O/T Can they do that???

Elvira

Mistress of the Dark
Right...here's the story...

My fiance and I are saving to move to Swansea in September as I am going to uni.

We had saved £800 and decided to pay it onto his Barclaycard (£2000 limit) to reduce the minimum payments while we were saving.

He has always paid on time and paid more than the minimum payment. One time he went over the limit by £50 but paid it straight back.

He checked his account today and they have reduced his credit limit by £800 therefore taking all of our savings!!! They didn't tell him they were going to do that. He phoned them and they waffled on about credit ratings etc. but basically said he cannot have the money back.

We are panicking now because we only have 6 weeks until we move and we can't make that money up again.

Can they do this?!!? x
 
The card company can pretty much dictate the credit limit. Do you have a copy of the T&C's? There will be some waffle in there about this.
 
I'll bet it says in the T&C that they can only do that after giving you a set period, say 2 weeks, warning in writing. I would call them again and complain and also put it in writing making it very clear you are very unhappy they have done this without giving notice.
 
they can im afraid. i used to work for bcad but left as they are so bad. they have done it to thousands of customers and it left alot of people like yourself stuck.

if you can ...move elsewhere1
 
i can't really move elsewhere as i have accepted a place at the uni. and what's more, i don't want to give that up because of effing barclaycard (that's right, i'm :mad:)

i don't blame you for leaving your job with them if they do things like this!

just checked the terms and conditions and it says they will write to you if they are changing your credit limit. so ha!!! i may have got them. going to ring solicitor's tomorrow and see if anything can be done.
 
BC does seem to have a worse rep than all the others though and when they're pulling stunts like this rightly so!
 
i know it's just so annoying! this is just one more thing to add to the list of things that have gone wrong since i found out i got accepted. this is such a big thing for me and i'm wondering what i have done to deserve all this crap!!! i cried so much today when i found out. it's all going tits up!!!! x
 
What a bummer! These card companies are so bloody annoying sometimes!
My mum had a overdraft with lloyds TSB and they changed the overdraft limit without even notifying her, so when her monthly bills came out she assumed that she would have enough money in the account to cover them. But becuase they had taken the overdraft away they all went unpaid resulting in £600 worth of charges on her account! (they charge by the day!)
She said to them that the charges were discusting etc etc and they didn't care, they insisted that they had sent her a letter. My mum said if she did knew that the overdraft had been taken away she would of funded the account with enough money! They didn't care! B*stards! x
 
Just had the same thing happen with our cards. Hadn't used limit on one with really low interest rate as were saving it to pay balance on disabled adaptation for my daughter as it was cheaper than taking out a loan. They reduced the limit down to next to nothing the day before we were due to pay so we had to scrape by with savings leaving us with nothing to fall back on.Got all the excuses on credit checks etc but think it's more to do with banks having overlended in the past and now penalising those customers they cant make loads of money out of who pay off cards regularly and don't keep high balances on them.
It's so frustrating to be penalised for being responsible.
Andrea
 
I'd defo ring again, and put your complaint in writing, go to the ombudsman if you need to

sorry you're having a bad time
xx
 
just checked the terms and conditions and it says they will write to you if they are changing your credit limit. so ha!!! i may have got them. going to ring solicitor's tomorrow and see if anything can be done.

Dunno if I'd bother with the solicitors in the first instance. Give them a call and ask them where in the T&C's it says they can *lower* your credit limit without informing you. See what they say and then refer them to section whatever it is of the T&C's you have (which tells you they will write) and go from there.

Be warned, if you don't get an instant result then you're in for a bit of a wait, even if you contact a solicitor, because letters will go back and forth. If they claim they wrote to you, and you say you didn't receive a letter (I'm guessing you didn't otherwise you wouldn't be having this), then the only real way to prove it either way is to send them a Subject Access Request and get all the info they have on you. This will include copies of any correspondance they sent you, and anything you have sent them.

But, they have up to 40 days (IIRC) to respond so it's not a quick job.

Apart from a consultation a solicitor will simply write them the same sort of letter you could do yourself, and charge you for the pleasure. IMHO the only advantage a solicitor *may* give you is a bit of weight: if they receive a letter from a solicitor they *might* take it more seriously?

Try mentioning the Financial Ombudsman Service in passing; add 'cc Financial Ombudsman Service' to the bottom even if you don't send them a copy of the letter. This way it seems you are sending a complaint to the FOS, which *may* give you more leverage.

Unfortunately, none of this is short-term so if you don't get a result when you phone them you'll have to make alternative arrangements for your £800 while you sort this out I'm afraid.
 
I'd defo ring again, and put your complaint in writing, go to the ombudsman if you need to

sorry you're having a bad time
xx

Only problem with the Ombudsman is they are taking forever to address the complaints they receive, I guess due to the sheer volume they'll be receiving at the moment. I complained to them about something back in April and it's still waiting to be sorted out... I'm sure I read somewhere they were up to eight months behind? Not sure how true that is.
 
OH has been on the phone to them all morning. The woman he spoke to said they have done this to thousands of people this week and 50% of them are having their original limits reinstated. Fingers crossed we are one of them!

The woman has bumped us to the top of the queue so hopefully we will be one in the 50%!!!

Thanks so much for all the advice! x
 
Quite similar for me.
I claimed for unfair bank charges via Barclays Bank. After 2 years of letters going back and forth I threatened court, and got a date for a court hearing. 10 days after they received the letter from the small claims court, I got the money back in full. But that was 2 years waiting. Got there in the end though ;)

Hugs x x x
 
Thanks guys, fingers crossed it will all be sorted and Swansea will be full steam ahead! x
 
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