Thread: mackerel vs barclaycard! ***WON***

Finally got the balls to do it!

Sent off the SAR with a cheque for £10 on March 29th. Got the statements today.


In the letter they said that they normally do not go back past march 2004 because it's on microfiche, but as a goodwill gesture and because the information comissioner does not consider it a relevant filing system they provided statements going back 6 years.



Now i'm about to get the spreadsheet up and calculate how much they owe me!

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Thanks for the tip.

I was reading on other posts that you need to use a slightly different spreadsheet for credit card claims than bank ones - does the cc spreadsheet include this contractual interest charge? Also can i claim contractual interest as well as the 8% (when it goes to court)?

Just read your post mr2phil - well done! By the way, did you use the simple or advanced spreadsheet - to get the interest on the charges?

I've filled out the simple spreadsheet today, and discovered they owe me (!!!!) just over £1100 :o:o - and if it goes to court with the 8%, it will come in at around £1400!

But that was using the simple spreadsheet, which i don't think includes the interest on penalty charges. The complex spreadsheet seems to provide it (thanks slick) but i don't really understand what i'm supposed to put in column I. I've read the notes, and i think i need to enter into that column when i've made a payment for the previous month - where it says on my statement in the same box as where the charges appear an entry says "payment made, thank you" - i enter that value in column I: can someone confirm that for me? What if i haven't made any payments for several months? It will be interesting to see how much that affects the overall amount of what they owe.

That just reminded me of something that might affect this claim i'm making. A couple of years ago, i attempted to get this account under control and entered a payment agreement with barclaycard, paying £20 a month. About 8 months passed, and (because i stick my head in the sand ) i opened a statement and even though i'd been paying regularly, my account was now more overdue than it was at the start of the repayment plan 8 months prior! It turns out that my first payment was 2 days late, so they cancelled the repayment plan and just continued whacking on the charges. Despite phoning them during that time, none of the staff had mentioned that the repayment plan had been cancelled, so i wrote a letter to barclaycard complaining and they refunded me £200 in charges. When i was going through my statements today i found this, as two refunds of £100 each; one called "exceeded limit refund", the other called "over credit limit refund". I assume that i need to deduct this from the total sum that they owe me?

Thanks

I was just hoping someone could confirm something for me; can i claim for contractual interest on the bank charges as well as the 8% if it goes to court?

Hello All

I am attempting to calculate my charges with contractual interest, but am having a bit of difficulty on the subject, and my posts to the advanced spreadsheet topic are going unanswered - not hard to understand why, it's over 80 pages long!

Here are my questions; i hope someone who has used the advanced spreadsheet successfully can help me out

1). Column G - Interest Charged - what is the value for this? My current statements show two levels of interest: "interest on your standard balance" @ 1.385% and "interest on your cash balance" @ 1.461%. Both increase during the 6 year claim period. What one of these do i use?

2). Column I - Amount Paid - if i have made more than one payment, do i put the sum of all payments in this cell? Or do i list each payment, as the payment date is usually different from the statement date?

thanks for the link citizen b, but slick already gave that to me. I read a few pages of it then it started making swoosh sounds as it flew over me. Might need a couple more coffees before reading it again

Goldlady - thanks for the reply. Using the average of the two interest rates for the duration of the 6 years is a very very good idea. It's hard to use one type of interest over the other as the account has been pretty dormant - the only activity it reallly had was charges being added to it! My thoughts on using the interest rate was that it might not make sense to multiply one of the rates by 12 (for each month) as that interest rate might not be applied to the account for a 12 month duration. Using an average of the two rates, applied to the whole 6 year period not only solves this problem quite economically but also shows a "reasonable" side to my argument (that i'm sure i'll have with barclaycard!).

Sorry for making another post slick- i was hoping a generic post on the advanced spreadsheet might get some more interest (no pun intended) in the problems i was having - otherwise only people who had read this thread would know the issues i was having. I have already used and calculated my accounts using the simple credit card spreadsheet that you pointed out, but i am interested in getting the contractual interest back too; well, assuming it is a significant amount that will make it worth the extra hassle anyway, i'd like to figure out how much more i'd be owed.

Ok, i've completed the advanced spreadsheet, but i'd like someone to have a look at it because there's a few things i'm unsure about and i want my figures to be spot on.

First of all, the contractual interest is calculated at around £900!!!!! is that right???

Also i'd like to be sure about the interest. I am charged the following rate s of interest on my account (i'm using the lower of the two interests shown on my statements - the purchase interest).

• March 2002 to September 2004: 1.385%
• October 2004 to October 2005: 1.456%
• November 2005 to now: 1.527%

This translates as:

• 31 months @ 1.385%
• 12 months @ 1.456%
• 29 months @ 1.527%

So for my charges between March 2002 and September 2004, my (APR) interest rate is 1.385 x 12 = 16.62. Between October 2004 and October 2005 my APR is 1.456 x 12 = 17.47. Finally from November 2005 to now, my interest is 1.527 x 12 = 18.324.

Are those calculations correct? Specifically, should i be multiplying the interest by 12 (months, for APR) or by the duration that the interest is applied to the account - in other words, should it be 1.385 x 31 (months), 1.456 x 12 and 1.527 x 29?

Also i've attached a pic of the spreadsheet that i completed. There are a couple of things i'd like to point out.



When i add two charges from the same month, it creates two rows. This means (i think) that penalty interest is added twice, which may not be accurate.
Likewise i've entered rows where no charges are applied, just to update the account balance. Again, i think the presence of this row may be adding interest to the overall calculation, and i'm not sure if that it is correct.

For instance, on the picture there are two entries on 24/03/2004 (the first two rows). This is because i received two charges on the same month. So despite the statement balance being same, i think it adds £7.86 of interest twice; one for each row. Should that be happening?

Likewise, on the 26/07/2004, i recieve no charges, yet make an entry in the spreadsheet to show that i pay £100 off the balance. Again, this creates a value on the interest on penalties column; is that right - should the interest on penalties column be increased in this situation - just a normal entry with no penatly charge applied that month?

Basically, i don't want to be adding to the interest on penalties column unfairly. I want my figures to be as accurate as possible so that barclaycard have little to argue against my claim, and figures are probably my weakest point which is why i'm spending the most time on them getting them as accurate as possible.

I really appreciate any help with this. I'm itching to send this off to barclaycard but want to be confident in my figures first.

Originally Posted by slick132

Hi Mack,

The spready I suggested is a CI calculating one.

From post #8, open the interest Tutorial, go to the Credit Card heading and you'll find :-


Note it says simpler, and not simple. Take a look at it and see if it may work any better for you.

Being seen to be reasonable, when you estimate the int't rate figs, is the best way round the problem of what figs to use.

That spreadsheet looks so much easier. Removes all the problems about interests and payments etc.

I'm going to use that one from now on. Thanks for pointing that out slick.