Cash ISA Interest paid by cheque!

refluxer

la531983 said:

Also, no financial loss has been incurred (or has it?), yes slightly inconvenient getting a cheque but thats all it is, slightly inconvenient, just bank it using a banking app and no visit to a branch is needed.

If the OP didn't need the monthly interest paid away as income then they'll have lost out financially in a couple of ways - the interest won't have been allowed to compound within the account (so they'll have only achieved the gross monthly rate rather than the stated AER) and the amount of savings shielded from tax won't have been allowed to grow within the ISA, which is desired when not needing the interest as income.

While all is not lost in terms of the latter issue in that you can obviously pay that back into an ISA during the next tax year, it'll probably take a big chunk out of next year's allowance.

DopeyDylanH

ColdIron said:

DopeyDylanH said:

refluxer said:

Did you select monthly interest ? Monthly interest on a Barclays Flexible (fixed term) Cash ISA can only be paid away and if you don't have a suitable Barclays account for it to be paid into, then it's paid away by cheque.

This is mentioned under 'What is the interest rate ?' which is the first box on the account summary document (T&Cs).

I did select monthly interest, but it wasn't explained by the specialist adviser setting it up that such a silly option was even a thing!  I was hoping to find out whether I was being thick, or this is the only ISA to have such a backward way of receiving interest.  The ISA has matured now, and I'll never bank with Barclay's again.

Hardly Barclays fault at face value. The option is set out on their main summary page. If you had selected annual interest it would have been retained within the ISA

Do Barclays even have 'specialist advisers' any more? It's a retail product. Did they even work for Barclays? Whoever this 'specialist' advisor was it seems unlikely that they would not provide you with the basic terms of the account which you appear not to have read

• Monthly interest can't be paid back into this ISA or directly into any other ISA or bond. It can be paid into a Barclays account in your name or held jointly with someone else, or we'll send it to you by cheque.

It couldn't be more plain

https://www.barclays.co.uk/savings/isas/1-year-flexible-cash-isa

I won't go into the in's and out's of it here, my original question still stands, does anyone but Barclays pay interest via cheque?

ColdIron

refluxer said:

la531983 said:

Also, no financial loss has been incurred (or has it?), yes slightly inconvenient getting a cheque but thats all it is, slightly inconvenient, just bank it using a banking app and no visit to a branch is needed.

If the OP didn't need the monthly interest paid away as income then they'll have lost out financially in a couple of ways

And yet the OP elected to choose monthly over annual interest

DopeyDylanH said:

I did select monthly interest

That it was paid by cheque doesn't negate those advantages that they would miss out on anyway any more than if it had been moved electronically. It would seem to me that they are no worse off financially beyond the inconvenience of cashing that cheque

Edit:

DopeyDylanH said:

and have had compensation

Indeed

DopeyDylanH

la531983 said:

DopeyDylanH said:

Consumerist said:

On the face of it, a little strange. It might be better to take this up directly with Barclays.

Thanks. I have done that and I've asked the ombudsman to look into it, as I thought it should have been pointed out while I was face to face with the specialist adviser.

Sorry, you have jumped straight to the Ombudsman before getting any sort of meaningful reply from the bank first? 

Anyway, seems someone has provided a link above.

I didn't go straight to the ombudsman, its taken them almost 6 months to establish nothing on a litany of issues that is still ongoing during the maturity of the ISA.  I followed the correct procedure, and have had compensation.  My original question still remains.

refluxer

ColdIron said:

refluxer said:

la531983 said:

Also, no financial loss has been incurred (or has it?), yes slightly inconvenient getting a cheque but thats all it is, slightly inconvenient, just bank it using a banking app and no visit to a branch is needed.

If the OP didn't need the monthly interest paid away as income then they'll have lost out financially in a couple of ways

And yet the OP elected to choose monthly over annual interest

DopeyDylanH said:

I did select monthly interest

That it was paid by cheque doesn't negate those advantages that they would miss out on anyway any more than if it had been moved electronically. It would seem to me that they are no worse off financially beyond the inconvenience of cashing that cheque

They chose monthly interest not realising that it would be paid away when they actually wanted it paying into the account... at least judging by the original post.  

