Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

jo@home

I opened an account. Then made a payment into it at the branch. It took over 7 days for the cheque to be presented on the account, missing the 2007/08 tax year it was intended to be in. I was fuming & complained. Just keep getting letters saying they are not able to deal with my complaint yet.
Very Very disappointed in their customer service as well as the account.
I do not have another Barclays account, have used the one paying in slip, the branch say they have none. Can't put more money in even if I wanted to. Rubbish

BankofDad_2

Baldur wrote: »

Suggest that you revisit the A & L site, the Direct ISA 4 is currently 6.0% (including bonus) not 6.25%.

Thanks Baldur, you're absolutely right, they really shouldn't have the rate as 6.25% up in lights, with 6.00% (from May 2nd) in the small print!

I decided to go ahead anyway; I've stopped my cheque for the ISA with Barclays - normally a £10 fee for this, but A & L have waived it under the circumstances - and opened the A & L Direct ISA 4 online instead . I guess I need to get myself down to the branch of Barclays where I originally opened it, and tell them I have cancelled the application. Otherwise I may get told I already have an ISA for 08/09.

The other advantage of having an ISA with the same place as your current account is that transfers between accounts are instantaneous, rather than losing interest over the days while it's credited to another bank.

Frankly I just don't trust Barclays any more; I get the feeling that the rate may drop even more in the next few months, although who knows what may happen to any ISA rate over the coming year?

skooby_2

BankofDad wrote: »

Thanks Baldur, you're absolutely right, they really shouldn't have the rate as 6.25% up in lights, with 6.00% (from May 2nd) in the small print!

I decided to go ahead anyway; I've stopped my cheque for the ISA with Barclays - normally a £10 fee for this, but A & L have waived it under the circumstances - and opened the A & L Direct ISA 4 online instead . I guess I need to get myself down to the branch of Barclays where I originally opened it, and tell them I have cancelled the application. Otherwise I may get told I already have an ISA for 08/09.

The other advantage of having an ISA with the same place as your current account is that transfers between accounts are instantaneous, rather than losing interest over the days while it's credited to another bank.

Frankly I just don't trust Barclays any more; I get the feeling that the rate may drop even more in the next few months, although who knows what may happen to any ISA rate over the coming year?

I have done exactly the same yesterday. Sick of waiting for Barclays to get things sorted.

bristolleedsfan

BankofDad wrote: »

Frankly I just don't trust Barclays any more; I get the feeling that the rate may drop even more in the next few months, although who knows what may happen to any ISA rate over the coming year?

Barclays will mirror all base rate movements same as A+L have done, which is why the apparent clever people took out a 6.25%/6.50% ish fix.

Megalomaniac

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

Barclays will mirror all base rate movements same as A+L have done, which is why the apparent clever people took out a 6.25%/6.50% ish fix.

Lest we forget... fixed rates are great only if you have the full amount to put in already and the terms are suitable. If not, the variable is the best if you have to pay in regular installments.

Lokolo

Megalomaniac wrote: »

Lest we forget... fixed rates are great only if you have the full amount to put in already and the terms are suitable. If not, the variable is the best if you have to pay in regular installments.

Indeed, he knows that dw, thats why he sent me the 08/09 application form

Still waiting for the letter though, unless brother is lying saying that I don't have any letters at home hm.

gesher73

Opened an ISA in Barclays Bristol Broadmead branch on 19 April, and was told interest would be paid from 21 April (the next banking day). My wife opened an ISA in the same branch on 21 April and was also told interest would be paid from that day.
She got a postal confirmation of her application on 26 April.
By 30 April when I had received nothing from them, I want back into the branch and was told all was well, and confirmed that interest would be paid from my first visit to the branch.
Also on 30 April, my wife phoned a central Barclays office, to confirm when interest would be paid, and was told there would be a 14 day delay before any would be paid.
So I went back to the branch on 1 May, saw someone else, and this time was told about a 14 day delay. I made a formal complaint about being given wrong information. Time will tell if anyone bothers to get back to me. They've got my money and probably assume that I won't take the hit of stopping the cheque and finding another bank.

So it seems that a unpublicised feature of the Tax Haven ISA is that the interest rate offered for the first 14 days is 0%, which must be worst rate on offer in the marketplace today.

deep_pockets

well just got back from bank, drew £3590 out of my barclays current a/c(transferred in from kaupthing edge a/c paying 6.5% and filled in paying in slip with my barclays tax haven sort code and a/c no(£10 in there- took 3 weeks to open) and tried to pay it in.

nope cashiers unable to accept payments over the counter into a tax isa
so just for guidance here are the rules that barclays dont show you:-

RULE 1 you cannot transfer money with barclays online banking into their isa

RULE 2 you cannot pay in cash over the counter into the isa

RULE 3 you can go into a branch,wait for ages, see a personnal banker and they will fill in a "fax instruction for cash isa top up" form which they send off to the central isa processing dept.

RULE 4 you can then wait with £3600 in your current a/c earning 0.1 % interest to avoid the risk of going overdrawn and being charged whilst barclays sit on this forms for as long as they see fit!!

next year they can offer whatever interest rate they like and shove it!

BankofDad_2

BankofDad wrote: »

I guess I need to get myself down to the branch of Barclays where I originally opened it, and tell them I have cancelled the application.

Just got back from the Swindon branch of Barclays to cancel the ISA where as usual my name was added to a list followed by a wait of 20 minutes. When my name was called I asked the personal banker for my Tax Haven ISA application to be cancelled, and this required a phone call to the Barclays ISA department (it's amazing how quickly the staff in the bank get through!) for instructions, and was told I would have to write a letter to cancel it.

Fortunately the young lady was very helpful and before I could start ranting she actually wrote the letter for me on the spot, just asking me to sign it. She was also very confused about the problems with back-dating the interest as she understood it would be from the date of application; clearly they have a different understanding of the rules in the branches, to those in Customer Services! I almost felt sorry for her as this ISA deal seems to have caused no end of headaches for the staff.

What was really sad, was there were some people waiting there excitedly talking about opening a Tax Haven ISA with the best interest rate in town, and had no idea what they were letting themselves in for...

Rocket32_2

Received my ISA dated 28th April. 'Phoned Barclays to complain that it had taken 5 weeks to achieve this simple matter. I was then informed that the interest will not be backdated to the beginning of the Financial Year. My only recourse is to complain to the Ombudsman, which I had to do last year, when they took just as long. I was assured at the branch where I made my application, that it would all be different this year. This obviously turned out to be Pie in the Sky