barclays personal reserve fee

sunshine291

hello
I am new here. my husband and i have suddenly realised that we desperately need to start atching our finances so here we are!


my husband has had his statement today and whilst he doesnt usually check them he has today and noticed that he has paidd £96 this month alone in personal reserve fee. He isnt completely sure what that is but we are guessing its because he went over his overdraft?

Is there anyway that these can be reclaimed/ reduced? as we really cant afford to be paying that?

we have a consolidation loan on its way to pay off some of his overdraft wihin the next week would this give us any leaway?

anyhelp would be so appreicated as we are completely new to ths!

iluvsaving

for every 5 days you spend in your reserve you are charged £22. You can ask to remove this but that would mean things bouncing and your credit rating being damaged. When the account was opened you would have been told about this reserve and would have to agree in order to have this put on your account.

You have 2 options:
Remove the reserve and have things bounce and damage your credit rating
OR
Improve your finances, use online banking to always check on your accounts so you always know where you are. Barclays Pingit gives an up to date balance at a touch of a button at all times.

There is no excuse keeping an eye on your accounts. The technology is there and if you use it then you will benefit.

opinions4u

Find out exactly what triggers the charges.

Then manage your finances in a way that doesn't get close to repeating them.

It really is that simple.

Savvy_Money

To be fair to Sunshine291, people can forget to check their balances, and not everyone is up to speed with all the technology in place. I agree with the other posters that you need to see what is triggering the charges, but I guess the fact you have taken a consolidation loan shows a desire to meet a solution to your financial troubles - make sure though that you use the loan wisely, as many people use a conolidation loan for non essentials, and actually end up increasing their debt.

My advice would be to talk to Barclays - they may be sympathetic and may even reduce the charges (but bear in mind they do not have to). Be honset about your current situation, and demonstrate to the bank that you are serious in dealing with your finances.

Best of Luck

Darren1977

The 'Reserve' is a ridiculous terminolgy for it!

You're getting charged for going overdrawn, there's no 'reserve' there is there?

thatsean

If you've used the service then they are entitled to charge you, had they not offered the service they would have bounced payments - which would you have preferred?

I agree that the reserve feature is extremely expensive, but you've used their overdraft, and then a bit extra.

If the account has never gone over the reserve then a complaint might get some of it back, it's not going to cost you much, I'd suggest a trip to the debt free wannabe board for advice on budgeting.

Pennywise2012

I know someone who was in a similar situation, and Barclays came up with suspending the charges and instead applying them to reducing the 'reserve' portion of the overdraft - so the £96 is still unavailable to you each month, but instead the reserve debt goes down by £96, until it's paid off. As far as I can tell, this is an 'interest free' way of clearing the debt?!? as opposed to using some of the consolidation loan money, but I don't know what impact it would have on credit rating etc, or indeed if they still offer this as an option, but I know it was an idea they suggested, rather than an offer made to them. Hope my vague wafflings help!