Barclaycard Help Needed Please

[neil0129]

Hello, i have a Visa and Mastercard through Barclaycard. I have had the accounts since 2003, and in total owe about £3000 on them. I can no longer afford to pay the min balnce on these accounts. I wrote a letter to them requesting to freeze interest and charges on these accounts and offered a min payment of £15 per month for both card.

They responded today saying this:-

"We may consider reuduced repayment offers if you CALL on to discuss this on the telephone number supplied.
Once a mutually agreed repayment agreement has been reached charges and interest will then be reviewed.
We loook forward to hearing from you within 14 days."

So i do want to reach a agreement but i do no want to talk to them on the phone i want to reach and agreement through writing only, what should my next step be, call them or write another letter, and what do i write in the letter?

[bazaar]

First and foremost, welcome
You do not have to talk to them, so dont worry about it. Everything in writing from now on.
Do you bank with Barclays? I ask because if you do, they will most certainly dip into your bank account and take money from it.
So the general rule is to open a bank account not affiliated with Barclays. This will ensure you have some control of what is going on.
Its also Subject access request time, (10 pounds )so you can see what charges theyve added during the account time. They have 40 days to respond to this.
Also a CCA request can go out seperately ( 1 pound ). this will specifically ask for the agreement that was supposedly signed by you.
If they fail to provide a valid response you are entitled to withold payment until they do provide what youve asked for.
Just holler if you need more

[neil0129]

I no longer bank with Barclays, so no danger of them taking money. Do you think i should CCA them then, and not pursue the payment proposal route i started?

[bazaar]

Well, IMHO, what proposal for payment can you make with them if you dont have all the facts in front of you?
Lets just say that they tell you, you owe 2000. That could well be made up of 1000 in charges. So obviously youd want to negotiate that out of the settlement figure, if youre still of the mind that you want to settle it.

All theyve sent you so far is a request that you ring them on their premium rate phone number ( so they sting you for more), they are obviously still lumping on the interest and charges. So ask yourself if theyve been reasonable with you.
By asking for the original credit agreement, youre sort of putting them on notice that you may fight them, so they may offer you a reduced figure.
If, on the other hand they dont produce a valid agreement that can be enforced in court, then you have a choice to make.
At the end of the day, its up to you how you want to handle them,
1. Play their game and pay what they say you owe.
2. Reduce the debt by pointing out to them their errors.
3. contest the whole thing.
Youre not alone dealing with BC, if you read some threads, you'll see how they behave.
If you need any help with anything, just ask

[slick132]

Hi Neil,

Just wanted to confirm, you are entitled to a full refund of all penalty charges added to your a/c, as they are unlawful.

Follow Bazaar's advice and send off a CCA request and, if you don't have all your a/c statements for the last 6 years, a Subject access request.