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Hi All,
I have a problem that as been going on with Barclays since Aug 2013, the problem as been with setting up a direct debit for a unsecured loan that we have (£13000). I know this problem doesn't sound much but this is turning our lives upside down, it as caused me to lose days from work with stress, put my partner through a lot of unnecessary stress when she was carrying our bays, destroyed our credit file and put everything on hold with trying to re-mortgage the house.
About 5 months ago I thought we were getting somewhere, I contacted the financial ombudsman service and they have fast tracked the complaint due to the Mrs been pregnant and trying to re-mortgage. they came back to me almost straight away saying that Barclays have excepted full reasonability of this case and would like to compensate me £200, I said no and I am thinking more towards the £1500 - £2000 mark as I have lost time from work (about £450), £100 a month that I would of been saving on my mortgage, stress, inconvenience, time etc etc. in the end they came back and offered £500 which I accepted on the grounds that it was sorted ASAP and my credit file was put right as I needed to re-mortgage and my Mrs was due to have baby soon. They paid the £500 into my account and put the credit file right, I tried to ring up Barclays and tried to pay the arrears.....it all starts again......They wouldn't speak to me as my file is now with the dept. recovery agency and I was spoken too as if it was all my fault. I spoke to the ombudsman service who instructed Barclay's to pay another £100 for the inconvenience and reassured me that it is now sorted and the direct debit is set up.....the following month I still haven't heard anything off Barclays so I checked my credit file to find out we are now back to square 1 with my credit file destroyed and the direct debit not set up.
We really don't know which way to turn, the ombudsman service as been good but I feel that they are just getting fobbed off by Barclays. If any of you can shine any light on where to go from here that would be much appreciated. at the moment I am waiting for someone to get back to me from the ombudsman service with an update.
I have attached a list of events and the letter I sent to Barclays for a rough idea on what as happened so far. the list doesn't cover everything that as happened but it does cover a lot.
We have also tried going to citizens advice but they just directed us to he ombudsman service.
other points worth mentioning - I have requested a data request from Barclays for £10 and they sent my a copy of the T&C that I signed when taking out the loan, not the phone conversations. spoke to them again to request the phone conversations and there was only 3 phone conversations on the cd with 1 of the phone conversations cut short. I have been into a Barclays branch and they weren't happy with what is happening but said that they cant do anything. I have spoken to a solicitor who advised me that this wouldn't be worth taking on and to go to the ombudsman service.
Barclays letter
Dear Barclays,
I am writing this letter to inform you that I have had no choice but to contact the financial ombudsman service for help and advice with our complaint that has been ongoing since 18th Oct 2013. This is now affecting our lives with the knock on effect this issue is having with our credit history. We have never had a bad credit rating and pride our self’s on having such a good credit rating.
We have tried to re-mortgage our home to make some house improvements and to pay some of this loan off, however we are unable to do so due to Barclays destroying our credit file. Please note that the arrears outstanding for this account is with Secure Trust Bank as you have not called for it, so we do not have problems with debt as some of your letters and colleagues who we have spoken to have referred to.
I am concerned as this issue has been very time consuming and has gone on for far too long now. It is also making my partner (who is 5 Month’s pregnant) to lose sleep, not eat correctly, stress and worry over something that is not our fault. We have done everything that has been asked of us, and more. We just want to get this resolved.
I have attached a copy of the letter I will be sending to the ombudsman with the events that have happened since the issue with setting up the direct debit. Dependant on Barclays response, I may have to escalate this further and contact a solicitor.
Regards,
list of events
I have a problem that as been going on with Barclays since Aug 2013, the problem as been with setting up a direct debit for a unsecured loan that we have (£13000). I know this problem doesn't sound much but this is turning our lives upside down, it as caused me to lose days from work with stress, put my partner through a lot of unnecessary stress when she was carrying our bays, destroyed our credit file and put everything on hold with trying to re-mortgage the house.
About 5 months ago I thought we were getting somewhere, I contacted the financial ombudsman service and they have fast tracked the complaint due to the Mrs been pregnant and trying to re-mortgage. they came back to me almost straight away saying that Barclays have excepted full reasonability of this case and would like to compensate me £200, I said no and I am thinking more towards the £1500 - £2000 mark as I have lost time from work (about £450), £100 a month that I would of been saving on my mortgage, stress, inconvenience, time etc etc. in the end they came back and offered £500 which I accepted on the grounds that it was sorted ASAP and my credit file was put right as I needed to re-mortgage and my Mrs was due to have baby soon. They paid the £500 into my account and put the credit file right, I tried to ring up Barclays and tried to pay the arrears.....it all starts again......They wouldn't speak to me as my file is now with the dept. recovery agency and I was spoken too as if it was all my fault. I spoke to the ombudsman service who instructed Barclay's to pay another £100 for the inconvenience and reassured me that it is now sorted and the direct debit is set up.....the following month I still haven't heard anything off Barclays so I checked my credit file to find out we are now back to square 1 with my credit file destroyed and the direct debit not set up.
We really don't know which way to turn, the ombudsman service as been good but I feel that they are just getting fobbed off by Barclays. If any of you can shine any light on where to go from here that would be much appreciated. at the moment I am waiting for someone to get back to me from the ombudsman service with an update.
I have attached a list of events and the letter I sent to Barclays for a rough idea on what as happened so far. the list doesn't cover everything that as happened but it does cover a lot.
We have also tried going to citizens advice but they just directed us to he ombudsman service.
other points worth mentioning - I have requested a data request from Barclays for £10 and they sent my a copy of the T&C that I signed when taking out the loan, not the phone conversations. spoke to them again to request the phone conversations and there was only 3 phone conversations on the cd with 1 of the phone conversations cut short. I have been into a Barclays branch and they weren't happy with what is happening but said that they cant do anything. I have spoken to a solicitor who advised me that this wouldn't be worth taking on and to go to the ombudsman service.
