Barclays Wealth Current Account (UK Residents)

jinkster

Does anyone hold a Barclays Wealth Current Account, is there much different between this and a standard account?

rockitup

Jinkster,

I am non-Resident and have been trying to open a Barclays Wealth Current Account along with Barclays Stockbroker account.

With the Barclays Wealth a/c they seem to only be interested if you are going to use them for their managed funds and structured products.

One of their relationship managers rang me for over an hour 12 days ago but wasn't happy when I told her I wouldn't be paying BW ridiculous fees, but would instead choose my own investments through Barclays Stockbrokers.

Since then I have not heard a word from their account opening team, and have wasted time and money phoning them. Maybe I might just shove all my cash into Hargreaves Lansdown fund & share account, the interest at Barclays Wealth is so poor anyway.

This post probably sounds like a gripe at BW but, it is probably a good enough product overall, just with a pretty useless customer service department

expatasia

rockitup wrote: »

Jinkster,

I am non-Resident and have been trying to open a Barclays Wealth Current Account along with Barclays Stockbroker account.

With the Barclays Wealth a/c they seem to only be interested if you are going to use them for their managed funds and structured products.

One of their relationship managers rang me for over an hour 12 days ago but wasn't happy when I told her I wouldn't be paying BW ridiculous fees, but would instead choose my own investments through Barclays Stockbrokers.

Since then I have not heard a word from their account opening team, and have wasted time and money phoning them. Maybe I might just shove all my cash into Hargreaves Lansdown fund & share account, the interest at Barclays Wealth is so poor anyway.

This post probably sounds like a gripe at BW but, it is probably a good enough product overall, just with a pretty useless customer service department

Thanks for that update, rockitup. Kind of confirms what I'd heard about the current BW.

rockitup

expatasia wrote: »

Thanks for that update, rockitup. Kind of confirms what I'd heard about the current BW.

Expatasia,
It is a shame really that they are commission driven and think none of their customers could have any clue about investing. I just fancied tidying up all my finances and keeping it with Barclays for ease of transferring cash between current, equity and spread betting accounts seeing that I am overseas and my debit cards from other banks keep getting blocked when transferring money to HL.

Although my account has still not been opened it looks like the Barclays Stockbroking platform has it all, warrants, turbos, ETF's, Shares, Funds along with CFD's and Spread Bets through another division.

Look close though and they have higher charges and larger minimum stakes on CFD's/Spread Bets than their platform provider City Index.
Maybe someone else can confirm, but I think their share platform is same as TD Waterhouse (okay but a bit antiquated). I don't fancy paying for their premium platform BARXEquity (£45 per month if you make less than 15 trades in last quarter). At present I get this sort of platform for free with my US broker TD Ameritrade, and also good advanced charting with IG Index for free if I make just 2 trades a month.

I questioned BS (?) on that and asked would I still get charged £45 a month if I had a total banking/investing relationship of £450k and they said "Yes, if you don't make 15 equity trades and spread bet's & CFD's don't count" Not very keen to get new custom it seems, they said they do not even call or email a new customer when their account is opened, what sort of carp is that?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

expatasia

rockitup wrote: »

Expatasia,
It is a shame really that they are commission driven and think none of their customers could have any clue about investing. I just fancied tidying up all my finances and keeping it with Barclays for ease of transferring cash between current, equity and spread betting accounts seeing that I am overseas and my debit cards from other banks keep getting blocked when transferring money to HL.

Although my account has still not been opened it looks like the Barclays Stockbroking platform has it all, warrants, turbos, ETF's, Shares, Funds along with CFD's and Spread Bets through another division.

Look close though and they have higher charges and larger minimum stakes on CFD's/Spread Bets than their platform provider City Index.
Maybe someone else can confirm, but I think their share platform is same as TD Waterhouse (okay but a bit antiquated). I don't fancy paying for their premium platform BARXEquity (£45 per month if you make less than 15 trades in last quarter). At present I get this sort of platform for free with my US broker TD Ameritrade, and also good advanced charting with IG Index for free if I make just 2 trades a month.

I questioned BS (?) on that and asked would I still get charged £45 a month if I had a total banking/investing relationship of £450k and they said "Yes, if you don't make 15 equity trades and spread bet's & CFD's don't count" Not very keen to get new custom it seems, they said they do not even call or email a new customer when their account is opened, what sort of carp is that?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I wouldn't touch them except maybe a basic MarketMaster account which has no (inactivity)fees as long as you trade shares at least once a quarter. I don't get involved so thanks for the updates. Not going to pay for a flamin' current account.


I can't understand why your debit cards can get blocked. I've never experienced that and I've lived all over.

rockitup

expatasia wrote: »

I wouldn't touch them except maybe a basic MarketMaster account which has no (inactivity)fees as long as you trade shares at least once a quarter. I don't get involved so thanks for the updates. Not going to pay for a flamin' current account.


I can't understand why your debit cards can get blocked. I've never experienced that and I've lived all over.

I was attempting to make debit card payments into my HL account sometimes by phone and sometimes using HL's online facility. The payments were for amounts between 5k and 20k, this happened with Santander and Citibank. No problem using a Nationwide Visa Debit card though.

expatasia

rockitup wrote: »

I was attempting to make debit card payments into my HL account sometimes by phone and sometimes using HL's online facility. The payments were for amounts between 5k and 20k, this happened with Santander and Citibank. No problem using a Nationwide Visa Debit card though.

You were clever leaving various mainland UK accounts unclosed when going to live overseas, something thousands of us should have done with hindsight. Did you open the Citibank one after leaving Britain? Do Santander mind handling your banking now you're abroad?(Reason for blocking?)

rockitup

expatasia wrote: »

You were clever leaving various mainland UK accounts unclosed when going to live overseas, something thousands of us should have done with hindsight. Did you open the Citibank one after leaving Britain? Do Santander mind handling your banking now you're abroad?(Reason for blocking?)

No I had Citibank acct for 20 years but Santander in my opinion just do not like money leaving the account.... I was moving the money over afew weeks to take advantage of a dip in share prices

You could open an account with Citibank International and still keep your money based in London to take advantage of FSCS compensation limits, but their investment also carry high front-end charges

expatasia

rockitup wrote: »

You could open an account with Citibank International and still keep your money based in London to take advantage of FSCS compensation limits, but their investment also carry high front-end charges

What sort of numbers, min investment of $100k? http://www.citibank.com/ipb/europe/whoweare/whyoffshore/whylondon.htm

rockitup

expatasia wrote: »

What sort of numbers, min investment of $100k? http://www.citibank.com/ipb/europe/whoweare/whyoffshore/whylondon.htm

Last time I spoke to one of their investment team, he quoted a 3% initial charge just to buy mutual funds. I asked any reduction for execution-only basis and he hinted at around 1.5% initial charge but never provided the list of mutual funds that he promised to email me.

He seemed more intent on pushing sales of their structured note (GEB) but Citibank's has got to be one of the worst going, probably even worse than Nationwide. It is based on the share prices of 18 or 20 different companies not just an index

expatasia

rockitup wrote: »

Last time I spoke to one of their investment team, he quoted a 3% initial charge just to buy mutual funds. I asked any reduction for execution-only basis and he hinted at around 1.5% initial charge but never provided the list of mutual funds that he promised to email me.

He seemed more intent on pushing sales of their structured note (GEB) but Citibank's has got to be one of the worst going, probably even worse than Nationwide. It is based on the share prices of 18 or 20 different companies not just an index

That's depressing.

Back to the previous, do UK Nationwide mind you banking from overseas, do they let you use the R105 form for claiming tax back?