Barclaycard 0% Balance Transfer Card Limit

csmith848

Barclaycard allow self-employed people to apply for one of these cards, and even have a section in the application process' support page to describe the specific details on doing so, but the process of releasing/unlocking the full credit limit does not accept business bank accounts as proof of income, and therefore any sole traders who use one as their main account effectively cannot use the card.

I've contacted Barclaycard support and was told to write a letter to their headquarters, but i don't own a printer and (to be completely honest) i don't expect it to change anything...

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any suggestions at all?

[Deleted User]

Why are you trying to use your bank account as proof of income, why not your accounts etc?

Ebe_Scrooge

As above, I would have thought audited accounts would be easier - and actually, probably far more reliable in terms of proof of income.

csmith848 said:

was told to write a letter to their headquarters, but i don't own a printer

Any suggestions at all?

Eerrrmmmm.... Sorry, no.

Oh, hang on - how about a pen and paper?  A radical idea, I know, but it might work.

csmith848

Deleted_User said:

Why are you trying to use your bank account as proof of income, why not your accounts etc?

I did, I sent all my accounts and SA302 documents, but they said they need bank account statements.

csmith848

Ebe_Scrooge said:

As above, I would have thought audited accounts would be easier - and actually, probably far more reliable in terms of proof of income.

csmith848 said:

was told to write a letter to their headquarters, but i don't own a printer

Any suggestions at all?

Eerrrmmmm.... Sorry, no.

Oh, hang on - how about a pen and paper?  A radical idea, I know, but it might work.

I love how you cut off the quote just before the main reason I didn't feel like writing a letter. But thank you so so much for your constructive feedback and suggesting other options, I'm not sure what I would have done without it. Have a great Christmas.

DullGreyGuy

csmith848 said:

Deleted_User said:

Why are you trying to use your bank account as proof of income, why not your accounts etc?

I did, I sent all my accounts and SA302 documents, but they said they need bank account statements.

So do you bank with Barclays or do you bank with someone else?

I am guessing you bank with Barclays and therefore are breaching the T&Cs of your current account as they prohibit the use of a personal account for business purposes. As such it certainly wouldnt be sensible to even really speak to them as you are more likely to find your current account closed than the Barclaycard granted.

If you bank outside of the Barclay's group then just send your bank statements as requested. They probably wont care that you are breaking the other banks T&Cs or spend time looking to find out if you are or not. You could be helpful by highlighting the business related transactions if you wanted. As a sole trader you and the business are one and so there is no legal requirement to have separate bank accounts. Were HMRC to audit you then you'd be doing exactly the same.  

csmith848

DullGreyGuy said:

csmith848 said:

Deleted_User said:

Why are you trying to use your bank account as proof of income, why not your accounts etc?

I did, I sent all my accounts and SA302 documents, but they said they need bank account statements.

So do you bank with Barclays or do you bank with someone else?

I am guessing you bank with Barclays and therefore are breaching the T&Cs of your current account as they prohibit the use of a personal account for business purposes. As such it certainly wouldnt be sensible to even really speak to them as you are more likely to find your current account closed than the Barclaycard granted.

If you bank outside of the Barclay's group then just send your bank statements as requested. They probably wont care that you are breaking the other banks T&Cs or spend time looking to find out if you are or not. You could be helpful by highlighting the business related transactions if you wanted. As a sole trader you and the business are one and so there is no legal requirement to have separate bank accounts. Were HMRC to audit you then you'd be doing exactly the same.  

Nope, I don't bank with Barclays.
I have a business account elsewhere, in to which any invoices are paid.
It's not a case of doing anything more or less, their system/process simply does not accept business bank accounts. I spoke to the specific team who deal with this for over an hour. There is no way around it.

DullGreyGuy

csmith848 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

csmith848 said:

Deleted_User said:

Why are you trying to use your bank account as proof of income, why not your accounts etc?

I did, I sent all my accounts and SA302 documents, but they said they need bank account statements.

So do you bank with Barclays or do you bank with someone else?

I am guessing you bank with Barclays and therefore are breaching the T&Cs of your current account as they prohibit the use of a personal account for business purposes. As such it certainly wouldnt be sensible to even really speak to them as you are more likely to find your current account closed than the Barclaycard granted.

If you bank outside of the Barclay's group then just send your bank statements as requested. They probably wont care that you are breaking the other banks T&Cs or spend time looking to find out if you are or not. You could be helpful by highlighting the business related transactions if you wanted. As a sole trader you and the business are one and so there is no legal requirement to have separate bank accounts. Were HMRC to audit you then you'd be doing exactly the same.  

Nope, I don't bank with Barclays.
I have a business account elsewhere, in to which any invoices are paid.
It's not a case of doing anything more or less, their system/process simply does not accept business bank accounts. I spoke to the specific team who deal with this for over an hour. There is no way around it.

I'm confused...

csmith848 said:
they said they need bank account statements.

So they want business bank account statements but they dont accept business bank account statements?  Is it an issue of you trying to submit JPGs and they want PDFs or?

csmith848

DullGreyGuy said:

csmith848 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

csmith848 said:

Deleted_User said:

Why are you trying to use your bank account as proof of income, why not your accounts etc?

I did, I sent all my accounts and SA302 documents, but they said they need bank account statements.

So do you bank with Barclays or do you bank with someone else?

I am guessing you bank with Barclays and therefore are breaching the T&Cs of your current account as they prohibit the use of a personal account for business purposes. As such it certainly wouldnt be sensible to even really speak to them as you are more likely to find your current account closed than the Barclaycard granted.

If you bank outside of the Barclay's group then just send your bank statements as requested. They probably wont care that you are breaking the other banks T&Cs or spend time looking to find out if you are or not. You could be helpful by highlighting the business related transactions if you wanted. As a sole trader you and the business are one and so there is no legal requirement to have separate bank accounts. Were HMRC to audit you then you'd be doing exactly the same.  

Nope, I don't bank with Barclays.
I have a business account elsewhere, in to which any invoices are paid.
It's not a case of doing anything more or less, their system/process simply does not accept business bank accounts. I spoke to the specific team who deal with this for over an hour. There is no way around it.

I'm confused...

csmith848 said:
they said they need bank account statements.

So they want business bank account statements but they dont accept business bank account statements?  Is it an issue of you trying to submit JPGs and they want PDFs or?

The card is open for self-employed people to apply (as I said, they even have extra support for it), so you can apply and physically receive the card, as I have done. At that point, when you want to unlock the full credit limit, they require proof of income at least in the form of bank accounts to basically show money regularly coming in, but the process does not accept business bank accounts (which a very large majority of self-employed people will use lol).

i.e. the process has a fundamental flaw.

And nope, no technical/engineering errors with respect to uploads; they confirmed they received and were able to open everything I sent, they purely don't accept business bank account statements as proof of income, even if supplied with full accounts and SA302s.