9k on Barclaycard Credit card, crippling interest, need some help on options please

[DaveTheMonkey]

Hi,

 

My partner has got herself into 9k's worth of debt with a credit card company.

 

She kept it secret for years and has been paying £300-£350 minimum amount per month, but the interest keeps coming and she's missed payments because of other debts and outgoings.

 

We don't have any joint savings to throw at it, I'm disabled and not working and we have a child of 4. She works full time.

 

I'm not sure what further details are required, so please let me know and I'll add them.

 

I would really appreciate some guidance as to what our options are.

 

My first thought was to get a consolidation loan to bring down the payments to manageable levels, but I doubt she'd be able to get a loan because of the missed payments.

 

CC firm don't seem interested in helping and the interest is mounting up.

 

She hasn't spent anything on the card for many months since she first defaulted.

 

Thank you.

 

P.S. apologies if this is in the wrong section.

[dx100uk]

Who's the creditor

[DaveTheMonkey]

Who's the creditor

 

Thanks, Barclaycard.

[dx100uk]

ok thanks we will pop in later

 

 

dx

[unclebulgaria67]

You really needed more rounded debt advice from someone qualified. So your partner might be best advised to contact stepchange.

 

Barclaycard are not likely to be that helpful, unless your partner completes income and expenses info for them, which proves that you are going through hardship. If your partner proves that the payments including interest are causing hardship, then perhaps Barclaycard might stop interest for a period.

 

When was the Barclaycard taken out originally ?

 

Have Barclaycard increased interest rate ? If so, was this as a result of a missed or late payment ?

 

Have you checked that as a family you are receiving all benefits, tax credits etc that you are entitled to ?

 

Do you own a property with or without a mortgage or do you rent ?

 

Are there any other debts ?

 

Up to date with council tax payments ?

 

If you can provide a bit more info, it would help

[DaveTheMonkey]

Thank you.

 

The card was taken out around 2003/4.

 

Yes, Barclaycard increased the interest rate after a default. I'm not sure what it is, but I will find out if needed.

 

I get PIP, we get a small amount of working tax credits and child tax credits.

 

I own the house, no mortgage.

 

Yes, it's just Barclaycard that she has defaulted on, I think she had a couple of missed payments on a women's clothes catalog, but is now up to date. I beleive she's 3 payment's behind with Barclaycard.

 

Thanks for the help, it is much appreciated.

[dx100uk]

you mean there are defaulted dates listed for these debts?

or no defaulted dates yet?

[DaveTheMonkey]

you mean there are defaulted dates listed for these debts?

or no defaulted dates yet?

 

Thanks. I don't understand what that means, sorry. She has missed payments, are they not the same as defaults?

 

Edit: Sorry, I just asked her and she said she's not had any default notices.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thanks. I don't understand what that means, sorry. She has missed payments, are they not the same as defaults?

 

Edit: Sorry, I just asked her and she said she's not had any default notices.

 

Your partner should check their credit record.

 

As far as i know the standard position with a credit card is this. You miss one payment and they add the minimum payment as well as late payment fee to the next months statement. If you then failed to pay the next months statement by the due date, a default notice is issued giving a time period to pay the missed payments before the default is noted on the credit record.

 

I suspect that your partner paid the default amount, which might have been close to 3 months after a missed payment.

 

You really to both sit down and write out a full income/expenses sheet. If you are still spending more than you earn, after cutting out all unnecessary amounts, then you need to get debt advice. Perhaps Barclaycard will help, if you have gone to Stepchange and you are in a position of hardship.

[dx100uk]

look on the Credit file

is there a defaulted date in the debts summary

[DaveTheMonkey]

OK thanks, so we need to check the credit file. Is this just a case of making an account with any of equifax, experian or the other one that I can't remember the name of?

 

She has listed most of the incomings and outgoings and she will put them in a spread sheet ready for tomorrow. Once I find out how to check the credit file and get the info you need, I'll report back, probably tomorrow, if that's OK?

 

Thanks for your help.

[renegadeimp]

If theres a default registered ( unlikely) then i would send a CCA request.

[DaveTheMonkey]

Thanks. She just had a look and there's no defaults.

[renegadeimp]

Then contact barclaycard and see if you can come to an agreement. perhaps fill in a National debtline budget summary ( not barclaycards pretty intrusive one), and see if you can arrange lower repayments for a period of 6 months . You also want them to stop all interest and charges otherwise its pointless as the interest would keep acrruing.

[slick132]

Hi Dave,

 

If you (or YW) were unable to maintain the required payments, you should have asked BC to stop adding interest and/or penalty charges.

 

If BC were, or they should have been, aware YW was in financial difficulty, they had a duty to help their customer. Read The Lending Code - sections 224 to 227 if I recall correctly.

 

1. Do you have details of all penalty charges added over the years ? (These can be reclaimed)

 

2. Do you know when BC were first told, or they should have been aware, of YW's inability to service the a/c as required.

 

3. Is this a/c showing at all on YW's CRA files.

 

On a general note, if YW paid penalty charges to ANY lender such as a catalogue or a credit card, these can be reclaimed.

 

[mariner51]

At the last count there were 4 CRA's providing postal Credit reports @~£3 each. Each needs to be checked as each obtains data from diff sources. Some CRA's allow free/limited offer online access.

Tell wife to destroy the card, it won't prevent interest accruing but will avoid temptation for further use

Negotiate a mutually acceptable/binding repayment plan with BC to clear the CC account

[DaveTheMonkey]

Then contact barclaycard and see if you can come to an agreement. perhaps fill in a National debtline budget summary ( not barclaycards pretty intrusive one), and see if you can arrange lower repayments for a period of 6 months . You also want them to stop all interest and charges otherwise its pointless as the interest would keep acrruing.

