Barclays is another company who I owe money to. The debt with Barclays is for an overdraft and so I thought I would write about the journey of this debt from Barclays to debt collection and back again. The original balance was about £1100 if my memory serves me correctly. I have been repaying this overdraft with Barclays for some time.

What happened when I stopped using my Barclays Account

The Barclays account was my main current account for a number of years and as my debt problem increased I decided to move to a different bank. I owed over £1000 to Barclays on my current account overdraft. After about six months of nothing going into the account Barclays sent a letter demanding repayment in full of the overdraft. I was not in a position to repay it so I ignored them.

A short time after this I received a Default Notice. I was unable to remedy this default so again I just ignored them. There wasn’t much I could do. Looking back I should have set up an offer to repay the account but that was then and this is now.

Central Debt Collection Services Collect the Debt

CDCS are part of Barclays and are essentially their in house collections team. I called up to discuss the account explaining I could not repay it in full. Instead I offered £10 per month until the account was repaid. Central Debt Collection Services review the arrangement every six months so I had to call them each time this arrangement had reached that point.

I forgot that the account was up for discussion and they were very quick in passing the account to an external debt collection agency. All in all I would say that I was paying CDCS for about a year. They were quite easy to deal with and didn’t cause me any problems.

Buchanan Clark and Wells collect the Barclays Debt

It was now the turn of Buchanan Clark and Wells to have a go at collecting my Barclays Overdraft Debt. I have dealt with this company many times. I tend to e-mail them as that’s easier. I made an offer of repayment and they accepted. I made a couple of payments and stopped. The reason was because at the time I had taken up a Debt Management Plan with StepChange, so they would be making payment on my behalf.

Because StepChange were helping me Barclays recalled the account back to Central Debt Collection Services and it has remained there to this day. I am no longer with StepChange by the way but this hasn’t meant the account has been passed back to an external collector which is good.

So to summarise: –

• After six months of nothing going into the Barclays Current Account, Barclays asked for the overdraft to be repaid.
• I didn’t repay the overdraft and was served with a notice of default.
• I still didn’t pay and the account went to Central Debt Collection Services.
• I forgot to renew the arrangement and the account was passed to Buchanan Clark and Wells.
• I took out a Debt Management Plan with StepChange and the account was recalled back to Central Debt Collection Services.

Barclays is one of my easier debts to deal with and the above is a story of what has happened so far in relation to the debt collection processes. Quite straight forward really and nothing to write home about. If you are struggling with Barclays Bank Debt feel free to visit the Debt Help section on this blog to find a list of organisations who can help you with your debts. Good Luck.