Barclays woes

[Royleycarr]

I have just started reading the IVA thread and am now quite depressed.

I was thinking of entering into an IVA, and one of the main benefits, for me, was going to be the fact that creditors are legally bound by it and are not supposed to be allowed to contact you. Seeing as my biggest debt is with Barclays and regarding some of the horror stories on here, I doubt they will leave me alone even if I am accepted in an IVA.

Personally they could phone all day and night and I would just ignore the calls, as I know they would have to be bound by the IVA. However, I am currently with parents and the situation is very delicate. My father has been made redundant after a long and stressful period at work and these potential calls from Barclays around the clock would unsettle things profoundly.

Since this forum is geared towards people who ARE getting harrassed, it is difficult to get a straw poll of how often this happens. are some people just unfortunate to enter an IVA and then still get calls, or is this something that is common and, therefore, I should expect the phone to begin ringing once I enter into my IVA?

I am thinking of removing my home number from my Barclays profile in advance so that they have to ring my mobile no. As long as they are definitely getting through to me, they can call me as often as they like and they would find it hard to justify calling my home no if the mobile no is putting them through to the debtor. Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but I can not honestly see what else I could do.

[MelanieGiles]

Hi there and welcome to the forum

I think it is very unlikely that Barclays will continue to correspond with you at all once an IVA has been accepted. You may be reading one or two complaints of ongoing correspondence on the forum, but this is actually quite rare and should not put you off using a very good process to deal with unaffordable debts.

I have hundreds of clients with debts with Barclays who have not heard a jot from them since their IVA was accepted, so I would not worry unduly - and if they are going to continue to contact you due to poor communication processess within their own organisation, this may also happen if you enter into a DMP or petition for bankruptcy as well.

[kallis3]

Hi,

The vast majority of creditors do stop calling once an IVA is approved. Barclays phoned me on the day of approval and once I told them I was in an IVA they went away and I've not heard anything from them since. I think it is just unfortunate if they continue to call, but at least you know they cannot do anything to you.

I would remove your phone number from their records. You could also see about changing your number.

You will be harrassed beforehand once you have missed payments, the amount and frequency of calls varies from person to person.

[Skippy]

I was with Barclays and I never had any problems with them before or after my IVA was agreed.

It's not a bad idea to remove your home number from your profile, but as Melanie says please don't let this put you off looking at an IVA.

[Royleycarr]

Many thanks for the replies.

I am in a position at the moment of being able to meet the minimum payments. This, however, is barely moving the total debt due to the very high rates of interest on it all. Also, I am then finding that I have to use the little I have cleared for shopping/petrol, etc. This is the main reason I am looking into other ways (ie- IVA) to get a grip on the debt.

However, this does raise an interesting question: If I do go down the IVA route, aren't some of the creditors going to take the attitude of, "Well he's meeting his minimum payments" and vote to refuse?

[kallis3]

No they won't.

Not everyone stops making payments before entering an IVA, and if you can only just make the minimum payments and are then having to resort to credit, then you do need help. I was exactly the same, and just couldn't carry on like that.

I would suggest that you have a word with a professional. The one's who post on here come highly recommended and you can find their details under the expert link on the left hand side of the page. Or you could visit www.iva.com for a list of companies and reviews. Give one or two a ring and you will receive free and impartial advice as to all the options open to you and the best way forward for your circumstances.

[Its_a_long_road]

I have been in an IVA for a month now and to be honest, from the day it was accepted I have had one phone call from Barclays and another from Santander and once I mentioned I was in an IVA, I haven't heard anything since. Considering I had 12 creditors, thats not a bad result so trust me, the doom and gloom of the phone calls does disappear for the majority after being accepted. Just have to ride through the storm before that happens......

[Royleycarr]

Many thanks for all the kind support and emails.

Reading back through the posts I get the feeling that most of the aggressive and vigorous chasing is being done in situations where the debts had already been passed on prior to an IVA being set up. Having worked in a large IT company in the past I know that there can still be a serious lack of communication between one part of a group and another.

Similarly, a lot of companies outsource their call centres to other companies, but still answer the phone as though they are working directly for them. EG Marks and Spencer use a completely independent company to manage telephone complaints, but anybody answering the phones acts/talks/represents themselves as an employee of Marks and Spencer.

I am guessing that it is possible that a similar thing is happening with, say, Barclays and such like. Like has been said before, tunnel-visioned, profit-motivated, many probably haven't even heard of an IVA let alone care what one is. I'm not very well up on the financial side, but I sadly know all too well about the lack of training and slipshod attitude of many call desks. Obviously, however, that doesn't help the poor souls who find themselves at the other end of these people

thanks again

Mark

[mole]

Log in to any online banking facilities you have any remove/change your contact details. I did this before I started missing payments and never received a single call.

Plenty of letters..... but no calls.

[Adam16]

Mercers (on behalf of Barclaycard) did do quite a big of harassing I found. But once my IVA was agreed it stopped immediately!

[MelanieGiles]

Mark

If you are only making the minimum payments by juggling your debt repayments then you may well need to consider a formal debt solution. If you can continue to make the minimum contractual repayments, you can probably work this through yourself, in which case try and pay as much to the creditors charging higher interest in order to bring those balances down quicker and therefore have more money to share around and thus get your debts repaid more quickly.