UPDATE Spring 2024
Barclays is sending people some “NOSIA” letters – because Barclays failed to send you a Notice of Sums In Arrears letter and because of that it is refunding interest after the date the letter should have been sent.
The Response Form can be found here https://www.barclays.co.uk/help/remediation/orf/ – that is a genuine page. It says some people may need to send a picture of the first page of their bank account statement and photo id.
If you have any difficulty, eg you can’t complete the form and can’t get an answer from the helpline, then send a complaint to wandim.execcomplaints@barclays.com
UPDATE 2020
In mid-2020, Barclaycard started sending a letter to some customers saying where they may have had raised their credit limit too high.
See Barclaycard credit limit letters for details.
In 2018 Barclays started a major refund program to customers with overdrafts, loans or credit cards who had been charged interest when Barclays knew they were in financial difficulty.
The Arrears assistance review page on Barclays website says:
After a careful review, we found that from October 2013, we didn’t always provide the service we should have to some customers who were over their borrowing limit or behind in their loan or card payments.
We’re sorry and we want to make things right, so we’re returning interest and charges to those who might have been affected during this time.
What is the refund for?
The accounts affected include overdrafts, loans, Barclaycard accounts (including previous Egg card accounts) and Partner Finance accounts eg for car finance.
From what customers are being told when they ask, it seems Barclays now recognises that it did not properly assess customer circumstances when it knew they were in difficulties.
The Helpline says that Barclays has “been working collaboratively” with their regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, about these refunds. The FCA’s rules say:
CONC 7.3.4 A firm must treat customers in default or in arrears difficulties with forbearance and due consideration.
CONC 7.3.5 Examples of treating a customer with forbearance would include …
(1) considering suspending, reducing, waiving or cancelling any further interest or charges (for example, when a customer provides evidence of financial difficulties and is unable to meet repayments as they fall due or is only able to make token repayments
The most common reason customers are being given for the refund or write off is that they are getting back interest and extra charges that Barclays now feels it should not have been added.
How many people are getting these refunds?
Barclays hasn’t said how many people are going to be refunded. However the review was originally mentioned on their website homepage so it must be large!
The first refunds started going out in March 2018 – initially these were low numbers.
A lot more refunds letters have been sent out in November and December 2018 – these mostly relate to Barclaycard accounts. Here are a couple of examples from readers – you can see these and other comments at the bottom of this page:
I received a letter offering £75 as an inconvenience payment and advising they are closing the account and I do not need to make any further payments. The balance is approximately £7,500! I can’t quite believe it.
I have had the same letter. £75 inconvenience payment and closure of the account. I was unwell in 2013 and required a period of time in residential care. I had around 5k owing on a Barclaycard.
One person was told by customer services that they were sending out 35,000 refund letters a week.
That suggests to me that Barclays is probably refunding hundreds of thousands of people.
The refund is automatic
You don’t have to put in a complaint or a request for a refund. Barclays will be contacting the people affected directly.
If you have moved and changed your phone, or you don’t think Barclays ever had your mobile number, Barclays may have difficulty contacting you. You may want to call them on 0800 328 6932 and give your new contact information.
Worried this is a scam?
Many people may be worried that a text or letter saying your bank is going to give you money is a scam. And if you no longer have a Barclays account, you will be asked for your new bank details…
The refund program is genuine. There are lots of customers commenting below to say they have received these letters. Everyone who has checked so far has found their letter or text is real.
The letter should contain details of the official helpline number for these refunds – 0800 328 6932.
If there is a different telephone number on the letter Barclays sent, you can put it into this Barclay’s phone number verifier. But if you want to be sure, the best way is to call the official helpline number.
What happens to your credit record
This depends on what your account currently shows. If you aren’t sure, check it now, see the best ways to check your credit records.
If your account balance is being written off, the debt will be marked on your credit record as closed and partially settled, with a balance of zero:
- accounts where there is a default date drop off your credit record six years after that default date.
- if your account hasn’t been defaulted but is just in arrears, it will drop off six years after it is closed.
So records with a default date will disappear sooner and stop harming your credit score sooner. If there is no default date, you should think if you would prefer one to be added! See what should the default date be for a debt? If you would like a default added, I suggest you contact the refund helpline, say thanks for the write-off but you would also like a default date added when you got into difficulty.
Are you getting enough compensation?
This is hard to tell. It depends exactly what happened to you.
If you are being offered a standard £75 and Barclaycard caused you a lot of problems, you may want to say you should be offered more.
If you are told you are not on the list to get compensation, it is worth going back with a reasoned explanation about when they should have seen you were in trouble. For example, you may have complained about overdraft charges saying you couldn’t afford them.
It is worth talking to the helpline and saying if you think you should have a larger refund. Here is one example where reader has had success:
Told them I wished to challenge the charges pre 2013. They then transferred me to the complaints department that listen to my complaint, took my details and rang me back later that day for more info. A few days later they rang back to go through the story again. Went away for a hour and then rang back with a settlement offer.
Other things you may want to complain about include if you were offered a consolidation loan you couldn’t afford, or if you weren’t signposted to a place for free debt advice when you said you were in financial difficulty.
Originally published in March 2018, updated in December 2018
Complain if a creditor doesn’t freeze interest
Can you really offer just £1 to a debt?
Change bank account if you have problem debt
Amy says
Me and my husband both had Barclays credit cards. The debts have been sold on for both. Will they still have to look at our accounts even though they are closed.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My guess is they will, but the only way to find out is to phone them up and ask.
Village Idiot says
I’ll tell you how Barclays behaved towards my partner as regards ‘forebearance’.
When she fell behind with her Barclaycard they continued to apply interest. Worse still, here’s what they did: when she could afford to pay £30 a month they charged, lets say, 3% interest so the balance was only coming down by a couple of pounds a month. She upped the payment to £60 a month, guess what Barclays did, yes, they put the interest rate up to 6% and she was still paying nothing down.
They also defaulted the account without notice and at a point that bore no resemblance to, for example, hitting 6 months of arrears – it was much much longer than that.
Knowing what I know now such as from reading on here, I can see why the FCA have perhaps had a word with them.
My partner’s debt was sold so if there is a refund due I wonder what will happen.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think she should find out if she is on the list for a refund. If she isn’t, she may want to put in a complaint.
Kate says
I’m pretty sure this effects me, however my account is now finally closed following completing a debt management plan. I’ve since moved house so called Barclays to advise of my new address. They said they cannot record this anywhere because the account cannot be accessed and therefore cannot help me until I receive a letter from them……. lol but they don’t have my address and cannot take it from me! How ridiculous. Just as helpful all these years later! Pleased to be rid of them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well that certainly isn’t helpful! Pretty farcical in fact.
However, when did your DMP start? And were Barclays really charging you interest during it?
Village Idiot says
In our case, they were Sara. The only creditor of 14 who was.
Frank says
My credit card with Barclays was sold on too but they’ve managed to find me having moved twice with the letter stating how they’d like to give me a refund for a pittance of 70 pound providing I have an account at my bank now in my full name, like most its been shortened over the years will I still get anything is another matter…
Gail says
Has anyone heard from Barclays yet
Suzy says
Hi Gail,
Nope not a word text or letter i had now closed went to PRA old Barclaycard also a secured loan with Barclays both had arrears problems ,
Loan eventually stopped interest a year after i had financial problems
I really hope to hear from them soon or i will be contacting them as if i can get the interest back dated to October 2013 it would be a great help to me
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should phone them up and ask if you are on the list for a refund.
Suzy says
Hi Sara & All
Thanks for your reply i called them and calls are answered by an overseas call centre? -who pass your call on to an adviser , who said they do not know who will get letters as review still going on,
Interested to know if anyone heard from them as they website gives a different impression ?
I will hold out for a letter as i had interest charges on a loan that didn’t even cover the payments ! that went on for some 16 months before they eventually stopped charging the interest,
Im hoping for those 16 months interest to be re credited to the loan,
Please correct me if im wrong ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When was this? About the only firm information Barclays have given is that the refunds are for mistakes made in 2013 or afterwards.
