topic Re: Horrible Barclays experience in Credit Cards

Horrible Barclays experience

valley_man0505 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:03:26 GMT

I made a hotel reservation about a week ago with my Barclays CC for a much-deserved kid-free night away with my wife. Well, we got to the hotel to check in on Saturday and my card was declined. I called Barclays to find out why because I just looked online before we left and I had about $500 of available credit on that card and the hotel was only $110. Well, I had an $11 payment due on Friday. I submitted the payment online on Thursday. They said that the payment did not post in time, so my account was suspended. I told them that I made the payment on Thursday and they said that they could see that in their system, but since it has not posted yet, they had to suspend the card. It was ONE DAY late and it was only $11 AND the payment was showing in their system. I have never had a late payment with them since I opened the card.

I asked if they could override that so I could check into the hotel and they said no. They can not reactivate my account until the payment is posted, which won't happen until Monday at the earliest since the banks aren't open on the weekend. That is the most ridculous thing I have ever heard! An $11 payment, ONE DAY late (even though I submitted the payment before the due date), and they completely suspend the card. After I complained, they said that they will just close my card since I don't agree with their policies. I told them that I don't want the card closed since that will hurt my credit and that I still want it available for emergencies (I will never use it again for anything other than an emergency after this experience). I guess I will have to wait to see if they close it or not now.

The "best" part of the whole conversation was when the CSR said, "sir, I don't know why you have such a problem with this considering that we have not received a payment from you since November." I acknowledged that she was right....they indeed have not receive a payment from me since November...because my November payment paid the card off completely and that I did not have another payment due until now. Their response: "oh, I guess you're right. I apologize, but I still can't reactivate your card because we still have not received your $11 payment that was due yesterday". Unbelievable!!!

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

corymcd88 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:11:35 GMT

valley_man0505 wrote:
I made a hotel reservation about a week ago with my Barclays CC for a much-deserved kid-free night away with my wife. Well, we got to the hotel to check in on Saturday and my card was declined. I called Barclays to find out why because I just looked online before we left and I had about $500 of available credit on that card and the hotel was only $110. Well, I had an $11 payment due on Friday. I submitted the payment online on Thursday. They said that the payment did not post in time, so my account was suspended. I told them that I made the payment on Thursday and they said that they could see that in their system, but since it has not posted yet, they had to suspend the card. It was ONE DAY late and it was only $11 AND the payment was showing in their system. I have never had a late payment with them since I opened the card.

I asked if they could override that so I could check into the hotel and they said no. They can not reactivate my account until the payment is posted, which won't happen until Monday at the earliest since the banks aren't open on the weekend. That is the most ridculous thing I have ever heard! An $11 payment, ONE DAY late (even though I submitted the payment before the due date), and they completely suspend the card. After I complained, they said that they will just close my card since I don't agree with their policies. I told them that I don't want the card closed since that will hurt my credit and that I still want it available for emergencies (I will never use it again for anything other than an emergency after this experience). I guess I will have to wait to see if they close it or not now.

The "best" part of the whole conversation was when the CSR said, "sir, I don't know why you have such a problem with this considering that we have not received a payment from you since November." I acknowledged that she was right....they indeed have not receive a payment from me since November...because my November payment paid the card off completely and that I did not have another payment due until now. Their response: "oh, I guess you're right. I apologize, but I still can't reactivate your card because we still have not received your $11 payment that was due yesterday". Unbelievable!!!

That is that bank for you, Try Captial One or AMEX or Bank of America. All three are very good banks. I had a payment that posted but no credit for me to spend I called and the releaced it for me and have done this three or four times, always said yes. The bank is Capital One!!

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

frogfan12 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:30:39 GMT

Wow, that's crazy. I hope my Barclays payment posts tomorrow!

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

frogfan12 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:33:33 GMT

P.S. I hope the decline didn't ruin your romantic getaway.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

drkaje — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:34:55 GMT

That's unbelievable!! Did you try any of the underwriter numbers or escalate to a supervisor?

