Further progression. I was given a token gesture payment of £200 in response to my complaint. I requested that they put the loan on hold till October when I will be able to clear the arrears in full. They declined this request but would instead accept a £100 monthly payment till end of August to be reviewed then. I have been working away this week and have just returned to letters from barclays telling me the £100 payment has been returned unpaid due to insufficient funds. Ok I thought I will transfer some from another account and pay it on Monday. Today is Friday, 7pm. I opened the next letter to find they are terminating my accounts with them and the full amount is to be repaid immediately ( before 21/9 ). My account balance is £ -122. ok, no probs I can clear that. My loan account, which started at £22k and has received £6875 in payments from me over the last 19months, is £22449. I obviously am in no position to clear this, nor do I have any assets with any significant amount of equity. When I get harvest monies in in October/ November....it keeps raining, harvest is late. I should be in a position to make a settlement offer of around 40 - 50% of that total. Is there any stalling tactics I can use?

Ok, I think I've probably got enough to be going on with, just one last quick one; Will it matter that my main cause for complaint with them happened before BCOBS was introduced? Thanks very much for your help.

I have complained about the interest rate by telephone only so far, This was logged and I was given a reference number. Having had no reply I followed it up only to be told that their investigation found the loan interest was in accordance with the contract that I signed and the case was closed. Big suprise there... I've reopened the case on friday, also logging my disgust at the unauthorised OD mentioned above and I will be following up with an appropriate letter this week, As soon as I find an address to send it to.

Thanks for that so far folks. Yes I am a sole trader. The charges themselves I have never disputed, they are written into my account contract with them. My argument with them is they had several options available to lend money to me, they left me with no other choice but to take the most expensive one, by means of unauthorised OD. In my opinion this was unfair treatment. As far as I can see BCOBS was put in place to stop this kind of unfairness happening, although I cant seem to find any cases similar to that of my own. I was also given a business loan 18mths ago in which I was misled on the interest rate. part of the loan was for clearing an older loan at 10.9%. The new loan I was told would be the same. My own fault I know for not checking the paperwork when I signed the agreement at 22.9%!!!!!! I have opened another account at a different bank in preparation for a move. My accountant thinks that given my current business circumstances, along with their previous treatment of my account, I should be able to get half of my £20k loan forgiven. . . . But this may mean proving that the above was unfair and using it as leverage.

Ok thanks.

I have had a business account with Barclays for in excess of 10 years. When I bought my second machine 4 yrs ago I requested a 3 month extension of my £1500 overdraft to £4000 to cover extra running costs etc. They refused on the grounds that I had not previously kept within the £1500 limit. Yes I had been over it occasionally but certainly not excessively and nothing was ever returned unpaid. During that 3 month period my account went to £4100 OD and back to within its set limit again. They never bounced a payment but charged me a fortune in paid referral fees and unauthorised OD interest. My charges that quarter were over £700. Do I have a case for extortion against them as its obvious they were prepared to lend me the money required, but wanted to charge me more for the priviledge. I was origionally prepared to let it go but I am now in the process of switching banks as they have got increasingly difficult to work with and have literally turned their back on me and my business which last year doubled its turn over and could do the same again this with the support that Barclays are refusing me. Hope someone can shed some light for me Thanks