Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

Lokolo

chalkysoil wrote: »

I'm a Barclays customer. Telephoned to open an ISA at 6.5% on 24th April by transferring funds from our current account. Long tedious process on the phone. Today got the paperwork saying it was opened on 16th May at 6.25% including a 1% bonus over 12 months. So I can't ditch it until 16th May 2009. Husband ditto on 25th April - no news yet on his.

I was under the impression it was done and dusted on 24th April. What a con. I haven't got the Maths skill to work out how much interest we lost between 24 April and 16 May on £3600 but I bet it would have made this
"top" account look average let alone the rate has gone down anyway.
I am totally p155ed off with Barclays.

Its not a fixed rate so you can transfer it elsewhere if you want. Its a variable rate, hence the change, the Bank of England dropped the base rate, banks follow.

You were under the impression it was done there and then. Never assume.

You waited less than a month for it to open. Others (inc myself) have waited longer than 6 weeks.

This happened last year, exactly the same circumstances. I think its your fault for not doing your research.

deep_pockets

i disagree with lokolo, at the end of the day a lot of people look to mse site for guidance as to where to invest.

the only warning martin gave to this years barclays tax haven isa, was to watch out for in branch selling tactics when you went in to apply.there was no mention of last years tax beater fiasco and associated problems?

even now i think as smart investor says, martin is wrong to state only backdating interest to the 15th day after application is not a problem?

i thought the idea of this site was to save money ,not to line the pockets of big institutions like barclays at my expense.

i have been a loyal barclays customer for 20+ years and yet they still took 23 days to open my a/c so its not just problems if you are a non barclays customer.

common on martin stop sitting on the fence , there is a clear pattern of dubious and at best vague, misleading selling of a barclays product, to stop endorsing it by still including it in the best isa article!

Lokolo

They aren't misselling at all. Misselling is saying they are doing something when they aren't or vice versa. If they had said yes, we will open this account within 5 days then yes, thats misselling, but there wasn't any of that.

And just because Martin didn't say so, doesn't mean it wasn't there. There are plenty of threads saying from others that it took months for their account to be open, for example, bristolleedsfan had problems had he stated these with others. Threads such as these were on here before the new tax year when Barclays announced they would be doing the same thing for 08/09 which you could easily have looked at before deciding to open your account.

nathanhill69

I also warned people on threads this year about how incompetent Barclays were/are at opening their new ISA accounts and was effectively ignored/dismissed. I guess some people didn't want to listen, which is fair enough, unfortunately they are now finding out first hand how rubbish Barclays are at simple administration.

I do tend to agree though that there should be a caveat on the Best Buys ISA Guide warning potential applicants about the many issues people are experiencing, if memory serves me well one did appear on last years Guide when so many applicants had the same experience opening the Barclays Tax Beater ISA.

bashful

Crikey - I haven't checked the forum for a few days and it is a real shame to read back through all the sorry tales. Everyone involved has my sympathy. Also, I am sure that individual Barclays staff are innocent and deserve sympathy. Some managers somewhere need firing though :mad:

My wife and I opened Tax Haven ISAs online on 6 April with £1 transfer from existing Barclays accounts (there is another story there that I might revisit). We went into the Exeter Branch the following day (7 April) and saw an assistant who took our Halifax cheques for the balance of £3,599 and gave us a receipt.

I watched the accounts online on a daily basis and on 9 May decided that Barclays had had long enough to cash our cheques so braved the Barclays unHelpline. After the obligatory 3 or 4 attempts to get through and then hanging on for 20 minutes, I was advised to ring the guy at the local branch to check what he had done with our cheques. This I tried but the number I had for him wasn't working so I ended up back on the Barclays main Helpline.

This time when I got through to a voice I was told that I hadn't been given the correct information and clearly the 7 April cheques had been "lost". What I needed to do was cancel the original cheques and send in replacements. This I did in the 1st Class post on 9 May along with the correct paying in slips etc. and a note explaining what had happened.

