£1000+ Credit Card Debt

gr_96 · 5 March 2018 at 5:42PM

So I'm posting here on behalf of my partner. She's not very good at dealing with money and was pretty naive at the time of doing all of this. Nor does she monitor the account or any money very well. Fortunately I'm now here to try and find the right help; hence me posting in this forum.

Around January 2016 she took out a Barclay Card (Platinum Visa) with an £800 limit.
She spent this up and then decided it was a terrible idea and cut up the card.
She then claims to have been paying something like £33 a month back, until last year when she had a phone call from an unknown company (she can't remember) discussing the repayment amount and settled on £40 a month.

We've been to Barclays to try and obtain as much information about the account as possible. The first statement I've got is from November 2016 where the balance is £836.57 - this has a minimum payment of £89.80 due by December 2016. (The previous balance below this on the statement was £796.)
The next statement is 6 months later, April 2017. This is a balance of £1,043.48 minimum payment of £333.28 due by May 2017.
(The interest rates are all defined as 26.43%.)

Barclays informed us today that the debt is now with a company called 'Hoist' and we need to contact them.

My initial plan when finding out about the card was to get her to move it to a 0% interest and pay more each month, get it paid off, problem solved.
Now this seems unlikely, as a small amount of research has led me to believe that 'Hoist' are a debt collection agency?

Does this mean this is still going up and up with interest and it will be a never-ending battle?
Would there still be an option to move the debt to somewhere interest free?

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this for me...

Thanks in advance.

sourcrates · 5 March 2018 at 6:13PM

Hi,

Hoist are a Swedish company who are very heavily into the debt collection business in the UK, they recently acquired Robinson way, another player in the same market.

You need to find out from Barclays if Hoist have bought the debt, or are just managing it, ring them and ask, because if they have sold the debt, all interest and charges should cease, if they are only acting as a 3rd party to collect the debt on Barclays behalf, interest will still be charged on the outstanding balance as per the original agreement.

There is no option now to move the balance, no, one option would be to make an offer the settle the account in full, although if it has not been sold, i doubt if any offer would be accepted.

If i had to make an educated guess, i would say Hoist now own the debt.

gr_96 · 5 March 2018 at 6:47PM

Okay, great thanks for your quick response.
Well basically Barclays passed us on the number for Hoist and said to ring them and find out what was going on. So the plan is to call them, see what they have to say and we can then go from there.

So if as you guess the debt is sold to Hoist, there may be the option to settle it in full? Being that this may not be affordable would the debt be
•of the initial credit card amount
•inclusive of Barclays interest too
•include Hoist's own interest amount

Any ideas on these?
Much appreciated, thanks.

sourcrates · 5 March 2018 at 7:03PM

Under FSA rules, debts should be defaulted before sale, in which case the amount is frozen, and no further interest or charges can be added.

The problem we are seeing more and more of, are the sale of non defaulted debts, which means the new owner can continue charging interest at the same rate as per your original agreement.

The rules you see, are more like guidelines, then actual set in stone rules, so are open to interpretation, you really need to obtain statements to see if interest is still been charged, if it is, you can always put in a formal written complaint telling them its unfair etc.

gr_96 · 5 March 2018 at 7:21PM

Okay, so in terms of can and can't it's pretty vague (typical!).

We'll get in contact with Hoist tomorrow, find out as many details from them and get them to send statements out.
I may be back in this thread if I come across more issues along the way (likely) thanks very much for your help so far.

gr_96 · 6 March 2018 at 9:02PM

Keeping you in the loop. Contacted the number provided by Barclays today; turned out to be Robinson Way. They transferred to hoist who advised that the debt has been bought. In turn the pointed us to a company called Moorcroft. Apparently they're the ones who handle all payments etc. and we have to contact them.

The debt is stuck at £1043.48 and is not accumulating anymore interest, that is what it was bought from Barclays at.

Contacting Moorcroft tomorrow to discuss payment plans etc.
I highly doubt the interest accumulated from Barclays will be nulled, so I suppose it'll be a case of setting up a payment plan for the £1043.48. Thinking £80-£100 a month and it can be cleared in a year!

Thanks for your assistance. For my own satisfaction and in case you want to know how it goes, I'll probably keep this loop going. Plus for any others reading the thread so they can hopefully read a positive tale and know that it can always be resolved!

Thanks.

[Deleted User] · 6 March 2018 at 10:06PM

Make sure any arrangements you make with them, is confirmed in writing.

timbstoke · 8 March 2018 at 2:50PM

sourcrates wrote: »

There is no option now to move the balance, no, one option would be to make an offer the settle the account in full, although if it has not been sold, i doubt if any offer would be accepted.

That depends on the account status, surely? If the account has been sold on, then I agree it can't be directly moved (but in that case no further interest is accruing anyway, so there's no need to).

If the account is still with Barclays and they're still applying interest to it, then it should be eligible for an interest free balance transfer from any other provider who will offer one.

DCFC79 · 8 March 2018 at 3:17PM

So it doesn't happen again teach your partner about dealing with money, to check the accounts on a regular basis, get a DD set up.

Is it because she isnt very good or cant grasp about money ?

moneyonmymindsam · 8 March 2018 at 11:19PM

You state The debt is stuck at £1043.48 and is not accumulating anymore interest, that is what it was bought from Barclays at.

I very much doubt the debt collector brought the debt penny for penny so very misleading if they told you that! I'd be shocked if that was true.

Good luck with it all.

sourcrates · 8 March 2018 at 11:32PM

timbstoke wrote: »

That depends on the account status, surely? If the account has been sold on, then I agree it can't be directly moved (but in that case no further interest is accruing anyway, so there's no need to).

If the account is still with Barclays and they're still applying interest to it, then it should be eligible for an interest free balance transfer from any other provider who will offer one.

We have moved on since I posted that.

The debt was sold to hoist, it is been managed by moorcroft, the balance is as stated above with no further interest charges added.

Barclays are out of the picture.

£1000+ Credit Card Debt

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