Suzy says
Hi Sara,
Mine is a secured loan run into trouble in 2013 after a relationship breakdown paying less and interest was still being added increasing my balance , eventually they stopped charging me interest but only after some 16 months ,
i was wondering if i could complain that i should of been helped from the onset of my financial hardship and have the interest back dated and re credited to the loan to lower the balance /
Your thoughts would be helpful please
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok so you are in the possible group time-wise. I don’t know if they will be including secured loans in these refunds though. To some extent Barclays was already being considerate by allowing arrears to increase without looking to repossess your house.
Sam says
I had aletter on online banking saying they didnt help me in 2015 an they will be intouch at a later date
Tom says
Yes I have but I don’t know if it is real or not.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The refunds are real – if you are unsure about the letter you have received, phone the number on the article above these comments and ask – that is a genuine Barclays helpline for this
diddydogz says
Had letter to say refund owed of £634, no longer have the account so rang and provided new account details and was told payment would be made in next few weeks-no payment arrived so rang again and this time I was told no refund would be paid as it was being used to reduce the overdraft debt-which was included and written off in a DRO which ended June-16-should I challenge or are they correct that they can use it to reduce a debt even though it was written off in the DRO?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, first I am not clear if this refund is part of the redress program that was been announced last week. But that doesn’t really matter for your question…
The question about whether Barclays have a right of set off – using the refund to repay part of the balance of the debt that wento into the DRO – is an interesting one. I don’t think they have – section 251I of the Insolvency Act 1986 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/45/section/251I states that your debts are discharged at the end of the DRO. This overdraft debt no longer exists, so there is nothing to set off your refund against.
I suggest you reply to Barclays saying this and asking them to look at this again. If they refuse, take your case to the Financial Ombudsman, see https://help.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/help. This is easy to do, but you could go to your local Citizens Advice if you would like any help with this.
Andy says
Hi Sara
(1 of 2)
Based on what is known so far do you think I may have a chance of a refund – is my situation relevant to the refund criteria? If I am not on the list for a refund should I submit a complaint? Thanks in advance.
1/ Barclaycard Visa Card. During the period Oct13 to Mar15. Credit Limit was £4,400. Balance in Oct13 was £4495. Balance 18 months later was £4492. Reduced by £3 in 18 months !! Interest paid was £1663. Incurred a over limit charge (£12) for 17 out of the 18 months – total of £204 charges. No missed payments. Each month when I got paid I would pay the ‘over credit limit amount’ plus the minimum payment. This would provide an available credit of circa £100 and I would withdraw it as a cash withdrawal as soon as payment had cleared. Same pattern every month for 18 months. They never once took any pro-active steps to prevent the pattern continuing (i.e. suspend account), to stop cash withdrawal facility or reduce rate of interest or any combination of. Neither did they ever ring me to discuss my borrowing patterns. If I should complain, as well as asking for charges to be refunded, should I ask for 8% simple interest and crucially should I request that they refund all (or a percentage) of the interest I paid during the 18 months?
Thanks again, Andy
Andy says
Hi Sara
(2 of 2)
Barclaycard Mastercard. During period Oct13 to Oct 14. Credit limit was £7,700. At some point [prior to Oct13 I closed the account as it was the only way to prevent them increasing the interest rate even higher than it already was. At that time and on a couple more occasions after Oct13 I contacted them to request help in reducing my debt and asked them to consider freezing or reducing the amount on interest I was paying each month. My min payments were circa £150 and circa £135 of this was taken in interest. Each time I was advised that I would have to stop paying completely, get at least a few months in arrears, have my account passed to their debt recovery team and receive regular calls chasing payment before they could consider my request for help. At the time I thought their offer of support was terrible, they were basically telling me I had to get into more debt problems before they could help !! Needless to say I didn’t follow their advice and just kept paying every couple of months to keep the wolves at bay. My balance in Oct13 was £7,642 and in Oct14 was £7,786. So after paying over £1,600 over 13 months my balance went up by circa £100 !! As my account was closed this was completely as a result of numerous charges and monthly interest. 8 over limit charges at £12 each and 9 missed payment charges also at £12 each.
Many Thanks, Andy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Barclays have been not been specific about what their refund criteria are. And they haven’t said how many people they will be refunding, so we have no idea if this is a couple of thousand or hundreds of thousands. From the little they have said, you could fit the “some customers who were over their borrowing limit” part of their statement.
You could ring them up and ask, but so far no one has yet got a definitive answer from this as it seems Barclays themselves are still working out who is affected.
Do I think you have been treated unfairly? Yes. You had contacted them and told them you were n trouble and their response was not helpful. You have clearly identified a lot of the issues, one you don’t mention in the ‘things they could have done’ is to signpost you to debt advice.
Your options now are to wait and see if you get a refund or put in a complaint now.
If you do decide to complain:
– When interest is being added, you should ask for a refund of the extra charges “plus associated interest” as this will be at the card rate of interest which is more than 8%.
-Were you getting deeper into debt elsewhere during this period? If you were, you should give details of this in your complaint and ask for a refund of the interest you paid, arguing that if Barclays has properly assessed your financial situation they would have realised that the minimum payments were unaffordable and you should have been treated with forbearance.
Andy says
Hi Sara
Thanks for the quick and really helpful response.
I will prepare a letter of complaint and submit it after Easter. I will post updates as it progresses.
Andy
John C says
I’m curious to see how this all pans out. Through 2015 and the start of 2016 before I started on payday refunds, I had 18 consecutive months where my balance was over my limit. Who knows how many £12 charges I received in that time. That was from an increase to my limit in October 2014 to £4100. From Dec that year till July 2016 I was over the credit limit every month. I didn’t raise to them I was struggling (burying my head in the sand seemed a much better option at the time) but did complain about £12 fees which was rejected. I’m pretty sure they also put up my interest rate as a “deterrent” for having a balance above my limit. I wonder if that has ever worked for someone in debt, charge them more….??
John C says
Decided to send a message via the Barclaycard messaging service listing the points above. Supposedly its 24hrs for a reply, but I suspect Tuesday as its a bank holiday. I’ll update with what they say
John C says
Well got a response that said I wasn’t part of the redress but asking a number of questions about whether I asked for help, am I in a payment plan etc. I thought the point was that they hadn’t offered these things to some people. Clearly I was in a bit of a pickle, I got statements telling me I had been in arrears for a number for a number of months, but no offer of any kind of help to correct this. I’ll have a proper think on how to respond to this
Suzy says
Hi John C
Interesting reply, i too e mailed them about an old Barclaycard who gave me a default then passed my account to PRA debt collectors i have since paid them and have a zero balance, but the default will not be removed for another 3 years,
But i remember i was also in hardship with them prior to them passing my account to PRA
This is my reply -makes me think mine is not genuine ? ?
The team will be in touch about the refunds in due course.
Thanks ..Name …….
Social Media Team
I wasn’t expecting Social Media Team ???? did yours say that ???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“makes me think mine is not genuine ? ?” well I’m not sure how it could be a fake! but I agree it sounds odd.
John C says
Hi Suzy, no the person that responded had Customer Service Advisor as their job title. I know Barclays were doing work over the Easter weekend so their sites were down at various times, so maybe your email went to the only department that could receive emails at the time. I sent mine via the messages service on the Barclaycard website
I’ve done just that Sara, thank you. I’ve also mentioned that my limit was increased in Dec 2012 and in the following 12 months I was over the limit for 5 months and just under for the remaining 7 (i’m taking a couple of £’s), yet they then increased the limit again by 57% (so now over 200% higher than a year earlier) and I was immediately used all of this and was over the limit for 17 months in a row.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Interesting, this is the first time someone has been told they are not part of the redress. I think – as you say – it#s worth going back with a reasoned explanation about how they should have seen you were in trouble. Certainly when you complained about the charges they should have looked!
