topic Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold... in Credit Cards

Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

Andy77 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:35:03 GMT

So made another 900 pmt on my Barclays card and they put another hold on it. I sent them the below. I don't care if they close my account, as this is insanity.

I have had credit cards with Citi, Amex, BofA, First Premier, Orchard Bank Crap One...never a single payment hold on any of those accounts and I spent 60k with Amex on my Platinum Card ...

So, I sent Barclays this fax:

TIME SENSITIVE REQUEST – ACT NOW!

Pages: 1 of 1

Date: 10/01/12
Via Facimile 302-255-8301

Barclay's
Executive Office
PO Box 8885
Wilmington, DE 19899

RE: ACCT # ....

To Whom It May Concern:
I opened the above account in Nov 2011.

On 9/27/12 I made a payment of 900.00
On 10/1/12 I made a payment of 900.00

My account is in perfect standing

Both of those the above payments are on holds. My account is useless.

I will be going to the LA Times as a friend of mine works in the editorial department and

I will be taking out an article in LA times Money Section. The article will state that it is
clearly stated in Barclays consumer credit cards terms & conditions they make place a
hold on payments received on their consumer credit cards, but the article will ask the
mere question, why should a card holder deal with a credit card company that places
holds for no “logical” reason and renders consumers credit accounts with this financial
institution useless.

In addition, I will explain in the article that I was an American Express Platinum card
member and spent 60k on that card and never once had a payment hold. The article will
go on to say the most embarrassing moment was when I was out at a client dinner and
my Barclay's card declined because there was a hold on a payment that I was not aware
of. The customer service rep nor supervisor could remove the hold and told me I was
**bleep** out of luck. The article will conclude with, if you don't want an embarrassing
moment at a restaurant where your financial institution will do nothing to help you,
bring your American Express card.

If both holds are removed by 10/03/12, I will not go to the LA Times.

Thank you,

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

mmmagique — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:58:03 GMT

Well, if you're gonna go to the LA Times, you may want to mention that Capital One and GEMB both due this as a matter of course, especially if more than one payment is made in a billing period.

When I complained to Cap One, they were rude, but took off the hold.

When I complained to GEMB, they said they did it because it's in the agreement, and because they can (**bleep**?!!) and balance chased me down to $100.

Barclay's is not alone in this practice.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

MountainHiker — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:02:15 GMT

Another reason why Barclay doesn't fit my life style.I want credit cards that make life a bit easier not more stressful.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

LS2982 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:06:48 GMT

Going to a newspaper about it is overkill.

Just close the account, and move on to a different card, Simple as that.

Making threats to a CC company is only going to get your account closed.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

bobebob — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:09:44 GMT

What am I missing? Don't they make fees on the purchases that go through their cards?

Why would they want to put holds on mid statement payments and therefore limit their income?

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

jsickz32 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:34:17 GMT

Is this in their apple visa card??

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

CreditCrusader — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:03:04 GMT

Andy77 wrote:

So made another 900 pmt on my Barclays card and they put another hold on it. I sent them the below. I don't care if they close my account, as this is insanity.

I have had credit cards with Citi, Amex, BofA, First Premier, Orchard Bank Crap One...never a single payment hold on any of those accounts and I spent 60k with Amex on my Platinum Card ...

So, I sent Barclays this fax:

TIME SENSITIVE REQUEST – ACT NOW!

Pages: 1 of 1
Date: 10/01/12
Via Facimile 302-255-8301

Barclay's
Executive Office
PO Box 8885
Wilmington, DE 19899

RE: ACCT # ....

To Whom It May Concern:
I opened the above account in Nov 2011.

On 9/27/12 I made a payment of 900.00
On 10/1/12 I made a payment of 900.00

My account is in perfect standing

Both of those the above payments are on holds. My account is useless.

I will be going to the LA Times as a friend of mine works in the editorial department and
I will be taking out an article in LA times Money Section. The article will state that it is
clearly stated in Barclays consumer credit cards terms & conditions they make place a
hold on payments received on their consumer credit cards, but the article will ask the
mere question, why should a card holder deal with a credit card company that places
holds for no “logical” reason and renders consumers credit accounts with this financial
institution useless.

