MSE News: Barclays to refund some loan and...

I rang up and corrected my address on file, they aren't informing you over the phone if you're affected, only by letter.

I have just received a letter from Barclaycard re: refund for credit on old Barclaycard. Bit surprised as I had missed this article. Verified phone number & address - all ok. So I called this morning & expressed my displeasure at finding out that Barclays had been sitting on £170 credit on the old account for 10+ years especially as I was in the process of getting myself out of financial problems at the time. They have offered £25 goodwill (paid separately) as well as the £170 +8% interest. However, I was very surprised when in the letter, they asked me to send a copy statement from the bank account I want the money paid into, not just the bank details! :eek:sounded a bit dodgy.
I called them (through Barclaycard app) & told them this is not acceptable due to other personal info on statement, kept on being told that the guidance had changed and they need this, I said no, please send me a cheque, they said they couldn't as they guidance had changed, I said send me the guidance, they said they couldn't, round & round , I asked for a manager, then they went away and said I could just send in my details and I do not need to send in a statement. :question: This is not a normal way to give a refund by asking for your bank statement as verification!??:mad:

Just wanted to report that I received one of the refund letters. It's the weridest experience I've ever had when it comes to dealing with creditors, in that it was just so painless.

After originally hitting trouble in 2012, Barclaycard defaulted the account in September 2016 and sold it to Link (annoying the other defaults I had were applied in 2012 and 2013, so it extended my time in the debtors' doghouse to 2022 - 10 years!!). I tried at the time to move the default date back to 2013 (i.e. when the account first missed more than 3 payments). Link wrote to Barclaycard, but Barclaycard refused to budge, and I got a snotty letter back from Link.

So I got the refund letter from Barclaycard a month ago, offering a settlement of £1600, which would automatically be paid off my Link Balance of £3000 (no mention of me needing to do anything else). I hadn't read the article about this, so it was a nice surprise, and got me thinking that if they were admitting liability for mishandling my account, would they be prepared to do something about that default...

I called them and this was where the weird experience started. The chap on the phone was unusually jolly (perhaps an effect of working on a 'good news' campaign), and when I asked the default, he immediately said "no worries, we'll sort that out for you", he could set the default date back to 2012, effectively making it expire as it would be over 6 years ago. He checked his records, and then said... "great news, we haven't applied a default, you're in the clear". I told him they definitely had, but he kept telling me that it was fine, there was no default.

Frustrated, I dug into my credit record and realised that the default had been applied by Link after the transfer from Barclaycard, and they were the only ones who could remove it. Undeterred, I called Link and spoke to another unusally jolly person who told me "not to worry" - given the conversation I had with Barclaycard, they'd write to them to confirm they could change the default date, and get it sorted out for me.

Fast forward to last week. A letter arrived from Link telling me that they'd been instructed by Barclaycard to remove the default completely, and had already done so. Just like that.

After all the years fighting, and going from having potentially 4 years more of struggling to get a mortgage, with one random event everything has changed. This time next year the last of the defaults will have gone.

I honestly don't know what issues they had had with my account (other than not applying the default earlier than they eventually did).

Like Stewaj4 I have just received a similar letter. Its vaguely worded but states they dont believe I am entitled to a refund and goes on to state they will not look further into the case and provide deserved redress, but if I call them they may offer a payment for inconvenience. Its not asking me to provide any further information & the 'deserved' redress wording just seems bizarre

Has anyone else had any experience of this? I will give them a call on Monday, but would be interested to know if im wasting my time?

Thanks

I've had a letter offering me £75 inconvenience payment and then saying they have not looked into my case further to see id there is further deserved dedress? Is this worthwhile. They did pass my debt to a debt collection agency and being repaid as part of a debt management plan with Christians Against Poverty. I got into debts due to a prolonged periofd of depression. I was salf employed, so struggled to get any work and used my credit card to pay for living expenses once I'd spent my savings. I did seek any help until I was a few days away from being homeless. Slowly getting back on my feet now, but clearing my debts will be a long haul. I don't like to wriggle out of my obligations, but it there was potential for more compenation or debt write off, it would be a huge help.