Gail says
I have spoken to a very helpful lady called Nicola at the social media team at Barclaycard after I emailed them
She checked on a spreadsheet to see if I was on the list for a refund and I was. However she was not able to give any further details re amount or when I would hear from them
Suzy says
Hi Gail
I too spoke to Social Media team who also checked a spreadsheet and confirmed i am on there for a review/redress, the next steps are to wait for the letter , they have no idea how long the wait will be.
Must be a big spreadsheet, ? have you heard anymore from them ?
Kirsty says
I have just rang and they said it’s only accounts that have had recovery action on them. However, as a gesture of good will he’s refunding 2 over limit fees I have been charged this year.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that doesn’t sound generous … would you like to summarise your case to see if it’s worth making a complaint about? There are, no doubt, set rules for the automatic refund program, but it may well be that some people don’t fit these criteria but still have a good reason to ask for compensation.
Kirsty says
They said I don’t fit the criteria because my account hasn’t been sent to recovery, however I have had quite a few over limit charges over last few year, however only 2 changes this year and they are refunding the 2 off this year, I did ask about the other charges from last few year and he said couldn’t do nothing about them
Gail says
Has anyone had any texts or letters from Barclays yet ?
sw says
Nothing! I tried sending a secure message online to ask if my account was included – that’s broken and the message won’t send!! Just waiting….
That was in relation to Barclays accounts not Barclaycard.
Suzy says
Hi
Not heard a word from them but i did call hem and was told i am on the list and they would write out to me
Seems to be taking a while to hear i must admit they must be snowed under
Charlotte says
I know that I have two accounts on the list after phoning Barclaycard last weekend, but they were quite vague on when I would be contacted. It would be great to know when anyone hears from them so I have an idea of when I should receive a letter.
Nicola says
I had a Barclay credit card and got into difficulties paying my card of every month in the end it went to a collections dept manager paid it of in 2014 took me a couple of years to pay it off that put a lot of late charges on my card before it went to collections do you think I will be on the list
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if they were adding charges when the debt was with collections, then yes you may be on the list. the only way to find out is to ask them. If you aren’t and you think you should be, come back here.
Juliet says
I received a letter from them this morning saying I had a refund and apologising. However they go on to say there is still money owing on the account so this will just go to offset that and doesnt cover the amount owing so I will need to continue to make payments if I am currently doing so. I declared myself bankrupt in July 2015 and was discharged in July 2016. I am subject to an IPA arrangement till August of this year. I am not currently paying anything but am still under the agreement. However I thought I was released of all my debts upon discharge? I dont see how they can just offset it? surely this refund should come dirctly to me and then be up to the Official Receiver to decide if it is surplus income and falls into the money they provide to my (ex) creditors?
It doesnt mention dates. It just says we are writing to tell you that you will receive a refund on the above account. My account was defaulted in Feb 2015.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so the refund is likely to relate to a period before you were bankrupt.
I suggest you reply to them saying that you were discharged from bankruptcy in July 2016 and at that point your debt was extinguished, so there is no debt for them to set off the refund against.
This may or may not work. If it does, there is a chance that Barclays will then decide to send the refund to the Official Receiver.
Juliet says
Thanks so much for your help, much appreciated.
sw says
What account was the refund for, a bank account , loan or credit card? Thanks
Juliet says
It was for a bank account. I had a loan and credit card with them as well but not heard anything about those so far. With all of them when I went on a DMP they continued to charge me interest.
John C says
After sending messages on the Barclaycard website and someone telling me they would pass my issues onto the complaints team, I received a phone call on Wednesday. I didn’t pick it up till later in the day and rang the number back. It was for the complaints team and I spoke to someone different to who had left a message. She asked if my complaint was about charges, but I pointed out the increases in limit, the fact i’d been over the limit for 17 months in a row, charges to account, no refund on my original complaint and that the interest rate had been put up, all this with no offer of help at all. I was told i’d have a response the next day, which sounded great
Ended up ringing on Friday to see if there was an update and I was told my complaint had not been dealt with by that department and was no longer with them, having been passed to an executive team. I suppose its only been 3 weeks, so wasn’t expecting too much of a response yet. Not sure if there is any significance of to the complaint being sent elsewhere?
Andy says
I put my complaint in writing 2/3 weeks ago. Someone contacted me on Monday to say they had picked it up and whilst they allow 8 weeks to respond they should deal with it quicker than that. I said I would be happy to discuss any queries they may have verbally providing they backed them up by email. I asked them to email so I had a record of the first call, they said they could text me with the advisers name and complaint reference. I got a text within half an hour with some sort of reference number, no contact name and the text was to tell me they had attempted to contact me but I had missed their call !!
To be fair it did feel like they were trying to help to keep me updated but their processes let them down.
I have not heard anything since.
Andy says
The 8 weeks is up on my complaint in 5 days. I have not heard anything yet. I phoned them about 10 days ago to request an update and they explained that the adviser that had originally picked up my complaint and contacted me has had it taken off him. Allegedly they have set up a ‘special’ team to deal with these type of complaints. No doubt a team who’s primary objective will be to mitigate financial risk rather than deal with complaints based upon each individual circumstance….. Here’s hoping I get a ‘special’ offer of a refund next week !!! Given they seem to be taking it right up to the 8 weeks I suspect they intend to send me a flat out refusal on Day 56.
I have just prepared a form of words for the FOS should it be necessary to escalate my complaint to them which feels like the most likely outcome at the moment.
Further updates to follow.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for the update. Setting up a special team is actually sensible, though your cynicism may prove to be justified!
Andy says
Further update.
I received a letter yesterday dated on the last day of the 8 weeks explaining they are still looking at my complaint and they ‘hope’ to have the information they need by 6 June 2018 and will give me an update by then. I wasn’t particularly inspired because the way it reads it gives no assurance it will be dealt with by 6 June 2018. They explained I now have the option to refer it to the FOS.
I decided to ring them and spoke to the person who had only very recently been allocated my complaint. I explained that I was disappointed they hadn’t been able to respond within 56 days but I said I would wait until 1 June 2018 to receive my response. I let it be known that I knew it would cost Barclaycard a £550 fee should I refer it to the FOS today and in the spirit of being reasonable agreed to wait another week to prevent a potentially unnecessary cost for them should they reply by 1 June 2018 and should I be comfortable with their decision. Perhaps I am being naive by thinking if I show some reasonableness they may take a similar approach when reviewing my complaint. Only time will tell whether I just get a “computer says no standard template reply letter” from them or not :-). The person I spoke to was very polite, helpful and seemed prepared to listen and understand the points I was making so fair play for that.
Andy says
I received my response from Barclaycard on Thursday. Compliant not upheld, in summary they did nothing wrong and it was all my own fault. They did credit my card with £50 as a goodwill gesture for not responding within 8 weeks. I have subsequently asked the FOS to review my complaint and I made a number of comments in response to some of the findings in the Final Response letter. Time to sit back and wait and see what materialises.
Victoria Schilling says
Barclays have refunded me nearly £900. It’s not a scam. I had an overdraft of 4k which I have been paying off at £30 a month. They have applied the £900 to that reducing the amount left to pay. This was a business account so am hoping k will hear regarding my current account. I had a letter (No text) on 20.04.18
Suzy says
Hi
Well done and thanks for posting gives me and others hope mine was a credit card & large loan , credit card paid off but the loan is not
Glad to hear letters are being sent out,
As Sara said was it just a cheque or a did they include a full breakdown of how the refund was calculated ?
Victoria Schilling says
Hi. No there was no breakdown just a letter saying they hadn’t met customers expectations. Then it said they would apply the refund to my account of have preferred a cheque bit it’s come off my debt so I am okay with that. I m wondering if I will get another letter ‘re my current account…Will let you know.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Victoria, could you ask Barclays to give you a breakdown of how the refund was calculated? Without knowing that, it’s really hard for you to tell if they got this right or if there were other charges and interest that should have been included.
