Goldfish sold to Barclaycard...

terrytibbs_2

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/barclays+nets+goldfish/1509047

Banking giant Barclays has agreed a £35 million deal to buy the Goldfish credit card business.
The deal is set to add around 1.7 million customers to the bank's 9.6 million Barclaycard card holders, if approved by competition authorities.
Goldfish was the first credit card firm to launch a loyalty scheme in 1996, rewarding customers with points to spend in selected high street stores.
But its owner since 2006, US card issuer Discover Financial Services, is now quitting the UK amid increasing economic gloom.
In the final quarter of last year, Discover booked a net loss of 84 million US dollars (£43.2m) after a 391 million US dollar (£201m) impairment charge for the UK business on higher provisions for loan losses in the weaker consumer credit environment.
Discover's chief executive David Nelms said: "While we have begun to see important progress in our UK business, the funding and operating environment there continues to be a challenge.
"We have concluded that the best way to maximise shareholder value is through the sale of the Goldfish business."
Barclaycard said Goldfish represented an "attractive opportunity" to increase its cards and customers.
In the first half of last year, Barclaycard's profits fell 17% to £272 million, although this reflected property gains in 2006 and losses on the disposal of its Monument credit card business in 2007.
The division's impairment charges fell 9% to £443 million and the group added in November that profits and impairment charges continued to improve during the second half of the year.

Biggles

According to Sharecast, "The Business will be integrated into its credit card division Barclaycard".

So, Morgan Stanley > Goldfish > Barclaycard!

pjays

Bring on Barclays & quick (hope I dont regret saying that!)

I have had it with Goldfish, they scream desperation and have treated their long standing customers with little respect at all.

I have a Morgan Stanley card and have for years, and alls being well. I spend on it, I pay for it every month, they are happy, I'm happy and this little relationship has being going for a few years. Suddenly in November last year, I was told Goldfish had taken over and promptly ranked up the interest rates.

They then wrote to me, and increased my card limit (without request), and now for the extremley silly bit on my part - I thought 'oh thats nice, and paid no more attention to this, it helped out a little at xmas. I have just received another letter from them, saying 'by the way, we are reducing this again, to less than your limit was ever before' and therefore taking me into charges and bad debt with the card.

I called customer service, as there is nothing at all wrong with my credit report, payments are always on time, etc etc. and the lady said
"because we can, its in the T&C".

... and so thats it, I dont have the money immediately to pay off and I will now receive charges on the card, and a bad credit report as they have reduced my limit below the balance, because they can!

Please let me know if you have any similar experiences, I am in the process of writing to them and would love to hear anyone else's story. I feel they will have taken a blanket approach, to bring in some quick cash before resale.

jaydee77

Hi I thought it was just me
I had a Liverpool Victoria credit card and went along paying each month keeping below the limit in fact being the perfect credit card customer paying through the nose to feed the interest rates.
September 2007 my card was taken over by Goldfish. I never wanted a Goldfish card in fact many years ago I turned one down.
However in the correspondance from them to me they informed me that the balance transfer would be 5.9% and that I would notice that I would be paying less interest per month. 5.9% was one per cent more than they were advertising on their website. However since it was less than I was currently paying I decided not to be churlish and and pay up.
I signed the bank mandate etc returned it to them and that was that.
In December I got a phone call from them asking for 2 months payments. I asked them why had they not taken the payments from the bank and the informed me that they had not received the signed mandate I assured them I had completed the same and had sent it. The person on the phone rudely informed me that she was not responsible for the shortcomings of the Royal Mail and said in a marked manner "are you making a payment?"
I asked "How much?"
She told me and I quickly worked out that the interest was almost 20%
I told her I had a letter from them informing me I would be paying 5.9% she told me she had nothing to do with that and again said "Are you making a payment?" I told her I wantad to speak to someone who knew about the 5.9% After a few clicks and a few bars of canned music I was asked "Can I help you?" During the music section I was able to dig out the letter so I told my story and quoted the letter and read out the relevant pieces Then I was informed that that was wrong. I read again fiom the letter quoted date and signature and I was met with a curt "proove it"
Then there were a few clicks and I was back to the first voice again "Are you making a payment" I explained that I was in the middle of a discussion about interest rates and explained I was not happy about paying one rate while being Quoted another. Then she said "That's what you get when you get involved with a credit card company. Are you making a payment?"
I told her I wanted the matter sorted out.
She then said "I take it you are not making a payment so I shall put a late payment charge of £12 on your account and the non payment has triggered the next months payment so you now owe 3 months"
I reminded her I was in dispute and asked her what was being done.
She told me there was a note on my file to that effect and was again asked for a payment.
I had no alternative but to pay
They sent me another bank mandate which I have refused to complete since if the have carte blanche to pay themselves they can take what they want.
I have never encountered such a lack of customer care and rudeness and as soon as I can be shot of them I will ensure that any unsuspecting potential customer should be aware of their views and I quote "That's what you get when you get involved with a credit card company"