Barclaycard Irresponsible Lending (historic)

WhoIsJusticeBeaver

Hi, I wondered if anybody had any success with a historic irresponsible lending claim? 
My claim is with BC (account now defaulted and with PRA)
My issue is that FOS have come back and asked me for bank statements from 2011-2015 when my credit limit was increased without me asking for it (for context , I ended up with a 13.5K limit and I only earned 22k!) I also asked them for help multiple times on reducing interest etc and was denied.

I am still with the same bank and requested the statements, only to be told that they don't send any statements for anything over 7 years. The annoying thing about this was I spoke to someone over the phone to request them who said OK and then I received the letter 2 weeks later! 
The FOS have come back to and said without the statements, they cannot fairly assess the claim. 
I have sent them all my outgoings at the time (mortgage, bills that I could find, car finance and a copy of payslip for full time job) but they said they would require the statements to make a fair assessment, they also asked for a copy of my credit report for this period (again it seems near impossible to get a copy of a credit report for something over 6 years)

Has anyone dealt with anything similar? Were you able to obtain the statements/reports? 

It's so annoying as I do believe with the statements/historic credit report, I would have a case. 

TIA

CliveOfIndia

I'm not sure whether you'd actually have a claim for irresponsible lending.  Any time a credit card has offered to increase my limit, the letter has always said I can reject the increase if i wish, simply by calling them or going online.

Additionally, just because you have a certain credit limit, no-one is compelling you to use it.  With any credit card, the customer must bear an element of responsibility in not using it to buy things they can't afford.  It doesn't matter whether the limit is £500 or £50,000 - if you can't afford to buy something, you shouldn't buy it.

I hope this doesn't sound patronising - that's not my intention.  But the situation you've described is subtly different to the scenario where an organisation gives you a loan without performing the appropriate affordability checks.

sourcrates

Most banks only keep records for 6 years, some then transfer them to their archives, you could try a SAR see if that gets you anywhere?

Surely the FOS are aware of this, why ask for documents you cannot possibly obtain?

ManyWays

CliveOfIndia said:

I'm not sure whether you'd actually have a claim for irresponsible lending.  Any time a credit card has offered to increase my limit, the letter has always said I can reject the increase if i wish, simply by calling them or going online.

Im not sure that is relevant? The FCA CONC rules say a card lender when setting a limit has to assume the consumer uses it all very quickly and check that they can repay the debt sustainably. There is nothing to say that the lender doesnt have to make this check if the customer asks for the limit increase or accepts an offered limit increase. So its actually pretty similar to the check they have to do before giving a loan? 

WhoIsJusticeBeaver

Thanks for all your comments. The reason I went ahead with the claim was because they didn't do the correct checks before. Had they done, they would have seen I had multiple sources of credit and only paying minimum, including to BC. 
Obviously I know I have been stupid @CliveOfIndia but I was very young, living and supporting myself and could not get by. I got on top of it once I met my partner but unfortunately spiralled again during COVID/partners self employment and maternity and last year finally decided to tackle with a self managed DMP. 
Thanks @sourcrates, I did not know about SAR, will look into that. And yes that's the annoying thing, the FOS knew I could not obtain, I spent the best part of a day obtaining all what I could in terms of historic documents of expenditure only to be told that they need the statements and credit report! So annoying. 

ManyWays

That is a pretty old account, have you asked PRA to produce the CCA?

WhoIsJusticeBeaver

Yes @ManyWays and unfortunately they have produced a reconstituted one which looks like it would stick should they decide to take legal action. 

DullGreyGuy

sourcrates said:

Most banks only keep records for 6 years, some then transfer them to their archives, you could try a SAR see if that gets you anywhere?

Surely the FOS are aware of this, why ask for documents you cannot possibly obtain?

Its worth a try but given GDPR legally requires company to minimise the amount of data that they hold many will dispose of records rather than hold on to them indefinitely and risk the unlimited fines GDPR threatens.

The FOS won't know what records the OP may have in their filecabinet or loft or wherever it is that they do keep these things. They have stated that they have provided evidence of other records around the same time so not unreasonable to think they may also have bank statements. I know I dont have personal ones but have all my business statements from the same time still. 

WhoIsJusticeBeaver

Does anyone know if there any way to obtain a historic credit report even? 

DullGreyGuy

WhoIsJusticeBeaver said:

Does anyone know if there any way to obtain a historic credit report even? 

You'd do a SAR request to the credit reference agency in question but that one is even more likely to say they've deleted the records in relation to that time period

WhoIsJusticeBeaver

Ok thanks @DullGreyGuy I had no idea how to even go about it.