Barclays Tax Beater Cash ISA - experiences so far (merged)

bignred05

Went into a local Barclays opened up the Isa In about 10mins
clever ploy went into the branch at 16:40 (20 mins before closing);)
already had the form pre-printed off the internet handed over without any fuss they wanted me to open an account though which i refused

any how the cheque was cashed on the 17/04/07

got my conformation details/pack on Wednesday

1 query its dated 5th April 2007
i did tick the box for 2006-07, so have i got last years isa ??

Compound_2

MiserlyMartin: As it stands you have until 8 May to cancel. If you pursue your backdating claim, you are waiving your right to cancel. If the account were correctly backdated to 10 April (first working day of 2007-8), your right to cancel would end on 24 April. (I don’t know how Suzey will cancel but her ISA was excessively backdated.) It’s always 14 days after opening: accruing more interest than that isn’t allowed for cancellation. So you need to decide whether to stay with Barclays and fight for the interest, or leave and accept what they’ve given. The zero balance reflects the fact that you may not withdraw the money for a few more days, when Barclays is sure the cheque won't bounce. Ironically, as you went £600 into unauthorized overdraft, the cheque should have been returned thus annulling the Barclays ISA. As for the fee, you can ask your current account provider to refund this, if necessary using the 'reclaim' procedure. The extortionate charge is not in any way Barclays' fault: it's partly your fault for drawing against funds needed for the cheque; your current account provider is guilty too for charging unlawful penalties.

bignred05: When did you go into the branch? If it was 5 April, it seems Barclays have processed your application properly and you have nothing to worry about.

MiserlyMartin

Hi Compound,

Thanks for the reply. Thinking about it, if I cancel the ISA I'll end up even worse off with a lower rate elsewhere after the Barclays hassle of opening. If I stay and fight, at least I get to milk their rate and just before it drops I can transfer out. I can't actually see they have a leg to stand on if they have promised publicly that would backdate the interest. If they don't backdate I'm not one to be walked all over so I would be taking it to the FSA, OFT and whoever runs the Banking Code (and anybody else I can think of to complain to!)

Barclays make me MAAADD!

Kazza242

My Barclays Tax Beater ISA for 2007/08 is now open.

The full £3,000 has been credited to my ISA. At last!

The funny thing is I was going to write them a letter of complaint this afternoon, but on checking my account I see it has now been opened. It wasn't there yesterday night when I checked.

The date it was opened on is showing as 30/04/2007, though Royal Mail tell me Barclays have had my application since Monday 2nd April which was when it was signed for. When the interest is paid they had better pay me interest from 6th April (or the 10th at the latest because of the two bank holidays).

If I receive any less than interest from the 10th, then I will complain and attach the screenshot I took of the Barclays website where they stated that interest would be backdated.

Suzey

Congratulations!

You should be receiving a letter telling you the "real" date of opening and assuring you that interest will be backdated.

Suze

Kazza242 wrote: »

My Barclays Tax Beater ISA for 2007/08 is now open.

The full £3,000 has been credited to my ISA. At last!

The funny thing is I was going to write them a letter of complaint this afternoon, but on checking my account I see it has now been opened. It wasn't there yesterday night when I checked.

The date it was opened on is showing as 30/04/2007, though Royal Mail tell me Barclays have had my application since Monday 2nd April which was when it was signed for. When the interest is paid they had better pay me interest from 6th April (or the 10th at the latest because of the two bank holidays).

If I receive any less than interest from the 10th, then I will complain and attach the screenshot I took of the Barclays website where they stated that interest would be backdated.

Kazza242

Suzey wrote: »

Congratulations!

You should be receiving a letter telling you the "real" date of opening and assuring you that interest will be backdated.

Suze

Thanks for the info Suze. As this Barclays ISA credits interest monthly I should also know as early as Tuesday 1st May whether or not they have backdated my interest. I suppose the letter will arrive later this week.

Suzey

Sorry to quote myself, but I have a question. Is it even possible to open an ISA on 5th April 2007 for the 2007-8 tax year?

Suze

Suzey wrote:

It says the account was opened on 5th April (the day I took my form into the branch) but the letter is dated 19th April and was sent first class, so it's taken a while to get here. The letter also doesn't state which tax year the ISA is for (by the time it was opened, I had already maxed out my 2006-7 and 2007-8 allowances).

Compound_2

Suzey wrote: »

Sorry to quote myself, but I have a question. Is it even possible to open an ISA on 5th April 2007 for the 2007-8 tax year?

Suze

It depends on the strength of your definition of ‘open’. You can take the first steps towards opening an account by making an application. But the account can’t formally exist on 5 April. I think in your case Barclays has made a mistake, ignoring the 2007-8 box. This may have worked out for the best, as this makes your Barclays ISA invalid which is what you want. If it had been correctly opened dated 10 April, you would have been in trouble with the Revenue for opening two ISAs simultaneously. Barclays should have received notification of cancellation before you applied elsewhere. Then you'd be in the clear and inefficiency at Barclays wouldn't matter. But you can now put the blame for breach of regulations on Barclays. Just point out their serious mistake, express your dissatisfaction and order the entire application be cancelled.

Kazza242: As an existing Barclays customer, did you pay for recorded delivery instead of using the freepost facility? You certainly have a watertight case for interest from 10 April. I hope you get this – good luck.

Kazza242

Compound wrote: »

Kazza242: As an existing Barclays customer, did you pay for recorded delivery instead of using the freepost facility? You certainly have a watertight case for interest from 10 April. I hope you get this – good luck.

Yes, I did pay for recorded delivery. I didn't trust my Barclays branch to send my application off to the ISA dept. I'm not sure they will pay me backdated interest when the first payment is credited on Tuesday, if they don't, then I'll be on the phone to them.

LankyMoneySaver

ED wrote: »

Indeed your £3,000 will have earned interest while Nationwide still had it in their coffers. Nice.

Awsome, in that case Barclays can take as long as they want to open it! For the last 3 weeks I will have been getting about 10% interest on my 3000 :money:.

Suzey wrote: »

I believe you can only transfer current years' subs in their entirety (while you are able to split previous years').

Yeah Suze pretty sure thats right, at least thats my understanding of it too.

Suzey wrote: »

Is your ISA for the last tax year or the current one?

Its for last year so should be all ok. The person I opened my Abbey ISA with this afternoon wanted to know why I was only doing a partial transfer from Barclays - duh, because they are paying a bettter rate than you! Just want to put enough in to get it up to 9k and get the higher rate.