Barclays - Problems getting interest paid?

Lionlady2871

Hi

Has anyone else had problems with Barclays 10% interest regular saver account? My 12 month account matured on 2nd August and I went in to my branch to check that they had paid my 10% interest for the year. Surprise, surprise, they only credited my account with half that amount (roughly 5%). Now I'm coming up against a brick wall when asking for the rest. They say it'll take 30 days to check why this has happened etc etc, has anyone else had any problems like this with Barclays and if so.....do you know how I can press them into paying me what they promised? Is there any legal stance on this?
Thanks

CLAPTON

what do you think the interest ought to be and how did you calculate it.

if you saved 250 per month for 12 months then at 10% the interest ought to be about 162 gross and about 130 after tax.

Innys

I make the interest to be roughly:

1500 x 10% = £150 (gross)
1500 x 10% x 0.78 = £117 (net)

Thie exact amount depends on the dates on which you made the payments and I have assumed you paid in the max of £250 each month

It may APPEAR as though you have received half the interest rate quoted, i.e. 5%. This is because you did not have the full £3,000 in there from day one. Instead, the average balance for the full year was £1,500, which is why I have used that figure above.

I

CLAPTON

Innys wrote: »

I make the interest to be roughly:

1500 x 10% = £150 (gross)
1500 x 10% x 0.78 = £117 (net)

Thie exact amount depends on the dates on which you made the payments and I have assumed you paid in the max of £250 each month

It may APPEAR as though you have received half the interest rate quoted, i.e. 5%. This is because you did not have the full £3,000 in there from day one. Instead, the average balance for the full year was £1,500, which is why I have used that figure above.

I

if you work it out properly it works out at 3000 x 6.5/12 as the average sum invested and not 3000 x 6/12

and also you only pay 20% tax on savings and not 22%..

but the principle is right.

Lionlady2871

Hi

Thanks for the replies, I'm sorry I should of course have detailed what I paid in.

I was told (by Barclays) that the interest is calculated monthly, so this is my calculation;

3 monthly payments (Aug, Sep, Oct of 2006)
Each of £125 so at 10% = 3 X £12.50 = £ 37.50
9 monthly payments (Nov 2006 to July 2007)
Each of £200 so at 10% = 9 X £20.00 = £180.00

Total, £217.50. Less 20% tax, I make the net total payable £174.

They have paid me £73 (net). Now I appreciate that I'm not exactly the brains of Britain but surely something is not quite right...?

I have not broken any of the terms (no withdrawals, no additional payments etc)

They are now trying to tell me that there are "certain parts" of my money that aren't due the 10% interest!! (They couldn't be any more exact than that) I can't get a valid answer from the Customer Service Team, I think it's a scam! They say they've sent me a letter but that they can't tell me what's in it as they can't see it(??) Please tell me I'm not going mad....how can any part of my savings not be valid for interest? Surely there is no basic concept that can explain this? If they sell the account using 10% interest as the incentive, it must be on every penny that you pay in, or at least if not that should be explained to you at the time you open the account?

If I am right, do I have to wait the obligatory time before contacting the Financial Ombudsman or can I go straight for the jugular?? I'm furious! Again if I am right, could I report it to Trading Standards too?

Thanks for any help or advice.

noh

No your calculations are incorrect. It should be like this:-

In the first month paid in £125 that was invested for 12 months interest is 12/12x10%x125=12.50
In second month paid in £125 that was invested for 11 months interest is 11/12x10%x125=11.45
3rd month paid in £125 invested for 10 months interest is 10/12x10%x125=10.41
4th month paid in £200 invested for 9 months interest is 9/12x10%x200=15.00
5th month paid in £200 invested for 8 months interest is 8/12x10%x200=13.33
6th month 7/12x10%x200=11.66
7th month 6/12x10%x200=10.00
8th month 5/12x10%x200=8.39
9th month 4/12x10%x200=6.66
10th month 3/12x10%x200=5.00
11th month 2/12x10%x200=3.33
12th month 1/12x10%x200=1.66

Total before tax = £109.39
after 20% tax = £87.51

Their calculation is done as above the amount of interest you actually receive will be different to the above depending on exactly the number of days each payment was invested for.

Nigel

Lionlady2871

Oops.

Thanks, that's really helpful. I was completely unaware that it's calculated that way. I'll know in future!

I'm really grateful for your time in explaining everything.

Cheers!

DocProc

Doh!

Thank goodness it was a lady asking this stuff, eh lads? Cough, cough.

Lionlady2871

Thanks for the constructive input, Mr Simpson.

pingu1997

Hi Lionlady

I have joined this forum today to reply to your message

Because I had exactly the same issue with this very account when mine matured in April this year

I reckoned they had underpaid me interest on the account, so I went into the branch and queried it, they said that they had other people with the same issue and they would sort it out

Within 24 hours the proper amount of interest had been credited

I then closed the account and moved the money into a better place

FYI if you have paid in the full £250 each month then the total interest should be (over a 12 month period) £164.53 gross (£129.70 after tax) - this was their calculation but it sort of tallied with my idea of what it should have been!

Hope you get some success!

Lionlady2871

Got an additional £100 paid into my savings account today from Barclays as (quote) "interest adjustment":T

They still won't/can't tell me how they have calculated the interest.