Victoria Schilling says
Hi. If you’ve ever tried calling Barclays you’ll know why I don’t! But I have already written to them and await their response. Would be interesting to know if refunds applies to Barclaycard and current account
Village Idiot says
Is it still the case that very few people have heard from Barclays at all yet? We haven’t, and because it’s my partner’s Barclaycard that this will concern, I can’t contact them about it, and that is something my partner doesn’t find very easy or comfortable to do.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, there has been little publicity about this and until people start getting letters, no-one knows about it.
Village Idiot says
Barclays long ago sold my partner’s debt. Will the refund go to us or the debt purchaser? We don’t owe any money to Barclays anymore for them to offset against.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Don’t know. Has she asked if she is going to get a refund?
Village Idiot says
She is posting a complaint letter today.
Village Idiot says
Got a £297 cheque today, complaint not upheld but a goodwill gesture. Complaint not upheld because the charges they made were in line with their procedures – but I thought that was the whole point, they now realise their procedures were too harsh?
Anyway. £297 probably doesn’t represent what I feel they owe, but the interesting thing is this letter doesn’t preclude us also getting a payment under their Arrears Assistance Review.
The goodwill payment is in respect of Dec 2012 to May 2013 and the Arrears Assistance Review relates to Oct 2013 onwards so the two matters could be separate.
So I am inclined to at least bank this goodwill cheque, as far as I can tell they aren’t suggesting that banking the cheque constitutes acceptance of the complaint outcome, so I think I could just wait now and see if anything comes of the Arrears Assistance Review, and then maybe in 5 months think about the FO.
Any thoughts?
Diane Dingley says
I had both a credit card and a loan which became part of a repayment plan in 2007 but the credit card debt was only passed on to a third party company just over a year ago. Up until then Barclaycard continued to apply interest to the account. Will I be eligible even though it was prior to 2013?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Barclays haven’t published their criteria – but I think you have a very good case to complain about having had interest added for so long. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/creditor-wont-freeze-interest/.
I suggest you phone them and ask if you will be getting a refund. If they say No, put in a complaint. If they say Yes, wait till you get the refund and then ask them how it was calculated – and complain if it was only post 2013.
Charlotte says
HI there, I know that two old credit cards I used to have debt on are part of the review. I haven’t heard anything from Barclays directly yet, but the other week I did get two cheques through the post from Lloyds obviously relating to different credit cards – so I wonder if they have gone through the same process but just not announced it?
I setup a DMP in 2013 and both of the refunds relate to dates that are small windows of time during that year. Here is an extract from the letters I received.
—
‘We have recently undertaken a review of our internal collections processes and have found that between xx date and xx date, following an assessment of your financial circumstances, we did not always take the appropriate course of action when dealing with your account.
We’re sorry this happened.
We are refunding the interest, fees and/or charges on your accounts during the period(s) where we did not always take the appropriate course of action based upon our understanding of your circumstances at the time.
We are also paying you an additional 8% interest, which we have calculated from the date(s) we didn’t do what we should have done, to the date of the refund.’
—
I’m hoping for similar from Barclays eventually!
African Queen says
Hello Charlotte,
I also received a cheque from Lloyds Bank – just under £1700 for unfair treatment for a period in 2013. This was a couple of weeks ago. It was a pleasant surprise as I wasn’t expecting it at all. It seems they are quietly reviewing without announcing it.
Not holding my breath with Barclays as they haven’t been very clear on who qualifies for a refund.
I will post an update if I hear anything from them.
Good luck xx
sw says
Was this for a credit card or bank account?
African Queen says
Hello sw,
It was for a credit card. Very nice surprise as I wasn’t aware I was entitled to anything.
sw says
Thanks African Queen. Always the best when you are not expecting them :) I had a Lloyds Credit card too. Would be nice to get something back.
African Queen says
Hello,
I got home from work yesterday to another cheque from Lloyds Bank for just over £155.00 in relation to a loan I had with them a while ago. The refund covered the period of 29 Oct 2013 – 4 May 2014.
Looks like Lloyds Bank are revieweing their internal collections processes, as the letter says but haven’t announced it.
Sara, have you heard anything about Lloyds Bank in the press. I may have missed it.
Nice surprise, though :)
Cranky99 says
I received a letter on Thursday from Lloyds bank for the exact same thing. Refunded £143.98 by cheque from between February 2011 till March 2011. Rang them up and asked if this was the case would they consider looking into the prevoius 2 years and next 1 year whilst i was on a DMP. They kept battering me with interest and charges whilst i was in hardship. Told them that at the time i wrote to them more than 5 times and rang them numerous times, plus them ringing me 40+ times. They were the only creditor not to suspend charges and told me to wait till it went to a DCA. My DMP never went down till this happened. Gave them my hardship reasons and they said they could only apologise for not listening at the time and will look into my complaint. For once Lloyds actually listened to me and were sympathetic, fingers crossed i get back 3 years of charges.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Let us know how you get on!
Cranky99 says
Lloyds just rang me to got through my situation again around the time i had difficulties. They went away for about 2 hours and called me back to say they would give me all the charges and interest back, but only from October 2011 till March 2013. This being the dates on record from when they can see i contacted them to say i was struggling with my finances, till the date they finally passed me to a DCA and suspended charges. The offer was minus the cheque already received but with a £400 goodwill gesture. A nice tidy £1289.49 for something i never knew i was going to get until they contacted me out of the blue and I pushed them further.
The money was in my account in 3 instalments, refund interest & GW, soon as i hung up the phone.
They also are removing themselves off my credit report. They entered a default in March 2013 but say they should have done this in October 2011, so they should have disappeared in October 2017.
All this from their cheque landing on the doorstep and one Phone call to ask why?
Thanks to this site giving me confidence and knowledge to deal with these banks, knowing what questions they will ask and how to answer them.
Ryan says
I got into arrears of £15.40 and had my account closed by Barclays when I refused to pay £88 worth of charges.
They upped the balance to £240 and then a year later it dropped back down to £88.
This was one of two accounts I had with Barclays.
Last week I received a payment of £8 into my active account and received the letter stating they may not have took my financial circumstances into account when they were charging me, giving a refund of £88 to clear the debt with £8 interest which was paid directly to me.
My argument now is that because they didn’t follow the FCAs rules I was caused stress and inconvenience and a default on my credit report for almost 2 years. They are talking about getting it removed but he advisor dealing with the new complaint is saying he can’t guarantee he default will be removed.
What a cheek. We could be filing a super-complaint against them and I think that’s the reason they’ve contacted us so discreetly over the matter.
Charlie P says
Hi All,
Not sure if anybody else has experienced this…
I have read nothing about these Barclays refunds, but checked my account this morning and have received a transaction named on my statement – *BARC RFND*
I have received no letter or was expecting no refund?? Also, its gone into an account where I have never been overdrawn or charged for anything. I have no idea what its for?
Should I contact the bank?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large is the refund? Did you have problems with arrears a few years ago?
Y King says
I checked my bank account yesterday, I’ve received a refund from Barclaycard for £800!! I hadn’t heard anything about refunds until I looked on here today. I know hubby had a card years ago, I paid it off and cut card up. We recently applied for a PPI refund and where refused then we got this refund?? We haven’t had any correspondence as yet from Barclaycard.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A nice surprise!
This is very unlikely to be anything to do with your PPI complaint. I suggest you should send the PPI complaint to the Finanical Ombudsman for them to look at – many of these cases are being upheld and it is an easy process.
Luke says
Hello two years ago I lost my job and somehow went overdrawn even tho I didn’t have an overdraft it went up to over £400 so I borrowed the money from family to get out of the ever expanding hole and as a thank you from barclays they closed my account leaving me without a bank account thank you barclays. Any way today I received a letter from barclays stating that I’ll receive a £276.42 refund well frankly I’m quite insulted at this as I paid a lot more than I’m getting back and it was a pain in the ass to get another account. Rant over lol what I’d like to know is on the letter they are asking for my bank details ie bank, account number, sort code and a bank statement. Is it safe to send such details????
