Barclays Monthly Saver maturing soon

CLONNEN

Opened a Barclays Monthly Saver at 6% in February last year. The opening deposit was made by cheque in branch when I did the application. The other payments have all been by standing order. Am I correct in thinking that the Jan payment is the FINAL payment or am I supposed to put in a 13th payment for Feb?

rb10

The T&Cs state that:

Payments into and out of the account
2.2 You must make:
(a) an initial deposit within one calendar month of opening the account;
(b) no more than 12 monthly deposits (including the initial deposit), each of at least £20 but not more than £250, up to a maximum of
£3,000 in the first year

So your last deposit will have been the one in January.

Essex123

If don't have a Barclays current account and are going to try and close this account in branch for cash - be warned.

Because Barclays were claiming they did not have my signature on record, they requried 4 forms of ID to close the account. I had my passport, my Monthly Saver statement and my Barclaycard on me but that was insufficient to close the account. They kept demanding a paying in book or Barclays debit card as ID (they didn't seem to understand that I didn't have either of these). In the end, I had to go away and come back with my ISA statement as proof of ID.

My girlfriend also has one of these accounts maturing soon, and when we checked they didn't have her signature either - so seems a common problem.

Essex.

Beck_Io

My Barclays Monthly Savings account matured at the beginning of this month.
That is the only account I have with Barclays.
I went to a Barclays branch when the account matured and I was explained that when the Monthly Savings account matures, it is automatically converted into a MoreForMore Savings account.
Once the account is converted into a MoreForMore, you can apply for a new Montly Savings at 5% interest.

rb10

Beck_Io wrote: »

My Barclays Monthly Savings account matured at the beginning of this month.
That is the only account I have with Barclays.
I went to a Barclays branch when the account matured and I was explained that when the Monthly Savings account matures, it is automatically converted into a MoreForMore Savings account.
Once the account is converted into a MoreForMore, you can apply for a new Montly Savings at 5% interest.

Yes, but you don't want to leave it in the More For More savings account - it pays 0.tiny% interest. Get it moved out of Barclays asap.

The Monthly Savings account is currently 4.25% AER, and has been for some time, not 5%.

There have been other threads on here from people who have had similar problems - Barclays often seem to be unwilling/unable to do a BACS transfer or Bankers' Draft, leaving the only option for withdrawals to be by cash ... but, you need a ton of ID for this, and many branches restrict cash withdrawals to around £1k per day. Not much use when you've got £3k+ from the Monthly Saver.

getmore4less

You need to check the payments carefully,

We opened our accounts at the end of the month with a full £250 and the first regular £250 payment went in a couple of days later on the 1st so £500 in early.

So make sure you don't go over the £3k limit with 12 regular payment you only need 11 if you do an intital deposit

stbutler

I've just been in to close mine, I was told that BACS would be fine (though only after they first suggested a Bankers Draft which costs) but I needed a passport or driving licence to prove ID unless they had a signature.

I had the original account opening documents, various credit cards, I wanted the transfer to the same bank account that my opening cheque came from (and presumably my application form included details of this account as most seem to ask for your current account details), I opened the account in that branch so they should have had my signature and I could tell them what the balance of my Barclaycard is.

Quite frankly, I am willing to bet that not having my signature is a lie (although, the alternative explanation would surely have to be incompetence, so maybe it isn't a lie) - and the same for everybody else who didn't have another Barclays account and therefore had to open the account in a branch. If the account was opened in branch then you would have had to sign an application form and I don't believe that the form was not scanned and is not available to be pulled up and displayed on their computer screens.

And when I go in again with my driving licence and passport what are they going to say then "sorry, your passport expired on 26th Jan so we can't accept that" (yes, it really did!) and "sorry, we don't accept paper driving licences as they don't have a photo"?

I checked the account documentation before making a trip into town for this - nowhere did it say that I would require extra ID and Barclays didn't send me any updated terms and conditions when the account matured and rolled into an instant savings account either with any different conditions. Surely having closure restrictions that are not contained in notified T&Cs must be against FSA rules?

Well, I won’t be opening another monthly saver with them now, or any other account.

stbutler

What a surprise!

I went in to close my account, queued up at the counter again. This time I was told that you can't close accounts at the counter, you need to make an appointment to see an account advisor at the front desk.

So, I see somebody at the front desk and try to close my account. Now the story is that the counter should be transfering the money out to make the account balance zero and then the advisor can close the account.

So, I made a fuss and they started to do it. When they looked at the extra ID (remember they said driving licence or passport before) they wouldn't accept my driving licence because it isn't a photo licence and they wouldn't accept my passport because it expired 9 days ago.

So it seems that everytime you try to get your money out of a matured Barclays Monthly Saver they come up with another set of excuses not to let you have it.

So, according to them you cannot get your money out of an account with Barclays unless you have either a photo driving licence or a passport. The moral of the story has to be that, if you don't bank with Barclays, what ever you do don't open a savings account with them however good the rate.

Lokolo_2

stbutler wrote: »

What a surprise!

I went in to close my account, queued up at the counter again. This time I was told that you can't close accounts at the counter, you need to make an appointment to see an account advisor at the front desk.

So, I see somebody at the front desk and try to close my account. Now the story is that the counter should be transfering the money out to make the account balance zero and then the advisor can close the account.

So, I made a fuss and they started to do it. When they looked at the extra ID (remember they said driving licence or passport before) they wouldn't accept my driving licence because it isn't a photo licence and they wouldn't accept my passport because it expired 9 days ago.

So it seems that everytime you try to get your money out of a matured Barclays Monthly Saver they come up with another set of excuses not to let you have it.

So, according to them you cannot get your money out of an account with Barclays unless you have either a photo driving licence or a passport. The moral of the story has to be that, if you don't bank with Barclays, what ever you do don't open a savings account with them however good the rate.

I think you are being unreasonable in expecting Barclays to just give the money to you like that.
It's your duty to make sure you have Valid forms of ID on you, not so difficult to get a Photo driving license or even a new passport! What next?! Will you be expecting to catch a plane with out of date ID! :rotfl::T

freezspirit

Oh its gets better:

Before Christmas I went into a local branch to check, computer says 4th Feb maturity and 12th payment will be Jan - ok no problem.

So in Jan go into another local branch to cancel standing order to be told yes it matures on 4th Feb but 1st Feb will be last payment - ok no problem.

So I check online yesterday 4th Feb to find that to find that 1st - 3rd Feb got 70p interest so assumed that was the final interest. Today (5thFeb) in the morning I did 2 transfers of the money one to my current account and the other to my Halifax account and left the interest of the year in that account. I happened to go in the bank in the afternoon to find that the account hadn't matured and I could be charged a fee for taking my own money out.

Here's the best bit I had 2 forms of photo id cos I was told I would need that to close or open a new saving account - Cashier response "Oh we don't need that!"

SG_Guy

My advice with closing the Barclays monthly saver (if you don't have a Barclay's current account) is to wait until it matures in to the rubbish easy-access account, then go in to a branch and ask to see an advisor - don't waste time queueing for counter service because at the end of the queue you'll be told to start all over again at the queue for the advisors! Have your driving licence or passport ready and simply ask the advisor to do a BACS transfer to your bank account. You should get a print-out at the end of it that confirms the transfer. Done!