Playing the contact centre game

Mrsmiss

big house extension a couple of years ago coincided with the taxman grabbing a chunk of the money we put aside, resulted in me using my Barclaycard up to the max. Not in a position to pay more than I am until next year (soon, soon) but I kept getting the persistent debt letters. Now, I know a computer generated letter when I see one so I ignored them, until this month when they wrote to say they would be suspending my card. This prompted me to look into the FCA rules a little more and I rang Barclaycard up to discuss ways they should be helping me, (like zeroing my interest rate).
I worked in, and managed contact centres for many years, the important thing to bear in mind is this; the person your call is fed to initially has little or (absolutely) no authority to do or agree anything. You should escalate and speak to supervisors, managers, senior managers and centre managers even, until you get someone with the clout to do what you need them to do. After three call backs I eventually got someone to offer me three months interest free credit as long I as keep paying what I currently do.
You can be sure, in three months I will be calling back to do it again.

[Deleted User]

Not sure what you’re hoping to achieve by posting here.
Are you after congratulations for getting out of dodge (to an extent) in paying back Barclaycard their money?

BoGoF

Hopefully they place an AP marker on your credit file.

Willing2Learn

Mrsmiss wrote: »

… After three call backs I eventually got someone to offer me three months interest free credit as long I as keep paying what I currently do.

First up, seasonal greetings to you and your family

My thoughts:
If you are not paying the interest for which you are contractually obliged, then you are technically in breach of your original credit agreement. For that reason, the account will probably have its status updated to 'AP' (Arrangement to Pay). The 'AP' status marker would notify potential lenders that you have broken the terms of your credit agreement. It would also have a negative impact on your credit file(s).

born_again

Mrsmiss wrote: »

the person your call is fed to initially has little or (absolutely) no authority to do or agree anything. You should escalate and speak to supervisors, managers, senior managers and centre managers even, until you get someone with the clout to do what you need them to do. .

Depends on the bank.
I have plenty of authority & limits to agree many things. If I want to go over & above. My manager has my back.
But go about things the wrong way & manager will still have my back if I say no.... Same going up the line. A good bank will not just bend because that is what a customer wants.

You might find in 3 months when you call again. That they say NO because you have already had 3 months and made no further progress in reducing the debt. Along with a card that is blocked.

WitnessFor

Reality check required, game over.

bigadaj

A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing.

The OP obviously has no idea how their credit record is likely to have been affected, and they may be outraged when they start paying full whack in the coming months, or potentially can't even access credit because they are overstretched.

A colleague at work recently asked the team head in the accounts section to run a credit check on a Potential client, though had worked before advise was to run a new check every few months to confirm status. Response was no change but make sure we didn't continually ask for credit checks as this would affect the clients business; they were obviously getting personal and business finance mixed up, and this was supposedly a supervisor/ manager, in a billion plus size business.