Consumer complaint received 2026-07-06 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Problem with rewards from credit card
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
This Barclays credit card was opened on XX/XX/XXXX at a XXXX Vacations timeshare sales presentation in XXXX, Missouri, for the sole purpose of financing part of my timeshare purchase. I had no intention of opening a credit card account. But, the seller 's sales representative, XXXX XXXX, directed me to sign up for the card during the presentation and told me that timeshare reward points would be applied to pay the balance, including a {$2600.00} down payment charged to the card, so that the card would cost me nothing. I relied on that promise. The promised points were never applied to the card, and no one from XXXX Vacations ever made this arrangement work despite my repeated calls for help. I did not seek out this card on my own. It was applied for and opened during the sales meeting, and the very first charge on it was my timeshare down payment. In substance the card was used as point-of-sale financing for a single timeshare purchase from a single seller. I want to be clear about what I believe XXXX Vacations was doing, because Barclays should understand how its card was used. Instead of financing the down payment itself and giving me the closed-end XXXX in XXXX disclosures that come with a timeshare installment loan ( the finance charge, the annual percentage rate, the total of payments, and the total cost of credit ), XXXX Vacations XXXX XXXX own salesman open a Barclays card XXXX my name and charged the down payment to it. That let XXXX XXXX collect its money up front while avoiding the closed-end disclosure rules that would have applied if it had financed that piece of the sale directly. Barclays became the financing arm for XXXX Vacations ' sale without, I believe, knowing about the false promises that were made to get me to open the account. Because the card was applied for and used as part of, and in the presence of, that timeshare sale, I believe the seller 's misrepresentations and my defenses to the timeshare debt should attach to this card debt as well ( the FTC Holder Rule, XXXX C.F.R. XXXX ), and I do not believe I received clear disclosures of the true cost of this credit when the account was opened. I also want to flag the bigger picture for the XXXX : XXXX XXXX is trying to escape responsibility for its own deceptive sale by treating this as purely a Barclays debt. It arranged the financing, it made the promise that points would pay the card, and it broke that promise, but it is content to let Barclays, an unsuspecting third party that had no role in the sales pitch, pursue me for the money. Barclays is being used to absorb the fallout from XXXX Vacations ' conduct, and I am the one being sued in the middle. I am XXXX XXXX XXXX, an XXXX veteran, and I have a documented memory impairment from a mild XXXX. I am not comfortable with computers, and my wife 's first language is Spanish. The account was set up quickly in the middle of a high-pressure, hours-long sales presentation, and the terms were not explained in a way I could understand. I would not have opened this card if I had understood that I would be personally responsible for the balance with no points ever applied. I stopped paying the card once I realized the points would never be applied and that the whole timeshare transaction was based on false promises. I dispute that I owe this debt. I raised written disputes about the underlying transaction and charges on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, and a formal Notice of Dispute on XX/XX/XXXX. Barclays, through its debt collector XXXX and XXXX, XXXX, has now sued me in Illinois small claims court ( XXXX XXXX. XXXX ) for {$3500.00} on an 'account stated ' theory, even though I have consistently disputed the balance and the underlying charges. I intend to file an Answer disputing the debt. My concern is that Barclays is trying to collect, and XXXX be reporting to the credit bureaus, a debt that arose entirely from a timeshare down payment that I was told would be paid by points and never was.

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