Barclay's Bank PLC (17)

I'm so fucking fabulous, i piss glitter.

They are very good at what they do, have seen it all before and trust me, a weight will very quickly be lifted as a result.

Good luck and memo me if you need any more information.

Sometimes the stillness of the night is the best music of all...

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Sometimes the stillness of the night is the best music of all...

The large, posh branch near my office no longer accepts payment over the counter. I found this after queueing for 15 minutes - and was then directed to the self service machines downstairs. Several were out of order and the rest had queues 10 people deep.

Set up a direct debit? You have to speak to a foreign call centre, and are informed it takes six to eight weeks....six to eight weeks! for the direct debit to be set up.

Muppetry. A sea of muppetry.

"Me? I'm all about the hugs.
And cruelty. Hugs and cruelty basically."

I am sorry to hear you are having problems and hope you manage to resolve them soon.

My experience is that debt collection agencies in general are useless and if you look up you will find many of the same comments whichever company.

Different agency. My son got a letter advising he owed money. But they don't tell you what the debt relates to. So you write asking what it is. They advise they will put the debt on hold while they respond to your query.

You get a letter advising they haven't heard from you. You remind them you are on hold while they identify what the alleged debt relates to. You get a letter confirming you are on hold. Swiftly followed by another letter telling you you have not responded to their letter.

All the letters are menacing. Threatening bailiffs and County Court Judgements.

In the end they threaten with a particular court. But when you look it up - it doesn't exist.

I trumped them - copy of all the correspondence to court in the same geographical location asking for their assistance as the company are not listening to me - copied to the debt collection agency, with a letter asking for the letter to be passed to someone with reasonable literacy skills and the ability to respond to the letter appropriately.

The court were unable to help. But the debt collection agency cancelled the debt.

I felt like billing them for my time and postage!

Grrrrrrrrr

Top tips include:

1) letting them know that you are distressed by the phone calls, and refuse permission for them to call (or send anyone round). They need to communicate by letter only. Sample letters to use are on the CAG site. (One can't stop a court bailiff coming round .. but the aim is to prevent it getting that far). Most other people including debt collectors ( even including the postie!) only have an implied right of access to your property, which you can withdraw at any time.

Register on the CAG site, and you'll have access to their template letters, including: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/conte... and http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/conte...

2) That website recommend the Tru-call phone recorder, useful for if they ignore the "no calls" letter ; then again, if you can't afford an increased repayment, you probably won't be looking to pay for a Tru-call...

3) That the sum you are paying is all you can reasonably afford (provided that is true ... that way if they decide to 'call your bluff', they'll find out you aren't bluffing!). If they wish to take you to court, to have the court confirm that ... then you are happy for them to do so ... as then the details of your agreement to pay will be approved by the court, and they'd have to go back to the court to get it varied (if your circumstances changed).

Ohh, and don't sign any of the letters, only print your name (so the signature can't be 'lifted'!).

I'm not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV), so this advice is worth what you have paid for it, but hopefully you'll be able to confirm its accuracy....

Cheers, Badg1.

Edited 9 Nov 10, 12:02 AM by Badg1Vo

next step is of course the letter quoting the OFT debt collection guidleines reminding them about harrassment (request that all further correspondence is by letter, no phone calls or texts. if they phone you simply hang up.) and complete bollocks legal threats, (possibly not using that precise phrase though). andof course the pretending to be different companies, when Mercers hand the debt on to another company. (i used to have a debt with Barclays so almost certainly still have letters from all the 'different' collection agencies and legal firms.

beyond all that, as long as you maintain the payment plan you have already agreed with them there is absolutely nothing they can do.

God ran out of brains when they were handing them out and just pissed in your skull instead didnt he?

Hi Masters_Delight,

Thanks for your response, I must admit I haven't been to CAB yet - I have heard that they can be quite good.

Pay Plan offered to Pay off my Barclay's Overdraft at over a pound a month but Barclay's declined the offer.

Best Wishes

George (Curious_Sub)

Hi Dark_Cherry,

Thanks for your response, funnily enough I was thinking of trying CCCS but my employer recommended Pay Plan and said that they have a good success rate (just hope that works out to be true.) Pay Plan like CCCs do not charge, they also look at your finances and arrange a Debt Management Plan that you can afford to pay your Creditors each month, the payments are also protected - so should you lose your job, the Payments will still continue.

Discussing this problem with Pay Plan, they said that this is something that always happens with Barclay's. What Barclay's do to their Victims is put ever increasing pressure on them in the hope that they can get the Payments increased but do normally agree after a few Months - hopefully they are right.

Best Wishes

George (Curious_Sub)

Hi Skyhook,

Thanks for your response, must admit that I've never been totally happy with Barclay's since I opened my account with them, twenty two years ago - I should have changed Banks years ago.

Best Wishes

George (Curious_Sub)