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, it is safe.
Katie j says
Hi everyone
Just to let you know I received a letter stating I’m owed £299 refund and on the letter it asked for my bank details so I can get my refund, I did ring Barclays directly to see if it was a scam and it isn’t, totally legit. I sent off me bank statement and the form with me bank details on last week. The lady on phone said they aim to refund within 30 days. I’ve not had anything yet. Hope this helps anyone who does receive a letter
????
louise says
Update – TSB Complaint:
Due to issues I have had with TSB – FOS have upheld my complaint and have told the business to pay me the following:
£150 compensation for my time to get through to someone and not being able to get statements in relation to financial history (still not rectified)
£25.00 – Telephone calls and going to branch to be told the statements cant be retrieved.
Sorry Sara – if the wrong page but it may help others in the same situation :)
Total to be paid £175 and they have acted promptly with a special team at FOS dealing with them.
Nel says
Hi Katie
Great news re your refund. I am still waiting to hear…….. I need to write to Barclays regarding this (I’m somewhat old fashioned and like things in writing). Can you give me the address you have on the correspondence you received. I’ve tried to Google it but there is no address I can write to. I’m struggling to get through on the number provided.
Many thanks.
sw says
I too was finding it hard to get in touch with them on the phone. If you still have an account, log into your account and go to contact us. I filled in a complaint with the details. A few days later someone rang me. They couldn’t tell me if I was in the redress program but that it would be ongoing for a few months yet.
Katrina jarvis says
Hello
Sorry for late reply the address I had to send my statement and the form back too was..
Customer portfolio team
Barclays
Level 21
1 Churchill place
London
E14 5HP
08001697785
Jane says
I had a Barclaycard which defaulted in March 2014 for £786. It is now with Robinson Way acted for Hoist Portfolio. Would I be eligible even though it’s now been sold to Hoist/Robinson Way?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So far as I know, you would still get any refund even if your debt has been sold. But Barclaycard may use the refund to reduce your balance with Robinson Way, not pay it to you.
Katrina jarvis says
Hey
My debt was due to being overdrawn not barclaybard but my debt was also sold to a company. In this letter it states they will contact the debt collector to inform them the debt is paid as it gets deducted from a he refund. The average refund is about £300 but obviously some other circumstances are different. You will get a letter from the customer portfolio team at Barclays informing you of a refund if your getting one.. the lady on the phone stated it’s a new project and a big one so it may take a while for a letter. It’s sounds like it’s anyone who has got a debt with them that’s been passed to collection team and sold to debt company’s. Fingers crossed for you and I’m still waiting for the money
sw says
I had a PPI refund from Barclaycard a couple of years ago. Apparently this claim has now been re-investigated and due to PPI commission, I have now been given another refund, larger than the original PPI refund. I still have a complaint in with barclays about a Loan and Current Account where they did not help me, but have not heard anything on that yet. This PPI refund was totally out of the blue!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good – this “extra refund” is because of the Plevin court case which decided that because people were paying HUGE amounts of commission (sometimes over 70%) on this PPI and they hadn’t been told about this, some of the commission is being paid back.
It won’t affect your complaint.
Ati says
I had difficulty with my highest ever credit card limit with Barclaycard. I had a £7,800 limit and all was used, the monthly interest was around £175 while I was trying to make monthly payments of £200, therefore I wasn’t really getting rid of the debt.
Actually, before 2014, my limit was only £3,800 and despite my bad financial behaviour, and obvious difficulty they increased the limit to £7,800.
Last August, I phoned them about my concerns and ever.since I paid a monthly token payments of £5 at least, sometimes more.
They NEVER called me or sent me any letter for a year.
I signed up for clearscore.com, and my Barclaycard debt is not appering there anywhere which is weird.
Taken it into consideration how much monthly interest I paid they charged and for how long, I might have already paid back my whole balance, especially if they really refunded the interests!
As the card itself was blocked, I have no access to the Barclaycard online banking any longer. So I can’t check it.
But, I only have two more active credit cards, and what Clearscore states about my credit cards debt, it’s exactly what my balance is in total on my two active credit cards. Barclaycard does not come up there.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Barclays doesn’t use Equifax, so you won’t see any Barclaycard details on ClearScore. Have a look at your Experian and Call credit reports, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/.
Casper Stratmont says
I left Barclays quite some time ago.
I received a letter stating that they owe me around 245 pounds! So I sent the return slip with my current bank details around 2 weeks ago……low and behold, I haven’t seen a penny! Doubt they will pay it either!
Katrina jarvis says
It’s takes up to 30 days to refund. I waited for about 2 half weeks and got mine so it will happen ????
Tomo says
I recently got a £670 refund on a Barclay card – got a letter confirming the amount and they applied the refund against the current debt.
Charlotte Caton says
Hi there
I’m in a similar situation with two credit cards I used to have with Barclaycard, which were eventually sold onto Link.
I called Barclaycard and they confirmed both accounts were part of the review, but I have not heard from them since then. It’s been a few month now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest calling them again!
Charlotte says
I phoned Barclays again last night, got bounced around a little and was told that a form would be submitted with my details. I wasn’t given a reference number and it all felt a little vague. Being slightly fed up with the weeks and weeks of patiently waiting, I have submitted a complaint email via my online banking details as I use Barclays for my current account. I’ve received a text message acknowledgement of my complaint and I’ll share how my query progresses.
Charlene says
Hi,
My mom is with Lloyds. She has maxed her overdraft and paying monthly interest. She used to work but has to stop when she had my brother. She told Lloyds that she can’t pay her Premium account charges plus overdraft interest so they switched her account to basic. She also asked for PPI before but they said she doesn’t have any.
Can she apply for refund on misold charges?
If yes, how would she do it?
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This page is good at reclaiming money for packaged bank accounts: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-packaged-bank-accounts/
Kayley says
I’ve just had a letter from Barclays saying basically they could of treated me better when I was in trouble and hey defaulted my account and as my account was now with link financial they will be asking them to reduced the balance by 611 pounds. Nice surprise but my question is on the letter they stated they will not look at a this again unless I make a complaint about any distress or redress caused at the time. Is there any templates to do this or any advice?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Could say a bit about the problem on your account – was it a bank account or a Barclaycard or a loan? When you got into difficulty, what happened, did you ask Barclays to stop adding interest but they carried on doing this?
Kayley says
It was a credit card and yes I specifically remember a telephone conversation with them where I think I was paying something like the minimum of 112 but yet the interest was 133 so I explained I wasn’t getting anywhere with my debt and I basically got back there’s nothing we can do tough (not in as many words)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hmmm did that go on for a long while? In that situation, after you had complained, they really should have frozen interest. If this was just for a few months then £611 may be reasonable compensation, but if it was more than 6 months it looks low to me…
Did you have other financial problems at this time? Did you get behind with essential bills? did you find this very stressful? these are the sort of point you could make if you want to go back and say you think the compensation should be larger.
Kayley says
It’s hard to remember to be honest as I can’t see a break down of my interest occurred etc as the debt was sold on and it was 3 years ago I had countless credit cards and debts and interest building until I finally said enough is enough and went to step change and got put on a dmp then if I remember rightly the Barclays debt was sold on first and quickly.
I’ll maybe ask them for a breakdown of my accounts and go from there?
Raffaele says
Hi,
Have u called barclaycard about additional payments for any distress…I have received my letter today with a refund that will go towards my debt for 461.73. I am planning to call them tomorrow and ask for an additional payment as their unfair treatment has caused me a lot of problems
suey says
I got a letter today saying they owe me money and want me to send a bank statement of the account i want it paid into as i no longer have an account with them, im not sure if its a scam so will pop into a branch and check as dont understand why they want a bank statement and not just acct number and sort code.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you are worried this is a scam, you could call the help line number 0800 328 6932 and ask them.
