Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

[Bennysonic]

This is my first post...please be patient with me.

My small self employment business failed last year and I have been struggling to adress the debts and/or avoid bankruptcy for the last twelve months. At the demise of the business, as I am sure is not uncommon, I had to resort to putting business expenditure on a personal EGG card.

EGG sold to Barclaycard and now the age old conundrum. Barclaycard want it back, I do not have it. They sold the debt to Marlin Financial Services Europe who have been chasing ever since.

I asked for the usual confirmation of paper trail as afforded under the Consumer Credit Act and enclosed the fee for the Access Request also.

Marlin were very quick to respond with pages of printouts about their actions and said that they would also contact Barclaycard 'even though they were under no obligation to do so'.

Two weeks later, Barclaycard replied confirming the various things I had asked for plus this curious paragraph. This is my question really as I would be grateful for anyone with experience of this to explain if it means what I think it does. It reads:

"we are currently unable to supply a copy of your terms of the credit agreement as varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Consumer Credit Act. We accept therefore that we are prevented from enforcing our agreement with you whilst this state of affairs continues..."

Has anyone else had this from Barclaycard? I'm at a loss how they cannot supply simple data from a retrieval system and I am somewhat shocked at their response as, quite frankly I was simply running initial interference so as to test the water as to their seriousness to get the debt repaid.

All input appreciated. Great forum... thanks for your help.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

Hi Bennysonic
Firstly welcome to Legal Beagles.

Have you tried negotiating with your creditors with a self mamanged DMP http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ewing-your-DMP

Did you to your knowledge have any PPI on your credit card with Barclays or Egg? if you have had this you may be able to be reclaim this on the basis of your self employment.

Did you at any time in last 6 years have any charges in excess of £12 on your credit card accounts and in the case of mortgages over last 12 years. Again this can be reclaimed.

Do you have the true proof of assignment of your debt to Egg sold to Barclaycard and then to Marlin Financial?

So this is an interesting piece of information given to you by Barclaycard "we are currently unable to supply a copy of your terms of the credit agreement as varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Consumer Credit Act. We accept therefore that we are prevented from enforcing our agreement with you whilst this state of affairs continues..." so now you need to send this to Marlin to advise them that Barclays are unable to enforce your agreement at this time and basically tell them to back off and also a copy to Barclays informing them to call off Marlin as the debt is unenforceable.

[ODC]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

"we are currently unable to supply a copy of your terms of the credit agreement as varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Consumer Credit Act. We accept therefore that we are prevented from enforcing our agreement with you whilst this state of affairs continues..."

LOL Game over until they do supply. As for Marlin they can swivel on one

[gravytrain]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

As ODC says, but unusual that they should say they cannot comply with section 82. Was this a response to a section 78 request? and was the agreement varied, in any way ?

And have they sent a copy of the original executed agreement

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

I asked for the usual confirmation of paper trail as afforded under the Consumer Credit Act and enclosed the fee for the Access Request also.

Did you send a CCA request (a.k.a. s.78 request)? or a Subject Access Request (SAR)? The fee for the CCA request would have been £1, £10 for a SAR.

Marlin were very quick to respond with pages of printouts about their actions and said that they would also contact Barclaycard 'even though they were under no obligation to do so'.

Actually, it is their obligation to do so! When the account was assigned to them, they also acquired all the duties associated with it, including the duty to provide information.

Two weeks later, Barclaycard replied confirming the various things I had asked for plus this curious paragraph. This is my question really as I would be grateful for anyone with experience of this to explain if it means what I think it does. It reads:

"we are currently unable to supply a copy of your terms of the credit agreement as varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Consumer Credit Act.We accept therefore that we are prevented from enforcing our agreement with you whilst this state of affairs continues..."

s.82 refers to variations of the original terms: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/82 Under s.78, they should have supplied you with a copy of the original agreement and terms from inception as well as historical terms. On the positive side, they admit they cannot enforce it, which is very good news :clap2: especially when you consider Marlin can be trigger happy! :grin:

Has anyone else had this from Barclaycard? I'm at a loss how they cannot supply simple data from a retrieval system and I am somewhat shocked at their response as, quite frankly I was simply running initial interference so as to test the water as to their seriousness to get the debt repaid.

All input appreciated. Great forum... thanks for your help.

Barcraps are notoriously bad at retrieving agreements but don't let this upset you, on the contrary, it's very good news that Marlin admit they can't enforce. :whoo:When did you take out the Egg card? Did you apply online? When did you last pay this?