I had a bit of a shock yesterday when the 7 April original cheques for £3,599 were returned as the Halifax had (quite rightly) bounced them as I had cancelled them - on Barclays advice.

Still nothing was showing on our online accounts except the original £1 deposits so I made a cuppa and braved the Helpline again yesterday. It seems that our second replacement cheques had been received and credited to our Tax Haven ISA that very day (odd that the amounts still aren't showing online).

The assistant was very apologetic and offered £10 for the hassle which I accepted. She said that she would do the same for my wife but couldn't do that without speaking to her personally. Not sure that she will be prepared to do another Helpline call - she said last night that she would rather forego the tenner!

The £10 appeared in my Barclays current account yesterday but I think I will keep my powder dry before complaining again until I see what period they give me interest on in the ISA. I maight be nicely surprised :rolleyes:

I am not a happy bunny and, if I wasn't out of work with time on my hands when the bank Helpline is open, I just wouldn't bother. Life is too short for this amount of aggravation and hassle to make a few extra squid on interest.

Smartinvestor

Finally got a reply to my complaint.

Probably some creative dating of correspondence:
My complaint 12 May
Date of reply 16 May (within their service standard)
Date received 22nd May (outside their service standard).

I won't hold my breath, this was just a holding letter; they've promised a real reply by 9th June!

ewokuk

applied for mine some time around 10th april, online since i have a current account and online banking. got the acknowledgement letter a few days later. still nothing as of now, money still in my current account.

rang them last week and asked what was going on, the guy said they had my application, it was in the system and it was just waiting for a sort code and account number to be assigned to it.

I think i may ring them up, tell them where to stick it and open one with icesave instead, it will probably be FAR easier than trying to transfer it out next year if this is their performance. of course if i ring them up and tell them i dont want it anymore they will most likely say too late its in the system and they cant cancel it now.

owitemisermusa

Lokolo wrote: »

owitemisermusa -

I don't think thats entirely true. Because I don't have a Barclays current account so god knows how I am meant to pay in.

It's all true I'm afraid.

I actually went into the branch to pay in cash to my bank account prior to asking the lady to transfer into my ISA instantly.

Much to my shock she said "sorry, we can't do that. you'll have to fill out a form which we send off or I can give you the number of the ISA centre to do it over the phone....."

Unbelievable! I just took the number and left. Transferred it over the phone after a long security process. I'm just waiting to fill up to £3600 and I'm transferring out to a FRISA. Barclays have been very untruthful bordering on deceitful. It's still marketed as an instant access ISA, I've not checked my account yet to see if that's the case.

Absolute rubbish!

iolande

Lokolo wrote: »

They aren't misselling at all. Misselling is saying they are doing something when they aren't or vice versa. If they had said yes, we will open this account within 5 days then yes, thats misselling, but there wasn't any of that.

I went into my branch and applied for the ISA on Saturday 5th of April. I filled out the forms. The lady told me that she couldn't open the ISA on the Saturday, but that it would be done on the Monday (something to do with the computing system). She would phone me that week to tell me my account number and I could start depositing cheques then for the balance. It's May 23rd now, and I haven't even received the letter saying it will take 4 weeks. Barclays have told me I have an account number, but they won't give it to me as it is not completed. So I can't deposit cheques.

Is this miss-selling, and what can I do about it?

Also - advice please - what will happen if I go open an ISA elsewhere? Barclays have told me I can't do that until they issue me with the paperwork. But if they are refusing to do that, where do I stand?

givememoney

Sorry haven't read thru all this.

I to am more than unhappy with the Barclays ISA.

Despite ringing them and asking for £300 to be transferred it never has been.

All I have sitting in there is £100. Like others here it won't let me transfer money from my current account although I am a Barclays (formerly Woolwich which was much better) customer.

Can I cancel my ISA with them now or is it too late?

I never had this trouble with Nationwide, I wish I had stuck with them.