Warning off Barclaycard

I have been a user of Barclaycard for almost three years now. Up until recently I had been satisfied with the service: it did everything I wanted it to (i.e. buy things) and was accepted quite widely. However, recently I have had problems with my Barclaycard that have made me reconsider.

The best thing about Barclaycard is the purchase protection after it. Despite becoming disillusioned about it (for reasons which are coming later), I have to admit that the level of purchase protection is excellent. On certain household electrical items costing over £50, it gives an extended warranty of an extra year just for purchasing the items on the Barclaycard and ringing a number with the details of the item. The purchase protection on most items though is not really worth much, as it is so limited. The cover is extremely short (90 days) and is restricted (fire and theft for items over £50).

They have recently introduced charges for quite a few things. I'm not totally certain about what they've introduced fees for as they've disguised it in a very long leaflet in small print with quite a lot of legal jargon. However, some of the things that they've slyly introduced include charges for exceeding the credit limit, not settling the monthly statement on time. They also charge interest for the full statement even if you pay off most of the bill. This happened to me one month: I had lost my statement, and so I paid at a Barclays with bank giro credit slip. I left about a pound unpaid on an approximate one hundred pound bill. Result: they charged me on the full amount. A bit unfair...

There are a few things that have happened to me, which have caused me to become extremely disappointed. I have been sent a bill that requires payment before I had received the bill. Given the charges leveled for late payment that grated, but I paid up but decided to complain. I emailed their customer services department and got no reply. I rang their national rate number and got an annoying computerised sorting system. When I finally got to the option of speaking to someone, I got asked to hold and forced to listen to muzak. I held the line for 15 minutes and then hung up, as I got no reply. This really hasn't endeared me to them, and I am going to write to them, but with so much choice for credit card providers out there, I would strongly advise against accepting a Barclaycard.

*Addendum* Just a brief additional note. Recently I suffered from credit card fraud on my Barclaycard, where someone topped up their mobile phone using my card without my knowledge. I finally sorted it out and didn't have to pay it in the end, but in the meantime they charged me interest on the amount and it took them 5 months of ringing them up and chasing them and letters back and forth. I no longer use them, and would really advise anyone else not to either.