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

bichonmom — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:49:01 GMT

Wow! That's crazy! Are you close to your CL? It seems like there must be something that's making them nervous. Or maybe they softed you and saw something they didn't like.

It's stories like this that make me really nervous about doing business with these banks. That's why I'm constantly logging in to my CC accounts and checking payments, balances, etc. Though, I have paid several times one the due date -- before their cutoff time -- and not had a problem. I've done that with a few CCCs, but don't recall which ones.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

mxp114 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:12:30 GMT

Terrible, especially since you made the payment the day before it was due. You know how a bank treats you when it is there for you during a crunch. Barclay's failed here, over an $11 payment. Isn't it on-time? AFAIK every bank posts payments the same day if paid by a certain time, even if it doesn't technically reflect until 1-2 business days later. I wouldn't even bother with them after that.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

Creditaddict — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:51:25 GMT

That would not have been a pretty phone call if that happened to me. Besides the fact that a bank can pull your credit or account at anytime they fell, when it comes to something like the payment, I thought they "could" hold the payment for up to 14 days like HSBC and that available credit not available but if you had $500 available without the hold on an $11 payment I feel it's a little illegal of them to say you did not pay on time so we are suspending... I thought by 5PM or 9PM depending on bank that payment would post next day. so are they saying you paid past that time the day before so it wouldn't post until next business day and since that was sat. it wouldn't actually post until monday? are they calling it late and charging the fee?

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

LilloEsquilo — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:43:05 GMT

I've gotta say, that is just horrible.

I can understand you wanting to keep that open, but you know what, it almost seems like you'd be winning by losing in their case. They don't want your business.

Even Cap One isn't that bad, honestly.

I used my Barclay's for the first time this week, paid it in full yesterday WELL before the due date which is about 10 days out, it said it was "processed" yesterday when I paid it, but it still shows the balance. So, Barclay's looks like another outfit that takes their time about processing payments.

As paranoid as these guys are, I'm really beginning to think two things: 1. They are not even up to Cap One and 2. I'm questioning if I want to do business with them. Time will tell, but if they close me, oh well, next. No skin off my uh, nose.

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

Changingmantra — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:12:18 GMT

These are the types of posts that should be stickies; something that shows the idosyncracies (not to personify, but you know what I mean) of particular banks. I just received a Barclays card, and before then, I had read where some people had their first on line payment held for more than a week. I put $60.00 or so on the card when I got it, and as soon as the charge showed up on my card, I made a payment, just in case, and to already establish a payment history with them. It took only two days for it to go through.

I think Barclays is clear that it takes up to 48 hours for a payment to post, so there is nothing unusual there. This is the case with most banks. To deactivate your card is a bit drastic, however.

The only similar experiences I had was with Cap 1 when I, most likely, accidentally selected the wrong payment amount option and I did not have the money in the bank. Although I typed in $75, for example, I selected "pay balance," of say $500.00. Well, they tried to take $500 out of my account, which was not there. My card was frozen, and it took talking to several CSRs before one guy finally said, "Oh, I see.. it looks like you accidentally selceted the wrong option," even before I had to explain much of the situation. I was shocked that no one else would even entertain that that was the problem, and one woman was just down right nasty, implying that I was trying to get away with something.

With HSBC, I used my card out of state and they shut me DOWN within hours! And unfortunately, because they had wrong personal nfo on me, I could not answer their security questions. They kept telling me they were basing their security questions on what was on my CR. I told them that I had copies of my CR, and I know for certain there is nothing on there about a mortgage, as I have never had one. For two days, I spoke with CRs and got nowhere. I spent my last two days in New Orleans with about $15 to spare. When I got back the NY, I WENT INTO an HSBC, the manager called the number on back of my HSBC card, but that was not enough. They said since it was a HSBC Discover, I had to fax in all of this documentation to prove my identity - the same documentation the manager was looking at. Even she was baffled! I could not even log into my account and make a payment - which was due - until they cleared this mess up. No CLIs and this insanity too? I gladly closed every HSBC card I had once my account was reactivated.

I really wish there were a sticky - " Important warnings about your CC company."

