Can Barclaycard actually do this?

[cloggy]

Can anyone advise me and confirm my own thoughts on this situation please?

 

I have had a letter from Barclaycard about a debt that I had accrued due to my lack of employment.

 

The matter came to a head in June 2009 when I took issue with them sending me

a formal demand as I had been paying for PPI.........or so I thought.

 

They said not and I took them to the FOS for a decision.

I won the claim and in February 2010 Barclaycard offered a payment of about 10% of the debt outstanding.

 

I suggested, via the FOS, that given my employment status,

Barclaycard took this themselves in full and final settlement.

 

In March 2010 their Senior Customs Relations Manager wrote to me

saying they would pay the refunded charges as a credit to my account in full and final settlement,

 

I subsequently heard no more from them at all for 4 years

and therefore assumed it was all was over and done with.

 

Today I received a letter from Barclaycard, as attached, claiming the original full amount they wanted in 2009.

 

There was a second letter which was a formal demand for the full amount payable within 28 days.

 

Clearly they have not paid themselves the amount agreed with the FOS or, if they have paid it,

it has not been credited to my account and certainly not used in full and final settlement....

..so who has had it I wonder?

 

It is now 4 years since the awarded amount was accepted by me

and Barclaycard have not made a single phone call,

nor have they sent any letter or statement to me in that time.

 

4 Years and no contact until now, one has to wonder, why not?

 

Their letter says they have identified and error and apologise to me for it.

 

to me, it simply looks like an effort to cover up their continued ineptitude

and get me to call them, thereby accepting the debt

and making it “live” again!

 

So a simple question, do they have a leg to stand on here?

[dx100uk]

that's letter is rather crap

 

doesn't really say anything.!!

 

I suspect that either you or Barclaycard have taken the statement

'full and final' in the wrong meaning.

 

i'm sure unless you have it in writing otherwise

they mean full and final settlement

on your PPI reclaim,

not toward settling the whole account.

 

dx

[havinastella]

Did you get the F&F offer in writing from them?

[slick132]

Hi Cloggy,

 

........ they would pay the refunded charges as a credit to my account in full and final settlement

 

As already suggested, this sentence is very ambiguous and you must find the original letters to see what was really said at the time.

 

If you no longer have them, send a SAR to BC asap.

 

Do you still have statements to check what penalty charges were added to the a/c. These can be reclaimed in full, plus compound interest. If you don't have the statements, they'll be supplied with the SAR response but only for the last 6 years.

 

In the meantime, reply to the letter from BC saying you dispute the content of your letter and have written to BC's Data Protection team separately seeking info. Accordingly, you require that they hold any collection activity until your SAR is fully replied to.

 

[cloggy]

Morning all and thanks for the many helpful comments.

 

Sorry for the delay in reply but I left the computer alone for a day yesterday!

 

I am loathe to reply to this silly letter because I do not want to mess up any possible situation

where Barclays are, yet again, in the wrong.

 

I had understood that under Consumer Credit Act legislation any debt had to be kept alive

by at least an annual statement being sent to the debtor.

I have had absolutely nothing from these guys for 4 years until now.

 

The letter from their Customer Relations Manager says

"I can confirm that I have credited your account in the amount of £XXXX.XX in full and final settlement" .

 

As I have never had a statement from them since well before this letter was written

I was unaware until Saturday last that the account had NEVER received this credit

and had just assumed that no communications from them was their way of dealing with it

and it was the end of the matter.

 

I am going to call the Ombudsman that dealt with the situation back in 2009/2010

and see what they think about it.

 

Not expecting anything useful or helpful to come of it but I will report back from there.

[cloggy]

Did you get the F&F offer in writing from them?

 

yes

[cloggy]

Spoken to FOS and they are calling me back later today……that was over 4 hours ago so still waiting.

[slick132]

Other posts moved to a new thread here to avoid hijacking - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?416744-BC-sending-out-generic-letters-about-BC-a-c-s&p=4460027&viewfull=1#post4460027

 

[cloggy]

I have just had a long conversation with a lady from FOS.

 

She told me they cannot open my old case as it is over 4 years old and they probably do not have the files anyway.

She offered to look into it for me if I send her the letters from BC.

 

When I explained that I do not want to reopen an old sore and asked if Barclaycard should have been in touch before this time,

I was told

"if the account is still open then they should have written to me every year to advise of the state of the account and of any charges or payments applied to it".

 

Needless to say I have decided not to send the FOS anything at this stage

as she went on to say they would simply

"call one of our very good contacts at Barclyacard"

and discussed the matter with them

and see what it is all about

& then come back to me".

 

Silly me, I thought the FOS were there to help us not the Banks!

 

I think I will wait their next move and make a decision on where to go from there.

 

If they start to chase all of us who have had this dumb letter they are going to be very busy…

…maybe this is another job creation scheme for one of Dave's mates?

 

The only slightly positive thing to come out of my conversation with the FOS is that clearly B'cd seem to think the account is still active

as they are only just issuing a formal demand (albeit again)

 

but after 4 years of no contact and not applying the agreed £1000+ to my account in full and final settlement

as offered and agreed 4 years ago,

 

me thinks they may just be up a gum tree if I decided to take them to court.

Any thoughts anybody?

Any similar experiences anybody?

Cloggy

[slick132]

Hi Cloggy,

 

I think the "very good friend" comment was a bit tongue in cheek.

 

We're used to the FOS being less than fair to us, in favour of the banks.

 

You would be bonkers to take the bank to court about this. The only good reason to take BC to court would be to reclaim penalty charges.

 

[cloggy]

Hi Slick132,

 

I felt the "Very good friend" comment was entirely real as in "we have great contacts with the people at B'cd", this is what decided me to leave it alone and not involve the FOS, I just could not help but think it may be more trouble than it is worth!

I have no intention of taking them (B'cd) to court at the moment but instead will leave it all to fester and see what comes up next. It is interesting to see how many of us have received this c*$p from them so, equally, it will be interesting to see how many of us get to see the next stage of their strategy, if they have any.

I cannot help but think this is all a ruse to get some of us to contact them and make offers of payment/clearance.

So I think I will wait it out and see what happens, maybe it will be another 4 years before they do anything else!

[cloggy]

Here we are 3 weeks on and dare I say, all quiet. Has anyone else had any additional contact or calls at all?

I am assuming not as there have been no updates on any other posts.

[the_shadow]

I doubt you'll hear anything prior to the 28 days passing

 

It will be interesting to see what happens after that deadline

 

S.