Barclaycard Avios Plus - I closed my account in May, they re-opened without permission in Nov.

Jamesp2111

Where to begin...

Never had so many issues with a credit card as I have with this one. Barclaycard are a joke of a company. I closed my account in May 2022 and settled the outstanding balance, they then reopened it in November without any consent (?!) and slapped a £20 charge on it. They were charging me interest then instantly refunding it. I applied for a mortgage last week when I received a “nope, sorry”. Experian informed me it was due to a missed Barclaycard payment. Contact made, Barclaycard admitted fault and negative credit notice is going to be removed within next 6-8 weeks. Awaiting a formal letter from Barclaycard in the coming days so I can commence with my next steps. 

Now, where do I go with my complaint? Financial Ombudsman or a Solicitor? Barclaycard initially offered me £75 "hardship" which I instantly refused. The Barclaycard employee went away and came back with a final offer of £200 "hardship" payment, take it or leave it. Informed me it would have no impact on any future claims when dealing with the Financial Ombudsman etc. I informed them I would take it as it was their final offer, but how could I counter it when it is near impossible to put a value on something which has been so impactful to myself and my partner. Am I being unreasonable by expecting far more than £200? This feels like a very serious issue - they re-opened a credit card account without my consent 6 months after it was closed, isn't that illegal? What's worse, the account didn't show in my online banking dashboard, therefore I had no idea what was happening. This is scary and has made me lose all trust in Barclaycard as a company.

Would appreciate all advice on this matter, I am willing to go the whole hog on it if necessary.

WillPS

It sounds like Barclaycard have accepted wrongdoing. If you believe you have incurred greater loss than the £200 then proceed to the FOS and push further.

Just to stop you from making a mistake in that escalation - Experian did not tell you the reason your mortgage was declined (they don't hold decision rationale), but you can make a reasonable judgment that the misreported Barclaycard was a red flag.

Jamesp2111

WillPS said:

It sounds like Barclaycard have accepted wrongdoing. If you believe you have incurred greater loss than the £200 then proceed to the FOS and push further.

Just to stop you from making a mistake in that escalation - Experian did not tell you the reason your mortgage was declined (they don't hold decision rationale), but you can make a reasonable judgment that the misreported Barclaycard was a red flag.

Thanks for your response. Skipton, who were carrying out the credit check for our mortgage, informed us about the negative rating and for information, that is the only 1 negative attached to my credit file

I would love to know the legality on re-opening a closed account without consent?

born_again

Going to FOS will not be a quick process & given the offer of £200. They may well say that is a fair offer & that is the end.

But not being approved for a mortgage on one missed payment, seems there is more happening in the background that that one item.

Did mortgage company say why? Or is it just experian that have come up with the reason. Given they have no idea on the mortgage company internal policies.

Jamesp2111

born_again said:

Going to FOS will not be a quick process & given the offer of £200. They may well say that is a fair offer & that is the end.

But not being approved for a mortgage on one missed payment, seems there is more happening in the background that that one item.

Did mortgage company say why? Or is it just experian that have come up with the reason. Given they have no idea on the mortgage company internal policies.

Hi, thanks for the reply. 

I did consider it may take a while if I go the FOS route and also that they will likely deem the £200 fair.

I had a mortgage approved in September 2022 when my account was squeaky clean. The only difference since is this negative due to Barclaycard. 

Skipton said it was due to a missed credit payment. Experian held me locate who that was linked to.

Wonka_2

Jamesp2111 said:

I had a mortgage approved in September 2022 when my account was squeaky clean. The only difference since is this negative due to Barclaycard. 

Skipton said it was due to a missed credit payment. Experian held me locate who that was linked to.

The world has moved significantly since Sept '22 and what was approved then may not be approved now.

As @born_again said it is very unlikely that a single missed payment is the reason for a decline but more an overall view of you as a borrower to Skipton

Given you've no provable financial loss then only you can weigh up the worth of pursuing with FOS vs the offer already made  

PaulW922

WAs it just one month missed, or something worse that was shown (for example a default or several months delay)? I am surprised one missed payment has made much of a difference to your mortgage application which I why I ask.

And a credit card company can 'reopen' an account if a transaction from a merchant is processed late for example. I have sometimes had non UK transactions showing up some considerable time after I made them 

Jamesp2111

PaulW922 said:

WAs it just one month missed, or something worse that was shown (for example a default or several months delay)? I am surprised one missed payment has made much of a difference to your mortgage application which I why I ask.

And a credit card company can 'reopen' an account if a transaction from a merchant is processed late for example. I have sometimes had non UK transactions showing up some considerable time after I made them 

2 Months missed as per the Experian report.

WillPS

You'd be making a mistake by concretely stating that the mortgage refusal was due to this, is all I'm saying.

A more sensible approach would be to outline that Skipton declined with the feedback they did, and the only objectively negative factor on the report was this. Let them draw the links. Also it'd be helpful if you could try to calculate any real world costs which you consider this had caused to yourself.