Barclaycard Refusing to Help a Customer who is only trying to help herself

helenjane55

After Speaking to a People Manager at 9 am today:

I have spoken to Ashina, people manager in deli, about not being able to meet the payment of £600 this month on my credit card, and asked for the date to be pushed back to the end of the month (or to reduce it to £300 which I would be able to cover this month) as Barclaycard are NOT helping me and making this months payment the minimum payment only. Quite honestly we are in the 21st century, with computers and so the days of cheques moving from bank to bank are gone, and with that I would have hoped to have some customer care and consideration, as I am contacting you with this problem BEFORE the d/d date - and cannot believe the response I am getting from you. Quite honestly it is pretty poor from a bank of your size and standing. I will be copying in Martin Lewis Money Expert on ITV1 to see what he makes of this. I will also be looking to go elsewhere. By the way, I suffer with a severe mental illness, and this is not helping me in my daily struggle to keep things on an even keel, but makes it look pretty bad for your bank, not helping a person in need.

You wrote:

I am writing about the fact that I have come to you as a loyal Customer and kept all of my credit card payments up to date. However, this morning on receiving one of your emails, I realised that I have changed my monthly payments which do not tie up with monies going into my account, so I tried to reduce this months payment to £300 only. This did not work, so I called your help line, and found myself talking to a person in Deli India, who was not that helpful, and said that this could not be done as the D/D had already been requested, which is for reference not due to come out of my bank until Tuesday I believe next week (you will have to look this up as I am writing to you now, which is stopping me checking the exact date).

Now

You wrote:

I then asked to speak to a manager, and the guy was not that helpful, so I insisted and stoke to an Ashina, who is a People Manager, in Deli, and whilst she was stating that this could not be done, I stated that this is the 21st Century, and I am sure that the have things called computers over there as we do, and on which a button can be pressed which instantaneously can move monies, send information, and oddly enough should be able to change a direct debit payment, afterall, it was not due for three working days. The woman stated that this could not be done, so I explained that I have a severe mental illness and this stress of realisiing that I had made a small mistake, which I needed rectifying, and if it was not, then it will impact my credit score, which is currently excellent.

 

and then I heard on television 'Lenders are required by law to listen to your situation and try to help you' which I found most informative, and am now dropping this legal fact at your door, and am now, for the second time, waiting for you to sort this situation out for me, BEFORE my direct debit is due to be taken from my account on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  I am utterly disgusted by the total lack of help which Barclaycard have done in exemplary style, and am putting this as a Formal Complaint for you to pass onto the correct department please.  YOU ARE LEGALLY OBLIGED TO DO THIS:  'Lenders are required BY LAW to listen to your situation and try to help you' so shame on you Barclaycard, Shame on You.  Kindly confirm that this has been passed to the relevant department. I am utterly disgusted with you.

Emmia

1. Martin sold this site many years ago and probably doesn't log in.
2. Dates for DD payments are available up front, it isn't Barclaycard's fault that you don't have enough money to pay the bill in full - if you use the app or online banking you can alter the DD amount, but only if the payment isn't working it's way through the system.

Sorry this probably doesn't seem very sympathetic but you are the person responsible for paying your bill, having spent money on the card 

Robin9

What is stopping you making  a payment  of your own choice in addition to the min payment ?

p00hsticks

Robin9 said:

What is stopping you making  a payment  of your own choice in addition to the min payment ?

that might work going forward, but isn't going to help the OP this month ....

Hoenir

Direct debits are set 10 days in advance. As batch processing it's not possible to edit the file and change any of the data. Direct debits have operated this way for many decades now. 

eskbanker

helenjane55 said:

and then I heard on television 'Lenders are required by law to listen to your situation and try to help you' which I found most informative, and am now dropping this legal fact at your door, and am now, for the second time, waiting for you to sort this situation out for me, BEFORE my direct debit is due to be taken from my account on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  I am utterly disgusted by the total lack of help which Barclaycard have done in exemplary style, and am putting this as a Formal Complaint for you to pass onto the correct department please.  YOU ARE LEGALLY OBLIGED TO DO THIS:  'Lenders are required BY LAW to listen to your situation and try to help you' so shame on you Barclaycard, Shame on You.  Kindly confirm that this has been passed to the relevant department. I am utterly disgusted with you.

