Credit card over limit advice..

Mobeyone

No, have at least 50-60 active direct debits and never paid attention to it, honestly thought it was an insurance policy I had taken out when I bought a house, I’ve a few And as the amounts have never really changed never thought twice about it.

Clarify, I’ve never had statements, contact nothing from them or had asked to have my card renewed.

I notified a change of address and as the current account was dormant, the overdraft was cleared and then closed due to non usage around a time when they were pushing for online banking.

The account I’ve used for this direct debit has also been active since I was at school.

The limit has remained the same for 20 odd years or so, I’ve not used the card in at least 12-15 years and never requested a new one when the last expired.

Lots can happen in 20 years, yes maybe should have questioned it but on a balance of £350 which I can pay immediately, I find it amazing that over this time, and making a minimum payment of some sorts I am possibly now overdrawn on a balance that has not been used despite regular payments being made on time and where they can and should have changed to offset any increase in interest which I should have been notified of or of any increases in balance.

They still had my number so could have got in touch anytime.

born_again

Mobeyone wrote: »

No, have at least 50-60 active direct debits and never paid attention to it,

Please do not take this the wrong way. :money:

You really need to take more notice of what is debiting your accounts.
50 to 60 DD's.. That seems to be rather a lot.

Ben8282

Mobeyone wrote: »

No, have at least 50-60 active direct debits and never paid attention to it, honestly thought it was an insurance policy I had taken out when I bought a house, I’ve a few And as the amounts have never really changed never thought twice about it. 50-60 active direct debits! Wow! You sat that you didn't realise that this direct debit which would have been clearly identified as Barclaycard was in fact connected to your Barclaycard but instead was for an insurance premium for an insurance policy that you took out when you bought a house. So, as you knew there was an outstanding balance on your Barclaycard, how did you imagine that you were paying Barclaycard?
Clarify, I’ve never had statements, contact nothing from them or had asked to have my card renewed. Why exactly have you never had statements from them? They are legally obliged to provide them and if you were not registered for online banking for your credit card account it is highly unusual that you have never received any..
I notified a change of address and as the current account was dormant, the overdraft was cleared and then closed due to non usage around a time when they were pushing for online banking. The reason for closing the account appears to have changed. It is now non-usage when previously it was due to them going paperless and you not signing up for online banking whih as I observed previusly is a very odd reason for them closing a current account.

The account I’ve used for this direct debit has also been active since I was at school. Then why has the current account with Barclays even been mentioned. What is the relevance? You have a Barclaycard and a direct debit was set up on a completely separate current account. So where does the Barclays current account that you keep on about fit into anything?

The limit has remained the same for 20 odd years or so, I’ve not used the card in at least 12-15 years and never requested a new one when the last expired. You don't have to request new cards when they expire. They are normally sent out automatically if the account is in good order.

Lots can happen in 20 years, yes maybe should have questioned it but on a balance of £350 which I can pay immediately,Why didn't you then? I find it amazing that over this time, and making a minimum payment of some sorts I am possibly now overdrawn on a balance You are not 'overdrawn on a balance'. You have exceeded your credit limit. that has not been used despite regular payments being made on time and where they can and should have changed to offset any increase in interest which I should have been notified of or of any increases in balance.Notified how as obviously they did not have your correct address or they would have sent statements to it.

They still had my number so could have got in touch anytime.Apparently yes but not your address!

Just pay the outstanding balance and be done wit it.

PixelPound

There was no need to contact you before now. You had a balance on your card and paid each month by DD. No missed payments, so why would they contact you? The age of this card could well mean that the minimum didn't cover the interest and so over time the balance has been increasing and it is only now that the interest payment takes it over your credit limit that they contact you. You are thinking in terms of new cards where the minimum repayments are higher.

They have not done any wrong by not contacting you earlier, though it could be argued that your account could have been flagged for "persistent debt" monitoring and why you were not contacted about that.

abz88

Struggling to see how this is Barclay cards fault?
As others have said, you maxed out a credit card (it being a small limit is irrelevant); you didn't pay it off (despite your claim of "I can pay immediately" you didn't...); you continued to pay the minimum amount by DD (although you didn't notice it coming out of your account); you have now gone over the credit limit due to interest; they have contacted you to tell you this (twice, and you still haven't paid it off despite charges increasing on it). What were you expecting, that if you ignored your debt long enough they would just cancel it?!

On a side note, why do you have "a few" DD's for insurance policies on your house? Are these other things you just forgot to cancel?!

Curls2208

You seriously should be keeping a better eye on what goes in and out of your account. Rather than going on forums and trying to find answers, got through ALL of your direct debits and sort them out! You're probably pumping hundreds or even thousands of pounds away a year on rubbish you don't actually need!

Terry_Towelling

Technically, what you describe, Mobeyone, should be impossible if the account is not being used.

Barclaycard's minimum payment is the greater of £5, 2.25% of the balance or 1% plus any interest charged - plus any other fees and charges incurred that month. On your limit and with your level of payment, you couldn't go over the limit.

Paying the minimum monthly payment on a balance of £350 with an APR of, say, 19.9%, you'd clear the balance in about 10 years and the monthly payment would show signs of reducing with each passing month.

Exceeding the credit limit results in a fee of £12, so you'd not be just a few quid over the limit and the monthly minimum payment would alter to include the £12 fee plus the normal minimum payment calculation.

As I understand it, only if your card account continued to be used could you still have a balance over the limit - and I'm not going to open that can of worms.

As stated by others, the direct debit should be identified as Barclaycard (mine is) and, out of curiosity, what on earth do you find to spend your money on that involves about 60 (monthly?) direct debits?

SnowTiger

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Technically, what you describe, Mobeyone, should be impossible if the account is not being used.

Barclaycard's minimum payment is the greater of £5, 2.25% of the balance or 1% plus any interest charged - plus any other fees and charges incurred that month. On your limit and with your level of payment, you couldn't go over the limit.

That's what the T&Cs say today.

IIRC it used to be the case that on many cards the minimum payment was ~1% of the outstanding balance only.

I think T&Cs have been updated during the past few years to ensure the minimum payment is always more than interest charged.

The account is twenty years old. The original T&C may not specifically allow Barclaycard to change the minimum payment, especially if the account was closed to new spending.

OP should look at statements and, hopefully, update us.

Terry_Towelling

SnowTiger wrote: »

That's what the T&Cs say today.

IIRC it used to be the case that on many cards the minimum payment was ~1% of the outstanding balance only.

I think T&Cs have been updated during the past few years to ensure the minimum payment is always more than interest charged.

The account is twenty years old. The original T&C may not specifically allow Barclaycard to change the minimum payment, especially if the account was closed to new spending.

OP should look at statements and, hopefully, update us.

Fair point, although a payment of around £9 per month (as claimed by OP) would appear to indicate payments are being taken in accordance with the new T&Cs of 1% plus any interest charged, so I'd still question this.

I think Barclaycard's minimum payment (going back over the years) was 2.25% of the outstanding balance - someone shout if that's not correct. I have a suspicion that the 1% plus interest is a relatively recent introduction by them.

If it were possible for the account to have exceeded the limit based on old T&Cs (and with a balance of £350 or so when usage stopped) the limit would surely have been exceeded many years ago.

At the end of the day, if this has come to pass, Mobeyone needs to contact Barclaycard to sort it out.

Ben8282

I would like to point out that I have a bank issued credit card which is 30 years old (not Barclaycard). The terms and conditions are updated from time to time and this minimum payment anomaly has been corrected. As a matter of interest, this card also reports normally to CRA's with the full data unlike what is often said about old credit card accounts.