Barclays overdraft

[Spinned]

I have a cash card account with Barclays which is overdrawn to the tune of £687.

I have tried a few times to set up a repayment plan and agreed repayments.

I have found these repayments hard due to Barclays' rigid repayment schedule which they state that the overdraft has to be paid back within 6 months.

I agreed the repayment plan with the best intentions but have found it hard to keep up with their repayment schedule.

The original overdrawn amount was £711.

Talking to Barclays on the phone is a frustrating affair so I've decided to communicate with them via letter.

I want to repay back what I owe but I am finding it hard to deal with Barclays even after explaining my difficulties.

The "unauthorized" overdraft came about due to Guaranteed Card Payments to various Payday loan lenders which have now all been paid off

bar one final repayment at the end of this month.

 

I am in full time employment at the moment and working to pay off all my debts.

I currently have £3258.28 of debt to pay off of varying amounts to Woolworths, Littlewoods, Very, Barclays, Capital One, Vanquis and Natwest.

I have made headway with Natwest who agreed to let me pay £25.00/month over a year and with Vanquis.

The others are being a bit more difficult to deal with at present.

 

Could anyone advise with how to deal with Barclays?

I will tackle the other ones after.

Many thanks

[WendyHorse]

Have Barclays frozen the interest and charges on your overdraft?

 

If not, a polite letter mentioning Section 9 of the Lending Code may be in order.

 

Work out what you can afford to pay them.

 

At the end of the day, if you can't pay within 6 months, you can't, so you need longer.

 

Once you've worked out what you can pay them, pay them every month on the same date so they can see you're doing what you can.

 

If you feel in control of your other debts, that's fine, but if you have concerns contact one of the free help organisations like CCCS or Payplan.

[slick132]

Hi Spinned,

 

If you're in Financial Difficulty, the bank must take positive steps to help you. This could be reducing or freezing interest for 6 months, stopping the addition of all default charges or agreeing to accept reduced payments.

 

See the FD Article and letter here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?557-Letter-for-an-application-for-consideration-for-hardship

 

As suggested above, CCCS, National Debt Line, etc can be useful in getting advice and/or help in getting the bank to accept payments that you can afford - http://www.consumerwiki.co.uk/index.php/Debt:_Where_to_Get_Help

 

[Spinned]

Thanks to you both for your help.

 

I sent Barclays a letter today detailing that I'm in financial difficulty at the moment and to place further action on hold for 28 days while I arrange my affairs. I will send them a income/expenditure form in the next week to show them whats what. No charges/interest has been added so far so i am "lucky" in that respect but that wont stop them from doing so in the future.

 

In the future, if I continue to have trouble with them I will see if CCCS can help budget them along a bit. I have had mostly successes with the other companies in setting up a payment plan etc but you never know for the future.

[slick132]

Let us know how it goes.

 

You may need 3rd party help as Barclays, for some inexplicable reason, can be more reticent than other banks to recognise when folk are having a hard time. Consequently, they are slow to make suitable arrangements to help folk get back on their feet.

 

[Spinned]

Got a letter back today from them (I sent my letter 22nd October) saying they are going to hold all action on my account for 28 days and wait for a letter from the debt advice service helping me with my debt.. Thing is, i dont have any one helping me. All i said in my letter was that I was asking for 28 days hold on the account while i explore my options as my financial situation has changed.

 

I plan to write back and offer what I can afford in the next few days (Why bother rushing if they take nearly 2 weeks to respond eh? ) and go from there.

 

The other companies I deal with are being helpful except from Shop Direct but that is a story for another thread.

 

The fight continues!!

[Spinned]

Afternoon

 

To cut a long story short, at the end of May last year I went overdrawn due to some mix ups on both

my end and Barclays. Currently the balance is at £670. I called up to arrange a repayment plan with them

but found their terms not in keeping with my financial status at the time. I offered £50 a month which was refused

because they can only set up plans on a 6 month basis which would have doubled the time so i agreed to stupid

amounts to repay per month which were unaffordable but to get them off my back for a little while.

 

If they'd agreed

£50 a month then it'd be well on it's way to be repayed but that's an arguement for another day.

Anyway, they have set up three repayment plans and I've only paid the 1 installment out of all those. I've sent three

letters asking to set up an AFFORDABLE payment plan but they've just asked me to call them which I don't really want

to do.

 

I've got a bit of a short temper with most of these places.

They've sent me a letter saying the account has been sent to collections (Not sure what department it was in before

but I'm pretty sure it was in collections) and that they are closing the account and I have to deal with them.

 

 

I offered £40 a

month to get it paid and I've got an Income and Expenditure form back in the post

which is extremely complicated and not very well laid out.

 

 

Any ideas how to proceed? I've just sent them another letter saying I'm going over the I+E form and I'll be get

back to them soon. They keep ringing me twice a day which I've noted in my letter and asked them to stop.

Any advice for this would be greatful recieved as I'd just like to get it over and done with, set up a standing order

and forget about it.

[slick132]

Hi Spinned,

 

If you haven't yet contacted one of the Debt Advice services, maybe now is the time to do it.

 

As I said ages back, Barclays are more likely to reach an installment agreement with a third party agency than they are with you alone.

 

Although the I&E form is a pain, you need to work through it to have a decent chance of showing what you can realistically afford in repayments. Once this is done, you would have something on which to base your repayment offer.

 

You should send Barclays a letter stating that their constant calls amount to harassment and they must stop. See the Library for a suitable letter.

 

Also, keep a note of the time and date of each call, in case you need to make a formal complaint later.