Barclays letter
Dear Barclays,
I am writing this letter to inform you that I have had no choice but to contact the financial ombudsman service for help and advice with our complaint that has been ongoing since 18th Oct 2013. This is now affecting our lives with the knock on effect this issue is having with our credit history. We have never had a bad credit rating and pride our self’s on having such a good credit rating.
We have tried to re-mortgage our home to make some house improvements and to pay some of this loan off, however we are unable to do so due to Barclays destroying our credit file. Please note that the arrears outstanding for this account is with Secure Trust Bank as you have not called for it, so we do not have problems with debt as some of your letters and colleagues who we have spoken to have referred to.
I am concerned as this issue has been very time consuming and has gone on for far too long now. It is also making my partner (who is 5 Month’s pregnant) to lose sleep, not eat correctly, stress and worry over something that is not our fault. We have done everything that has been asked of us, and more. We just want to get this resolved.
I have attached a copy of the letter I will be sending to the ombudsman with the events that have happened since the issue with setting up the direct debit. Dependant on Barclays response, I may have to escalate this further and contact a solicitor.
Regards,
list of events
- Phoned up and asked to change bank details over the phone, was told they were unable to change over the phone, asked to fill in mandate.
- Aug 27th 2013 – filled in and returned mandate.
- Phoned up to see if they have received the mandate, they told us they didn’t receive it.
- Spoke to a lady named Stephanie Brady who started to look into why this was happening.
- Rang Barclays back to see if it was set up but Stephanie wasn’t available, spoke to a lady named Rachel who emailed head office asking them to set this direct debit up.
- Spoke to Rachel the day after to see if she spoke to head office, Rachel said that she had a confirmation email stating that the direct debit is now set up, I asked for a copy of the email but said she was unable to send me a copy.
- Barclays still didn’t call for the direct debit.
- Had a phone call asking if it was ok to take the funds out of our savings account as they could see that there was enough money in there to clear off the arrears, told them no, not until this direct debit was set up, (this was the money that they didn’t call for so we transferred it over to our saving account so the money was safe).
- Sept 28th 2013 – Received a text message saying that we are paying interest on our arrears.
- Rang Barclays to speak to Rachel who wasn’t available. Passed from one person to another who didn’t know anything about what was going on, needed to explain everything to them each time, was told by someone (can’t remember their name) that it was set up.
- Rang up another 2 or 3 times to see why it wasn’t set up as Secure Homes said it was live their end but Barclays are not calling for it. No explanation why from Barclays’ side, they made out they didn’t know who Secure Homes are and made the comment “are they some kind of debt recovery service”. After speaking to Secure Homes and mentioning this comment to them, Secure Homes said they should know who they are as they are Barclays’ clearing bank.
- Oct 1st 2013 – Received a text message saying that my credit rating is now affected.
- Oct 18th 2013, 09:50 – Spoke to Barclays again (Lady Named Lynn) to find out why my credit rating was affected as this wasn’t my fault, I have done everything I can to resolve this issue. Put in a complaint.
- Oct 19th 2013 – Ref - ******24. Received a text message confirming the complaint was being looked into.
- Daniel phoned about the complaint, he said that the direct debit was now set up and he has closed the complaint. Complaint closed and was told that my credit rating would be repaired, asked for a letter confirming this but no letter came. He also advised me that I needed to pay my arrears off and I confirmed that I could pay the arrears in full in the coming days after this conversation took place.
- Oct 24th 2013, 16:00 - Received a call from Jan (Complaints Manager), a few days after the phone call with Daniel, about the complaint to see if I was happy with how this was handled, told her not really and explained what had happened. Jan said she wasn’t happy with how it was handled and re-opened the complaint, also compensating us £50 for our phone calls. Told us that someone would be in touch about the complaint being re-opened. She also took the payment for the arrears during this phone call and reassured me that the account was fully set-up and running, then if I had any further issues to contact her.
- Received a phone call from Barclays at the end of January to ask about my account, told them that a complaint had been re-opened and someone should have been contacting me about it in Oct, told me that he would make a note and someone would contact me.
- Feb 11th 2014 – Received a letter of arrears.
- Feb 15th 2014 – Received a text message saying “thank you for contacting us. We have received your complaint and will contact you shortly. Track progress with reference ******59” (The complaint was re-opened on the 24th Oct 2013??)
- No-one phoned.
- Feb 18th 2014 – Phoned Barclays to see if I could speak to Jan, the lady I spoke to (Winnet) said she would email her and tell her to contact me.
- Still no phone call.
- Feb 20th 2014 – Received a letter telling me to get in touch as they needed to speak to me about my complaint.
- Feb 24th 2014, 19:30 - Phoned up and spoke to a lady Named Laura, she told me that the letter was sent out by error and that we need to wait for Barclays to contact us.
- Feb 25th 2014 – Still no response from Barclays.
- Feb 25th 2014 – Spoke to Barclays about proof of letters regarding the complaint that have been sent out, as requested by the financial ombudsman service. I was told that the only letter they have sent out is the final response on the 29th Jan, which I didn’t receive. I requested a copy.
- Feb 26th 2014 – Spoke to Barclays, still no update on the complaint.
- Feb 26th 2014 – sent “Barclays letter” off.
- Feb 26th 2014 – received the letter of final response, dated 25th Feb and with “copy” written on by hand. This was not 29th Jan, even though this should have been a copy of the 29th Jan final response.
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