BCW Barclays

[Podengo269]

Hello

 

I'm hoping someone will be able to give me some advice.

 

Last week I received 2 letters.

 

 

The first was from BCW asking for me to verify my address and that they needed to communicate with me about a 'private matter'.

 

I subsequently received a letter with a Barclays letter head stating that a debt (£1900)

with them had been transferred to BCW and that I should now pay this in full.

 

No breakdown of the debt was provided but an old current account number was quoted.

 

 

I did hold an account with Barclays until 2004 when I switched to the Coop Bank.

I moved address at the same time and so have not received any further statements or correspondence from Barclays since then.

 

 

From memory I am sure that I instructed Barclays to close the account in 2004

but I don't recall if this was done by telephone or letter.

I don't have copies of correspondence from this time.

 

It's clear from other threads that I should avoid telephone contact with BCW.

I need to know how they/Barclays reach the figure of £1900.

It seems possible that Barclays left the account open.

If that happened there may have been one or two small standing orders to charities

which I forgot to cancel and which have simply accumulated over the last 10 years.

 

What should I do now?

 

 

Presumably Barclays will have to provide me with statements over the last 10 years to show me how this debt has built up.

 

 

Can I ask them to let me have this bearing in mind that BCW are asking for all communication to go through them?

 

 

Also, would there have been any onus on Barclays to contact me when it became clear that the account was inactive

- no income going in, no cash withdrawals, just possibly 1 or 2 standing orders?

And would they have been able to keep renewing the annual overdraft without my agreement?

 

Any help on what to do would be much appreciated.

[dx100uk]

its statute barred

forget about it

 

 

that's why you got a phishing letter

to see if they could spoof a mug into coughing up.

 

 

just remember

DCA's or their fake/tame' solicitors

ARE NOT BAILIFFS

 

 

and have

NO SUCH LEGAL POWERS.

 

 

dx

[Podengo269]

Thanks for your reply - that is encouraging but can you clarify

 

Is it still statute barred if Barclays have been issuing monthly statements (to an old address)

 

 

and continued to take standing orders over the last 10 years?

 

 

Won't they say the account has been active,

 

 

even though I thought it was closed

 

 

and haven't received anything from them?

[dx100uk]

sb is your last USE or written ack

not an automatic payment by them.

or any letters

 

 

dx

[Podengo269]

Just trawled through old papers and found a copy of my letter to Barclays in 2004 instructing them to cancel the account. Pretty clear from what you've said that it's staute barred anyway. Thanks again for your advice.

[mikeymack2002]

If you think it is statute barred then send this letter from here

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387368-Letter-to-be-sent-when-debt-is-Statute-Barred-(update-21.04.2014)

[slick132]

Hi Pod and welcome to CAG

 

Only 2 things count in determining if the a/c is Statute Barred or not :-

 

1. Have you made a written acknowledgement of the debt or a/c in the last 6 years.

 

2. Have you paid anything towards the balance in the last 6 years and 3 months.

 

If the answer is no, you can just ignore demands or send the SB letter. Ignoring them runs the risk of a court claim being made to an old address.

 

If the bank have added charges or interest within the past 6 years, that is their problem and does not affect whether the a/c is SB'd or not.

 

[Podengo269]

Thanks for the advice Slick

 

No, I've had no correspondence with Barclays and certainly haven't paid anything in - I'd thought and assumed that the account was closed.

 

My main concern is that they'll interpret the continuing standing order payments as 'action' on my payment and therefore deem the account to be live and the debt valid.

 

dx100s post suggests continuing automatic SOs and DDs can't be taken as active use of the account and so the accruing debt becomes Statute Barred.

 

Other advice I've acquired adds that Barclays should have picked up on the complete lack of funds going in to the account when renewing the overdraft and should have suspended the account 9 years ago.

 

I'm anticipating that the BCW will put up a fight but seems clear this is statute barred one way or another. I'll send them the SB letter.

 

Thanks again

[slick132]

Hi Pod,

 

The only relevant account activity is payments made into the a/c from you. Outgoing SO's would NOT affect the issue of your a/c being SB'd.

 

So, in the absence of payments into the a/c, or written acknowledgement of the debt, within the last 6 years, this matter is SB'd.

 

The SB letter should see them off.

 

[Podengo269]

Hello,

 

I'm hoping for some advice. Not sure if anyone has had or is experiencing similar hassle from Barclays.

 

My situation is this. Eleven years ago I had a current account with Barclays which had a standard overdraft facility. I switched to the Coop in 2004, instructed Barclays to close the account and thought nothing more of it.

 

Late last year I started receiving requests for payment of £1950 from Buchanan Clark & Wells, claiming to be acting for Barclays and referring to my old account. I'd heard nothing from Barclays over the intervening eleven years but had moved address twice so, if they'd ignored my cancellation instructions, it's likely they'd been sending statements to my old address.

 

Neither BCW or Barclays had provided any breakdown of the £1950 figure but I was now working on the assumption that Barclays had not closed the account and that one or two standing orders or direct debits had been left to accrue. These can only have been small payments to charities etc. as all major monthly payments had been switched to the Coop.

