Barclays Bank UK PLC · DRN-6055493

The complaint Miss S complains that Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as “Barclaycard” unfairly defaulted her credit card account. What happened I won’t repeat all the facts here, as those aren’t in dispute. I have reviewed the entire file and if I don’t comment on something, it isn’t because I haven’t seen it - it’s that I haven’t deemed it relevant. I mean no discourtesy by this, it’s merely to reflect the informal nature of our service. In May 2024, Miss S has explained that she had a suspected TIA, or mini stroke. Following this, in October 2024, she started new medication and injections for an autoimmune disease. In January 2025, she changed her phone to a new supplier. However, her Barclaycard app didn’t transfer over and due to memory issues, she completely forgot she had this credit card. As a result, she didn’t make payment for five months and Barclaycard defaulted her account. Miss S complained that Barclaycard didn’t contact her about the arrears on her account and so, it wasn’t fair to it to have registered the default. In its final response, Barclaycard didn’t uphold Miss S’ complaint. It said the default was applied correctly and it has a responsibility to report account statuses accurately. It also said it issued regular statements, attempted to call Miss S when her account went into arrears and it issued a default notice in May 2025. Miss S says she didn’t receive any letters from Barclaycard until June 2025, which stated her account had been defaulted. Having received the letter, Miss S called Barclaycard to explain what had happened and paid her bill in full. Miss S says she doesn’t answer calls from withheld numbers due to being a victim of fraud last year. And given Barclaycard told her that it didn’t leave messages when calling, Miss S says she had no way of knowing it had called her. Our Investigator didn’t uphold the complaint. They said Barclaycard sent several arrears letters as well as a default notice and that these were sent to the correct address. And, that Miss S logged into her banking app whilst the account was in arrears and payments overdue. As Barclaycard must report accurate information about how Miss S had been managing her account, the Investigator felt it hadn’t done anything wrong. In response, and in summary, Miss S said she didn’t receive the letters Barclaycard sent to her and there isn’t any proof they were delivered. The phone calls made were from a withheld number and Barclaycard didn’t leave her any messages – also, phone calls were only made when she first went into arrears, but this isn’t made clear when that was. Barclaycard hadn’t previously mentioned that Miss S had logged into her account and Miss S questions the accuracy of this information as she couldn’t log into her account as it said

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her login details were incorrect. Miss S says had she known about the arrears on her account, she would have paid sooner. Because the parties couldn’t agree, the matter was passed to me to decide. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. I understand Miss S was going through a very difficult time when she missed these payments on her account – and I’m sorry to hear about her health issues. I also want to thank Miss S for sharing information about her personal circumstances with this service. That being said, whilst I appreciate this will disappoint Miss S, I’m not upholding her complaint, broadly for the same reasons as our Investigator. I’ll explain my thoughts. Whilst Miss S had some problems paying in 2024 and early 2025, following this, she made payments towards her account. But by the time her account defaulted in June 2025, she was in sustained arrears, having not made a payment for around five months. So, Barclaycard defaulted Miss S’ account after five missed payments, which is in line with relevant Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) guidance. Lenders have an obligation to provide Credit Reference Agencies (“CRAs”) with accurate information on how a customer’s account is being managed. This is because other lenders rely on that information when it comes to making credit decisions. This includes information on late and missed payments. The ICO guidance: “Principles for the Reporting of Arrears, Arrangements and Defaults at Credit Reference Agencies” sets outs, relevant to this complaint: “2. Should a payment not be made as expected, information to reflect this will be recorded on your credit file If you do not make your regular expected payment by the agreed time and/or for the agreed amount according to your terms and conditions, the account may be reported to the CRAs as being in arrears.” So, I’m satisfied therefore that Barclaycard, when reporting to the CRAs that Miss S defaulted on her account, it was doing so accurately, in line with its obligations. I know Miss S says she didn’t receive any contact from Barclaycard about the arrears and had she done so, she would have paid sooner and avoided the default being registered on her credit file. I’ve seen evidence of attempted calls, arrears letters sent including the Notice of Default letter (including copies of the letters themselves and the associated audit trail), as well as audit trail evidence of what appear to be payment reminder emails and SMSs sent to Miss S by Barclaycard. The Notice of Default letter gave Miss S sufficient notice, in line with ICO guidelines, to bring her account up to date, before the account was defaulted. Given the letters sent in the post were correctly addressed and Barclaycard has provided evidence of them being sent, I’m satisfied they were likely sent. Whilst Miss S has said she didn’t receive them; I can’t hold Barclaycard responsible for any issues with the post. But, given the number of letters sent, on balance, I find it unlikely that Miss S didn’t receive any of them.

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As I’m satisfied the letters were likely sent and that I can see Miss S was contacted via several different methods, I don’t think it’s material that Miss S didn’t receive the phone calls from Barclaycard. The same applies to logging into her app. Whilst I appreciate that’s in dispute, even if I accept that Miss S wasn’t able to log into her app during this time, I’m satisfied the other correspondence from Barclaycard, was enough to make Miss S aware her account was in arrears. So, I don’t think Barclaycard made any errors when communicating with Miss S about the arrears on her account and I’m satisfied it fulfilled its obligations before registering the default. I can appreciate that Miss S has explained she missed the payments through no fault of her own. And how the situation with her health would have likely impacted her ability to manage her finances. Importantly, irrespective of the reasons for Miss S missing the payments, there isn’t any doubt that she still did so. And that’s reason enough for Barclaycard to record how Miss S has managed her account, as part of its obligations to record data accurately. I haven’t seen anything else to suggest Barclaycard shouldn’t have registered the default on her account or acted unfairly in any other way towards Miss S. On the contrary, it seems it wasn’t aware of Miss S’ situation at the time and so I don’t think it made an error by continuing with recovery action on her account which eventually led to it registering a default. I understand that Miss S has explained the impact of the default on her credit file could affect her chances of getting a mortgage. I’m sorry to hear this and I know she feels the situation is unfair. But, irrespective of the reason for Miss S missing payments, I’m satisfied Barclaycard hasn’t done anything wrong here and so I’ve reached the same overall conclusion as our Investigator. I don’t think it would be fair or reasonable in all the circumstances of this case, to ask Barclaycard to amend Miss S’ credit file. I’m therefore not upholding Miss S’ complaint. My final decision My final decision is that I don’t uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Miss S to accept or reject my decision before 22 April 2026. Sophie Kyprianou Ombudsman

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