Sarah says
Hi, I got my letter on Monday and was about to send it off when I worried it would jepordise my Debt relief order I’ve had for 3 years. Somebody else on her mentioned a DRO. Has anyone got any experience with this? I did call the national debt line today but after 2 and half hours on hold I had to hang up for work. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your DRO completed 2 years ago there shouldn’t be any problems, lots of people have reclaimed PPI after a DRO.
It is only a problem if your DRO is still in progress.
Carole says
I had a Barclaycard account back in 2000 which I had gradually paid back to the company they sold it on to. When I got the letter I thought it was a scam but doing an internet search and having seen this article I sent off the details they wanted and today they have just paid me back £1,204. I was amazed and delighted and it will really help.
darren soper says
Hi, I have received the leeter from Barclaycard is there a example on how to fill in the reply letter ??
Thanks Darren.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What does the reply letter ask?
How large a refund have they offered and have they explained why? I assume you had defaulted on the card – did they refuse to freeze interest on it?
sarah Harrison says
hi is there a template for writing to barclaycard i have just received a letter from yet another debt company who has been sold my barclaycard account from another debt company. I have been paying 5.00 a month since 2008 as the debt is never coming down due to interest still being add. Citizens advice wrote and asked for it to be frozen but they accepted my offer of 5.00 but not to freeze interest. I have had to give work up due health and adopting. So wanting sort this out. thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This article https://debtcamel.co.uk/creditor-wont-freeze-interest/ has an article with a template.
Rhonda says
Hi I have received a refund today but they say they are paying in straight to pra group who I have an agreement with, I am still having financial difficulties and this could really help can they do this or can I challenge
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have priority debts (rent, mortgage, council tax, electricity or gas, TV license that sort of thing) then you can ask for the money to be be paid to you. They may not agree buts it’s worth a try.
Susan says
Hi all.
Can anyone let me know if I can send a letter of complaint to Barclays or if it’s not worth it? I had a littlewoods credit card that I then had trouble paying. I set up a standing order and have been paying £20 a month. This has been going on for a while so I tried contacting littlewoods but was told it was now Barclaycard.
I contacted them and they were unable to give me any info on my starting balance etc, they said they could only look back 6 months. I asked for any info on what I had paid and they said they’d send out statements.
I’ve just received the statements and I have a few issues;
They have charged me £2 for each statement, something I wasn’t told about.
They have carried on adding interest, despite the account being closed.
They have added late payment fees despite my regular payments each month.
Because of this, I am paying around £260 a year and being charged £231 in fees.
Can I complain about this, as the statements they sent me go as far back as 2013 and at this rate I’ll never pay this off!
Susan says
Sorry to post again before my original comment has been published, but I checked my credit report, going back 6 years, and in October 2012 my balance was £570. Since then I have paid £1,500 and my balance as of this month is £365. This has actually made me cry.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
First you can definitely complain about being charged for the statements. If there was a charge it should have been highlighted to you before you asked, and it was not “treating their customer fairly” if they didn’t tell you you were entitled to this information under GDPR for free. I suggest you put in a complaint about this charge today and send it to the Financial Ombudsman if they do not refund this.
Why and when was your account closed?
Susan says
This credit card is from so long ago I’m afraid I can’t remember much!
As far as I’m aware the account was closed as I couldn’t make the payments. I’m not sure of the date but my credit report shows me making £20 a month payments from October 2012, so it was at least from then.
Since then I have paid £1,500 and my balance has gone from £570 to £365. Surely this isn’t fair?!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well £1500 could be fair if you had carried on buying on the card after 2012? Do the statements show any purchases after that date?
If they don’t then this is completely unreasonable as they knew you were in difficulty and you should be able to complain and ask for a refund of all the interest and charges since… well that is why it’s important to try to work out when you stopped using the card and when it was closed. Barclays may have taken over the account in 2013 which is why their statements start from then. If you had already stopped using the card and the account was closed then, you should ask for a refund of all interest and charges since Barclays had the account.
Susan says
There have definitely been no purchases since 2012, as the statements from Barclays show no purchases and my credit report shows my balance reducing each month – by about £2!
Is there any particular way I have to ask for the refund and should I ask for detailed statements showing my balance or is that not necessary?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you can logion online to your account, you can send a complaint by secure message. Make sure you take a copy of this and a note of when you sent it.
Something like (but change so it really does cover you specific case)
“You have sent me statements for my account number 9999999999 on dd/mm/yy. [If this is a secure message you shouldn’t need to give other details. If you are sending by post, give your full name, address, and date of birth details as well.]
I have two complaints:
1) you have charged me £2 for each statement. I was not advised of this charge when I asked for them which is unfair. And, as this is my personal information, since GDPR in May you should supply this information without any charge. I would therefore like a refund of these charges.
2) You have been charging me a late payment fee [and interest? is any shown on the statements?] every month, even though the account was closed as I could not afford the minimum repayments. This is unreasonable.
I am paying around £260 a year and being charged £231 in fees – this has prolonged excessively the time I am in debt.
The Standards of Lending Practice, which you subscribe to, say: “Firms should consider freezing or reducing interest and charges when a customer is in financial difficulty.” You have not done this in my case.
You can see from the statements that I have not purchased anything since the start of the statements in 2013. I assume this was when you took over the account from Littlewoods. I would like to ask for a refund of all the charges [and interest if there was any?] that you have applied to my account since you took it over. Plus 8% statutory interest.”
Susan says
Hi Sara, I finally got a reply. Barclays insist they added the fees in accordance with the terms and conditions and therefore are not upholding my complaint. As a gesture of goodwill they are crediting my account with £120 to cover 10 late payment fees and £67.43 to cover the interest charged for the last 12 months.
They state my payments should have been made on a certain date in the month and each month my payment goes in 2 days later, they also say that it’s my responsibility to check my statements and this showed on those. I moved house years ago which is why I didn’t get any statements but Barclays say I should have updated my address. I am a Barclays customer and all correspondence comes to my correct address so I’m confused they didn’t know where I lived! I would have updated my address with Barclays so maybe I assumed this would apply to the credit card? It’s been so long i can’t remember.
They also say they set up a plan to charge me reduced interest but because each months payment was late I didn’t adhere to the conditions. They don’t clarify if this means it went up again though.
Oh and they confirmed there have been no purchases since 2007.
Not the outcome I was hoping for.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that complaint is worth sending to the Finanical Ombudsman. See https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm. They knew you were in difficulty, they should not have been adding interest or late payments charges, you should ask for these to be refunded back to 2013 when Barclays took over the account.
Susan says
Hi Sarah
My case has now been with the adjudicator for a while and everytime she makes a ruling Barclays ask more questions, which gives them another couple of weeks – how they are able to get away with this I don’t know.
The, apparently, final date for them to respond was 7th March. A week after hearing nothing I contacted the adjudicator and she said she would contact them. I’m still waiting. How long should I wait, I don’t want to bother the adjudicator again but I KNOW Barclays will reject her ruling and it will have to go to an ombudsman so I’d rather get that done asap.
Thank you
Martin says
I had 2 Barclaycards with debts on them. They sold the debt to PRA Group. They have now written to me offering a refund of a very small amount on each account which they say they have sent to PRA. My query is this, if they admit a fault in handling my account should they not pay it to me, not PRA? Having sold off the debt that should have completed their transaction with PRA some 2 years ago. Any advice appreciated. I am thinking of a subject access request (they are now free) to find out what the fault was, when it occurred, all charges and interest paid by me since that date. Also the details of the sale of the debt. Anyone know the address for the subject access request?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For a SAR complete this form https://www.apply.barclays.co.uk/forms/gdpr?execution=e2s1
The sale to PRA does not change Barclays right to set off the refund against the remaining debt. Sorry but this is standard practice eg with PPI refunds.
