Serious issue with my Barclays Business Barclaycard.

labrador74

I've run into a serious issue with my Barclays Business Barclaycard.

For context, I've had a Barclays business account for around 25 years and a Barclays Business Barclaycard for roughly the same length of time. I don't use the card very often, but I have used it over the years for some larger purchases, flights, and business travel.

I regularly monitor my accounts through Barclays Online Banking, both on the website and in the app. When I log in, I can see all my personal and business accounts, along with my three Barclaycards (two personal and one business). I can see all my transactions and the current Balances.

Regular payments have always come out for the Barclaycard and I've always assumed that these were paying off the card as I check the balance sporadically and whenever I have it has always been zero balance and credit limit at 18.5K

Recently, I noticed that around £500 per month was still being taken from my business account to pay the Barclaycard, despite not having used the card for almost a year. I logged into Online Banking to investigate and, as usual, it showed a balance of £0.

I contacted Barclaycard and was eventually told that the Business Barclaycard is managed through a completely separate commercial portal. I was shocked to learn that, despite Barclays Online Banking showing a zero balance, the actual balance on the card was over £18,000.

They say that I was viewing the 'company level' information and that there are x 2 levels to the card info a 'company level' and a 'card user' level. However in this instance that makes no sense as I am obviously both but despite that I was not being shown the information.

What is most concerning is that this balance does not appear to be the result of recent spending. Looking back through the records I have now been able to access, it seems that only the minimum payment has been taken each month, causing interest to accumulate year after year. I am generally careful with credit and would never intentionally make only minimum payments indefinitely. Had I been aware of the true balance, I would have taken action much sooner.

I switched to digital statements a while ago but all that happens is that you get an email saying a statement is ready and then says you must log in to view. So you don't actually receive the statement and either way I assumed that I was checking regularly through online banking.

From my perspective, there appears to be a significant issue with the way Barclays presents this information. Their Online Banking platform showed a £0 balance, giving me every reason to believe the account was cleared. Even a quick search on the  Barclays website states that customers can view their Barclaycard business card information through Online Banking.

I spoke to Barclaycard business today, but they were unwilling to acknowledge any fault or offer meaningful assistance. In fact, the representative suggested that  I deliberately defaulted on payments for three months, I might then qualify for a payment plan!!! I found that suggestion pretty unhelpful!

To be clear, I am not trying to avoid paying any genuine debt that I owe. Furthermore it's a credit card so I expect to be charged interest. However, given the length of time this appears to have been going on, I suspect I may already have paid two or three times the original borrowing amount in interest alone.

Barclaycard business position appears to be that they have done everything correctly, despite the fact that their Online Banking system was showing a £0 balance while a substantial debt continued to accrue elsewhere. I am struggling to understand how that can be considered reasonable.

Any advice on how to move forward would be really helpful.

flaneurs_lobster

Is the problem that you were not checking the monthly statements? They are the definitive 'statement' of spend, interest and balance owing, not an online account.

Failure to notice a £500 unexplained monthly debit as being unusual, even on a business account, would also not be in your favour.

Difficult to see any other way forward other than to ask to get the debt shifted to somewhere bearing less interest and getting it paid off.

labrador74

I have a lot of transactions going through the account. Everything else is handled in detail with accounting software I switched to digital statements for the barclaycard and the point is the information wasn't available anywhere and what I could see on the online app was incorrect

Grumpy_chap

When was the last time you actually checked the Business Barclaycard Account?

How have you prepared your Ltd Co returns?

labrador74 Posts:1 NewbieToday at 3:34PM

I've run into a serious issue with my Barclays Business Barclaycard.

For context, I've had a Barclays business account for around 25 years and a Barclays Business Barclaycard for roughly the same length of time. I don't use the card very often, but I have used it over the years for some larger purchases, flights, and business travel.

I regularly monitor my accounts through Barclays Online Banking, both on the website and in the app. When I log in, I can see all my personal and business accounts, along with my three Barclaycards (two personal and one business). I can see all my transactions and the current Balances.

Regular payments have always come out for the Barclaycard and I've always assumed that these were paying off the card as I check the balance sporadically and whenever I have it has always been zero balance and credit limit at 18.5K

Recently, I noticed that around £500 per month was still being taken from my business account to pay the Barclaycard, despite not having used the card for almost a year. I logged into Online Banking to investigate and, as usual, it showed a balance of £0.

I contacted Barclaycard and was eventually told that the Business Barclaycard is managed through a completely separate commercial portal. I was shocked to learn that, despite Barclays Online Banking showing a zero balance, the actual balance on the card was over £18,000.

They say that I was viewing the 'company level' information and that there are x 2 levels to the card info a 'company level' and a 'card user' level. However in this instance that makes no sense as I am obviously both but despite that I was not being shown the information.

What is most concerning is that this balance does not appear to be the result of recent spending. Looking back through the records I have now been able to access, it seems that only the minimum payment has been taken each month, causing interest to accumulate year after year. I am generally careful with credit and would never intentionally make only minimum payments indefinitely. Had I been aware of the true balance, I would have taken action much sooner.

I switched to digital statements a while ago but all that happens is that you get an email saying a statement is ready and then says you must log in to view. So you don't actually receive the statement and either way I assumed that I was checking regularly through online banking.

From my perspective, there appears to be a significant issue with the way Barclays presents this information. Their Online Banking platform showed a £0 balance, giving me every reason to believe the account was cleared. Even a quick search on the  Barclays website states that customers can view their Barclaycard business card information through Online Banking.

I spoke to Barclaycard business today, but they were unwilling to acknowledge any fault or offer meaningful assistance. In fact, the representative suggested that  I deliberately defaulted on payments for three months, I might then qualify for a payment plan!!! I found that suggestion pretty unhelpful!

To be clear, I am not trying to avoid paying any genuine debt that I owe. Furthermore it's a credit card so I expect to be charged interest. However, given the length of time this appears to have been going on, I suspect I may already have paid two or three times the original borrowing amount in interest alone.

Barclaycard business position appears to be that they have done everything correctly, despite the fact that their Online Banking system was showing a £0 balance while a substantial debt continued to accrue elsewhere. I am struggling to understand how that can be considered reasonable.

Any advice on how to move forward would be really helpful.

labrador74

I thought I was checking it - thats the point. It appears in the online banking app and also online (website) . You can see your personal barclaycard info - that info is correct, you can see the business Barclaycard info too. but it's not correct information.

Isthisforreal99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023332#Comment_82023332

All the more reason why you should have known that what was going out the business accounts wasn't sufficient to cover the purchases. Cleary no reconciliaion took place.

labrador74

How can you reconcile if you can't see the statement information anywhere, thats my point

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023332#Comment_82023332

Switching from paper to digital statements doesn't mean that you can stop reading them.

Are you suggesting that the monthly PDFs made available did not show the outstanding balance?

labrador74

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023352#Comment_82023352

you don't get a statement , you get an email saying that you got a statement. to view I go onto online banking and the information shows the card but it's wrong

labrador74

You can click transactions - which essentially shows statement info - but as I am saying the info it shows is wrong

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023356#Comment_82023356

Again, did you open and examine the proffered PDF statements?