Persistent debt with barclaycard

redstar1707

Hello 
hope someone can help.
we are in PD with barclaycard, currently owe just over 11k.
was foolish, limit increased to ridiculous amount for income £12k limit for lesss than 12k annual income. 

Had PD letter and letter stating may have raised limit irresponsiblly but offering no solution. 

Went on a pay down plan of £400 per month. Half of husbands wages. 

Been paying as instructed but interest is £240 per month so balance isn’t really taking a hit at all. 

Both our children have disabilities so we only work part time now to Care for their needs. 

We have lots of other debts including mortgage arrears atm and feel this disruption with Barclaycard is not helping. 

Credit rating is not good due to other debts and Ccjs and realistically won’t be repaired until all paid off and had some time, starting to wonder if it’s worth keeping this account from defaulting? 

My credit card with vanquis defaulted and now I’m paying £100 a month but no interest.

I understand letting this account default too would worsen credit file but when it’s not going to be prepared for 4-5 years regardless are we better off defaulting and stopping interest? Would the interest definitely stop? 

At the rate we are now it’ll take 4 years plus to clear and cost us £6k in interest. 

Have no problem paying it back at all just feel like we are drowning with no way out. 

Apologies this is a ramble just stressed.
thank you in advance 
RS

RAS

Your mortgage, Council tax and utilities are priority. You both need to contact stepchange, CaB, or National debtline and take proper advice.

A debt management plan may be appropriate if you have enough left over from paying priority debts. Who do you currently bank with?

Coffeekup

First things first post a statement of affairs (link is at top of the page and save as MSE format) then can people guide you more accurately on what's best to do. Do the SOA by. going through both of your bank statements for last 3 months to get accurate figures. 

You should check if you're getting all the financial help your entitled to also, at https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

[Deleted User]

redstar1707 said:

Hello 
hope someone can help.
we are in PD with barclaycard, currently owe just over 11k.
was foolish, limit increased to ridiculous amount for income £12k limit for lesss than 12k annual income. 

Had PD letter and letter stating may have raised limit irresponsiblly but offering no solution. 

Went on a pay down plan of £400 per month. Half of husbands wages. 

Been paying as instructed but interest is £240 per month so balance isn’t really taking a hit at all. 

Both our children have disabilities so we only work part time now to Care for their needs. 

We have lots of other debts including mortgage arrears atm and feel this disruption with Barclaycard is not helping. 

Credit rating is not good due to other debts and Ccjs and realistically won’t be repaired until all paid off and had some time, starting to wonder if it’s worth keeping this account from defaulting? 

My credit card with vanquis defaulted and now I’m paying £100 a month but no interest.

I understand letting this account default too would worsen credit file but when it’s not going to be prepared for 4-5 years regardless are we better off defaulting and stopping interest? Would the interest definitely stop? 

At the rate we are now it’ll take 4 years plus to clear and cost us £6k in interest. 

Have no problem paying it back at all just feel like we are drowning with no way out. 

Apologies this is a ramble just stressed.
thank you in advance 
RS

We haven't seen your SOA yet but on the face of it I don't see defaulting with Barclaycard will make that much difference to your credit files if you already have defaults, CCJ and mortgage arrears.  If anything you should sack off Barclays (non-priority debt) in favour of paying the mortgage arrears (priority debt).  There's no guarantee Barclaycard would freeze the interest but they can't get blood out of a stone.  You can't afford to pay them £240 a month and it's not a priority debt so there's not really much Barclaycard can do about it really.

fatbelly

Yeah, post an  soa and talk to ND and all that but more urgently...

stop paying Barclaycard half your wages and start paying your mortgage back up to date (almost put that in capital letters)

natlie

Hi, 

I would recommend a Debt Management Plan too, I was in persistent debt with Barclayc@rd too and I now pay them £212 on £10k of debt with no interest since June 2020. They stopped it straight away and defaulted me within 3 months. I haven't had any letters chasing me at all. Step Change are brilliant I now am paying back all of my debts for £675 was £1300 a month and I didn't have to speak to anyone really, just a few checks with the bank and Payp@l. 
You need to get your mortgage arrears sorted, this is priority, you can just stop paying barclayc@rd to clear this in the short term, as your credit file is already affected it won't make much difference. 
Have a look at the pinned DMP post at the top of the forum

Nat

sourcrates

Your mortgage is an essential payment, Barclaycard isn`t, its a non priority debt.
I have to agree with fatbelly, and I will use capitals, FORGET BARCLAYCARD, GET YOUR MORTGAGE UP TO DATE !!

Honestly, unsecured credit debts are not important in the big scheme of things, they can easily be dealt with, all in good time, by debt management, mortgage arrears are much more serious, you need to shake yourself up, and re-prioritise your payments to your mortgage.

fatbelly

This illustrates the stupidity of the persistent debt legislation.

I think Martin made exactly this point when all this was coming to a head in March last year. Unfortunately all that got eclipsed by something called covid.

backinbusiness

Message Barclaycard through their secure app and ask for compensation for raising your credit limit too high - I did this and received £225.  Do this before you default and at least get the debt reduced a bit.  Good luck x 

Suseka97

I echo everything that has been said about stopping the BC payments and focussing on getting your mortgage arrears in check.  But also to strongly encourage you to contact one of the debt charities - your debt issues are more complex in terms of other arrears and CCJs, so you really need a consolidated approach and professional advice.

DestinedtobePoor

Barclaycard are bullies. They put me in persistent debt and increased my payments to £200 a month to get out of it. This was more than I could afford but I felt I didn’t have any choice. They froze my card and reduced the credit limit to approx £50 more than I owed - but offered me a new card to use with a stupidly high interest rate. I declined. 

As much as I am aware that my debt is my own stupid fault - I can’t help feeling they are in some way responsible because they kept increasing my limit despite knowing I was only paying the minimum payment - then whoosh, they pull the plug, increase your interest rate making it impossible to pay off unless you live to be 100.