 

Ok thanks for that, she is going to contact them tomorrow. She hasn't ever spoken to them, just been paying whatever they ask for.

 

Hi Dave,

 

If you (or YW) were unable to maintain the required payments, you should have asked BC to stop adding interest and/or penalty charges.

 

If BC were, or they should have been, aware YW was in financial difficulty, they had a duty to help their customer. Read The Lending Code - sections 224 to 227 if I recall correctly.

 

1. Do you have details of all penalty charges added over the years ? (These can be reclaimed)

 

2. Do you know when BC were first told, or they should have been aware, of YW's inability to service the a/c as required.

 

3. Is this a/c showing at all on YW's CRA files.

 

On a general note, if YW paid penalty charges to ANY lender such as a catalogue or a credit card, these can be reclaimed.

 

 

I was unaware of the situation, we don't have joint accounts or anything like that and until now, she had never mentioned it, so it's a bit of a bombshell, to be honest. She is going to contact them tomorrow to see if she can get the payments down and interest/penalties stopped.

 

I'm not sure they were/are aware yet, other than the missed payments and increased interest rate + penalties, which I'm guessing is all automated?

 

1. I'm sure we can get these, she has just informed me that she messed up on this card many years ago too, but they gave her a new one once she had cleared it!

 

2. As above, I do not think they are aware of the situation as yet.

 

3. She checked clear score last night, but we will check the others tonight.

 

Thanks for the information on the penalty charges, that's something we can do once we know where we are.

 

A friend has recommended Payplan, I have also seen it mentioned on here. Is that worth a look? Thanks again for all the help, it is very much appreciated!

 

At the last count there were 4 CRA's providing postal Credit reports @~£3 each. Each needs to be checked as each obtains data from diff sources. Some CRA's allow free/limited offer online access.

Tell wife to destroy the card, it won't prevent interest accruing but will avoid temptation for further use

Negotiate a mutually acceptable/binding repayment plan with BC to clear the CC account

 

 

Thanks. We are going to do this tonight. The card was destroyed months ago. I honestly think that all lines of credit need to be cut so she can't do it again. I wonder if an IVA may be the answer?

[dx100uk]

you shoulnt need to use Payplan or NDL

you should be able to this yourself easily

 

 

there are suitable letters in out debt collection library requesting interest freeze etc due to hardship etc

always better to write don't ring.

[DaveTheMonkey]

OK, great, thanks. I'll check them out now.

[slick132]

Hi Dave,

 

I understand YW may not have told BC she was in financial difficulty.

 

The question is, did she miss payments often enough so that BC could reasonably identified she was in FD's ?

 

Does YW have old statements where penalty charges were made after missed payments. If she does, let us know roughly how many penalty charges were made and how far back they go.

 

Reclaiming these with compound interest can put a big hole in the debt owed. Plus you could try to get interest reduced or written off if BC failed to take action about FD's.

 

Too early IMHO to think about an IVA.

 

[DaveTheMonkey]

Thanks again!

 

We have grabbed the appropriate letter and we are doing it tonight.

 

She's feeling a bit more positive about things now she has a direction, so thanks for that

[DaveTheMonkey]

Just updating this.

we sent BC a budget breakdown and it showed that we could pay £92, she rounded it up to 100.

 

 

Sent off all the letters to the other creditors and BC were the only ones that never responded.

 

 

We contacted again a few days ago and they claim to have sent a letter, weeks ago, but we never received it.

 

 

After much back and forth, they have re-sent the letter via secure webmail:

 

Before we can consider your offer of £100.00 per month, we need to

 

gain an understanding as to whether your financial situation is

 

likely to be short term (up to 12 months) and you will be able to

 

revert back to your contractual payments including interest or

 

long term."

 

That's pretty much where we are, now.

We should be going for a long term freeze on the interest?

Can that be done?

Not sure how this works.

 

 

Thanks for any help, much appreciated

[unclebulgaria67]

Best to be totally honest with Barclaycard and give them the full picture. Perhaps they might remove some of the interest already added and therefore reduce the debt amount. They might accept the £100 a month for an initial 12 months and then review it.

 

As i understand it, you own the house in your name only and therefore there is no point in Barclaycard thinking the debtor has assets. It is just a case of not enough income to make the minimum payments required and currently this is unlikely to change.

 

Work with Barclaycard on this and if you do that then i can't see them not helping.

[DaveTheMonkey]

Thanks, yes, we have been truthful, 100%.

I'm unsure why you think we weren't?

 

 

I think my main worry is that if she does go for a 12 month suspension of fees and is only paying off at 100 per month, she's still going to be owing 7800 or so and once that interest kicks in again after 12 months, she will be back in the same sitiuation where the minimum payment is far more than she can afford and as a result, the debt grows instead of decreases.

[unclebulgaria67]

I don't think anything.

 

Always look at things from the opposite side of the fence.

If Barclaycard have written to you in the way they have, it suggests the member of staff dealing with your correspondence was not totally clear.

You then have to look at what you sent them and think how you make your position clearer.

 

That is all i am saying. Make your position as clear as you can and make it easy for Barclaycard to understand.

 

This Barclaycard account with a large debt and a customer with problems will just be number 9 on a list of 30 cases the Barclaycard member of staff is dealing with that day. The debt is not unique, but your individual circumstances are what you need to properly describe to Barclaycard.