Barclaycard settlement offer to clear debt

[Humberstone74]

I have been paying my Barclaycard debt on a self administered debt management plan for about 3 years and have now received a telephone call from Barclays offering me a settlement figure approx half of the outstanding balance to be paid by 26th November.

I have a good chance of raising the sum required, but they have not confirmed the offer in writing and say I will only get a letter when the payment has been made.

The sum and the due date has been confirmed during two telephone calls, but I have nothing in writing. I could send a cheque with a letter outlining that this is a full and final payment as described by their customer advisers, but is this enough to cover me.

Would appreciate any advice from members who have been in a similar position.

[i hate bailiffs]

Sounds like there may be lots of charges if they offering a discount

 

What was the debt credit card ?OD?

[Humberstone74]

Creditcard debt, orginally with Eggcard then sold or taken over by Barclaycard this year.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Contact BC again tomorrow and agree the payment but insist that you have the offer in writting, also you need to make sure that any remaining balance is NOT sold on to come back at you later.

 

You could send them the following by recorded delivery:

 

Ref: xxxxxxxx

 

 

Full & Final Settlement offer.

 

Dear Sir,

 

I refer to your recent telephone contact regarding a full and Final Settlement of account number xxxxxxxxxx in the sum of I am willing to accept your offer on the following conditions

 

1. Any remaining balance is not to be sold or assigned to any third party.

2.The credit reference agency entries regarding this account are marked as ''settled''.

3 Your offer and acceptance of the terms set out above are confirmed in writting.

[Humberstone74]

Thank you Brigadier2JCS for your advice, I have printed a copy of what you have suggested and will contact them by phone tomorrow. I had thought of trying to record the conversation, but not sure whether that evidence would be useable if it does all go wrong. Thanks again.

[Bandit127]

There is a recent thread on here where Barclaycard have reneged on a F&F settlement offer. The remainder has popped up with a DCA.

 

Brig's letter should therefore be sent, signed for.

 

Please do not telephone - the F&F offer is pointless if done by phone as they can (and will) go back on it.

 

Thank you Brigadier2JCS for your advice, I have printed a copy of what you have suggested and will contact them by phone tomorrow. I had thought of trying to record the conversation, but not sure whether that evidence would be useable if it does all go wrong. Thanks again.

[slick132]

Hi HStone,

 

Before you finalise this, have you made sure you've reclaimed all penalty charges and any missold PPI on the a/c.

 

If you have older chgs on the a/c, reclaiming them with compound interest could have a dramatic effect in reducing the balance.

 

Do you have the necessary statements to check for such charges.

 

Also, I see no problem in calling them to say you require their settlement offer and terms to be put in writing. But avoid discussing the matter beyond that.

 

Then wait for their confirmation and do nothing until you get it.

 

[slick132]

Moved into BC forum.

 

[Humberstone74]

Thank you for your imput, I have the old statements, I know PPI is not involved and I don't recall any charges but I can check. The account was moved onto a debt payment plan in July 2009 with manageable monthly repayments with Egg and Barclays took over in November 2011. I note your advice re the telephone call to BC.

I have followed Meritman's case, which you advised on, but it came to an abrupt stop in August. Can you tell me the outcome or has it been transferred to another forum ? I quite understand if this is a private matter.

[slick132]

Hi HS,

 

You definitely need to check your statements to see if there were penalty chgs prior to July 2009.

 

If you find any chgs, put them onto this spreadsheet and change the interest rate to 24.9% - http://www.shweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/interestcalcs.xls

 

If you let us know very roughly how the chgs and int't compare to the o/s balance, we can advise you further on your options to proceed with BC.

 

Edited November 14, 2012 by slick132
typo

[slick132]

Sorry, forgot to add, I have no idea how it went with MM's case, so I'll be interested to see if we get an update.

 

[FrancisFamily]

Just a random question, if you make the full and final settlement, considering the timescale involved, could you subsequently request the details for your account and make a claim for all charges that were applied to the account?

[slick132]

Hi FF,

 

I'd say no to that.

 

If you agree to pay a F&F amount, it would be to settle the debt at a reduced sum which the bank agrees to accept instead of the full amount due. I would say this includes all aspects of the a/c including what you owe overall and what you could reclaim in chgs and interest.

 

Have you used your statements to see what penalties you've paid and put them on the spreadsheet yet.

 

You can use this info to try and negotiate a settlement figure that reflects all unlawful penalties from the past.

 

[FrancisFamily]

Hi Slick, without wishing to hijack the thread, I owe approximately £1500 and the charges are for £60 in total (plus contractual interest of £250) and PPI £246 (+ contractual interest of £1,200) so will probably end up with a zero balance if successful :o)

[slick132]

Sorry to HS for the hijack.

 

Francis Family - I hope you can get these amounts refunded to reduce the debt and we can discuss this further on your own thread as necessary.

 

[Humberstone74]

Hi Francis,

Thank you for your interest. In my case the settlement figure offered is 50% of the amount owing so I am quite happy if this goes through and PPI wasn't taken out and I am still checking for charges, but haven't found any so far. I see from your later post that your charges could wipe out the balance, I would go for that, although it may take some time for a successful conclusion. Good luck!

