What is Barclays Bank Base Rate?

trets77

samba wrote: »

Cheers for that!

I also just found this page, by going thru barclays.co.uk rather than woolwich.co.uk...

http://barclays.metafaq.com/templates/barclays/main/answerPage?_mftvst:answerRef=%24http%3a%2f%2fapi.transversal.com%2fmfapi%2fobjectref%2fEntryStore%2fEntry%2fhttp%3a%2f%2fwww.metafaq.com%2fmfapi%2fMetafaq%2fClients%2fbarclays%2fModules%2fmortgages_homes%3a8036%3a29&_mftvst:moduleID=%24mortgages_homes&_mftvst:topicID=%24&id=NHN8KG6U06R6CMU30TD2MTAUF0

so it looks like they are playing ball after all

strange they have not dropped it on the main web page !!! . if they are getting cute it's maybe time for a phone call.

that said it is still saying that the Bank of England rate is 1% so i think they are just tardy in updating

mattgod69

I have just called Woolwich (Barclays).... their rate is now 0.5%.

Yippee...... im on a lifetime barclays base rate tracker at 0.18 above base.....

best financial deal i have ever done! by a mile.....

MarkyMarkD

Hm so this whole 133 post thread is a waste of time - what a surprise. :rolleyes:

Oh no, my mistake - it must be that Barclays are scared because of all the threatening phone calls they've had from people who've posted on here, convinced that Barclays are going to stitch them up. :rolleyes:

trets77

website was slow to update fully but has now done so :beer: :beer: :beer:
http://www.personal.barclays.co.uk/BRC1/jsp/brccontrol?site=pfs&task=popup1group&value=15396

one more drop and i will be paying 0.21% :beer: :beer: :beer: shame i cannot fix it at that .

simmotech

I've just discovered this thread after Googling for BBBR due to a leaflet including with my last statement entitled "Barclays: Changes to your agreement with us" due to come into effect on 30 October 2009.

Looks like they are using compliance to the Payment Services Regulations 2009 as a way of also introducing some suspicious new terms and conditions in their Retail Custom Agreement

Its too large to copy but here are a couple of sample paragraphs:

"
5. Varying and ending the agreement
....<stuff omitted here>...
Changes for any other reason

We may change any of the terms of the agreement (including a Barclays managed rate, the amount by which a Barclays tracker rate differs from the reference interest rate, any other term relating to interest rates, and our charges) for any reason not listed above.
We will not change a Barclays Fixed rate or bonus rate (or the amount by which a Barclays tracker rate differs from the reference interest rate) during the period for which that rate or difference is agreed with you.
" (my emphasis added)

"6.2 Overdrafts and Personal Reserve
If you have a Personal Reserve and/or overdraft on an account and there have been no payments on that account for a period of 12 months, we will assume you do not want the Personal Reserve and/or overdraft and we will cancel it."

(I have a large Reserve which I've not actually needed but I took out the mortgage on the basis that I would have access to a secured loan if an emergency came up)

After seeing this thread, and noticing the change that all the Barclays web page now refer to "typically following the Bank of England Base Rate but it is not guaranteed to do so.", I have tried calling Barclays Customer Services and even ended up logging a complaint. It would seem that noone has seen this leaflet and have no knowledge of the changes coming in.

The way the leaflet is worded is that these changes come in on 30 October 2009 and you will have two months notice of changes and "You will be treated as accepting any change we make unless you tell us (before it is due to come into effect) that you want to terminate your agreement with us and not accept the change. We will not make any charge for termination if you terminate your agreement in this case"

Can they really make you either agree to their changes otherwise you are treated as requesting to terminate the agreement? Is it not possible to say "No thanks to your changes, I would prefer to keep the terms we agreed previously".

I just get the impression that Barclays have been putting things into place to be able to add a new rate between their BBBR and the BoeBR (ie leaving your difference from the BBBR unchanged and still "following the BoEBR") but leaving us shafted effective rate-wise.

So my questions are:
1) Has anyone else got this leaflet yet?
2) Is there a definitive date when the mortgage Offers/KFI stopped using the "..our Base Rate should be taken to be references to the Bank of England Base Rate? (I can't find my documentation at the moment to check)
3) If they can vary terms seemingly at will, would that clause be of any use anyway? They could could just terminate the mortgage themselves with two month notice.
4) Is the Retail Customer Agreement part of the mortgage contract, in addition to it, or just for Offset mortgages?

Cheers
Simon

Trying_to_be_good

Ooo - not seen the leaflet yet. Need to watch this thread closely. My complaint about their customer service is now in the queue at the Financial Ombudsman.

TechnoBoy

It sounds to me like Barclays are trying to change the T&C's to our Tracker Mortgages in a samali style, one slice at a time so folks won't notice.

I posted the detail from my agreement in this post where it explicitly says that Barclays Base Rate tracks the Bank of England Rate.

When this new leaflet arrives I'll get my scanner out and post the changes - and if enough people agree then we can ask one of the Mod to bring it to Martin's attention as it would be a great headlining campaign for him to run with to stop Barclays from trying to take advantage of the little guy through underhand means.

MarkyMarkD

They cannot change the terms of your mortgage unilaterally. Stop worrying about nothing.

TechnoBoy

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

They cannot change the terms of your mortgage unilaterally. Stop worrying about nothing.

That is good to know ... but I wonder what they are trying to do with this action?

MarkyMarkD

I really don't know!

But the whole of this thread - 7 pages worth - was based on the groundless fear that, as base rates fell, Barclays would stop BBBR=BBR. And they haven't. They are not very likely to make that change at a later date, when rates are increasing, if they haven't considered they should do it when it would clearly have advantaged them.

And the reason they haven't, is that they cannot. And in any case, ALL their mortgage contracts say "for BBBR, read BBR".