Barclays cleared?

bankemployee101

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Apologies bankemployee but it is costing him £22 per 5 days. I would get rid of the reserve even if it puts it into collections. If the account is disputed, Barclays can't collect on disputed debts.

Thank you for your comment natweststaffmember, my post was simply given as a piece of information to mattbennett as something to bear in mind. We know nothing of his circumstances, and for all we know he may soon wish to apply for a mortgage - surely he would rather know this before jumping in with a decision which could prove detrimental to his credit file.
You mustn't assume that there is any case against the Personal Reserve (especially considering it is an agreed facility on the account) because as yet this has not been ascertained. This could therefore cause further problems for mattbennett, especially since we are unable to review the account to make a recommendation about what course of action is necessary to help.

natweststaffmember

bankemployee101 wrote: »

Thank you for your comment natweststaffmember, my post was simply given as a piece of information to mattbennett as something to bear in mind. We know nothing of his circumstances, and for all we know he may soon wish to apply for a mortgage - surely he would rather know this before jumping in with a decision which could prove detrimental to his credit file.
You mustn't assume that there is any case against the Personal Reserve (especially considering it is an agreed facility on the account) because as yet this has not been ascertained. This could therefore cause further problems for mattbennett, especially since we are unable to review the account to make a recommendation about what course of action is necessary to help.

bankemployee(I was one of them for a long time) the Personal Reserve is NOT an agreed facility. An agreed facility does not charge you £22 every 5 working days. If I go to my bank and agree a facility then I am not going to be charged £22 for it. All I am being charged, it is the Interest IF I choose to use the facility. If Mattbennett had an AGREED facility he wouldn't be using the shadow RESERVE facility and therefore not being charged £22. If he asked for a formal overdraft equal to the Reserve he would be declined.
Please at least get the basics right(please do not tell me you work for barclays either face to face or in their telephony unit cos that "agreed" comment was nonsense).

bankemployee101

natweststaffmember wrote: »

bankemployee(I was one of them for a long time) the Personal Reserve is NOT an agreed facility. An agreed facility does not charge you £22 every 5 working days. If I go to my bank and agree a facility then I am not going to be charged £22 for it. All I am being charged, it is the Interest IF I choose to use the facility. If Mattbennett had an AGREED facility he wouldn't be using the shadow RESERVE facility and therefore not being charged £22. If he asked for a formal overdraft equal to the Reserve he would be declined.
Please at least get the basics right(please do not tell me you work for barclays either face to face or in their telephony unit cos that "agreed" comment was nonsense).

Then what on earth is it? You know it's there, can reduce the amount, can get rid of it whenever you want (please don't refer back to my previous post since we already know he *can* remove it if he so wishes) , know how much you pay to use it and don't pay interest for using it; the main point to make there is that you choose whether or not you need/want it.
Why do people who have overdrafts available choose to use it from time to time, when they know full well they have another option?- because they *agree* to use it. The word 'facility' is not indicative of an overdraft and personally I inform as many customers as possible of this fact, and I explain *what* they have and how it works (and NOT comparatively to how things were before its introduction) - many customers decide they would like to keep it (since these people have not objected to its existence on their account, does this not mean they agree to it?). This is (certainly one of -) the most transparent system(s) out there, not always the cheapest (as this differs with each instance), but it couldn't really be much simpler.
I agree that the equally valued overdraft not being available is a questionable aspect to the Reserve, but (this time being comparative with the previous system) the Personal Reserve offered initially was matched as closely as possible to the previous anticipatory limit (which exists with all banks, usually with the same name) on accounts, so it was already there, but now made optional. I suppose one argument against the Reserve actually being made visible is that it toys with people's spending mentalities in that they may be more tempted to use it if they know it is there, and these are the people that (at least) I urge to get rid of it.
I have no interest in protecting Barclays or any bank (because I'm paid nothing like as much as would be necessary to do so!), but I will discuss facts; I will also point when I agree with a grey area on something, so you needn't reply so vociferously to this post.
To clarify once more, whenever making decisions around an account, one should know the full picture, hence my initial post to mattbennett.

esmerellda

I suppose one argument against the Reserve actually being made visible is that it toys with people's spending mentalities in that they may be more tempted to use it if they know it is there, and these are the people that (at least) I urge to get rid of it.

agree completely on that

The Reserve is a facility, quite an expensive one, but for some people, it can help and save money...these would be the people who didnt usually go over their overdraft and have money elsewhere to be able to fill back up within a few days if a mistake/mishap/emergency ends up with the reserve being used.

