Barclaycard problem

TAKATAK

I got a problem with Barclaycard. In August 2007 barclaycard wrote to me offering a balance transfer of 0% till august 2008, and 0% on purchases till Feb 2008.
I did a balance transfer of £1000.
Since then Ive made many purchases on the card, at present up to £1600,
Including the balance transfer.
In the months since, every payment Ive made has come off the balance transfer which is supposed to be guaranteed till august?
I phoned them to query this and they told me that this is standard policy??
Why on earth would anyone pay off a debt that wouldnt incur interest till august before one that would in february, it just dosent make sense.
At present they say I owe 1450 on purchases 0% till feb, which dosent give me much time to settle it.. and 150 on the balance transfer, which suposedly I didnt have to pay till august 2008.
I asked them to switch the payments Ive made to pay off the purchases instead of the balance transfer and they refused.
This does beg the question, how have they in fact given me a balance transfer at 0% till August 2008, which is what they offered me as far as I was concerned.
What theyve in fact given me is £1000 gauranteed till august - just as long as I didnt owe them anything else on the card?
This seems a trifle misleading, what can I do, If anything?

G-G_4

It's rubbish isn't it.. but that's how i've always understood it to be..

Mozette

This is standard, other than with Nationwide. The card companies do what best suits them, not what best suits you. As Martin always says, never spend on a BT card. You'll be better trying to get another deal, BTing again and mark it as a lesson learned I'm afraid.

neverdespairgirl

AS far as I know, all credit cards do this - the money you pay to them comes off the debt with the lowest interest or shortest deal first.

So if, for example, you have a BT at 0% for 12 months, purchases at 0% for 6 months, and cash advances at 1.4% per month, anything you pay will come off the BT first, then the purchases, then the cash advances. They apply they money against the debt which suits them best.

Therefore, should you have a card which offers 0% on transfers but charges for purchases, you shouldn't ever use it for purchases as the purchases will sit there gaining massive amounts of interest while the 0% balance is paid off first.

jay78

Takatak, this is how credit card companies make their money. As a rule, if you get a card to do a BT, NEVER spend on it unless the 0% duration is the same as the BT.

smithja

We are about to get a choice and lenders dont like it. I think it will be in the new consumer credit law or an amendment to the CCA1974.

It will involve the customer being able to state "this money is being paid to you for the debt I incurred with you on dd/mm/yyyy (and then give a description were there is more than one transaction on that date)" and it has to be applied to pay that debt off. If we dont give such a specific request with a payment then it will result in a payments being allocated to the debts in the order the debts were incurred.

This is a link to Hansard when they discussed it in Parliament:-

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldhansrd/vo060118/text/60118-23.htm

We apparrently have the ability to do this at the moment under a common law called Clayton's Rule, you can find details of it in the Hansard extract if you can be bothered reading all of it.

The amendment may even have been already implimented and no lender has said as it is not in their interests to.

James

MABLE

TAKATAK wrote: »

I got a problem with Barclaycard. In August 2007 barclaycard wrote to me offering a balance transfer of 0% till august 2008, and 0% on purchases till Feb 2008.
I did a balance transfer of £1000.
Since then Ive made many purchases on the card, at present up to £1600,
Including the balance transfer.
In the months since, every payment Ive made has come off the balance transfer which is supposed to be guaranteed till august?
I phoned them to query this and they told me that this is standard policy??
Why on earth would anyone pay off a debt that wouldnt incur interest till august before one that would in february, it just dosent make sense.
At present they say I owe 1450 on purchases 0% till feb, which dosent give me much time to settle it.. and 150 on the balance transfer, which suposedly I didnt have to pay till august 2008.
I asked them to switch the payments Ive made to pay off the purchases instead of the balance transfer and they refused.
This does beg the question, how have they in fact given me a balance transfer at 0% till August 2008, which is what they offered me as far as I was concerned.
What theyve in fact given me is £1000 gauranteed till august - just as long as I didnt owe them anything else on the card?
This seems a trifle misleading, what can I do, If anything?

Martin lewis has always said if you balance transfer never use the card for anything else.

Mozette

Actually Capital One tend to be pretty good for doing BT & spending offers that run for the same amount of time. Or so it appears to me.
[Irritating adverts mind you!]

rbrian

Mozette wrote: »

[Irritating adverts mind you!]

I liked the one they ran a couple of years ago, with the horde of barbarians. The hairy one who asks "What's in your wallet?" at the end looks exactly like a guy at work! Well, it made me laugh.

UK007BullDog

If it runs out in February start looking :search: NOW for a new deal. Egg is doing one at this time. Dont spend on it.