Thread: Barclaycard reduces charges and increases interest

Just had a letter from Barclaycard officially saying they are reducing all their charges to £12. Letter also says they are increasing cash interest rate to 27.9% pa.

If only the blinkin OFT has suggested a lower rate, £12 is still extortionate. Would have made life a whole lot easier for all of us!

Lolly

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Not true.

If OFT had lowered threshold further, it would have made things harder for us to reclaim our charges 100%, as banks could have said "Well, we'll refund the difference" and a judge might have well decided we were being greedy and said it was not a penalty charge after all and started throwing claims out. £12 is still high enough that a judge will see it as a penalty charge IMO. I think the OFT was very shrewd actually.

Hi Bookworm,

I see where youre coming from but dont quite agree Im afraid.

Barclaycard did offer us a refund of the difference but we didnt accept their offer. If the OFT had suggested a figure which more accurately represents the banks' costs (say £2-£3, for example) we would have been offered a more realistic refund, would have accepted it and wouldnt have had to go through the court system at all.... so need to worry about a judge thinking were greedy because there would be no need to go to court!

And as for trying to recoup lost charges by raising the interest rate :P .....cant wait til we have paid off our cards and can tell them to naf off

Ah, but you see, the point is, B/card were chancing it by offering you the difference, when they know they will have to cough up the totality.

If the OFT had set a realistic threshold as you mention, I am 100% certain that B/card would not even have offered you that. The above is just a cost damage limitation exercise, and some people who misunderstood the meaning of the OFT statement will accept it, thinking it a great victory for them.

Yeah youre probably right about it being a damage limitation tactic. And about people thinking that the offer is a good one, from a few posts Ive seen on here theres a chunk of people who have misunderstood the OFT thing and think charging £12 is ok because the OFT says so .....

It does seem to be that a lot of people are just pleased to get any sort of refund or are put off at the court stage, despite the fantastic results seen in your survey.

Funny how as consumers we think, "ooh we should be grateful for what we can get", where does that mentality stem from?

Maybe its because we are all so used to being walked on (rip off Britain!). To have the roles reversed for once is such a unfamiliar, unexpected situation that we dont know quite how to deal with it?

For answers to that question, I can only recommend the fantastic book by Kate Fox, "Watching the English". She's a social anthropologist with a fab sense of humour and makes light reading of a very heavy subject. Enlightening at so many levels.

But a short answer, I think, is that we can hardly believe our own good luck, and still somewhere feel that someone somewhere made a mistake and that when they realise it, they'll close the gates, so grab what you can while you can... That attitude is one I see a lot on both MSE and here. Go figure.

That book sounds really interesting, I will keep an eye out for it.

Im not English, and I reckon its do with the "musnt grumble" thing, people here generally seem very placid and happy to settle for things rather than get on their soapbox or risk causing stress.... (well, my English husband does that anyway!)

Am being very generalising here, my apologies if it offends anyone. Obviously most people on this forum arent like that or they wouldnt be here!

I am the other end of the spectrum which isnt always a great way to be either

Cheers
Lolly

Go on then, not English... What then?

NZ

Ill wait for the sheep jokes....

At least Im not an Aussie

That's ok, no sheep jokes from me, I'm French!

Originally Posted by Rachealmac

I`m welsh,we know ALL about the sheep jokes,the reply is >

"but we export them to you and you eat them"

Thats great, Ill remember it for next time

The rest of what youve said sounds like a plausible reason. Used to being shat on, I would call it!