If you want to know if the refund should have been larger, a common theme seems to be that ey are refunding interest and charges after you told them you were in difficulty.
V says
My debt was sold but last week received a letter informing me of over £2000 refund. As I still owe them they have taken the money off what I owe.
Marcia Dixon says
Hi all,
I received a letter from Barclays offering me £157 and then saying if I dispute this amount I may get more by calling them. Sara is there something specific I need to be saying to get the’more’ they are referring to?
Kind regards,
M
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This probably dates from a time when you were in arrears on a loan or a Barclaycard. Was there a time they knew you were in difficulty but didn’t freeze interest? Or suggest you should take debt advice? Can you remember what happened?
B says
I keep getting random cheques from the Halifax! Now i’m assuming these cheques are for my overdraft charges, and throughout my PDL hell, i was constantly stuck in my OD. All the letter says is “following a review of our internal collections processes we have identified that between X & Y we didnt always take the appropriate course of action im dealing with your account”
I’ve now had 2 cheques! One a few months ago foe £700 and then i got home yesterday to another for £1,138 with the same letter
Anyone else had this? So confused but very happy!!
Jen says
Hi B did u complain about bank charges, I was getting charged every month sometimes up to £200 a month, I’m too scared to complain about this in case Santander close my account & I can’t get another 1, I thought we couldn’t complain about charges any more, gd on your bank doing this
B says
Hey Jen
No not complained or anything, literally just got these 2 random cheques through! Lovely suprise but confused why haha
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jen – you can ALWAYS get a new bank account if you go for a basic bank account. These used to have a bad reputation but since 2016 they are now good or very good, with online banking, contactless cards and a guarantee of no charges ever… See 4 reasons to get a new bank account for why to switch and the best basic bank accounts for which to choose.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Several banks are running refund schemes “on the quiet” at the moment. Barclays, Lloyds and Halifax have been mentioned by readers, for credit cards, loans and overdrafts.
Most of them seem to be where the banks have reviewed previous charges and decided they were unfair because the bank was aware that you were in financial difficulty. But I can’t tell exactly what the criteria are.
If you have been charged by a bank after you specifically told them you were in difficulty and asked them to stop charging interest it is worth complaining about credit cards. Overdrafts are tougher, but you can try – it may be easier if you were in a DMP. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/creditor-wont-freeze-interest/.
gillian says
I got two cheques from Lloyds I think these were because of what you say sara both my credit card account and loan account went to collections back in 2013 and I have been paying these at 50 pound a month as soon as I paid the last months payment they sent me a letter and a cheque saying they had reviewed chargers on these accounts and seen they had overcharged me I received over 2000 pound altogether
GM says
I had Lloyd’s too and my account was defaulted in 2012 and I was paying £60 per month until 2015. I complained last year and they rejected it.
Do you think I could contact hem again?
Jamie says
my account was sold to hoist (robinson way) and was sent a letter by barclays saying i was being issued a refund of £350 but this was being sent to hoist to reduce my balance.i now have a balance of only £120 which isn’t a lot but in my opinion this doesn’t go far enough and its the principal of it. if they acted like they should of and gave me the help when they could see i was struggling in the first place i would never of had the debt in the first place, i wouldn’t of defaulted and it would of been more manageable. so my question is should i contact them and ask for the remainder of the debt to be wiped off and the default removed from my credit file. or is that asking too much?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you were struggling, then it may be right that Barclays should have helped you more at the time, but if you couldn’t meet the contractual repayments, then a default should still have been recorded. I doubt you can argue that Barclay’s failure caused the default.
I don’t know how they calculated the £350. You could ask them for details of that. Then if you read those and think “oh but they haven’t refunded me x” that would be a good reason to ask for more.
Raffaele says
Barclaycard have reduced my default balance by 476 pounds, my balance now stands at 800. I called barclaycard and ask them to clear my default payments from my credit file, in exchange I am willing to pay off the balance. Their answer was that they can’t do that as credit rating agencies are independent bodies. As it turns out Expedia told me that paying off the balance on an account with default payments doesn’t improve my credit score.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“As it turns out Experian told me that paying off the balance on an account with default payments doesn’t improve my credit score.”
This is correct, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/pay-off-debt-credit-score/. BUT it may make other lenders more likely to give you credit. See
J1 says
Hi, have received the letter mentioned followed by a text msg from Barclays admitting they acted inappropriately and will make an inconvenience payment of 75 directly in cash to a bank account.
No mention of this going toward any debt.
It states this is relating to my Barclaycard (the “account”). I had a bank account and a small credit card several years ago, I dont remember the exact details but am sure I defaulted on the credit, assume it was then sent off to agency and not heard anything since initial contact due to moving away. I closed the bank account also and maybe it relates to charges on this?. My concern is that contacting/claiming it would be a bad move for only £75.
Any advice appreciated, thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As they aren’t crediting the Barclaycard account, but paying you cash to a different account, it’s hard to see how taking this can be acknowledging a debt you are unaware of and which Barclays haven’t given you any infomration about…
But I see why you feel worried. You could phone National Debtline up on 0808 808 4000 and ask what they think.
smudge 18 says
Hi,
Had a similar letter off Barclaycard today ,saying they would compensate me £75 for bad service etc etc,did have a large debt with them due to a divorce,phoned them(indian call centre) at the time to freeze payments plus wrote a letter asking to pay a set figure.This was around 2014/5.
Due to everything going around that time,didnt really forget but was waiting for barclaycard to acknowledge my letter but heard nothing since then as i did my bit in informing them at the time.Also states in the letter they are prepared to wipe the debt off(only skimmed the letter as i was going to work)
I heard people getting bigger sums but have they had their debt wiped as well?Should i contact them for a larger compensation or take the money?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much is do they say the current balance is?
smudge18 says
My debt was quite excessive(5 figures) again not in frivolous spending but legal fees!!,but it would be interesting if anyone has phoned up and got more compensation. If we except this £75 does that mean we have no recourse in future compensation?
I bank with Lloyds and its so galling how they show those ads how they can help people with depression, i went to see them endless times to help me and they basically told me to go away, that caused me endless stress and sleepless nights. They must be worst two faced organisation in business today,terrible. How much have had to pay out in fines £20 billion, due to bad selling unbelievable and the boss still gets £5 million bonus.
Though Barclays aren’t any better at least they’ve held their hand up and done something.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I want to check that you are looking at an offer from Barclays of £75 and clearing a five figure balance? So your references to lloyds are just an aside?
If so, what do you think the true balance should be without any legal fees? Also is this a loan, card or overdraft or what?
Ben says
I had a similar letter come through today and it says “however we want to let you know we are now closing your Account and do not require any further repayments in relation to the outstanding balance”
I wasn’t expecting anything although looking at it now Barclaycard were seriously reckless. I was in serious hardship several years back, I was first offered my first credit card at a young age of around 4K and then several months later offered another card at 5k. I was young and stupid and only on a part time wage, was involved in several motorcycle accidents, witnessed the death of my best friend and suffered major PTSD, because of this I was in and out of work for several months. I offered to pay back the credit but could they stop the intrest but they ultimately refused as I was still meeting minimum payments even though my debt was climbing constantly. I struggled to keep a stable job due to health issues (and still am 6 years later). I’ve only just gotten into a position where I’m able to start making small repayments on my debt and I aim to be debt free in the next few years.
Anyone else have any clarification on this? It says I don’t need to make any further payments but does this mean the debt is still owed and going to show on my credit file or has it been written off. Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What does your credit record show at the moment? How much owed? Is there a default date on it?
Al-Di says
I have had the same letter.
£75.00 inconvenience payment and closure of the account.
I was unwell in 2013 and required a period of time in residential care.
I paid charges/ minimum payment for as long as i could during this period which would have been about 1 year as I didn’t want to default and ruin my credit score. Up until I literraly couldn’t any longer.
I had around 5k owing on a barclaycard.
