Thread: David81 vs Barclaycard

Hi everyone. After browsing CAG on and off for several months I thought I'd follow many other people's lead and set up my own thread. I've made some progress on my claim against Barclaycard and am hopefully ready to make the final push. I've noticed with interest that quite a few people seem to think Barclaycard are one of the worst to deal with, well I've found some of their tactics disgusting. Story so far:

12 October 2006: I write asking for a list of all charges, date, reason etc under the Data Protection Act, stating that I accept they can charge my account up to £10 for this. A few weeks later I receive an "acting dumb" response saying "We do not provide copies of statements {did I ask for statements? No.} and there is a charge {I already accepted this!}. Also harping on about no charges being issued prior to 2001 {irrelevant, my account opened in 2003}.

A bit stupidly, I then forgot about it over the Christmas period etc. I followed up on 27th January 2007.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your letter regarding my request for a comprehensive list of charges made to my account. However, this delay was completely unnecessary as I clearly stated in my letter that I was aware of the cost and was happy for you to charge me up to the maximum fee of £10 for your administration expenses.

Therefore I repeat my request for a comprehensive list of all the charges that you have made to my account since it was opened, showing the date and amount of each charge, and a description of what it was for. I make this request using my rights under the Data Protection Act and expect your response within 40 days. My account was not open prior to mid-2001 (which you state is when you began late payment and over-limit charges), so this does not affect me. I presume the enclosed £10 cheque will be accepted as covering your expenses. If not, I accept you may charge my account up to £10 for the expenses instead.

Your letter suggested sending this to the Data Protection Team, however if this is incorrect I assume you will forward my correspondence to the relevant department. I trust there will be no further delays.

12th February 2007 - I receive an acknowledgement letter. Although it mentions statements rather than a list of charges I leave them to get on with it.

22nd March 2007 - 54 days since I posted my letter (38 days since their reply I'm not sure which counts). I call them explaining the position, how they are breaking the 40-day rule of the Data Protection Act etc. Several attempts to fob me off:

* We can only provide you with the last six months of statements.
* We have not received a cheque from you {I corrected this one swiftly!}
* You have the wrong number, we don't deal with this sort of request etc.
* There will be extra charges for all these statements {nope, £10 covers all I need}.

Eventually, they agreed to send me a comprehensive list of charges immediately. I had to argue the toss to make sure they knew I wanted all my charges listed, and not just the last few months statements.

26th March - Monday post - nothing. As far as I'm concerned they have broken the 40 day rule (42 days even since their reply). I call again. After a strange attempt by a woman to get me to look up some website instead (she had forgotten the name of it though, apparently), I get switched to a guy who says my files were sent on the 23rd. Let's hope so.

27th March - The files are here, more or less in full. Interestingly, 90% of the cover letter is dedicated to an attempt at painting them as helpful and cooperative because they provided info stored on microfilm (a "gesture of goodwill" they call it). I read tonight that this is another lame excuse for not providing date they have tried on other people, however they never tried this one on me. Anyway, there is perhaps some evidence here that being a bit of a p**** on the phone can bring results!

I now have a couple of questions:

* Did they break the 40-day barrier or not? This is only relevant if it strengthens my claim in some way, since I now have the info I needed.
* Interest calculations (aaagh!). I am confused about how to apply interest to the sums. Here are my charges in full:

6th May 2004 - £20 - exceeded limit
6th Jan 2005 - £20 - late payment
6th Jan 2005 - £20 - exceeded limit (caused by above)
3rd Mar 2006 - £20 - late payment
5th Jun 2006 - £20 - late payment
5th Jun 2006 - £20 - exceeded limit (caused by above)
3rd Aug 2006 - £12 - late payment
3rd Aug 2006 - £12 - exceeded limit (caused by above+)
5th Dec 2006 - £12 - late payment
5th Mar 2007 - £12 - late payment (doh! )

+ is arguable. Normal interest applied same day would have just taken me over. But that interest probably includes that on previous charges. So I think I should claim it...

Purchase Annual Rate = currently 21.9%. previously a bit lower.
Cash Annual Rate = currently 27.9%. again used to be a bit lower.

I assume I have to apply the rates as they were at the time i.e. the old lower rates up until they changed. I do not know what rate they charge for overdrawn funds and penalty charges, but I'd assume the higher rate. I know that Barclaycard calculate interest on a daily basis, I'm not sure exactly how that affects things but I reckon it probably means I paid more overall.

It's very late so I will continue this at some point with my attempt at calculating the interest charges and sending my letter before action.

I could really use some advice on how to calculate interest on the charges. I have read several different theories as to what interest I should claim, so it is a bit confusing.

Ideally I will keep it fairly simple (even if it costs me a couple of quid) All I really want to do is tot up the interest on the charges listed above. In addition to topping up my claim, I want to make sure they know this interest is being lumped on the longer they delay settling with me, as some people say this worked in their favour.