I'm presuming that these payments have been continuing to go out over the last eleven years and at some stage the account balance had exceeded whatever my old overdraft limit was.

 

At this point I took advice from National Debtline. They assured me that the debt was statute barred as I'd not made any payment into the account or acknowledged any debt for more than six years. I explained about the possibility of the continuing standing orders/direct debits but they said that these would not constitute 'activity' on my part. I wrote back to BCW to this effect. After 4 months of more letters they eventually stopped writing.

 

Then, Last month I received a letter from Westcot, much like the original from BCW, requesting payment of £1950 and referring to the old Barclays account. I responded with the same SB letter that I'd sent to BCW. They wrote back explaining that 'my account with them' had been put on hold while they investigated. I've now received a further letter from Westcot again requesting full payment and enclosing a copy of a Termination Notice letter from Barclays dated October 2014. This had been sent to an old address so I had not received it.

 

The Barclays Notice was, again, demanding immediate payment of £1950. In addition they explained that a daily charge of £0.95 would apply for every day that the debt remained outstanding and that non payment would result in them transferring the debt to one of its 'recovery units or agents'. This is clearly what happened as it explains the contact from BCW.

 

What should I do now? I'm especially concerned at the idea that a daily charge has been and is continuing to accrue. Are Barclays allowed to do this? I'm also concerned at the impact this will now have on my credit rating. I've since received a letter from the Coop refusing to renew my overdraft which they say is 'based on information provided by a credit reference agency'.

 

I'd been inclined to ignore all further contact from Westcot but am worried that the debt will build based on Barclays 'daily charge' threat.

 

Won't Barclays just claim that I didn't ensure closure of the account and allowed the payments to continue?

If they take this line, can I argue that they shouldn't in any case have renewed the overdraft annually for 11 years as there was no salary or payment going into the account?

 

Anyone have any ideas or similar experiences?

[dx100uk]

The debt is statute barred

 

Have you checked your credit file?

[dx100uk]

Old and new threads merged

 

DX

[BankFodder]

Have the bank been paying the standing orders?

[Podengo269]

No I haven't yet but the Coop, in refusing to renew my overdraft said:

 

'The information which resulted in the decline was registered with Experian'

 

I will check it but am assuming Barclays have registered the old account with CRAs as they threatened to do in the Termination Notice.

[fkofilee]

Termination notice in Oct 14?What? This has to be SB ... Unless Wescot has been fiddling...

[Podengo269]

I don't know if Barclays have been paying any SOs or DDs. I assume that they would have continued if they didn't cancel the account. But shouldn't they have spotted no funds were going in and stopped at first annual renewal of overdraft (in 2005)?

[fkofilee]

It should be way into the SB period by now! Right, got to Noddle and get your CRF!

See if they have been putting AP Markers or something similar.

[Podengo269]

Another issue springs to mind....

Could Barclays argue it's not SB on the basis that the overdraft limit might not actually have been breached until last year??

In other words, it only actually became a debt in their eyes at that stage.

[citizenB]

Did you not advise earlier that you had written to them asking them to close the account ?

[Podengo269]

Yes, I advised BCW of this in my first letter to them (in Dec last year). Westcot were sent the same letter last month so they were both told about the instructions to cancel at first opportunity.

As far as Barclays are concerned, it hadn't entered my head that the account was still open until I got the BCW letter out of the blue.

[Podengo269]

Thanks for advice so far.

 

Research elsewhere seems to suggest that this is NOT statute barred on account of the 'debt' commencing not when I gave my instructions to cancel the account (11 years ago) but when the overdraft limit was reached (probably sometime in the last year). So in other words, the six years didn't start ticking until the account went over the limit.

If it's not statute barred my next question would be, shouldn't Barclays have terminated the overdraft earlier when it was clear there were no funds going in? It appears they have just allowed the debt to accumulate. Are they allowed to do that?

[dx100uk]

IMHO you sent them a letter to close the account.

how long after that letter were you still at the same address you sent it from?

 

 

dx

[fkofilee]

Right well, no CCA can be used for this so I will suggest that you do one different. Barclays have royally ****ed up here. And I mean Royally.

 

I am going to say that you need to take this to the top immediately!! And Ive got just the way you can do that.

 

Its time to initiate the Exec Complaint Mode.

 

antony.jenkins@barclays.com - Chief Exec

michael.roemer@barclays.com - Head Of Compliance

 

These 2 guys are top notch and their exec team is amazing as I recently found out when it came to my missing SAR Requests.

They can dig out a LOT of stuff. Some people would say ignore the DCA, Id say otherwise and react to them by going for Barclays. Ive had a lot of success dealing with Exec teams. For added measure, add in

 

consumer.champions@theguardian.com

watchdog@bbc.co.uk

[Podengo269]

I'm pretty sure I requested cancellation in October 2004. That's when I took out the Coop account so I would've switched directly from Barclays to Coop. I don't have copy of the the letter to hand although I did find it last year when this first arose.

I then moved to new address in February 2005.

[Podengo269]

Thanks, that's encouraging to here!

Okay, so complain to Barclays execs on the grounds that they're hassling more for an Statute Barred debt OR that they should've cancelled the overdraft in 2005 when obvious no funds were going in?