Barclays Default. Unfairly Added.

[christian.miles]

A few years back, i was a customer with barclays. May i just say at this point that i do not have any details of the account any longer.

 

I ran my account for around 2 years without any problems at all. When i first got the account i was 16. I got a job and barclays gave me a Visa card and what they called an "Account Buffer" of £50. All was running fine when i lost my job and had only a couple of direct debits on the account that would run into this buffer. I figured that this wouldn't be a problem and i would be able to pay this off without any problem when i gained another job.

 

Getting another job at the time proved to be somewhat of a problem and i cancelled the direct debits as they had hit £59. Barclays at this stage had never even sent me a massage warning me of the fact that i was in violation of their terms of their £50 buffer. two months later i received a letter from them stating that they had put 2 x £30 charges on my account due to none payment of the excess on the account buffer, at that stage i called in at my branch and they said i could do nothing other than pay off the account, still at this stage i could not afford to do this and therefore had to let it ride. Eventually they continued to charge me until the total hit £320, luckily for me at this stage i could afford to pay them off, i called them, at which point they told me that they had closed my account and had sold my debt to another company and that i would have to settle my claim with them.

 

Not long after this, i received a letter from this company demanding £360. I refused to pay that amount and eventually we agreed on a figure of £254 which i paid.

 

I hadn't realised until around 12 months ago that they had also actually put a default and satisfied on my account. I really don't think this is fair as my original debt with them was only for £9 which had i known i would get all these charges and bad credit for i would have got the £9 from somewhere and paid it.

 

I am currently stuck with a cash card bank account, no cheque book, no debit card, no overdraft, cannot get a decent credit card and have no chance of a mortgage, i am at a loss with this and really need some guidance as to where to go forward with this.

 

Thanks in advance for all of your help.

 

Christian Miles

[ripoffuk]

I'm in a similar situation to yourself. I'm also screwed as well. I was having some really bad financial problems with barclays, I mean I had an account with them for around 15 years, and look how they treated me! They closed my account, defaulted it, and passed it on to a debt collector. On top of all that they slapped on charges for late payments, missed ditect debits etc. I reckon my charges amount to hundreds of pounds, and I intend to reclaim that back from them.

[christian.miles]

Hi Ripoffuk,

 

Sorry to hear about your problems also. To be honest i don't really care about the charges, it's all water under the bridge, i am in a much better position now and really don't need to few hundred quid in charges. The biggest problem i am facing is my credit record, because of all this i cannot even get a decent bank account.

 

I wish you all the best in your fight for justice.

 

Anyone else with any suggestions as to where i should take this next, please help me.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Christian Miles

[christian.miles]

Well seeing as nobody has replied i guess i better keep this somewhere in view.

 

I have sent out the DPA SAR along with my £10 to barclays amd am waiting on the SAR to be received. Does anyone have any idea of the average waiting time for these to arrive? i assume not many people have had too many problems receiving these yet.

 

I have now pretty much clinically read through the whole of this site including the FAQ's and library so i think i am ready to take this one on. One question i do have though is has anyone been in a similar circumstance to me, i haven't held a barclays account for 2 years now and have been defaulted by them for that period of time (although i only found out around 12 months ago that they had defaulted me) i really want to know whether anyone has successfully had a default removed by barclays?

 

Speak soon,

 

Christian

[christian.miles]

Hi All,

 

Well, after "Too" long. I have received my statements and have totalled up all the charges. About to send the Prelim Letter. If anyone has any good advice at this point then please divulge.

 

Speak to you all soon,

 

Christian

[christian.miles]

Just an update. I received my "gesture of goodwill" letter offering me £150. I gave them a call to discuss my default and they wouldn't give me the time of day. I have posted a thread in the defaults section on what to do with this.

[Aurora C]

Depends what kind of direct debit you had. For example, a Sky subcription, or mobile phone contract, which means you enter a binding period of contract, incurs a "auddis" DD - an automatic DD. So if you try and cancel it, they are obligated to write to you to tell you they are reinstating it. Then they do. And the bank is under an obligation to honour it. so the real person you need to hound is the direct debit originator to verify with the bank that they did / did not notify you that they were taking the money out of your account (to enable you to inform them of different payment arrangements or different bank account).

[Bookworm]

Christian,sorry you haven't had much input in this, but it loks as if you're doing rather well by yourself so far.

 

I think you may well get more response in the default forum, as there's a few people in there who are far more sussed out about it than the majority who "only" reclain their bank charges. I certainly wouldn't know where to start with defaults, so tend to keep my nose out of it.

 

Keep us updated, even if you don't get responses, you'll be read by thousands over time, and every drop of knowledge helps. ;-)