Getting one letter from your bank is bad enough, but 317 in one go, must be some kind of record.

But for a recently widowed mother of two who received the 317 letters from Barclaycard, what made matters worse, was the only correctly addressed letter was for her dead husband.

The 55-year-old widow who had only lost he husband a few weeks earlier, was dumbfounded when the letters dropped through her letterbox. And 316 of them were addressed to her, but contained other people’s statements, providing most of their personal information and how much they owed on their cards.

She had already told them of her husband’s death, having also provided a death certificate, so was not only hurt at finding an official letter addressed to her late husband, but had to spend a morning sorting out her errant postbag.

Littlewoods Personal Finance

What confounded matters more was the fact that she had already been sent ten letters earlier in the week by Littlewoods Personal Finance Ltd, again with her name on, but with other people’s personal and financial information.

As it turns out, Littlewoods Personal Finance Ltd is a joint venture between Barclaycard and Littlewoods, providing credit cards and personal loans to the U.K. market.

The widow, who said her husband had had a Barclaycard, generously put the mistake down to a possible computer error. A red-faced Barclaycard spokesman said they would be looking into the matter and offered profuse apologies.

Guest Article by Neil Camp