Accessing your Woolwich / Barclays mortgage balance

Dick_here

You can't get online access with Nationwide if you're an ex-Portman account holder...

dontgetcrossgeteven

YES ITS THERE!!!!!

So if you meet the criteria as per my posting above, go for it!

mr_tickle_2

Just coming back to this thread after 3 months (during which time Barclays haven't managed to take a DD yet :mad: ).
I phoned Barclays yesterday evening, after I'd forgotten how short their telephone service hours were. Anyway, I got a different system, which used voice recognition to ask me whether I wanted a mortgage balance, the account number, and some security details. Then it read the balance out to me. It was certainly quicker than queueing to speak to a person!
So give them a ring after 6pm on 0845 6051111 - it might work for you too!

Londonraj

Assumingly you already bank online -

I can. I have a lifetime tracker and can even service it online, pay extra and see the balance.

Speak to the online banking department and make sure they have the mortgage account listed correctly.

Dr_Pimblett wrote: »

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

MarkyMarkD

My Barclays offset mortgage completed yesterday.

And it's not listed on online banking.

The online banking "helpdesk" reckon that I need to ask the branch to set up an OpenPlan arrangement. I don't think so. OpenPlan is years out of date. Why on earth would anyone have an offset mortgage and NOT want it set up on their online banking?

I went into the branch anyway. They were just as clueless. Although they could see the mortgage on their system, they weren't surprised that I couldn't see it and reckoned that it would appear when Barclays had done some more systems upgrades.

It's pathetic.

They also don't set up telephone or internet banking on the linked current account automatically when you set up the mortgage - why on earth not? They don't automatically set the mortgage DD up on the new current account - again, why on earth not?

They don't have a "current account transfer service" so you have to move all your DDs and SOs yourself.

And they have the dreadful PinSentry thing that you have to carry around to do any online banking.

All in all, if it wasn't for the good offset mortgage interest rate, I'd be very annoyed that I've moved to Barclays at all.

I'm just waiting for them to work out the interest wrongly on the mortgage by "forgetting" about the offset. That's sure to be their next trick.

Regarding:

KentishLady wrote:

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.

your comments are slightly misleading. If the online balance was shown, for me, at all, I'm sure that it would in fact be updated daily. It's just that the interest is charged monthly, not daily and therefore the account balance only actually changes when you make a payment, or on the one day a month when interest is debited.

It would be pretty pointless to debit interest to the account daily and would confuse most people - if your mortgage is paid monthly, there's no need for the balance to move up each day and then down at the end of the month.

MarkyMarkD

UPDATE:

My mortgage has now appeared on my internet banking. Apparently not due to anyone trying to resolve my query - because all I've had is fob offs - but just because it took them a few days to apply it.

D'oh @ Woolwich/Barclays.

molly1706

Just tried to use the 0845 6051111 number to enquire about my balance and they are changing it to 0800 022 4022 so that's one good thing!

catriona79

Molly, thanks for the number, I phoned today to find out my balance.

I was told when I later phoned with the online banking enquiry that to see my mortgage online I will need to "convert my mortgage account into a personal account". Doesn't that sound a bit silly? I didn't pursue, as the girl didn't have much idea, and I could tell that.

I understand that MarkyMarkD's mortgage only shows because it is an offset, a "normal" mortgage like mine would not show?

Has anybody else had any luck with Barclays/Woolwich?

MarkyMarkD

I think you're probably right, catriona, although their internet banking people told me that any mortgage account with a sort-code/account number allocated to it, could be seen on internet banking.

I'm not sure how you know whether your mortgage does have those, as the sort-code/account number only show on internet banking, not on statements. Rather circular logic!