I have just received a letter from Barclaycard informing me that they are going to cancel my Barclaycard Account in June. The reason they give is that they can only TEMPORARILY support accounts that are based outside of the U.K. And that I do not have a U.K. address. If I can supply them with the latter they will keep my account open. I have been in the same situation for the past 15 years so the 'temporary' seems a little strange! What I think has happened is that I have not used my card for the past 4 months so they find I am of no financial use to them! So , before I 'take on' Barclaycard I would ask if any other members have received a similar letter from Barclaycard.

Incidentally the letter was posted in Zurich-a change from Mumbai!

If you havnt used it for over 4 months you dont exactly need it, so why "take on" anyone, just let it go. No hassle, no problem.

Unless you have other cards to rely on I'd try to keep the Barclaycard. Getting a UK credit card if not resident or with lots of the paperwork the bank wants can be difficult if not impossible when not UK resident or just returned there.

Can you give a friend's address to Barclaycard to keep them happy?

They are not a good card to use in Thailand, to many charges making them expensive. But they are good in the UK with a reward scheme of sorts - either freedom points worth about half % or cashback worth 1% on any purchase.

Thank you for your replies. Just because I have not used it for 4 months does not mean I do not need it-I'm not sure where you get that idea from. And if I should be admitted to hospital suddenly?

Yes, I can give a friends address but I do not see why I should be dishonest to please Barclaycard.

I am just waiting to see if anyone else has had the letter.

Anyway, thanks

The reason to please Barclaycard is that they only issue cards to UK residents. And by sounds of it you do want to keep their card.

If you are living in Thailand and not a UK resident then, by their rules (that they are perfectly entitled to write and / or revise them) you can not have a card.

Personally I do not consider giving a friends address in any way dishonest. Very few firms or governments have caught up with people who move and / or live in 2 or more countries. For that reason you have to be flexible to keep them happy and enable you to use their services, assuming you want their services.

Yes, I can give a friends address but I do not see why I should be dishonest to please Barclaycard.

There is nothing dishonest about having a correspondence address. I do it all the time and my UK banks know all about it.

Thank you for your replies. Just because I have not used it for 4 months does not mean I do not need it-I'm not sure where you get that idea from. And if I should be admitted to hospital suddenly?

Yes, I can give a friends address but I do not see why I should be dishonest to please Barclaycard.

I am just waiting to see if anyone else has had the letter.

Anyway, thanks

OP, I have had similar correspondence from Barclaycard.

I had the card for nearly 40 years and had no problem with using my UK based employer as a link as I have been working overseas for over 35 years. I left full-time employment a couple of years back and needed to change my contact address. That was a frustrating experience. The Indian based call centre experience was a bit of a nightmare. That I expected, having worked in India off and on since 1999.

After finally getting my Thai address correctly recorded on their system - I had 4no different cards and they all had to be separately updated - the letters came through, for each of my accounts, indicating Barclaycard do not accept overseas based customers, but would review my position if I moved back to the UK. No mention of this during the lengthy contacts with Barclaycard during the address update contacts.

I may have altered my approach had I been aware of the Barclaycard restriction, but, after all the earlier hassles I had no desire to change my status - I could have made use of a family connected UK address - but currently have no need as I still have a couple of UK based cards that are OK with overseas based customers.

So, all in all, I'm quite happy to have removed myself from Barclaycard.

Briley-thank you for your opinion. But how come they have been issuing cards to me for the past 15 years with the same circumstances. If their idea of temporary is a period of 15 years I give up!

Moved to banking.

They did the same to me last year (I was using a UK address, but they sussed I wasn't spending in the UK).

I have other UK and Thai cards so didn't argue.

HI

I just had a letter from BC emailed over from my UK address.

Instead of just one card its now two including American Express, (see attached letter)

Best of luck

04-30-2014 08;57;57AM.rtf

Can you give a friend's address to Barclaycard to keep them happy?

Maybe they would check the Electoral Register and Credit Reference Agencies, and not be happy.

Same happened to me. Now I use my sons' address, no problems to date.