AA99 v Barclaycard No1 a/c

[AA99]

On 8th September I sent a Hardship covering letter together with an Income & Expenditure Form and have offered all creditors £20 p.m. with charges and interest being frozen temporarily. Letter dated 24th September from B/C saying £20 p.m. is not enough and to phone them to discuss it further (NO NO NO!). Is there a Template letter to respond to them or shall I just go for a CCA for a £1 ?

Have now gone over my credit limit with charges and interest only - not spending!!!!!!!!!!!

Patience running thin............:mad :

	Hardship By and large the "harship" provision in the FSA waiver is a myth which is intended to create a sense that the banking industry is sufficiently well-intentioned to act fairly towards its customers even though their right of access to the courts has been blocked. In fact there are very few guidelines as to procedure and very little definition of "hardship". One unfortunate spin off is that many people in difficulty get their hopes up and go to considerable lengths to plead hardship to their bank in order to get a refund or partial refund of their bank charges only to be refused. Neither the courts nor the FOS have the power to order a bank to make a charges refund on the basis of hardship. We hear of some people obtaining a partial refund quite easily. Others have obtained money by being very persistent - but mostly we hear that people are refused. Even benefits claimants do not automatically receive hardship refunds. By all means try to get a bank charges refund on the basis of hardship - but don't bank on it!

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[**Tilly**]

Hi AA99

Send letter D in the link below, amend to suit your needs



http://www.consumeractiongroup.c o.uk...templates.html



Tilly

[AA99]

Originally Posted by **Tilly**

Hi AA99

Send letter D in the link below, amend to suit your needs



http://www.consumeractiongroup.c o.uk...templates.html



Tilly

Thanks Tilly, will send a refund of charges and interest refund letter too, me thinks, after all, am over my limit because of these only. Other creditors have agreed to freeze interest and charges too for 6-monthly review while a basic payment is going on. Surely this route is a lot easier all round for everybody??!!

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[AA99]

Thank you Tilly, letter posted today. Absolutely can only afford £20 p.m. and that interest and charges are frozen temporarily, and a reminder that we are over the credit limit because of charges and that I have not yet made a claim for all the charges on this account..... we shall wait and see.............

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[**Tilly**]

Your welcome AA99

if you have your statements, send your prelim to reclaim your charges





Tilly

[rory32]

I know you've already sent the letter but just in case you get any further grief this is a letter that is a little stronger (nicked it from the fool website).

Thank you for your letter dated xxxxxx, in respect of the above matter.

I am disappointed to note that you will not consider my proposal to satisfy my debt to you. I appreciate that this is not a wholly satisfactory state of affair, but this is the reality of my situation at the present time.

I would point out that I have investigated the options of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement and Bankruptcy but I feel that my proposal is certainly more beneficial to you than either of these procedures. Due to my present circumstances, I am unable to offer a better resolution and would respectfully ask that you reconsider my proposal, which was submitted in a genuine attempt to honour my commitment to you.

I further appreciate that you are not obliged to accept my proposal, however, considering that you are entitled to issue proceedings for the recovery of the balance owed to you, I would ask that you also consider, that in the event that these proceedings ensue, interest would be frozen upon Judgement and I would entirely reserve the right to produce my proposal for the attention of the Court, in evidence that I have attempted a sensible resolution in line with my ability to pay.

This notwithstanding, I would hope that the foregoing will not be necessary and that we will be able to resolve this matter amicably.

In the interim, I will forward payments to you as proposed, as a gesture of good faith.
Please could you conduct any further communication in writing only.

Accordingly, I await your further comments.

Yours sincerely

[AA99]

UPDATE

Have 3 cards ended up with Barclaycard.

1 has been handed to Mercers who have accepted my repayment terms
1 has been handed to Mercers who I have yet to hear from
1 has yet to reply to a 'reconsider my offer' letter

[slick132]

Hi AA,

No refusals so far, which has to be good.

Keep us posted.