One person here suggested using the bank's current Cash Rate, as in effect they have "borrowed" my money without authorisation, and now is the time I am claiming it back. Personally I feel I can justify this rate to the judge/sheriff if it comes to that (if not I can live with the 8% statutory). However, I'm not sure about applying it to the entire period, or for the entire charge indefinitely. Let me try a small example with the December 06 charge (monthly cash rate is 2.075%):

5th Dec 06: £12 charge
5th Jan 07: 12 x 1.0275 = £12.33
5th Feb 07: 12.33 x 1.0275 = £12.66
5th Mar 07: 12.66 x 1.0275 = £13.00

Therefore I would claim £1 of interest on this charge up until 5th March, and I'd repeat the same compound interest process for the other listed charges. Is this an acceptable way to proceed? Any advice appreciated!

PS Spreadsheets don't work for me, I think my Excel is knackered. However, I'm not really worried about the actual calculations, only how and when to apply them.

Ok I think I've sussed the interest calculations and I've written the letter. I've tried hard to take the best bits from all the (many) templates I've read and added some stuff of my own, but it would be nice if someone with experience could confirm that what I've written is good. I even managed to get a little plug for CAG in there!

30th March 2007

Penalty charges applied to account XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - request for refund

Dear Sir/Madam,

Enclosed with this correspondence is a list of charges you have applied to my account since it was opened in 2003. I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to late payments, exceeding the card limit and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full Breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs. Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

My position is that your charges do not reflect any actual loss, instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme. I do not believe they are even close to a reasonable estimate of your administration costs in relation to my account. All penalties were simply written onto my normal statements and therefore I believe your additional administration costs in my case were zero unless you can prove otherwise. In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract.

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law. I am frankly shocked that a British financial institution has operated my account in this way as I had always believed in your integrity and expertise. I now consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that you have deceived me into agreeing to pay them. Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

I calculate my total claim as £234.40, which includes charges of £168 and interest to date of £66.40. Failure to refund the full amount will result in further interest being added onto the balance using your Cash Rate of 2.075% per month. I would suggest to you that an early settlement is in your best interests. If the claim is not settled in full within 14 days of the date above, I reserve the right to proceed with court action to recover the entire balance, plus interest, plus all legal expenses plus possible further amounts in respect of distress caused by these charges and the additional time and effort on my part to reclaim them.


In order to save time and costs for both parties, you may wish to note the following:

I am claiming the full balance as stated, not any lower amounts, partial offers etc. I will only be satisfied upon receiving the full amount within the timescale, 14 days from the above date.

I will not accept any reason for a delay in your response, and will proceed towards court action as specified above unless full payment is made. I have already experienced a considerable delay in my claim as your administrators and representatives, in my view, deliberately misunderstood my plainly written letters, attempted to mislead me on several occasions, breached the Data Protection Act by taking more than 40 days to process my request for account information and were generally unhelpful. In the event of you failing to settle these points will be made to the court.

In the event of court action you will of course have the right to lodge a defence against my claim. However, there is no defence you can lodge which will persuade me to drop my case. This will only be achieved by paying me the full amount. I am aware (through members of the Consumer Action Group and similar organisations) that in numerous similar cases you have lodged a defence in the hope that the claim will be dropped only to end up settling at the last minute. I accept your right to attempt this tactic, however my awareness of it should indicate to you that it is extremely unlikely to be effective i.e. I will not drop the claim. My view is that not only would this be a waste of valuable court time, it will end up costing you a greater sum than settling my claim at the earliest opportunity.

Claim Calculations

Included on the next page are the calculations I made on charges added to my Barclaycard account between May 2004 - March 2007, plus interest. The dates and charges information is taken from the Barclaycard statements I obtained under the Data Protection Act and some statements from my own records. I have used your own Cash Monthly Rate of 2.075% to calculate the interest charges. Using the principle of mutuality and reciprocity, it is based on the rate that would be applied under the current terms of the above mentioned account. I believe this is justified as in effect you have "borrowed" this cash from me without my authorisation In the event of court proceedings you can of course dispute my methods of calculation. However you may find that disputing the exact amount due rather than defending the claim wholesale will weaken your position with regards to the general claim being upheld.

I look forward to hearing from you.

The columns in my calculations don't paste into here neatly, so I've just included a small section. I tried to tidy it up but it just squashed up again when I posted.

Date Charge (£) Description Total (£)

6th May 2004 20 Exceeded Limit Charge 20
3rd June 2004 0.41 interest @ 2.075% 20.41
5th July 2004 0.42 Interest @ 2.075% 20.83
4th August 2004 0.43 Interest @ 2.075% 21.26
3rd September 2004 0.44 Interest @ 2.075% 21.70
5th October 2004 0.45 Interest @ 2.075% 22.15
3rd November 2004 0.45 Interest @ 2.075% 22.60
3rd December 2004 0.46 Interest @ 2.075% 23.06
6th January 2005 0.47 Interest @ 2.075% 23.53
6th January 2005 20 Late Payment Charge 43.53
6th January 2005 20 Exceeded Limit Charge 63.53
3rd February 2005 1.31 Interest @ 2.075% 64.84
etc

In the absence of settlement the next month’s interest will be applied on April 4th 2007.