I also have an old Egg card from 2000/01, last paid Jan 2010. I hadn't used it since 2005 but kept the DD going till 2009, yet the balance hardly went down! :rant: :rant: They only had the address of a place I sold in 2004 so I've never heard from anyone regarding this and it's half way through to Statute Barred. :clock:

[Bennysonic]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

As ODC says, but unusual that they should say they cannot comply with section 82. Was this a response to a section 78 request? and was the agreement varied, in any way ?

And have they sent a copy of the original executed agreement

That's an interesting point. Barclays said in their letter '...I enclose a reconstituted copy of your credit agreement. A statement of the account is below...' (followed by a balance and credit limit).

Thing is, the agreement copy they sent was laughable. it was a badly copied photocopy of a standard set of Terms and an agreement blank. Not filled in and with no sign of my signature... very strange indeed! (Part of me wants this to come to court so this type of mediocrity can be brought to light)!

As regards variation of the agreement. I was not aware of any except when Barclays took over

I initially asked for a section 78 request but within the same letter, the really helpful letter template I used also asked for copies of any changes to the T&Cs during the life of the agreement including at the point of default.

Hope that clarifies it... Thanks for your help

[Bennysonic]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

Hi Flaming Parrot. Thanks for your comments. I will try and answer your question.

I sent Marlin a letter asking for a SAR and paid the £10. The letter template I used was quite comprehensive and in my newbie naivety I expected lots of info for very little money. Marlin sent me a ream of printouts to fulfil their sed of the SAR request and passed the CCA stuff to Barclays. I never paid the £1 for that.

I thought the 'not obliged' comment was ****ty at best but like you, felt they were shirking their actual responsibility.

Its interesting that you say Marlin are 'Trigger happy...' The internet is awash with horror stories about their tactics and they were featured on C4s Dispatches I believe...and not in a good light.

Finally, my EGG card was from 2003. I made regular payments to it all through to 2010 when my business started to get into trouble so I maxed it out trying to prop up the business. By then Barclays had EGG and it was clear after a few warning shots that they had no time for the difficult debts (even though up until that time I had been a A+ customer). It went quiet for about 14 months and then out of the blue came the 'Sold to Marlin' letter with no other correspondence. I think this is part of the reason for my anger. It was handled so obtusely, and with no concern for customer circumstances at all. At no time did anyone try to contact me to offer help. Not once!

Thanks again for your help

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Barclaycard/Egg debts and Marlin Financial

Hi Flaming Parrot. Thanks for your comments. I will try and answer your question.I sent Marlin a letter asking for a SAR and paid the £10. The letter template I used was quite comprehensive and in my newbie naivety I expected lots of info for very little money. Marlin sent me a ream of printouts to fulfil their sed of the SAR request and passed the CCA stuff to Barclays. I never paid the £1 for that.

You were quite lucky there because SARs are normally sent to the OC rather than the debt purchaser, who wouldn't have a lot of the information you'd be looking for, such as statements. By the sounds of it, you sent a Subject Access Request letter which included a request for a copy of the agreement, rather than a CCA request under s.78 of the CCA. If that was the case, you couldn't argue non-compliance with s.78, and it's usually advisable to send a proper CCA request with the £1 fee to cover yourself. I know of a case where a debtor obtained a non compliant response to his letter requesting a copy of his agreement, but couldn't use this fact in his defence, because he hadn't sent a proper s.78 request with the £1 fee.

Another case is this one, where the debtor (who is known to me) had obtained a copy of his agreement over the phone and was deemed unenforceable because it was a store card turned credit card without a new agreement. A few months later, after another debtor won a very similar case in court (Santander v Mayhew), he sent a proper s.78 request to be on the safe side in case it ended up in court: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...hat-next/page4

I thought the 'not obliged' comment was ****ty at best but like you, felt they were shirking their actual responsibility.Its interesting that you say Marlin are 'Trigger happy...' The internet is awash with horror stories about their tactics and they were featured on C4s Dispatches I believe...and not in a good light.

I've heard somewhere someone's taking them to court on criminal charges! :shocked:

Finally, my EGG card was from 2003. I made regular payments to it all through to 2010 when my business started to get into trouble so I maxed it out trying to prop up the business. By then Barclays had EGG and it was clear after a few warning shots that they had no time for the difficult debts (even though up until that time I had been a A+ customer). It went quiet for about 14 months and then out of the blue came the 'Sold to Marlin' letter with no other correspondence. I think this is part of the reason for my anger. It was handled so obtusely, and with no concern for customer circumstances at all. At no time did anyone try to contact me to offer help. Not once!Thanks again for your help

Financial institutions are not there to help, they are there to make money :woof: and have very little regard for people or their problems, even when a lot of people's financial problems have arisen from the credit crunch, caused by the dodgy dealings of the financial sector. Barclays are well known not only as LIBOR riggers but also tax dodgers! :mad2: :mad2: Did you ever get a default notice (DN)?