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

mxp114 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:31:48 GMT

The way it works with every bank I deal with, you make your payment by due date before some time cut-off. It can take up to 14 days to process, however the payment is recorded as paid on-time and no AA is taken. Some even note that it may not reflect and your available credit won't increase instantly.

Chang, those public record questions can be tricky. I once failed and had a nightmare on my hands to restore my account.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

valley_man0505 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:16:40 GMT

To follow up my original post, the payment I made was listed under my "pending transactions" in my checking account over the weekend, but not officially posted. Also, Barclays did charge me a $20 late fee as well. So far, it does not look like the bumped my APR up to the delinquency rate, though. My CL is $1200 and my current balance is just short of $600.

The sad thing is that I could have handled the late fee. I typically know better than to make payments so close to the due date in case there is processing time. I might have even been okay with them freezing the card if the payment was "technically" late. The biggest thing that irritated me was that they would not unfreeze the card even after I called to talk to them and they admitted that they could see the pending payment in their system. Most CSR's typically work with their customers a little bit when you actually call and talk to them--especially for a first-offense. Apparently that is not the case with Barclays, though.

It worked out okay in the end. I ended up using my check card for the room and we still had a good weekend. I didn't want to use my check card for a hotel since they sometimes freeze a lot of extra funds that take a long time to release later, but this particular hotel only added a $25 hold on top of the room rate, so it was okay.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

john398 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:46:17 GMT

Glad everything turn out well, I noticed theres still a hold on my payment I made on 2/1 with Barclays, I dont really need to use the card but I hope they make it available soon

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

nwokcguy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:48:07 GMT

valley_man0505 wrote:
To follow up my original post, the payment I made was listed under my "pending transactions" in my checking account over the weekend, but not officially posted. Also, Barclays did charge me a $20 late fee as well. So far, it does not look like the bumped my APR up to the delinquency rate, though. My CL is $1200 and my current balance is just short of $600.

This is why I stopped using my bank's bill pay to pay credit card bills - it takes too long for them to post when I do. I always pay my bill while logged into my CC account.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

john398 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:56:20 GMT

nwokcguy wrote:
valley_man0505 wrote:
To follow up my original post, the payment I made was listed under my "pending transactions" in my checking account over the weekend, but not officially posted. Also, Barclays did charge me a $20 late fee as well. So far, it does not look like the bumped my APR up to the delinquency rate, though. My CL is $1200 and my current balance is just short of $600.
This is why I stopped using my bank's bill pay to pay credit card bills - it takes too long for them to post when I do. I always pay my bill while logged into my CC account.

+1 I use Barclays bill pay feature however they are holding it, which is alright I suppose

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

athar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:30:53 GMT

That is that bank for you, Try Captial One or AMEX or Bank of America. All three are very good banks. I had a payment that posted but no credit for me to spend I called and the releaced it for me and have done this three or four times, always said yes. The bank is Capital One!!

I absolutely agree. These are only three cards I carry now. I closed Barclays, Chase, Citi - because of their change of terms and other issues since 2008. I agree that closing a car can have disadvantages, but I have four store cards to keep my active 7 cards/TLs.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

athar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:33:24 GMT

I submitted a payment to AMEX a minute ago - and, my credit line reflects 100% instantly.

Now, that is called Service, Class and customer experience.

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

nomoore — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:13:36 GMT

Just wondering, have you ever had a payment with insufficient funds with them before? Is this a new bank account you are paying with that you haven't used with them before? If not then that is a seriously messed up experience. So basically you pay before the due date and without a just cause they decide they can't trust the payment to go through for $11?

That's like going to a dept store and buying a t-shirt on sale with a check for $11. The cashier knows you and knows that you pay with checks all the time. But since they can't verify the funds they make you wait until the check clears to give you the shirt. Then they charge you the full price instead of the sale price (the late fee) because the sale is over when the check clears. On top of that they keep your whole checkbook while waiting for the check to clear. Insane!

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

LS2982 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:48:35 GMT

So did they actually close your account?

Re: Horrible Barclays experience

john398 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:02:38 GMT

OP can you clarify did you pay from your banks bill pay or from your barclays bill pay?