MSE News: Barclays to revamp current account fees – will you be better off?

bob792

kateg1982 wrote: »

I'm a bit confused ..

So am I, but I'm better off than you in that they are telling me these changes will only cost me up to £5 a month more than last year. As last year cost me £0 as it has for the last 40 years, I'm still trying to work out whether they've got a cunning plan for charging me in their small print, even if I never go overdrawn.

BillJones

flammable999 wrote: »

How on earth is it fair that when we are waiting for all manners of payments to clear IN to our account, weekends are not classed as working days yet when they are taking money OUT of our accounts, they are allowed to hit us at the wekeends too.

Is that a serious question?

The weekends are not business days, but they are calendar days. All funding tends to be on calendar days.

It's exactly the same for the banks funding themselves. My trading book needs to be funded, often in billions of pounds. My "overnight" rate on a Friday costs me three days interest, and I wouldn't dream of calling this "robbery", as I understand that I do of course want the money for three days.

Just like you, I can't execute certain transactions at the weekend, but I do need to pay for the cost of money for as long as I want it.

ranner

Actually, as someone with a Barclays premier account I'll be significantly worse off if I don't switch (which I will:)). At the moment I generally use the interest free 1k as it's free, and probably go past that (although never anywhere my limit) by about £500 towards the end of every third month.

My current costs:

I might go into chargeable overdraft by £500, but not all in one go, and for so let's say on average £300 for half of every third month, so for one sixth of the year. In reality it's probably a little less. My AER is 13.9%. That gives

£300 * .139 / 6 = £6.95 per year

New costs:

£1.50 per day over the 1k free overdraft. Making the assumptions above that gives

£1.50 * 365/6 = £91.25 per year.

If you turn that round and say roughly that borrowing £300 for 4 months costs £91.25, that's crazy.

This is a "facility" I'll not be using.

dreyfuss

This is so confusing me!

I 'dip' into my overdraft over the course of the month by more than £15, am on a low income but am generally in the black. I'm not sure what I'll do instead of this?

planteria

ranner wrote: »

Actually, as someone with a Barclays premier account I'll be significantly worse off if I don't switch (which I will:)). At the moment I generally use the interest free 1k as it's free, and probably go past that (although never anywhere my limit) by about £500 towards the end of every third month.

i am a Prem customer too. but i have my OD limit set at £1k....just find a way to stay within that if you can. use their thousand as & when you need to, and pay nothing.:)

IanMcRV

I just went into my local branch to talk to an adviser, she was saying how this is done to help us but she could not answer my question when I asked:

How can this be moral or even legal?

I am overdrawn well over the £2000 mark and although I am trying my best to find work I can see no way that I will be able to come down under the £2000 mark by June the 16th, it's only a little over two months away so Barclays has decided that while at the moment I am paying around £30 per month for my overdraft then to 'help' me they are going to add on:

Not £10 pounds so that I would be paying around £40 per month

Not £20 pounds so that I would be paying around £50 per month

They are not going to double it so that I would be paying around £60 per month

THEY ARE GOING TO TRIPLE IT! so that I will be paying around £90 per month!!!!!

My GOD! I really only went into the branch to see if I'd read the letter wrongly but nope.

How can they legally get away with this?

planteria

flammable999 wrote: »

...I'll tell you what I do find DISGUSTING. I have just had confirmation from a Barclays employee that the daily fees include weekends.

So tell me this. How on earth is it fair that when we are waiting for all manners of payments to clear IN to our account, weekends are not classed as working days yet when they are taking money OUT of our accounts, they are allowed to hit us at the wekeends too.

Veiled robbery if you ask me. Not happy one bit.

i'm not sure i agree with your point. because positive, interest-generating, balances will be doing so at weekends and on bank holidays too.

i think, bottom-line, we have to be focused on making the best of the terms available, juggling our finances to cost the least and make the most.

i do find Barclays cs to be really good, overall:)

catsol

Most customers will worse off with this! And the only ones they're making it easier for is themselves!

mgdavid

catsol wrote: »

Most customers will worse off with this! And the only ones they're making it easier for is themselves!

Er, no, I really don't believe that most customers live in their overdraft, are you able to quote a source for your assertion?
And maybe they're making it easy for those who do to understand why they shouldn't.

lxworld

I've had a letter from Prime Minister David Cameron re: Barclays new proposals. Read about it and please continue to support this cause: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/barclays-bank-stop-charging-these-crippling-overdraft-fees