Consumer complaint received 2023-06-20
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
These are instances regarding BARCLAYS Advantage aviator red MasterCard. I have had difficulty with them regarding their charging of interest and penalties which were not valid. Back quite a few months ago, I got an interest charge and penalty charge on my wifes credit card and when checking the statement, I found that the statement had been paid on time. I contacted Barclays and was told that they will often put a charge on the credit card and then, when the payment is received, they will then reverse the charge. I thought at the time that that was bazaar and made no sense. People could mistakenly pay the charge. I called and talked to a supervisor regarding this and she apologized and didn't know why that happened. Then again, several months ago, there was an item that I was to get a credit for. I was told to deduct the charge from my bill since I was not responsible for the charge. I did that but again received interest and penalty charges. I called and they said they would remove the charges. So I deducted the interest and penalty charges from my bill and then, on my next statement I again got interest charges and was told it was because I didn't pay the past interest and penalties. I asked to talk to a supervisor. I then talked to XXXX operator ID XXXX. He told me that my problem was not paying the bill and charges in full and as long as I didn't pay the bill in full even if the charges were not mine, I would continue to receive interest. I told him that I didn't think they should be charging people interest for charges they should need to pay because they werent valid charges. I told him that I was told to deduct these charges. He said that what I was told was not true. He was also rude and said that nobody would've told me that. He said that even though the charges were not valid that I had to pay them and wait till I got a credit for them on the next statement. I told him that was not what I was told. He said he didn't believe that somebody would tell me that. I told him that any credit card that I've ever had and had charges on it that weren't valid and that would be credited that I was told that I was to deduct them from my statement. He said that's not true and credit card companies don't do that. I believe he is wrong. I pointed out to him that if, for example, I as a consumer have something like a {$50.00} charge on my account which was not a valid charge that I had no reason to pay it. But if I was forced to pay it and if they have, for example, XXXX XXXX customers in my situation that they are talking about {$50.00} XXXX that Barclays has on float and they could use the money belonging to their customers. I don't know how that could be legal. I don't know how Barclays can use my money to do whatever they want to do with. Why should I be paying them money for not valid charges and they were able to use my money as a float for another month?

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation