Barclays/Woolwich customer service

jonnyb

I did my application in brach, with a very good mortgage advisor. Took me through the whole thing in an hour. He saw all the relevant id docs, and marked it on the system that way - we were classed as fast-track applicants as it was additional borrowing to our existing tracker (+0.17% for life - had to get that in), so no extra paperwork was needed.

I had to ring them after weeks of nothing, to be told they were waiting for copies of ID, and that they "had tried to contact us" despite no letters or phone calls from them.

Sent them the ID, but it needed certifying - again they didn't tell us, I had to find out myself.

Everytime I ring them, if I choose "existing customer" I get through to a team of helpful people, but if I choose "outstanding application" it seems to route me through to a less thorough team of people who sound like they are not based in the UK.

As of yesterday they have everything they need, so lets see how long it takes.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why they need a payslip, and a bank statement to match that payslip ?

Wakey2008

jonnyb wrote: »

Sent them the ID, but it needed certifying - again they didn't tell us, I had to find out myself.

Everytime I ring them, if I choose "existing customer" I get through to a team of helpful people, but if I choose "outstanding application" it seems to route me through to a less thorough team of people who sound like they are not based in the UK.
QUOTE]

The chances are that the adviser forwarded everything on properly but the processing centre have lost it, a common problem when I worked there and one that pi**ed me off no end.

There is a good chance that you have been speaking to someone in Mumbai, India if you choose the "outstanding application" option and they are about as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot.

Don't want to set alarm bells ringing but Barclays even underwrite some cases in Mumbai, which means they send your details abroad. To my knowledge they are the only bank that does this and it's just a way of keeping costs down. These Mumbai underwriters often have a poor grasp of the British property market and make a lot of mistakes. I once dealt with one of these Indians who refused to accept a utility bill for proof of address as - and I quote: "Eon not a real company". It's the number of low paid buffons at Barclays that convinced me that I should work elsewhere.

Wakey2008

jonnyb wrote: »

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why they need a payslip, and a bank statement to match that payslip ?

It's just another way of confirming your income & source but it's also to check that you don't have any financial commitments that weren't declared or showed up on your credit file.

jonnyb

if they use it to look for other financial commitments then it's pretty weak. I have current accounts with halifax (2), barclays, hsbc, alliance and leicester. Salary goes into Halifax, but I could have serious commitments going out of one of the other accounts.

I think the credit checks they did on me during the application (3, and not happy about that) would reveal more.

but thanks.

djd68

Thanks to everyone for tips and advice.

Wakey2008 - do you know if it would be possible to transfer my case to a local branch or am I stuck with the call centre?

On another note - I have a current account with Barclays and a few months ago I wanted to increase a standing order. I did this on-line but when the standing order was due it failed to process. I have a sweeping account which keeps anything over £300 in a higher interest account. They told me that because the standing order was above £300 it failed to take into account my reserve and hence was returned. It has taken nearly 2 months to sort this out. When I phoned them up they said there was nothing they could do unless I made a formal complaint. I did this and now I have received a letter saying they have reviewed and upheld my complaint and have adjusted my SO manually but if I need to change it again I have to call them rather than doing it on-line. There just seems to be so much incompetence with Barclays. If it wasn't for my lifetime tracker I would leave them well alone.

Slightly off-topic but who would people recommend for current accounts as once my mortgage has been approved I will be leaving Barclays?

antheawad

Hi djd68

I didn't have a good start when we moved to Barclays/Woolwich last year. Someone, somewhere, processed the remortgage application with the wrong address i.e. a rented property behind my house. We only found out after I insisted that some missing correspondence be emailed to me instead of being posted, at which point I noticed that everything to date had been sent to number 3 instead of number 9, including the debit card and cheque book for our new offset current account. Even though we sorted the problem out, it didn't stop the theiving git at number 3 using my card in Tesco and incurring unauthorised overdraft charges for me on my behalf!

