Almost Settled Another Two Debts With Barclaycard
I had a letter through the post today which somewhat puzzled me – it was from Barclaycard for a balance I didn’t recognise and an account number I didn’t recognise.
I promptly rang them up and spoke with them about the account, and they informed me that they had taken over my old Sky card, and issued me with a new number, which was why I didn’t recognise it.
I spoke with them about the balance and the account, explained that I couldn’t afford to make anywhere near the agreed payments, explained all I could afford was a token payment etc etc.
The chap went through a budget with me, and I explained that I did have access to funds for a full and final settlement, which was to be a gift from my family, so not my funds.
We went through my offer, he didn’t accept it but agreed that he would pass the account over to the debt collection dept, and then transferred me through.
When I was transferred through, it transpired that the connection wasn’t a very good one and he hung up.
I then took the initiative and rang Calders Financial, who are the debt collection agency for Barclaycard, and spoke with them about the account. Strangely enough I spoke with the same woman I agreed my previous full and final settlement with Barclaycard, and she was very good in that she remembered me.
We came to the conclusion that as I have two remaining accounts with Barclaycard we may as well look to settle both today. She went through the figures with her computer and came back and offered exactly 30% for each balance. This was ok, but we felt we should be able to get down to nearer 20%.
We haggled a bit, she went and spoke to her manager and then came back and said that she was terribly sorry but the two accounts we had been discussing had not actually been passed through to Calders at that time, which meant they were not quite ready to be settled yet.
This I found quite interesting as it gave me some useful information, in that as soon as they do get passed to Calders, I will be in a position to start the negotiating at 30% and drive the price down.