For low income people who kept getting paid/bounced item charges before then living constantly in reserve is a killer,cause they have no money elsewhere to transfer in if theres a !!!! up/miscalculation and they would be better off without the facility and just have things bounced for the £8 fee as opposed to going into reserve in the first week and spending three or four weeks in reserve before the next income.

Plus yes there is the' oooo doesnt matter i have the reserve there i can use more money' subconcious type thought.

I think the OPT OUT was WRONG, the reserve should have been OPT IN/apply for it. Once all the wrongly (IMO) given reserves have opted out it might work ok.

bankemployee101

esmerellda wrote: »

agree completely on that

The Reserve is a facility, quite an expensive one, but for some people, it can help and save money...these would be the people who didnt usually go over their overdraft and have money elsewhere to be able to fill back up within a few days if a mistake/mishap/emergency ends up with the reserve being used.

For low income people who kept getting paid/bounced item charges before then living constantly in reserve is a killer,cause they have no money elsewhere to transfer in if theres a !!!! up/miscalculation and they would be better off without the facility and just have things bounced for the £8 fee as opposed to going into reserve in the first week and spending three or four weeks in reserve before the next income.

Plus yes there is the' oooo doesnt matter i have the reserve there i can use more money' subconcious type thought.

I think the OPT OUT was WRONG, the reserve should have been OPT IN/apply for it. Once all the wrongly (IMO) given reserves have opted out it might work ok.

Firstly, esmerellda, I'd like to thank you for actually seeing the point of my comments!
To say it was 'wrong' to make it opt out, I think is a little extreme, because it was the most similar option to the previous process (with £30 Paid Referral Fees and what have you) - and even this system was certainly not the worst out there among banks! My point here being that customers potentially could have been thrown into a series of disputes with companies where their direct debits etc. were being missed (since the former anticipatory limit was no longer present).
I suppose the Personal Reserve would have been far more innovative if the bank had put itself at risk of these complaints, and made a stand about the charges and made it opt in.
Ultimately, I think whether or not it 'should' have been opt in/out, is no longer the issue, since it has already happened, and we now need to establish how to help those who have had problems with it (along with all bank charge problems with all banks).

natweststaffmember

bankemployee101 wrote: »

Then what on earth is it?
I will explain. An agreed facility is one where I ask you to agree to, for example, £500 overdraft, in case of emergency. If I use that facility I pay interest on the amolunt borrowed for say 10 days. However, the Barclays system is that you are given a reserve which is not an agreed facility since you do not ask for it and the bank say, you have a shadow limit which if you go into it, we will charge you £22 which could be a lot more that if I used my £500. I could pay £2.00 for my agreed facility or I remain within the reserve all month its £22 x4(£88.00). Which one is fairer for me to use? If I am with another bank for example, NatWest, I exceed my overdraft and I get charged £28 for one month and not £88.00.

