Dear Consumer’s Voice
I got a letter from Debtsolve saying that I owed money on my Barclaycard. However I haven't had a Barclaycard for years and as far as I can remember when I closed my account I paid everything I owed.
What should I do?
Firstly you should check with Barclaycard.
We've heard from several people with exactly the same problem recently. Barclaycard and at least one other bank who out-sourced their credit card business to Barclaycard seem to have messed up a bit. Each person who's contacted us tells the same story. They had a Barclaycard, or a card operated by them, they moved to another bank or just had enough of that particular card, they closed their account and believed everything was done. Ages later they get the threatening letter from Debtsolve saying there's still a debt.
Each person who contacted us then got in touch with Barclaycard, very politely asked what the hell was going on and eventually got confirmation that they didn't owe a thebe.
The other surprising thing was that none of these people had ever been contacted by Barclaycard about the alleged debt. The first thing they heard was when the heavy mob got in touch with threats.
It really is fairly basic, don't you think? A bank has a responsibility to check, double check and then triple check their facts before they get heavy with their customers and irritate them hugely. Before they scare people with threats they should at least sure they are threatening the right people.
Consumer Watchdog is a (fiercely) independent consumer rights and advocacy organisation campaigning on behalf of the consumers of Botswana, helping them to know their rights and to stand up against abuse. Contact us at consumerwatchdog@bes.bw or find us on Facebook by searching for Consumer Watchdog Botswana. Everything we do for the consumers of Botswana has always been and always will be entirely free.
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