In addition, I will explain in the article that I was an American Express Platinum card
member and spent 60k on that card and never once had a payment hold. The article will
go on to say the most embarrassing moment was when I was out at a client dinner and
my Barclay's card declined because there was a hold on a payment that I was not aware
of. The customer service rep nor supervisor could remove the hold and told me I was
**bleep** out of luck. The article will conclude with, if you don't want an embarrassing
moment at a restaurant where your financial institution will do nothing to help you,
bring your American Express card.

If both holds are removed by 10/03/12, I will not go to the LA Times.

Thank you,

Oh for the love of God...

Threatening a CCC by (gasp!) running to a newspaper?

Apologies in advance is what I am about to say seems harsh, but this reeks of tantrum. You will be wasting your time and money doing this.

I am on record as opposing the holds you describe, but in reality, they have every right to do this. If their business practices do not suit you, move on to another CC.

CHOICE...it is front-and-center in the business world and your ready-made remedy in this situation.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

FrugalRican — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:32:19 GMT

Barclays: Oh, it's just the newspaper. Nobody reads those anymore. Now if he had threatened with social media...

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

CreditCrusader — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:57:59 GMT

FrugalRican wrote:
Barclays: Oh, it's just the newspaper. Nobody reads those anymore. Now if he had threatened with social media...

:smileyvery-happy:

Poster would probably be subjected to the same scorn, but it would be far more amusing for both sides involved.

I just don't understand the sense of entitlement that has gripped (and choked the economy within) our American society. Since when are we entitled to have our available credit reinstated on OUR timetable? The lender is the one taking the risk here, not the borrower. We would all do well to remember that when we whine about the terms and conditions WE AGREED TO when we were afforded the PRIVILEGE of unsecured credit.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

TheConductor — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:04:53 GMT

I just don't understand the sense of entitlement that has gripped (and choked the economy within) our American society. Since when are we entitled to have our available credit reinstated on OUR timetable? The lender is the one taking the risk here, not the borrower. We would all do well to remember that when we whine about the terms and conditions WE AGREED TO when we were afforded the PRIVILEGE of unsecured credit.

This. This. A hundred times this.

@Andy77, I read your prior thread and bit my tongue to avoid saying exactly this.

The lender is taking the risk here, extending you credit on nothing more than a promise to pay. And with terms you signed on the dotted (or digital) line to agree to.

You ask for them to have a logical reason to hold your payment, but to be perfectly frank you have given them that logical reason.

I wrote a scoring algorithm for a major mortgage collection company, and I have been privy to a couple of non-FICO scoring algorithms for the revolving-credit world as well, so while non-disclosure binds me from going into detail on how those algorithms intepret risk (and while you can see that said knowledge has not prevented me from making my own ill-advised mistake recently), I can tell you this much:

Your behavior in getting a credit-line increase, immediately charging up to $25 shy of it, and then proceeding to oscillate between your CLI and CLI minus 900 every week, is a giant red flag for risk.

What every scoring model is attempting to identify is patterns. Patterns that correlate strongly with risk. The pattern of your spending and usage on this card is going to get you sorted into one of two likely buckets:

1. CASHFLOW CONSTRAINED - Someone who does not have sufficient money to handle all of their debts and obligations. You see this a lot when someone has been laid off, for example. Bumping against the CLI ceiling, and spending back up to it as soon as any payment is made.

2. FRAUD PREP - A common credit fraud tactic is to use a card responsibly for a while to get it up to a decent credit limit, then make a "hot" payment that bounces and run away with the proceeds. To their model, you may look like someone who is shoving their limit up just so they can get a bigger haul when they're ready to ditch the account and cash in.

From the lender's point of view, however annoying it may be to you, it's sensible and logical to hold your money until the payment has FULLY cleared. Typically, that's 2 to 4 business days although it can sometimes be longer. It would not surprise me if the first hold lifts today, and that won't be because you threatened them with bad publicity but simply because the money is finally officially in their hands.

