Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

[Caspar]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Sorry to show my ignorance, but not sure what an AP is. The way I read it (just re-read it) is that they shouldn't place a default on your file after 6 months. If they do, unless it has been re-negotiated it constitutes a breach of the DPA.

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

AP = Arrangement to Pay. Creditors stick these on one's credit file if you enter into agreed lower repayments. Barclays did enter an AP but not a Default in 2006. Looks like they can't do that now (or, rather, they CAN but that the ICO will deem this unfair and it might get removed).

[Caspar]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Agreed!

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

The operative word being "might"

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Some further advice/guidance would be appreciated please.

I sent Barclays/CDCS an i/e sheet and a proposal for affordable monthly repayments.

Barclays/CDCS wrote back with a standard tick-box letter today (they ALWAYS time their letters to arrive on Saturdays!) stating next to a ticked box that:

"You have more than one account with this department. Contact CAB/CCCS/PAYPLAN to update your paperwork providing affordable offers on all debts."

"Failure to respond to this letter may result in further action being taken by the bank."

Now, at the top of the letter they have handwritten in my Masterloan account number and balance AND ADDED MY BARCLAYS CURRENT ACCOUNT Number and overdraft balance as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can they do this?

I have received nothing from the bank concerning my overdraft and current account and as far as I'm aware this is being managed normally by me, albeit that I am reliant on the personal reserve and have recently complained to my branch about penalties and fees.

[Chalkitup]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

American Express did exactly this to me .......... I had trouble with one card which I alerted them about ........ and they shut down the others I had with them that were ok at that time.

CCCS advised me some time ago that it was common practice for a bank to do this????? But then CCCS advised all sorts of strange things to me which I now realise were quite wrong!

You might need to open a parachute account somewhere pretty quickly that has no links to any bank / company you have debts with.

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

If I were able to get my bank account into credit would that make a difference here or will they shut it down anyway?

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

I gather what you're saying is that the bank will play dirty and snaffle up my entire salary when it gets paid in, to part-pay the Masterloan, leaving me without any money for food, mortgage, petrol and bills?

Well, I reckon that's what you mean, and on that basis I've gone on-line just now and cancelled every DD. I'll get my salary paid into another current account I've had dormant for a while.

If I clear my reserve with Barclays they can't presumably do diddly sqwat with the current account then.

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Here is my letter in response to CDCS/Barclays:

R. Palpatine
Senior Recoveries Manager
Barclays Bank
Consumer Finance Debt Management
PO Box 362
MANCHESTER
M60 3PN

SENT BY SIGNED FOR POST

Dear Mr Palpatine

Your Ref: 123456 789101112

I am writing further to your letter of X January regarding the arrears on the above named account and your continuing refusal to come to a repayment agreement with me.

I note that your letterhead is from Barclays Bank - and not CDCS Limited - and that you have used the Bank’s address. However, you state in previous correspondence that the account has been closed and “transferred” to CDCS Limited and that you have been acting for your “client” Barclays Bank. Who are you – CDCS Collections, or someone else?

Whoever you are, you have failed to respond to letters sent on the following dates: X November, X December, X December and X December 2010.

These included detailed requests for proof that CDCS Limited administer or own the debt. My requests for statutory evidence that you have lawfully complied with the account termination and assignment to CDCS Limited have been ignored. This has not prevented you from threatening on at least three occasions to date. Despite not receiving a single reply to any of this correspondence, you have not responded to my requests under ss.77-78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for a copy of the credit agreement and have also failed to supply a Subject Access request under the Data Protection Act 1998. Both requests were sent with payment and by recorded post to you on X November 2010. I have confirmation from Royal Mail that these letters were delivered to you and signed for by a member of staff at CDCS/Barclays.

You write that it is possible my accounts might be passed to an external debt recovery agency. I was under the impression that this had happened, given that CDCS are acting for Barclays Bank. This, along with your refusal to negotiate a repayment plan with me, is the subject of an official complaint to the FOS, which was submitted in December. I am sure the Bank has now received notification of it.