You know it's there, can reduce the amount, can get rid of it whenever you want (please don't refer back to my previous post since we already know he *can* remove it if he so wishes) , know how much you pay to use it and don't pay interest for using it; the main point to make there is that you choose whether or not you need/want it.
I think amethyst has summed up one point, its only an OPT OUT service not an OPT IN which would perhaps be better.
Why do people who have overdrafts available choose to use it from time to time, when they know full well they have another option?- because they *agree* to use it. The word 'facility' is not indicative of an overdraft and personally I inform as many customers as possible of this fact, and I explain *what* they have and how it works (and NOT comparatively to how things were before its introduction) - many customers decide they would like to keep it (since these people have not objected to its existence on their account, does this not mean they agree to it?).
Some people are not always aware they have this personal reserve until they receive a letter saying they are being charged £22 in spite of maybe having been sent a letter(which they may not have received--not saying everyone doesn't receive it or that everyone doesn't read the letter)

This is (certainly one of -) the most transparent system(s) out there, not always the cheapest (as this differs with each instance), but it couldn't really be much simpler.
I agree that the equally valued overdraft not being available is a questionable aspect to the Reserve, but (this time being comparative with the previous system) the Personal Reserve offered initially was matched as closely as possible to the previous anticipatory limit (which exists with all banks, usually with the same name) on accounts, so it was already there, but now made optional. I suppose one argument against the Reserve actually being made visible is that it toys with people's spending mentalities in that they may be more tempted to use it if they know it is there, and these are the people that (at least) I urge to get rid of it.
I totally agree with you with regards to the "tempted to use it" argument.

I have no interest in protecting Barclays or any bank (because I'm paid nothing like as much as would be necessary to do so!), but I will discuss facts; I will also point when I agree with a grey area on something, so you needn't reply so vociferously to this post.
I reply vociferously a lot of times on the forums(you will find that out the more you are on here and it the way I post at times).
To clarify once more, whenever making decisions around an account, one should know the full picture, hence my initial post to mattbennett.

I do appreciate what you are saying and if you didn't say that I wouldn't have an understanding of the role of collections but I still do not agree with the Barclays Reserve on the basis that it is not, as such, an agreed facility that most people would understand. By that I mean, if you agree a formal overdraft, the personal reserve is what some banks call and "informal request for an overdraft". A formal request is one in which I pay for the overdraft when I use it and I pay interest ONLY and not potentially £88 per month as opposed to maybe £2

bankemployee101

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I do appreciate what you are saying and if you didn't say that I wouldn't have an understanding of the role of collections but I still do not agree with the Barclays Reserve on the basis that it is not, as such, an agreed facility that most people would understand. By that I mean, if you agree a formal overdraft, the personal reserve is what some banks call and "informal request for an overdraft". A formal request is one in which I pay for the overdraft when I use it and I pay interest ONLY and not potentially £88 per month as opposed to maybe £2

Really, I think you've hit the nail on the head there, natweststaffmember (and thank you for taking the time to go through my post)! It's an entirely different system from the 'informal overdraft request', and is intended to offer transparency around occasions where one exceeds an overdraft facility. Furthermore, customers of Barclays don't pay to apply/increase/decrease an overdraft, which is very rare with banks these days. I would personally be far more frustrated by that than a reserve usage fee - I'm with several banks, and would like to apply a £20 limit on one of my accounts, just to ensure I'm NOT charged if I go over by a small amount (which has never happened I might add :P), but this bank will charge my account £20 to get £20 - I find this absurd, (and I track my account closely if it ever sails near a nil balance) and I simply will not pay to add a facility of such a minimal amount! (Especially since I used to work for said bank and all it takes in 'admin' to apply an o/d is for the advisor to press a few keys and hit 'enter' - what a joke that is!)
As for those who didn't receive the letter, I have to say I find this a pretty lame excuse (although arguably, many will not have, given the reliability of the UK postal system!), since at least two pieces of literature were sent out prior to its application to the account - the best customer 'reasoning' I have heard is "the letters fell behind the hall table" - implying an error on the bank's part! The number of people who call in about seeing the 'Reserve Limit' on their statement is a clear indication that it is not inconspicuous, too, and I have noticed however, that these customers, for the most part, are those who never even use their overdraft...does this suggest that many customers who *do* use their overdraft are so terrified to look at their statement, that they just flick through for fraud and get rid; in reality these are the people who need to review their statements more than anyone!
The potential of £88 in a month, although very real, should surely be a rare occurence, if *something* is paid into an account on a monthly basis.