"I was just wondering if any of you had ever heard of the concept of a Cash ISA paying out its interest via cheque.  All my ISA's have just paid straight back into the ISA, keeping the interest tax free."

I'm not sure why they're fixating on the cheque aspect because presumably the interest being paid away electronically would still not have been the desired result either.

DopeyDylanH

refluxer said:

DopeyDylanH said:

refluxer said:

Did you select monthly interest ? Monthly interest on a Barclays Flexible (fixed term) Cash ISA can only be paid away and if you don't have a suitable Barclays account for it to be paid into, then it's paid away by cheque.

This is mentioned under 'What is the interest rate ?' which is the first box on the account summary document (T&Cs).

I did select monthly interest, but it wasn't explained by the specialist adviser setting it up that such a silly option was even a thing!  I was hoping to find out whether I was being thick, or this is the only ISA to have such a backward way of receiving interest.  The ISA has matured now, and I'll never bank with Barclay's again.

Different ISA providers have different interest options and different customers have different needs too, I guess. It's generally up to us as customers to ensure we choose accounts that meet our needs (which means reading the T&Cs for any account we sign up to carefully) but if you had someone from Barclays help to set this account up for you in a branch, then this definitely should have been mentioned. At the meeting, presumably they would either have had to read the T&Cs out to you or you would have had to read them yourself, so this should have been picked up on at this stage.

If it was overlooked at the time for whatever reason, then the time to have tried to sort this would have been when you received your first month's interest cheque - if the customer adviser hadn't done their job properly, then you might have had some form of redress but presumably the chances of that now, 1-2 years down the line, will probably have diminished unfortunately, I would have thought.

I think the specialist adviser was probably not paying full attention as having booked an hours slot knowing some of the issues I was having setting up the ISA he then reduced it to 30 minutes.

I did complain to Barclay's at the end of month 1, but they said it could not be changed mid term.

ColdIron

refluxer said:

ColdIron said:

refluxer said:

la531983 said:

Also, no financial loss has been incurred (or has it?), yes slightly inconvenient getting a cheque but thats all it is, slightly inconvenient, just bank it using a banking app and no visit to a branch is needed.

If the OP didn't need the monthly interest paid away as income then they'll have lost out financially in a couple of ways

And yet the OP elected to choose monthly over annual interest

DopeyDylanH said:

I did select monthly interest

That it was paid by cheque doesn't negate those advantages that they would miss out on anyway any more than if it had been moved electronically. It would seem to me that they are no worse off financially beyond the inconvenience of cashing that cheque

They chose monthly interest not realising that it would be paid away when they actually wanted it paying into the account, judging by the original post.  

I'm not sure whey they're fixating on the cheque aspect because presumably the interest being paid away electronically would still not have been the desired result either.

Perhaps, I interpreted it as focussing on the cheque

DopeyDylanH

la531983 said:

Also, no financial loss has been incurred (or has it?), yes slightly inconvenient getting a cheque but thats all it is, slightly inconvenient, just bank it using a banking app and no visit to a branch is needed.

This is interesting.  It's possible to bank a cheque via an app?  Please tell me more, as I've genuinely never heard of this.  Before Barclay's I think the last cheque I received was in my teens (I'm over 50 now).

ColdIron

DopeyDylanH said:

la531983 said:

Also, no financial loss has been incurred (or has it?), yes slightly inconvenient getting a cheque but thats all it is, slightly inconvenient, just bank it using a banking app and no visit to a branch is needed.

This is interesting.  It's possible to bank a cheque via an app?  Please tell me more, as I've genuinely never heard of this.  Before Barclay's I think the last cheque I received was in my teens (I'm over 50 now).

Yes

https://www.barclays.co.uk/ways-to-bank/mobile-banking-services/paying-in-a-cheque/

It may not help you directly as you appear not to have a Barclays account, but many other banks, perhaps including the one you have, will allow this

refluxer

DopeyDylanH said:
 My original question still remains.

To answer that question, yes - it is very unusual for a bank to pay monthly interest out in the form of a cheque these days but Barclays only did that because you didn't have a suitable Barclays current or savings account to pay it into, as it says in the account T&Cs. If you did have one, it would have been paid electronically into that.

Essentially, you ended up (unwittingly) putting yourself in an unusual situation where receiving the interest by cheque was the only option.