It's rarely productive to rant about alleged legal obligations on the basis of something you heard and misunderstood on TV - I'm assuming that you heard something about the provisions specifically around persistent debt management but this really doesn't mean that a financial institution has some open-ended requirement to do whatever a customer wants them to do at all times!

MEM62

helenjane55 said:

I will be copying in Martin Lewis Money Expert on ITV1 to see what he makes of this.

That is hardly likely to intimidate Barclaycard into submitting to your demands.  (I would imagine that most people in India have never even heard of MSE.)  Even if Mr. Lewis did take up you case with them, based on what you have said in your post, they have done nothing wrong. 

helenjane55 said:

I will also be looking to go elsewhere. 

Which will have zero impact on Barclaycard. 

helenjane55 said:

and then I heard on television 'Lenders are required by law to listen to your situation and try to help you' which I found most informative, and am now dropping this legal fact at your door, and am now, for the second time, waiting for you to sort this situation out for me, BEFORE my direct debit is due to be taken from my account on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  I am utterly disgusted by the total lack of help which Barclaycard have done in exemplary style, and am putting this as a Formal Complaint for you to pass onto the correct department please.  YOU ARE LEGALLY OBLIGED TO DO THIS:  'Lenders are required BY LAW to listen to your situation and try to help you' so shame on you Barclaycard, Shame on You.  Kindly confirm that this has been passed to the relevant department. I am utterly disgusted with you.

As previously stated,  Your have miss-understood this.  

Your post suggests that you are somewhat stressed by the situation and I understand that.  However, you need to deal with it a manner that is most likely to keep the guys and girls at Barclaycard customer services sympathetic to your situation  Ranting does not achieve that and had I been on receiving end of that communication, I would not be encouraged to use any discretion I had to help.  You also need to understand that Barclaycard have done nothing wrong. They have systems and procedures to follow and modern technology does not make everything a 'click away' from being the way you want it.  There is a difference between not helping and not being able to help. 

It is also the case that you need to run your finances in a manner that enables you to meet you payment obligations.  On this occasion, your could have made the min payment + extra up to the £300 you wanted to pay and dealt with the rest next month.  

Olenna

Just cancel the D/D mandate and pay what you want via Faster Payment or Debit cařd. 

As long as its above the minimum then Barclaycard won't care. 

eskbanker

Olenna said:

Just cancel the D/D mandate and pay what you want via Faster Payment or Debit cařd. 

As long as its above the minimum then Barclaycard won't care. 

As pointed out above when someone made a similar point - that may indeed help OP in the future, but not with the current cashflow issue while the DD is already on its way through the system....

Edit: apologies, as below it should still be possible to cancel the DD mandate within the current account, even though Barclaycard considers it too late.

TheBanker

eskbanker said:

Olenna said:

Just cancel the D/D mandate and pay what you want via Faster Payment or Debit cařd. 

As long as its above the minimum then Barclaycard won't care. 

As pointed out above when someone made a similar point - that may indeed help OP in the future, but not with the current cashflow issue while the DD is already on its way through the system....

If they contact their bank, they should be able to cancel the DD before it debits their account. But if there isn't enough money the bank will likely bounce it anyway. The OP can pay their £300 manually, then get the Direct Debit changed in time for next month.

Much quicker than posting an lengthy and slightly offensive rant on here, and threatening them with ITV!

Olenna

TheBanker said:

eskbanker said:

Olenna said:

Just cancel the D/D mandate and pay what you want via Faster Payment or Debit cařd. 

As long as its above the minimum then Barclaycard won't care. 

As pointed out above when someone made a similar point - that may indeed help OP in the future, but not with the current cashflow issue while the DD is already on its way through the system....

If they contact their bank, they should be able to cancel the DD before it debits their account. But if there isn't enough money the bank will likely bounce it anyway. The OP can pay their £300 manually, then get the Direct Debit changed in time for next month.

Much quicker than posting an lengthy and slightly offensive rant on here, and threatening them with ITV!

I'd go further; if the OP is having ongoing money issues then probably then probably better cancelling the DD mandate and paying manually when they do have the funds available.