d explain all this to the assistance team including that he is not going to work again and that he’s surviving on benefits only. Sure mention that he’s made previous unsuccessful attempts to resolve this but don’t get hung up on these.

jonesMUFCforever

Sorry but I have only read some of the long thread sorry if this has been suggested before - but surely a debt charity would sort this out pronto?
Let's say Stepchange for example would write to the bank - the account would be closed to recoveries or whatever Barclays chose to call it and the OP would end up paying a paltry £1 or whatever they could reasonably afford each month.
Forget the Barclaycard limit - it was not used anyway and if they are disabled and unable to work then why worry about their credit file?

NosmoKing

Colsten:
According to the person that replied, they no longer call in a debt unless it's a last resort in O/D's as they say it can cause further harm...there is anecdotal evidence on this forum that they do...but thats what they've said.


No problerm with the card reduction the barclayrcard aspect being reduced, it wasn't used, it's of no consequence....the main gripe on that is they can act on something that is not of relevance but still appear
not to have done anything on the account o/d ...in short they continue to accrue interest on it even though I'vw written in giving details of my partner not being in a position to service the account etc etc....


My partner attempted to convert it to a loan in 2012 through barclays who put them in touch with Woolwich
in the branch by way of an internal line, the Woolwich then wouldn't loan them the money because they (partner) was already o/d to barclays....which kind of defeated the object...At that point the branch themselves should have taken some action but instead they did nothing...that is part of what I was trying to convey to the bank who have assumed no responsibility for that....that to me is fundamentally wrong


Dr Crypto
That is the next thing i'll be attempting to do, but I've read to the death those that have gone down the same route and ended up having problems all over the place, my partner is in no fit state to be able to deal with the complexities of it, it's down to me and I don't have a particularly good grasp of things ...


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Jonesmufc
I think my partner has paid enough, 25/30k + in interest fees over the lifetime of the account, the last 10 being just to service the interest......


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I concede that it's not wholly the banks fault, but having said that I feel that due to a number of factors, account no longer a product, my partner visiting the branch asking for help and being pushed to the woolwich, nobody in the branch being at a level to deal with the account to say nothing of the alleged systems in place barclays supposedley have in place to pick up on vulenerable customers, ones that are
in fianancial difficult....not being apparent in this case.....that needs answers and not ones such as 'the bank is under no obligation' or that if the 'account is within it's limits why would they need to look at it' which is fine but when they state in print that an 'Accounts with an overdraft must been seen to be fluctuating' and where this one hasn't for at least 14 years....then you could be forgiven for thinking that it should have come to the notice of someone somewhere....


To owe almost exactly the same amount on an account that they did ten years ago but where they have not drawn/utilised/paid anything out on the account save for interest each month....the account has no way of ever being paid off and the customers indebtedness remains the same.....that is not responsible lending/fair lending or a bank having a 'trigger/process in place to identify a customer in difficulty...


On those points the bank should take some responsibility.

Dr_Crypto

Yes this does seem awful. I’m sorry to hear your partner is in such poor health.
Ultimately though there isn’t much Barclays can do. He can only pay what he can afford, and if that’s £5 per week out of his benefits that’s their problem.

Banks do have to treat customers fairly and consider freezing interest and charges in the case of current financial hardship. You need to ask for this to be considered, explaining why.
I think it’s going to be difficult to get things from the past cancelled: he seems to have sat on things from 2012 until you got involved this year. While Of course he was ill, Barclays didn’t know that. He was making the minimum payments so why would they think anything was out of order?

NosmoKing

He asked for help after that, inclusive of a call to the CS centre, they didn't help....


I think Barclays should have acted, O/D accounts undergo regular reviews or at least they should, I think this account dropped into the abyss, any human reviewing the account would surely have picked up that the account was going nowhere, in short in it's current state it would never have been paid ever.


I personally feel that 14k in interest added on in just the last decades alone only with no
other account activity at all is not consistent with how a o/d should be run, had it been reviewed by a human they would have seen this and at least contacted the customer with a view to looking at the account. I'll be holding them to the 'regular reviews' and 'account MUST fluctuate' in their letters to my partners 14+ years ago.


The new accounts Barclays offer have a ceiling 3k less than what they allowed this account to be on, they upgarde/update/ accounts as they go on, the updated interest payments over the years, so why not look at the account? A sar was applied for last year, nothing seems to have flagged up that and the sar was over 1000 pages in bundle size and still nothing on the account.


I fail to see how an account can be seen to be functioning within the specified parameters (fluctuation) when clearly it hasn't been.



Further to this and what really piddles me off is when I read Barclays under their 'assistance review' mention accounts from 2013 and where they're refunding and compensating customers for going in to unarranged territory and seeing them as in difficulty

there are posts on here where members have received thousands of pounds back....and yet my partner, who has struggled by way of not being able to bring the account into the black but maintained it by way of not going over the limit...so trying to do what they thought was the right thing ....and they're penalised for never experiencing what the above link points to....


My partner is ill, no real prospects of getting better, I have third party mandate on this account, shortly to transfer to POA, but right now this brick wall is absorbing everything. I don't want a repayment plan , they've paid considerably more than they should.....and not altogether their own fault...

Davy_Jones_II

If your partner can’t find the money is there any way that you can find it for them? Could you get some evening or weekend work, or have you anything to sell?

Dr_Crypto

Why bother? If he’s disabled with no money aside from benefits what can Barclays take? They just need to come to some kind of arrangement that the partner can afford given his impecunious state.

worried_jim

Time to stop messing about, this really is simple to get resolved in your situation and the great news us you haven't got to do it yourself. Please contact a debt charity and get this sorted quickly for free-

https://www.stepchange.org/