As I have made perfectly clear to you, I am willing to deal with this matter amicably and in writing. An offer of repayment has been made based on affordability. I choose not to involve the CCCS or any other Debt Management Agency.

You have chosen to ignore that offer and returned to me my income and expenditure sheet stating with a letter that is impossible to understand in a standard, tick-box format, stating that:

"You have more than one account with this department. Contact CAB/CCCS/PAYPLAN to update your paperwork providing affordable offers on all debts."

At the top of your letter you have handwritten my Masterloan account and balance but have also added my Barclays current account with my Personal Reserve balance as it stood on X January 2010.

With regard to my current account, I have received nothing from the bank in writing or by telephone concerning my Personal Reserve being withdrawn with demand for payment. I have recently complained to my branch about unfair penalties and the Personal Reserve usage fees that have caused severe financial hardship for my family.
I do not wish to pre-judge the outcome of my complaint to the FOS but CDCS/Barclays’ actions go absolutely against the best practices detailed in the Lending Code, the publications on your own website available to customers in difficulty, as well as old-fashioned common sense. Your behaviour towards me has been wholly unprofessional. Is it really the Bank's / your client’s usual practice to simply ignore correspondence?

The fact that you have chosen to drag in my current account as a pretext for not engaging with my repayment proposal for the Masterloan is disgraceful in my opinion.

It would have been possible to negotiate a repayment plan for the Masterloan many months ago, had the bank contacted me concerning payment. As it is, you have not chased payments or sent statements or made any attempt to communicate any excess notices to me for 18 months. By the bank’s own admission this was caused by an internal error.

As it is, the fact that your letter of X January comes from Barclays address and on Barclays’ letterhead, gives me grounds to suspect that it is not actually from CDCS at all and that you, in fact, an employee of Barclays Bank.

Again, I repeat: I have submitted a previously detailed budget sheet. I enclose a further copy. I will make payments of £X each month until further notice. If you are not willing to accept the repayment offers, which were developed for me on the basis of realistic income/expenditure figures, then I invite you to simply await the outcome of the FOS investigation into this complaint.

In the interim, I repeat my written requests for the following documentation:

1. The default notice
2. The termination notice
3. The notice of assignment
4. Proof of delivery of the notice of assignment
5. Copy credit agreement
6. Subject Access Request

Yours sincerely

The Debt Star

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

DS I would remove the ref number if it relates to your sort code and account number

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

DS I would remove the ref number if it relates to your sort code and account number

its ok, I made those up for present purposes

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

DebtStar,

I have just found this and thought it might be of use to you. I know it is written with the financial industry in mind, but however it does give a good indication of what you can expect.

http://www.tcfinfo.co.uk/site/99/Complaints.aspx

[The Debt Star]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Thx. that'll come in useful when I draft my FOS complaint over the next few days. Barclays' 8 weeks is up.

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Well I did post it because one wonders whether you are being treated fairly here.

I think not and the TCF does very much come into play with all complaints.

[Chalkitup]

Re: Masterloan - Help & Advice Please

Hi,

I personally think you have made the right move by getting your salary paid into another account. I can see this becoming involved and Barclays can get rather nasty with their actions.

At least they will not be able to use "Right to Offset" now from your current account. (They take money from your current account (without your permission) to bring the loan / credit card repayments / debt up to date.

Incidentally Barclays do like hiding behind other names BUT it is infact them pulling the strings. The following is a quote from another forum but I have actually experienced this myself and Barclays actually told me there is no connection whatsoever between the three companies!!! I have the telephone call recorded!!! ......
"Mercers is just a front that Barclays use, when you answer any letters or calls you are basically talking to Barclays....they also use Calder Financial as a front but they all use the same address and if you phone them you'll find you are talking to a Barclays employee....all a bit underhand if you ask me".
It appears they are Mercers Debt Collections Ltd trading as Calder Financial. Registered Number 2550639


By the way CDCS is a Barclays department according to a search on the Internet.