If you want to understand a lender, think like a lender.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

bostonte — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:22:03 GMT

The way you schedule your payments would make most creditors suspicious.

You refuse to push payments like everyone here advises you, until your account is older.

Now you're threatening them.

hope you didn't like that account. They will close it.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

TheConductor — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:42:08 GMT

One thing to add:

Consider the possibility that the true embarrassment in the client dinner situation was not the card being declined, but the way you handled it.

My standard response when a card gets declined is "Oh, these banks are all so twitchy these days about 'unusual' spending. They must have locked my account over something I bought earlier today. Here, use this card instead." 99% of the time, that's exactly what happened, but even if it's not it saves face for everyone involved.

The waiter or clerk doesn't have to feel like the bearer of shameful news, anyone else in the vicinity doesn't have to feel tense about witnessing the incident, and you have nothing further to explain.

It's only embarrassing if you let it embarrass you.

To put it another away, emotions are not caused by the things that happen to you, but by your own thought processes about what happens.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

ImprovingYouth — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:46:26 GMT

Very well said Conductor, as a previous waiter it was always foolish to me when people would get irate because of a declined card, just make up any damn excuse and move on to another card and continue your night! Cant tell you how many times Ive had to embarass people because they try to embarass me by saying it must be me the card works 100% and I must be a dumb#$% to not know how to use the card xD

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

roxy382 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:50:16 GMT

+1 improvingyouth. I used to waitress and more then not when I had a card declined the person acted like since I was a waitress I must be to incompetent to swipe a CC right

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

TheConductor — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:52:30 GMT

My favorite when I worked in food service & retail was the "Did you swipe it again? Did you punch it in manually?"

No, I decided to have this conversation that will in all likelihood be tense and uncomfortable without trying some easier solutions first. What can I say, I'm a sadomasochist who likes to ruin the day of myself AND others. :smileylol:

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

knj601 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:53:18 GMT

I do not have a Barclays card, but this has happened to me a few times with my Capital One card. I understand if I make $700 or $800 payments, the credit card company may want to take precautions, Most of the time they remove the hold after verifying information with my bank. I understand it is frustrating, but if you know that Barclays will hold your payments because of past experience, perhaps you should stop making such large payments so frequently. I would take the advice of the people on here who are trying to help you avoid this problem. Good luck either way!

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

Andy77 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:59:09 GMT

I can understand any financial institution that loans someone money is taking a risk, but if I am such a risk, why did they increase my credit line from 1700 to 3500 after nine months of use. I must have been doing something right.

I am just trying to use my card and pay it back. I could care less if they close my account because as if right now I have 29.00 available credit and my card is useless.

I did not pay through my bank, as sugested here, because a customer service rep said the chances of a 2nd hold were very slim so i took a gamble on making another payment through their website and I lost the bet.

I know all of this is out of my hands, they will either do one of (3) things.

Close account

Do nothing

Relase the holds

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

ImprovingYouth — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:59:49 GMT

HAHAHAHA love it Conductor!

But on a serious note, I think the letter sent was clearly unprofessional, and in all honesty just close out your account and move to a different CC company, the world has many!

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

TheConductor — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:29:56 GMT

I can understand any financial institution that loans someone money is taking a risk, but if I am such a risk, why did they increase my credit line from 1700 to 3500 after nine months of use. I must have been doing something right.

Just because you were doing something right, that doesn't mean you were doing everything right.

Sometimes a pretty girl goes home with a guy she met at a bar, even though he has bad garlic breath from the Olive Garden dinner he had earlier, because he's cute and has a nice smile and wasn't rude to her friends. That doesn't make him the world's greatest seducer, it just means he ticked enough positive boxes for her to look the other way in the short term.

It also doesn't mean she won't kick him out of bed if he didn't bring a condom. She'll take a small risk on the bad breath, but not THAT big a risk. :)

What I am sure they expected is that once they gave you the CLI, your spending would settle down and fit within what they calculated to be a reasonable level well below your CL. Now that instead you are continuing to push the envelope, they are looking at your past BK and going "Hmm...this guy seems to be repeating the spending patterns that got him into BK in the first place."

