Accessing your Woolwich / Barclays mortgage balance

Dr_Pimblett

Hi everyone,

Are other Woolwich / Barclays mortgage customers put out by the fact that you can only access your mortgage balance by:

1. Writing to the company
2. Phoning the company (but only during working hours 8:30-5:30, M-F)?

There is no online access to the balance (unlike companies such as the Halifax and Abbey), and staff won't give you the balance if you go into a Barclay's branch.

The lack of access is annoying, but it also potentially discriminates against those who would want to find out their balance face to face in a branch (again, as was possible with Halifax).

I can't see why Barclays would not provide online and/or branch access. Especially given that the mortgage we (and I guess a lot of customers) are on allows you to overpay, thereby increasing the usefulness of checking your balance regularly.

We're planning to write to Barclays to complain about the lack of access. Maybe if enough people raise the issue, they might do something about it.

Dr.P

busy_b

I agree !!!! I have been on hold for 40 minutes today, only to be told that I need another department and then cut off - I switched to them from Abbey and I now think I was Mad !! Abbey weren't great but Barclays phone in service is hopeless !

Dr_Pimblett

busy_b wrote: »

I agree !!!! I have been on hold for 40 minutes today, only to be told that I need another department and then cut off - I switched to them from Abbey and I now think I was Mad !! Abbey weren't great but Barclays phone in service is hopeless !

I too have spent a long time on the phone to Barclays. It seems that they're making work for themselves by not giving customers easier access to their mortgage account. It wouldn't be so bad if you could find out your balance via the automated telephone banking service, but you can't! Why?

Dr.P

mr_tickle_2

I too spent 56 minutes on the phone to Barclays/Woolwich yesterday. That was 6 minutes of talking, and 50 minutes of being in a queue (after a really badly designed menu system, where "speak to a person" is 4 menus down).:mad:
Before the Woolwich online banking website disappeared you could see your balance, but that's gone now.

BindiBahji

I got fed up of not being able to find out my mortgage balance so I made a spreadsheet to work it out for me.

Obviously, that means I have to put in the daily balances of my linked accounts - not too much work for me since I don't have my current account linked to my mortgage, and the savings account only changes a couple of times a month. If you have your current account linked then it's going to take a lot of effort just to put the information in so it's not an ideal solution.

Dr_Pimblett

BindiBahji wrote: »

I got fed up of not being able to find out my mortgage balance so I made a spreadsheet to work it out for me.

Obviously, that means I have to put in the daily balances of my linked accounts - not too much work for me since I don't have my current account linked to my mortgage, and the savings account only changes a couple of times a month. If you have your current account linked then it's going to take a lot of effort just to put the information in so it's not an ideal solution.

I guess that's one way of keeping track of what your mortgage balance should be, but it doesn't of course tell you what Barclays say your balance is. Unfortunately Barclays made a mistake with our balance a couple of months back, increasing it by £3000! It was corrected after we noticed, but it could have taken a while before we spotted it had I not rung up for another reason. That's one of the reasons why I think having better access is so important.

Has anyone asked Barclays why we can't access our balance online or in branch? If so, what did they say? Must admit I haven't, but we plan to write to Barclays this weekend about it.

Dr.P

mrke

""Has anyone asked Barclays why we can't access our balance online or in branch? If so, what did they say? Must admit I haven't, but we plan to write to Barclays this weekend about it.""

Dr_Pimblett, did you write a letter? how did you get on? any joy?

Having just moved my mortgage to Woolwich I cannot believe that I cannot see all my balances online, this needs addressing. Oh no what have I done!...

catsneel

hi, i phoned up Barclays to ask if i could register on line to see my mortgage transactions on a regular basis i was told yes i would see them if i registered . I have now done this, but cannot access the mortgage account. i think it's only if you have a offset account, but maybe i'm wrong!

KentishLady

You are only able to see your mortgage balance online with Barclays if you have an offset account.

However, the online balance is not updated daily so won't take into account the daily interest.

It is instead updated after you make a payment and after the month end when the months interest has been added.

KL.

catriona79

mrke wrote: »

""Has anyone asked Barclays why we can't access our balance online or in branch? If so, what did they say? Must admit I haven't, but we plan to write to Barclays this weekend about it.""

Dr_Pimblett, did you write a letter? how did you get on? any joy?

Having just moved my mortgage to Woolwich I cannot believe that I cannot see all my balances online, this needs addressing. Oh no what have I done!...

Hi All,

I feel like mrke about this - why on earth can we not see mortgage balance online?

Do you think we could do something about it? Say , if we all got a petition signed, then they'd have to address this.

It's absolutely unbelievable - I did not even check before switching from HSBC, as thought it was obvious I'd be able to check balance online.

c x

dontgetcrossgeteven

Hi guys, I am battling with Barclays as we speak, have told them as I bank online I will only deal with them online and so far I am getting a response, although not what I want as yet,which is to see my mortgage online as I did when a very loyal Woolwich customer . This is what it states on the website:
Your accountsThe following groups of products will not be shown in Barclays Online Banking

• Barclaycard credit cards - online account management is available instead through the Barclaycard site.
• Openplan Select & Openplan Protect.
• Investments (other than ISAs).

If you hold a mortgage with Woolwich this will only be displayed if you have either an Offset mortgage or had sweeping/savings pots with Woolwich.

Now I had both a sweeping facility (which i hated) and savings pots which I still have. So we are tooing and fro ing at the moment, I will let you know how I get on.