[AA99]

UPDATE

Have 3 cards ended up with Barclaycard:

1 has been handed to Mercers who have accepted my repayment terms - status quo

1 has been handed to Mercers who I have yet to hear from - Barclaycard want £60 p.m. with same conditions as below

1 has yet to reply to a 'reconsider my offer' letter - Barclaycard accepted offer of £20 p.m. for 6 months. When 2 monthly payments have been received, they will put account on to repayment plan. Interest suspended for 6 months.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[AA99]

Help now needed with the second account. I have started drafting the attached letter (manage attachments option disappeared so have copied & pasted) but need to know what else to say.....
It is a right mess and having gone through so many hands, it would appear the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is now doing
I have not yet reclaimed any charges or interest on them but that will certainly be my next step.

16 October 2008

FORMAL COMPLAINT

Customer Services
Barclaycard House
P O Box 5592
NORTHAMPTON
NN4 1ZY


Dear Sirs

ACCOUNT NO. **** **** **** ***9 FORMERLY MORGAN STANLEY &
FORMERLY GOLDFISH
NOW **** **** **** ***5 BARCLAYCARD

I am in receipt of your Statement dated 6 October, received on 10 October 2008. It advises that Mercers Debt Collections Agency are now dealing with my account but also advises under Dispute Resolution that I should try to resolve it with you in the first instance.

I am also in receipt of your letter dated 3 October, received on 15 October, stating that you will accept a reduced payment of £60 p.m. for 6 months on this account with frozen interest.

I must inform you that I attempted to resolve the dispute in June with Goldfish upon receipt of my statement dated 5th June when my balance was still within my credit limit of £5400 but I was unable to make the minimum payment of £130.19 by 03 July 2008. I spoke with a Senior Advisor who suggested a “Hardship Arrangement” whereby there would be no interest or charges placed on my account for an initial 6-month period, possibly extending to 12 months. On 16th June, I paid £22.19 as requested reducing my minimum payment due to £108, advised I could claim £60 cashback owing, leaving a balance of £48 which I paid by debit card on 7th July 2008.

I sent a letter dated 8th September 2008 together with my Income and Expenditure Form detailing my current financial status and clearly showing the ability to only pay
£20 p.m. equally amongst each of my creditors. I have had no response to this letter and am enclosing further copies herewith for your records. You will notice I was given a different address to send this to! The same letter and I & E Form were also sent to our other 2 Barclaycard accounts who have each agreed to a reduced repayment plan for 6 months with interest frozen.

In the meantime, you sent myself and my wife new Cashback MasterCards and new Pins to be effective from 22 September 2008 with a credit limit of £5400.

I have, however, since this time, continued to receive statements showing interest and charges being added to the sum of £405. As of today’s date, I am £300.14 over my credit limit.

I am not sure what is to be achieved by penalising me in this way, other than increasing the debt owed to your company.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[slick132]

Hi AA,

Is the balance on this troublesome a/c higher than on the others.

If they fail to reply favourably, I think it may be time to send them a CCA request to see if they have a valid Credit Agree't.

[AA99]

Yes Slick, the repayments seem to be proportionate:

Card 1 - Repayment £39 p.m. on balance £3,600 - Interest rate 14.9% This is Acc.No.1 now in my threads
Card 2 - Repayment £60 p.m. on balance £5,700 - " " 17.9%
Card 3 - Repayment £20 p.m. on balance £1,869 - " " 15.9%

The fact remains that our I & E shows 0 surplus as we are living on benefits.

What about the wording of the letter re Card 2? I have all my statements from when it started with Monument in Nov 2005 ?

Cheers and thanks

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[rory32]

The fact remains that our I & E shows 0 surplus as we are living on benefits.

That concerns me. Have you factored in things like an emergency fund (things do go wrong) and a small budget for socialising (you're not expected to sit in the house every day of the month).

[AA99]

Originally Posted by rory32

That concerns me. Have you factored in things like an emergency fund (things do go wrong) and a small budget for socialising (you're not expected to sit in the house every day of the month).

Hi Rory, It concerns me too and there is no funds for emergencies. Have just had the car MOt'd, taxed for 6 months and £20 petrol last Friday, £250 ! That's now made my rent a week overdue!

I used Counselling Services' I&E guidelines, well, I don't spend £30p.m. on hairdressers (cut my own fringe) or dry-cleaners (use the 20 deg. wash on the machine) and No, we NEVER go out. I am a smoker and can't face giving that up right now so I choose to do the above instead and buy my clothes in charity shops. That, however, is surely my business. Same as when MBNA told me I can feed a family of 4 on £300 p.m. Well, I can't, so sod them !