You seem to be in an awful hurry to be doing everything right. But you are recovering from a bankruptcy and there is no quick fix for that. It's a slow healing process that will require patience and discipline.

I was perplexed by the fact that you are cranking so much money through an Apple Financing card, which has no rewards apart from the 0% on Apple purchases. Then I realized why you are doing it: I suspect you are laboring under the misapprehension that the more money you crank through the card, the more profit they make. And the more profit they make, the faster they will upgrade you to better limits.

There's a fallacy in that logic, though, because their whole business is one of volatility. The volatility is in the fact that they are effectively in the business of making unsecured loans, over and over. They maximize their profits not by loaning as much money as possible, but by loaning as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. The marriage of the two principles is what matters - neither can stand alone.

If, say, since your CLI and for the next 6 months or so, you were to crank no more than $1700 per month through that card, and PIF with a single payment each month, then I am betting your next CLI at that point could be to a nice 8k, 9k, or even 10k.

If you continue in the way you are going, however, you may spend 2 or 3 times as much over the same 6 months, but that spend will come with all the signs of volatility. They will be wary of you, and if you get another CLI at all it is likely to be modest and disappointing.

There's a reason folks on this board often compare creditors to sleeping bears or lions. The way to behave with them is tread lightly and seem as non-threatening as possible.

Re: Barclays Did It Again...Another Payment Hold...

ryanbush — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:43:44 GMT

i agree with everything about, but would like to add:

I see the biggest issue here is you never pay the card off in full, you just make a payment and max it back out... it looks like you are basically financing your life with this card and making payments when you have the funds available, and then maxing it out again. so from the lenders prosprective what happens when the pay checks stop coming in?? they are on the hook for the full amount of the card charged off

do you have any cash on hand at all? do you have any other cards?

why not just use the cash you have or other cards until you PIF this one and then start using it again?

TheConductor wrote:
I can understand any financial institution that loans someone money is taking a risk, but if I am such a risk, why did they increase my credit line from 1700 to 3500 after nine months of use. I must have been doing something right.
Just because you were doing something right, that doesn't mean you were doing everything right.

Sometimes a pretty girl goes home with a guy she met at a bar, even though he has bad garlic breath from the Olive Garden dinner he had earlier, because he's cute and has a nice smile and wasn't rude to her friends. That doesn't make him the world's greatest seducer, it just means he ticked enough positive boxes for her to look the other way in the short term.

It also doesn't mean she won't kick him out of bed if he didn't bring a condom. She'll take a small risk on the bad breath, but not THAT big a risk. :)

What I am sure they expected is that once they gave you the CLI, your spending would settle down and fit within what they calculated to be a reasonable level well below your CL. Now that instead you are continuing to push the envelope, they are looking at your past BK and going "Hmm...this guy seems to be repeating the spending patterns that got him into BK in the first place."

You seem to be in an awful hurry to be doing everything right. But you are recovering from a bankruptcy and there is no quick fix for that. It's a slow healing process that will require patience and discipline.

I was perplexed by the fact that you are cranking so much money through an Apple Financing card, which has no rewards apart from the 0% on Apple purchases. Then I realized why you are doing it: I suspect you are laboring under the misapprehension that the more money you crank through the card, the more profit they make. And the more profit they make, the faster they will upgrade you to better limits.

There's a fallacy in that logic, though, because their whole business is one of volatility. The volatility is in the fact that they are effectively in the business of making unsecured loans, over and over. They maximize their profits not by loaning as much money as possible, but by loaning as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. The marriage of the two principles is what matters - neither can stand alone.

If, say, since your CLI and for the next 6 months or so, you were to crank no more than $1700 per month through that card, and PIF with a single payment each month, then I am betting your next CLI at that point could be to a nice 8k, 9k, or even 10k.

If you continue in the way you are going, however, you may spend 2 or 3 times as much over the same 6 months, but that spend will come with all the signs of volatility. They will be wary of you, and if you get another CLI at all it is likely to be modest and disappointing.

There's a reason folks on this board often compare creditors to sleeping bears or lions. The way to behave with them is tread lightly and seem as non-threatening as possible.