Standard Life to Barclays - breaking contract?

ollywise

I have been following this thread as I to am affected by what Barclays are trying to do. I have been in touch with Standard Life/Barclays and have been treated much the same as you guys. They are adamant that they can do this without consultation so I have now passed everything I have to the Financial Ombudsman. I have been in touch with the Times newspaper as suggested as well. I emailed them and as I am not a subsciber they e-mailed me with the article and also want more information from me regarding my case. I have contacted a solicitor in connection with this but have been advised to wait and see what the outcome of the Ombudsman is before considering legal action as it could be costly. I personally think that Barclays is relying on the fact that we are all paupers and will not be able to go legal on this anyway but I am all for finding out as you suggest about a class action if all else fails. I have all documents sent originally concerning this takeover and I also have a rather large document from the law firm dealing with the takeover and like the majority of people it states that I would not be affected in anyway. They state in my case that they can no longer fulfill the conditions of my freestyle mortgage as they do not have the facility on their IT systems to service it but I have found an advert for aWoolwich mortgage where if you buy a new property you can have a flexible mortgage with payment holidays etc despite stating in their documentation that Woolwich do not do payment holidays.This is a current advert as it states it will run to 2016.

paulo12

Further to all of this, something else that may interest those of you like me that are/were on a variable interest rate deal with SLB. I read some time ago that Barclays had "redefined" how their SVR was calculated. As with many other lenders this had always been a "managed" decision based on BoE base rate, market conditions and their current marketing strategy ( ie how competetive they wanted to be ). The article I read at that time said that they had changed this so that the SVR would in future to be automatically calculated as BoE base rate +4.49%, effectively making it a tracker with a rather high margin built in for them. Not too bad a deal for customers at BoE of 0.5% but when base rates increase to more normal levels, as they surely will at some point, this becomes a very expensive deal. Bearing this in mind, I asked them how this affected SLB variable rate customers like me that were now being forced to transfer to Barclays mortgages. They told me that the information was incorrect and therefore not an issue. A little research led me to a Barclays customer who quoted from a letter sent to them by Barclays in late 2009 that stated ...from 28/02/10 Barclays SVR would no longer be a managed rate, but a constant 4.49% over BoE base rate and would in future change automatically with base rate fluctuations. So exactly what I already said then ?? I then asked them whether or not it was true that they had sent letters to their customers stating exactly this. Their response to this was that they "confirm that a letter was sent with the information you have detailed". So having told me this was incorrect, five days later they admit that in fact it is correct. MORE LIES !! If you are an SLB variable rate customer - BEWARE !

937carrera

I hvae now fully reviewed the response sent to me by Barclays in response to my complaint and the original mortgage offer / T & C's.

I do not believe that, despite their assertions, Barclays has any contractual basis for unilaterally changing the T & C's (at least on the T & C's I have).

Furthermore I think they are hiding behind system changes as a reason to withdraw product features.

I am asking for further information to better understand their position.

Please PM me if you have any interest in participating in a class action. The more the merrier, & we all know how the PPI action ended

Former_MSE_Guy

Hi all,
We've had the following request from a journalist at the Times, who is covering this story:

I am a journalist for The Times and have been covering the transfer of mortgages from Standard Life to Barclays.
Please get in touch if you have been affected at [EMAIL="leah.milner@thetimes.co.uk"]leah.milner@thetimes.co.uk[/EMAIL], as we will be continuing to cover the issue.

Colinsmoney

Hi,

I have produced a letter detailing my circumstances - Freestyle Offset Mortgage plus ISA with SL and have sent it to Leah Milner of the Times. [EMAIL="leah.milner@thetimes.co.uk"]leah.milner@thetimes.co.uk[/EMAIL]

She in turn telephoned me and we have subsequently been in contact via email. She still wants input but is going to hold off until their Legal Eagles do their bit.

So if you can please send her any further information I know she would appreciate it. We need to keep the pressure on.

I spoke to a B/SL rep yesterday and explained my personal circumstances and, not her fault, she could not help me as the the information provided to her is similar to the documentation sent to me; it is generic and not customer specific. I therefore can still not make an informed decision in relation to what to do with my accounts. It seems B/SL will write to me explaining all in due course. This is obviously too late to do anything about it.

Carpe diem

937carrera

I have also sent an email to Leah (awaiting a response)

Based on the latest letter I have received, Barclays are only interested in stonewalling and obfuscation. They failed to adequately answer any of my direct questions.

Looks like I have found an alternate product as well. I'm currently checking the details with my IFA (it's an intermediary only product), but so far looks like it ticks all the boxes. :shhh:

paulo12

Spill the beans then ! Is it the Northern Rock one ?

lornaprice

We had another email from Leah Milner at the Times today.

She says she is writing up another story on this for Saturday.

Here are her contact details:


LeahMilner

Reporter

TimesMoney

0207782 5080

Twitter:@leahmilner

lornaprice

The article is on Page 66 of The Times today.

paulo12

Anyone else had a phone call ?