Consumer complaint received 2024-03-13
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem — Was not notified of investigation status or results
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE (CA)

To Whom It May Concern, Im writing to report the flagrantly unfair reporting practices that are policy of the Barclays FCRA Credit Disputes Bureau.

I recently signed up for the Banana Republic ( Barclays ) credit card in order to obtain a promotional discount on a purchase I had made in the amount of {$500.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Later on, I made another purchase of {$41.00} on the date of XX/XX/XXXX. After receiving my card in the mail, I set up an online account and paid the statement balance on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Unfortunately, the statement balance that I paid did not include the 2nd purchase of {$41.00}. This balance, of under {$42.00}, was eventually reported as delinquent to the credit agencies, and my credit score went from excellent ( high 700s ) to poor ( mid 600s ).

Reason dictates that someone with an excellent credit score would not have any issue paying a {$42.00} balance, nor would they allow that balance to remain until being reported as delinquent and ruin their score. This was the result of poor communication on the part of Barclays, which provided no good-faith attempt to communicate this balance to me. I never received a phone call, a voice message, or any physical mail about it. The only communication, I would later discover, was an automated email that went into the Promotions category of my inbox, the equivalent of spam, which is invisible in my email inbox and provides no push notifications. I learned that debtors may do this because such a small amount does not warrant the effort to try to collect the debt, so no debt collection agency was ever hired to contact me. 

After I realized what had happened after receiving a credit alert from a 3rd party monitoring service, I immediately called a Banana Republic representative who was sympathetic to my situation and able to waive the late fees, and I resolved the balance due by making a payment of {$50.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. The representative recommended that I send a letter to their FCRA Credit Bureau Disputes po box , which I did on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX. The agency failed to respond within 30 days, and in fact never responded at all. I called again, well after the 30 day period had expired, and the representative said that they would resend the letter, which, again, I never received. On a 3rd phone call a few weeks later, I asked if the representative could email me the content of the letter, which they did. Finally I was able to read the letter, which was an impersonal and substanceless denial of my appeal, providing no contestations to my arguments. I asked again for a physical copy of the letter for my records and asked to speak with the FCRA Credit Bureau Disputes department. They said that the department doesnt have a phone number and I would have to write them again to get any more context. Again, they never sent me the physical letter explaining how they came to report a {$42.00} balance to the credit agencies without ever attempting to contact me. 

Since that has happened, Ive been denied credit card applications for even very low amounts. I was able to get a XXXX card only by having a bank manager hear this story and sympathize with my situation. I fear for the near-term future when I will have to refinance my home. 

There is nothing fair about the practices of the Barclays FCRA Credit Bureau. Please sympathize with the very real consequences this is having on my life and likely many others whose financial life they have ruined and ask the major credit reporting agencies to remove this delinquency from my account. 

Also, please follow up with the Barclays FCRA Credit Bureau and ask : - Why are your physical letters failing to send? 
- What is your policy regarding communicating late/delinquent balances to your card holders? 
- At what dollar amount does a debt go to a debt collector? Which debt collectors do you use and what are their policies regarding communicating late/delinquent balances to your card holders? 
- Do you think its fair to treat your customers in this manner? 

Thank you, XXXX XXXX