[rory32]

Have you looked at the bankruptcy option?

[AA99]

In deep depression the other night, I started this thread :

AA99 v So Many, now looking at bankruptcy

[rory32]

Yes I know. I posted on it.

It's something you might want to explore as it's far from the end of the world and it may result in you being better off than you currently are.

[AA99]

Yes, it was what I thought initially after reading the forums on Martin Lewis' site. People said what a relief to have it all wiped off. Not going to get stuck on credit cards again anyway, have already got a bad credit report, have no property to lose, but I thought why should I have to do that when the banks have behaved with us consumers the way they have?! And then I found this site........

	Credit Report Click link to open in new window.

[AA99]

Account No.2

BUMP please with summing this letter up........

Originally Posted by AA99

Help now needed with the second account. I have started drafting the attached letter (manage attachments option disappeared so have copied & pasted) but need to know what else to say.....
It is a right mess and having gone through so many hands, it would appear the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is now doing
I have not yet reclaimed any charges or interest on them but that will certainly be my next step.

16 October 2008

FORMAL COMPLAINT

Customer Services
Barclaycard House
P O Box 5592
NORTHAMPTON
NN4 1ZY


Dear Sirs

ACCOUNT NO. **** **** **** ***9 FORMERLY MORGAN STANLEY &
FORMERLY GOLDFISH
NOW **** **** **** ***5 BARCLAYCARD

I am in receipt of your Statement dated 6 October, received on 10 October 2008. It advises that Mercers Debt Collections Agency are now dealing with my account but also advises under Dispute Resolution that I should try to resolve it with you in the first instance.

I am also in receipt of your letter dated 3 October, received on 15 October, stating that you will accept a reduced payment of £60 p.m. for 6 months on this account with frozen interest.

I must inform you that I attempted to resolve the dispute in June with Goldfish upon receipt of my statement dated 5th June when my balance was still within my credit limit of £5400 but I was unable to make the minimum payment of £130.19 by 03 July 2008. I spoke with a Senior Advisor who suggested a “Hardship Arrangement” whereby there would be no interest or charges placed on my account for an initial 6-month period, possibly extending to 12 months. On 16th June, I paid £22.19 as requested reducing my minimum payment due to £108, advised I could claim £60 cashback owing, leaving a balance of £48 which I paid by debit card on 7th July 2008.

I sent a letter dated 8th September 2008 together with my Income and Expenditure Form detailing my current financial status and clearly showing the ability to only pay
£20 p.m. equally amongst each of my creditors. I have had no response to this letter and am enclosing further copies herewith for your records. You will notice I was given a different address to send this to! The same letter and I & E Form were also sent to our other 2 Barclaycard accounts who have each agreed to a reduced repayment plan for 6 months with interest frozen.

In the meantime, you sent myself and my wife new Cashback MasterCards and new Pins to be effective from 22 September 2008 with a credit limit of £5400.

I have, however, since this time, continued to receive statements showing interest and charges being added to the sum of £405. As of today’s date, I am £300.14 over my credit limit.

I am not sure what is to be achieved by penalising me in this way, other than increasing the debt owed to your company.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[slick132]

Hi AA,

I'd change the end of the letter as follows:-

......accounts who have each agreed to a reduced repayment plan for 6 months with interest frozen.

I have, however, since this time, continued to receive statements showing interest and charges being added in the sum of £405. This is contrary to the information I was given during our phone conversation about a postponement of interest and penalties for 6 or 12 months. It also makes no sense that you have acepted a repayment plan on only 2 of the 3 accounts.

Would you please reconsider this matter and confirm that you will accept the reduced payments on this a/c as suggested during the phone conversation in June.

I'd then set about reclaiming all penalty charges on this a/c first, then on the other 2 if they have charges on them. This should bring the a/c balance on the 2nd a/c to below the credit limit and stop the spiralling charges.

Use a new thread here for each a/c so the reclaims don't get muddled. Read the Reclaiming Guide in Link No1 in my signature below.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.