Moving on, I have queried taking out further borrowing today as we are looking at a part exchange. The initial details seemed quite reasonable; There would be a £150 application fee and a valuation fee of £385 (or £615 if I want to include a survey). Then came the lead balloon! This would only cover me for £100,000 of extra borrowing on top of what I currently owe them. If I want to borrow any more (in our case £18,000), I would need to take out a new product and pay a £995 reservation fee. I would also be liable to pay a repayment charge of £275 for closing the old mortgage account, and a further £35 for telegraphic transfer of the funds on completion. This makes a grand total of £2075 for moving house, and this is before any stamp duty or legal fees!

I expected to pay about £1k to be honest, but not £2k. I think it is extortion to charge me £995 for the extra £18k, especially as it is such a small percentage compared to the overall loan. I also thought that the repayment fee of £275 only applied if you were moving your mortgage elsewhere, or paying off your mortgage entirely.

Am I being fleeced?

On the point of current accounts, as far as they go, I do actually like my barclays account. I have banked with Abbey and Halifax in the past, and neither were really that great. At least with Barclays, I don't have to give them 48 hours notice when I want to withdraw more than £500 in cash - they are far more flexible. not only that, but they participate in the faster banking scheme too which is good when sending money from one bank to another.

jamesperrett

I've now had 3 Barclays/Woolwich mortgages. The first one seemed OK - everything went through the local branch and, as it was also done in conjunction with a business loan, everything went through quickly.

The second was also done through a local branch. It seemed a little more stressful and I wasn't particularly impressed with the surveyor but it all seemed OK.

The last time (about 18 months ago) I used the telephone service. The initial sales contact seemed fine but, as soon as I was accepted, I found that all queries had to go through another department which meant hanging on the phone for half an hour before talking to anyone and the end result was usually inconclusive. They made me go to a local Barclays branch twice to have my ID confirmed. If the deal that I had been offered hadn't been so good I would almost certainly have given up and gone elsewhere.

If I apply for another mortgage in the future I will certainly not use the Barclays phone service and I will make sure that the whole process can be carried out face to face or with a short phone call.

Cheers

James.

MarkyMarkD

antheawad wrote: »

Moving on, I have queried taking out further borrowing today as we are looking at a part exchange. The initial details seemed quite reasonable; There would be a £150 application fee and a valuation fee of £385 (or £615 if I want to include a survey). Then came the lead balloon! This would only cover me for £100,000 of extra borrowing on top of what I currently owe them. If I want to borrow any more (in our case £18,000), I would need to take out a new product and pay a £995 reservation fee. I would also be liable to pay a repayment charge of £275 for closing the old mortgage account, and a further £35 for telegraphic transfer of the funds on completion. This makes a grand total of £2075 for moving house, and this is before any stamp duty or legal fees!

I expected to pay about £1k to be honest, but not £2k. I think it is extortion to charge me £995 for the extra £18k, especially as it is such a small percentage compared to the overall loan. I also thought that the repayment fee of £275 only applied if you were moving your mortgage elsewhere, or paying off your mortgage entirely.

Am I being fleeced?

No, not really.

If you are porting your existing mortgage, that doesn't affect the fact that you are redeeming your original mortgage and the £275 redemption fee applies.

Porting means taking the existing product, for the existing balance. Any extra amount has to be taken as a different product, and any product fees apply. Hence the £995. You could always take out a personal loan or borrow elsewhere if the £995 is as bad value as you say it is.

I don't understand your comment about "covering £100,000 on top of what we already owe them". You should not be able to borrow ANY more than your present mortgage balance, on the original terms.

djd68

Just a quick update to say that I received my formal mortgage offer from Barclays today, so all in all a pretty swift service following the initial delays. I called the processing department every other day to check things were on schedule but they were very polite and efficient.

I'm sure there will be a few more hurdles to jump before completion but so far so good.

Trying_to_be_good

Just don't expect the customer service to improve once you have the mortgage - my complaint is now with the Ombudsman, I'm ditching my +0.18% lifetime tracker as I can't deal with them anymore - the list of formal complaints I raised is ridiculous.