Haven’t heard anything since default in 2014 and now received this letter.
It says
“we have not been In contact for sometime about your account. However we want to let you know that we are now closing your account and do not require any further payments in relation to the outstanding balance.
We will update your credit file with details of the closure of the account. Details will remain on your credit file for up to 6 years.”
Do you think I should pursue this further?
It caused a massive amount of stress during a period of rehabilitation when I could not work, and it seems from this letter that they are accepting responsibility for this. Is £75 too little as an inconvenience payment?
I am assuming that the account closure means that the debt has been wiped?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I am assuming that the account closure means that the debt has been wiped?”
HAve you looked at your credit records? If you have, is there a default date on this debt – what is it?
Al-Di says
It is still showing on credit report.
Default date was Feb 2016.
I probably contacted them initially Jul 2014, and continued to pay the minimum until Oct 15.
It then shows no payment and default 1st Feb 16.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£75 as an inconvenience payment isn’t much but £5k wiped is a lot.
They should set the balance owing as 0 on your credit file and make the debt as settled. It will then go from your credit record in Feb 2022.
The default date sounds correct from when you stopped paying.
Al-Di says
Yes I agree. Ok thank you, I will probably contact them to ask about updating the credit report and accept the £75.
Many thanks for your help 🙏
KF says
I received a letter offering £75 as an inconvenience payment and advising they are closing the account and I do not need to make any further payments. The balance is approximately £7,500! I can’t quite believe it.
Scott says
Hi, I’ve had the same letter as the rest of these but they’re asking me to provide a bank account and sort code etc for the £75 to be paid into, which obviously rings alarm bells. Would you think this is legit?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s probably OK but better safe than sorry… so ring the number given in the above article to check this is genuine.
Gary M says
I too received the letter from Barclaycard offering £75 ‘inconvenience payment’ and offering to wipe the balance and close the account. Current balance is £11’100 so they will be writing off a substantial amount of money that was racked up during a period of gambling addiction which I made them aware of at the time. Now obviously I’m happy to accept this as I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t receive more than £11k from them in further compensation if I was to ask them to look into it further.
slim says
I just want to let everyone know what happened i took out a loan with barclay card £800 i paid 1 month of then i just ignored the debt hoping it would just go away then i get threatening letters saying to pay i ignored them then eventually i phoned them up and told them i lost my job and i have had depression over the matter and i was told on the phone to forget about the money and focus on getting better ok great i said left it at that then about a year and a half later i get a letter of barclaycard ow no i thought i opened it and it said they are sorry for any stress i have received my case was closed i don’t owe them anything and they are giving me £75 as a good will. great debt free and 75£ of them so i phoned them up and said is that the lowest amount and the guy on the phone asked my question about the letter on it it says if you ring up they can offer you more money bit its really hard to understand how they word it and i got a extra 50£ for phoning up
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good to know – thanks!
May Mancini says
I got a letter from Barclaycard today saying they are writing off my debt £3,500 ,my daughter was terminally ill& I missed the payments ,they’re also giving me £75 as an inconvenience payment ,chuffed to bits & here was me scared to open the letter 👏
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is so good when a creditor does the Right Thing.
N says
I got a letter yesterday offering me £75 as an inconvenience payment, and telling me that they would be closing my account but not asking for any repayments. I had an accident which meant that I was unable to work, and my debt eventually topped five figures. I fell into arrears and explained my situation to Barclaycard in 2016. They have never communicated with me since, and the letter yesterday came out of the blue. My credit file shows missed payments, but no default date, so it’s like they forgot to record that. I’m still trying to process what this all means.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
About what the default date should be – was there a period when you made little or no payments for 3-6 months?
Frances Hodgkin says
I have received a letter saying they owe me a refund of around £2000. Not sure if it is related to the refunds this thread are referring to. I wasn’t sure if it is real or not as I have changed address since I last banked with Barclays. Would they go to the trouble of finding out where I live now or does this suggest it’s a scam letter?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you ever got into problems with a Barclays or Barclaycard loan or card, this is very unlikely to be a scam. Call the telephone number in the article above – they will be able to confirm if the refund offer has come from them.
Steve Holder says
I received a letter from Barclaycard today offering a £856 refund because:
“Following a recent review of our operating procedures we have identified that for customers who had fallen behind on their payments, we did not always meet our expected standards for assessing customers’ circumstances or engaging with them. Please accept our apologies for this.
As a consequence we may not have offered you the support most appropriate to your financial situation. To address this we will refund the interest and default fees which were applied to the account during the period in which we may not have provided the service we should have.
We will not look into your case and provide further deserved address unless you contact us regarding any other circumstances or losses in relation to this. We can be contacted on our helpline number 0808 169 7786 quoting the letter reference above. In these circumstances, we may offer a payment for any distress and inconvenience suffered.”
I’m going to call Barclaycard on the number above to say that they have contributed to me having to go to stepchange and all the stress that led to me getting to that point and see if they can offer anything else.
I’ll let you know how I get on.
The refund of £856 goes off the debt that they have sold on to another company, so I don’t get the money now, but in effect it is a refund I’ll see as it saves me 15 months of DMP payments to them.
Good luck to anyone else affected by this.
JW says
Just got a letter from Barclaycard saying “that we are now Closing your Account and do not require any further payments in relation to the outstanding balance”., which was approx £14k. And offering an inconvience payment of £75, for which I would need to give them my bank account details. I phoned Barclaycard & they confirmed the letter is genuine & the contents.
I spoke to the National Debtline (ND) because double check this. They were surprised, especially given the balance, but said the letter clearly says that Barclaycard are closing the account & do not require any further payments, so if Barclaycard did try to peruse it in the future or sold the debt on, that they “would be shooting themselves in the foot”, because all I would have to do would be to produce the letter. The advisor did suggest that I put the letter in a very safe place & take photocopies (I have!).
The only reason I can think of for this is that in 5 years, I only had one phone call with them, & they never accessed me despite my financial problems & that I’m BiPolar. The ND advisor thinks they completely failed in their duty of care & this is why they’ve written the debt off.
The ND advisor suggested getting hold of a copy of my credit report & checking how Barclaycard had recorded the closing of the debt, & said I could attached a 200 word statement to the credit report if I disagreed with it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good advice from National Debtline!
Andy says
I’ve just recieved a similar letter today offering a £75 refund and saying that the account has been closed with a “partial settlement” stating although there is still an outstanding balance I don’t need to make any further payments
I would assume the way this is worded a third party couldn’t take on the debt because it states no payments “by me” (can be taken as to anyone) and not no payments “to them” (as in, but maybe to someone else)
it was only a small debt (id say easily less than £1k) and from about 5 years ago with no attempt to contact me since
Believe it or not I actually forgot about it (was only a £500 credit card I think and I moved since thinking I’d cleared it – only found out recently I hadn’t and that all the late fees etc had piled up but because I didn’t have the account details anymore they couldn’t do anything about it)
I’m now unsure that giving them my account details won’t just allow them to use that as confirmation its me and sting me for the whole cost minus £75 without any communication to me
I’ve tried countless times to pay it off in instalments over the last few months since I found out (only because I applied for a different card when I moved to monthly pay) but if the above is the case then id rather just accept their written apology and decline the refund
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Barclays & Barclaycard are going through a big clean-up exercise sorting out previous problems. They have sent out a lot of letters recently judging by the 5,000+ people that found this article on google in the last 30 days…
It is not a scam and it is not some sort of trap to get you to reveal your new account details. They really are trying to sort out previous errors, not make a new set!
Tony Dove says
Why do Barclays require my bank account details?
If they wish to make a payment they have my name and address and can post me a cheque. I do not give my bank account details on the internet
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you have to ask them that.
natalie hajbok says
i recieved a letter today so they are still getting through the accounts it appears. ive been offered a £75 payment for inconvenience and theyve settled he card which still had over £4000 outstanding i was off sick and then had to leave my job due to illness during that time so must be how they handled that.