Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

Lokolo

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customer.relations@barclays.co.uk

The email address I used, same as you did. Make sure you copied it right. Also, I used gmail.

guiseleygeorge

It has now been some 6 weeks since I applied for this years cash ISA and Barclays have not cashed my cheque yet!
Is this a record?

Crabman

guiseleygeorge wrote: »

It has now been some 6 weeks since I applied for this years cash ISA and Barclays have not cashed my cheque yet!
Is this a record?

Not quite... I applied in branch during early March - cheque cashed & welcome letter received only last week.

haria

I applied for a Barclays cash Tax haven isa at the end of March 08, for the 07/08 tax year, after the reccommendation at moneysavingexpert, and was told it would be dealt with in a few weeks, so I deposited the full allowance in to my barclays current account to enable a transfer to the Isa when it opened.

Later at the beginning of April, I was advised in the branch I opened it in, that I would receive all backdated interest, and that I would need to contact the Isa office.
At the end of April, the branch made a complaint on my behalf, as they thought that was too long to wait, as I had not even received an acknowledgement advising me the account was in process. I received a letter from their complaints department on the 12th of May, saying that I would have an update by the 5th of June, with still no idea when the account would be opened.

I have now rec'd a letter, stating that my isa for year 07/08 cannot now be opened! And have been credited with £220. The complaint file has been kept open for 8 weeks, for me to consider!??

Anyone else had this letter from Barclays, what do people suggest I should do? I still want a 07/08 Isa, and I would still like some compensation too, as a minimum the interest I would have earned from the money I deposited in my current account to put into the Isa.

Let me know chaps:mad:

Smartinvestor

Martin's ISA page says:

"WARNING: MoneySavers who are not current Barclays customers have reported some substantial delays opening this cash ISA (see Tax Haven feedback). Barclays has confirmed that it takes around three to four weeks to open, but importantly any interest earned will be backdated to the 15th day after your application so the overall financial effect shouldn’t be a problem."

My highlighting!

I still can't believe Martin believes 14 days' loss of interest is "not a problem".

rozzy_2

Just thought id give my experience of this ISA (well the girlfriends experience)

She had the tax beta ISA 07/08 then phoned up to stop the direct debit and opened the tav haven ISA for 08/09.

Barclays made a mistake and opened up a standard 4.7% something ISA instead whilst also not stopping the direct debit on the 07/08 ISA. Therefore had 2 ISA's. We phoned Barclays they stopped the Direct Debit but couldnt rectify the wrong ISA issue. Barclays accept blame but have reffered the situation to the complaints dept and we still havent heard anything. Barclays say we will get the interest but only on the amount we opened the account with not much good as we have a lump sum waiting to go in once the account is open.

Beginning to think the rate isnt worth all the hassle that comes with it.

greenfingers71

:cool:Received same letter today.

04/04/08 Paid two cheques to Barclays one for 07/08 and one for this year.

13/04/08 Received letter asking what the chqs were for!! Took letter to branch, who said they would deal with it, ie complain and not to worry no interest would be lost. Suggested paying cheques into savings account while waiting. I agreed

Had 3 letters from Customer Relations, saying they were investigating, then this one today.

I phoned to find out why and they say they have lost the application forms.

Can they actually get away with this?

haria

haria wrote: »

I applied for a Barclays cash Tax haven isa at the end of March 08, for the 07/08 tax year, after the reccommendation at moneysavingexpert, and was told it would be dealt with in a few weeks, so I deposited the full allowance in to my barclays current account to enable a transfer to the Isa when it opened.

Later at the beginning of April, I was advised in the branch I opened it in, that I would receive all backdated interest, and that I would need to contact the Isa office.
At the end of April, the branch made a complaint on my behalf, as they thought that was too long to wait, as I had not even received an acknowledgement advising me the account was in process. I received a letter from their complaints department on the 12th of May, saying that I would have an update by the 5th of June, with still no idea when the account would be opened.

I have now rec'd a letter, stating that my isa for year 07/08 cannot now be opened! And have been credited with £220. The complaint file has been kept open for 8 weeks, for me to consider!??

Anyone else had this letter from Barclays, what do people suggest I should do? I still want a 07/08 Isa, and I would still like some compensation too, as a minimum the interest I would have earned from the money I deposited in my current account to put into the Isa.

Let me know chaps:mad:

This apparently from a staff member at the bank:
"I work for ISA department in Barclays. If you do need to phone the ISA department, please don't tkae your frustration out on the staff - its not their fault there is a delay. Everyone is working very hard to get all the applications opened as quickly as possilbe?!!!!"

The quote about getting all the apps opened, er it's not quite true is it?

sjoe

Finally managed to get my isa fully funded yesterday. Not sure how many complaints I have open, should be one for the lost cheque, one for the delays in opening, one for the loss of interest......

Anyway, its goodbye Barclay's from me, but I'm sticking out for full interest to be paid to my ISA - don't accept it into your current account. It would be useful to see what other compensation people are getting. Barclay's have made a mess again and why should we the customers be taken for a ride? :mad:

MrAnalogy

My first post (well, second actually - the first disappeared into the ether yesterday, never to be seen again) - so please be gentle with me!

My wife and I made our application in branch on the 10th April, and, due to Barclay's database not having a record of our post code (unlike 99% of all other companies in the country, and necessitating us returning our applications and cheques to them covered by an email from branch), we both received a letter yesterday stating that they have now got our applications, and that it will take approximately a further 4 weeks to process them.

To say we are unimpressed would be an understatement, and after a 30 minute call to their 0845 ISA "help" line have obtained a complaint reference. The point of this post is to clarify that when they say they will back-date the interest to the 15th day after application, this does not include the 1% bonus, which will still only apply from when the account is actually opened.

Although this bonus (according to their letter and T&C etc.) will still be paid for a full year from date of opening, to my mind they are to a degree "trapping" you in the account for longer that you might have otherwise chosen to stay, to obtain what you had considered to have been on offer from the outset at application.

Apologies if this point has already been made - there are so many posts in this thread that it is entirely possible that I missed it!

Best regards