[Humberstone74]

Hi Slick

Followed the advice and spoke to BC on Monday, they promised to send out another letter (I never received the first one) confirming a settlement figure and terms. The adviser repeated the accepted amount and outlined terms of the deal, which I managed to record on my PC. I have also received a text message from BC "confirming recent repayment agreement, payment to be made by the agreed date " no further details, so I now wait for the letter and do nothing as you advise.

Have been checking statements from 2005 upto present date, details in my next post.

[Humberstone74]

Hi Slick again.

Eggcard taken out in April 2005, used it for balance transfers at 0% until June 2006 when a new deal was agreed at 7.9% per annum on the outstanding balance. Fees were waived.

Purchases 1.667% per month, Cash 1.941% per month, T/fers 0.639% per month up to June 2009. No penalty charges shown as payments were made on time. Odd Cash withdrawals had a one off fee of 2.5% to 3%

Contacted Egg immediately in June 2009 when I was in serious financial difficulties, due to other cards increasing interest and minimum monthly repayments amongst other problems. Agreed a debt repayment program with Egg on the phone which started in July 2009 with a reduced monthly payment, so no charges were made.

Manageable monthly payments have been made on time against the outstanding balance with interest at 0% to the present time. No penalty charges applicable.

For the record, I know penalty charges can be challenged, but I didn't realise creditcard interest rates could also be questioned.

[slick132]

Hi HS,

 

Sorry if I have caused confusion.

 

........ and what you could reclaim in chgs and interest

 

What I was saying is that you can claim a refund of penalty charges plus interest on those charges.

 

You can't seek a refund in respect of the actual int't that the bank charges.

 

If there are no penalty chgs that you can reclaim, then you should proceed with settling the a/c based on their written settlement offer. Their offer must quantify the amount they'll accept in full settlement of the debt.

 

If they don't make their offer in clear enough terms, we'll suggest a reply you can send them which clarifies the salient points (ie, your pay't is made in F&F Sett't of all sums due on this a/c; the debt will not be passed to any 3rd party for further collection; CRA file to show debt satisfied; etc).

 

[Humberstone74]

Thank you Slick, I quite understand re the interest now.

I accept that I will have to wait about 7 days for their confirmation letter to come through, which only gives me about 3 days to meet the due date that they have insisted on.

What do you think about the recording I have made of the telephone conversation where the adviser clearly says "yes" when I repeated what was required. I have his name and his ID number.

I consider the amount agreed upon is a good deal for me as I expect interest will be added for the next 6 months before they review it again, if I don't get it settled.

[slick132]

Hi HS,

 

Keep the recording safe for future use if necessary.

 

You can try to protect the option to accept their offer by sending a letter saying :-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

A/c no. xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

 

I refer to my tel con with [name] on xxdate, of which I have a recording.

 

You said you'll accept the sum of £xxx in full and final settlement of the balance which is now about £xxxx.

 

Before I make any such payment, I require your written confirmation of the terms of this arrangement, for example :-

 

1. That you'll accept my payment of £xxx in full and final settlement of any amount owing in respect of a/c no. xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx.

 

2. The a/c balance will be reduced to zero and the unpaid amount written off by you.

 

3. No DCA will pursue payment in respect of this unpaid amount in the future.

 

4. The CRA files will be updated to show the a/c as satisfied.

 

Please let me have your response promptly so we can finalise this matter.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[Humberstone74]

Hi Slick

I have written the letter on the lines outlined, but left out the recording bit.

I don't want BC to think I don't trust them !

I'm hoping BC have already sent the confirmation as promised, which should arrive any day now.

Will keep you posted

[slick132]

Hi HS,

 

I don't want BC to think I don't trust them !

 

Lol !! This is the bank which the BBC found had a culture of dishonesty !

 

Their former boss said the bank had engaged in "systematic dishonesty" !

 

They received a massive fine for the LIBOR rate scandal.

 

I doubt they could even PAY people to trust them these days !

 

[Humberstone74]

Hi Slick,

Received letter from BC confirming settlement offer as "full & final settlement of the account," the amount and date the payment must be made by.

Decided after giving it some thought to make the payment by phone as the due date was this week. The adviser confirmed all the necessary conditions requested and confirmed receipt of payment by text message.

A letter advising completion to be sent to me in the next 7 days.

This was the 4th adviser to confirm, "no further action will be taken and the credit file to be updated accordingly."

I realise there is a risk here but I have recordings of the the telephone conversations and there names & ID numbers.

This 50% discounted payment was a good deal for me and assuming BC bought the debt from EGG for next to nothing, it should be a good deal for them.

Lets hope so ! Watch this space.

[slick132]

Hi HS,

 

I guess we must appear to be very cynical but we've seen too many instances where payments were made and then debts pursued, contrary to what was agreed. It's more likely to be DCA's that behave in this way.

 

It looks like you have as much assurance as you're likely to get plus you have the recordings.

 

I'm sure it'll all be ok for you and I'm pleased you've got this settled.