Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

TomsMom

MrAnalogy wrote: »

With regard to the back-dating of interest (assuming that it happens!) - if the money is not credited to the account but issued as a cheque, what is the tax position on it please?

Is it classified as interest income, and therefore taxable at either basic or higher rate as it is outside of the ISA "wrapper"?

Or is it considered to be withdrawal of capital from the account (i.e. it should have been in the "wrapper", but has in effect been "withdrawn")?

If the situation is the former then the interest paid should reflect the potential tax liability (not to mention that that amount of interest/capital is forever lost to the ISA account).

Obviously the ideal (and fairest) solution would be that back-dated interest should be added to the actual account (i.e. being put back to the situation you should have been in in the first instance) but this does not seem to be happening in all cases.

Best Regards

As for as OH and I are concerned, we were probably a bit slow and didn't think to ask for it to be credited to the ISA account. But, being Barclays and the fact that we were dealing with the local chap rather than the ISA centre (where it could have got complicated as we'd not dealt with the ISA centre at all), we wanted an end to this debacle so opted for the cheque.

We looked upon it as a "gift" in recompense for the c*ck up and deposited the cheques in another savings account where we get gross interest paid at a fixed 6.4% and we are lower rate tax payers.

If it had been hundreds of pounds we may have given it more thought but for £20 it wasn't worth any further effort.

We got the £20 each because Barclay's financial adviser told us categorically that the interest would be paid from day 1, but we had to chase him for it. I don't know what the situation would be if people only assumed, rather than be told, that would be when the interest would start.

poisondwarf1

I have today received this letter

Dear **********

We would like to update you on your complaint; we are currently not in a position to provide you with a full response.
We aim to do so as soon as possible. As a full response has taken a little longer than expected (nearly 3 months) you do have the option to ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to review your complaint, if you so wish etc, etc.

My £3000 has been sitting in a normal ISA (at 4.39%) since the 18th April when it should have been the Tax Haven one. I am so angry with Barclays.

MABLE

poisondwarf1 wrote: »

I have today received this letter

Dear **********

We would like to update you on your complaint; we are currently not in a position to provide you with a full response.
We aim to do so as soon as possible. As a full response has taken a little longer than expected (nearly 3 months) you do have the option to ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to review your complaint, if you so wish etc, etc.

My £3000 has been sitting in a normal ISA (at 4.39%) since the 18th April when it should have been the Tax Haven one. I am so angry with Barclays.

You have my every sympathy. I opened up a Tax Haven isa. Deposited £1.00 and then about 6 weeks deposited a further £3599.00. Credit on the 5 June to the ISA and on the 6 June transferred back to my Barclays Currant account and account closed.

Phoned them and they do not have a reason why this happened and as such as complaint has now been registered.

They are bl...dy USELESS.

temba

Hi everyone

UPDATE

I finally received a letter after several months, two written complaints, several phone complaints and enquiries and a fruitless phonecall to my own bank advisor who opened the account for me.

They have backdated the interest to the date I opened the account. As I didn't have all the money in the isa at this point, this only amounted to £6. However, as it was the principal at stake I rang up and totally confused the lady I spoke to with my maths on the compound interest, the implication being that as it has taken months to credit this interest I have not received the compound interest on it (I'm guessing that they haven't also added the compound interest the £6 would have accrued). I used this and the fact that every phonecall to their 0845 number has cost me over a pound (I only have a mobile phone, and it genuinely has cost this amount, I checked on my bill) and finally I was rewarded with £15 compensation transfered into my current account.

I felt pretty good with this until I saw Tom'smum's reply about £20 compensation! I guess the £15 is pretty measly considering the amount of anger and effort that I've put into it, bu still, I now consider this matter closed, and will never open an ISA with Barclays again.

Keep fighting, everyone, to get what you deserve.

chissy252

MY UPDATE

As I expected as my complaint was due to be solved by today June 25th, I have just received a letter saying "We remain committed to resolving your complaint as quickly as we can and will contact you again by July 23rd"

It will be 9 weeks tomorrow when I handed over our cheques. For anyone new considering investing with this shower I'd suggest reading through the thread and have a good think if it is worth all the potential hassle.

obsessed_saver

Oops. I just walked into the branch this morning and opened an account. Will see how I get on. The lady said she's still getting about 14 applications a day! She said it'd be about 2 weeks before the account is opened.

mangopanic

Hi Everyone, just joined this forum to add my 6.25% worth.:j

As an existing Barclays customer I applied online at the beginning of April 2008 for the Tax Haven ISA and deposited the full £3600 in my current account as I expected it to be transfered on April the 6th - the first day of the new tax year.

No problems with the online process as Barclays already have all my details. Got an email response on the 5th April thanking me for my application and that I'd hear from them shortly. No warning of any delay was given.

Then the wait begins. After a week or so I asked in my branch and was told quite clearly not to worry as interest would be backdated to the date of application or in my case the first day possible the 6th April.

That sounded fine but then I started hearing about problems.

My ISA was opened on 1st May and money sat in my current account transfered. By this time I'd put in a complaint and received two holding letters and most recently one saying that Barclays weren't going to pay interest for the first 14 days. :mad:

How on earth can they justify withholding 14 days interest from so many people. They're just going to keep the profit all to themselves the greedy b...t..ds !

I've just checked my account and they have backdated SOME interest but not the first 14 days worth. So for the whole of April which was when the headline rate of 6.5% was applicable I received £6.92 .

This aint good enough, we all need to pressure Barclays to do the right thing and pay the 14 days.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to how to keep this inequity in the media spotlight ? I know the BBC's Moneybox programme has run it, but Barclays haven't budged yet.

Lee_Cotterell

I tried to open one for 07/08 and was well within the time limit. Unfortunately, a spectacular display of incompetence on Barclay's part resulted in me eventually getting a rejection letter and a compensation cheque some 3 months after my original application despite repeated assurances from Barclays staff that all was in order.

To add insult to injury, they still hold the original bankers drafts I presented as a deposit and seem in no rush to return these (My bank, the Halifax need these back to return my money to my account) despite frequent phone call and reassurances.

I am just about at the end of my tether as this money I cannot afford o lose. Does anyone have any advice as to how I proceed from here.

MABLE

MABLE wrote: »

You have my every sympathy. I opened up a Tax Haven isa. Deposited £1.00 and then about 6 weeks deposited a further £3599.00. Credit on the 5 June to the ISA and on the 6 June transferred back to my Barclays Currant account and account closed.

Phoned them and they do not have a reason why this happened and as such as complaint has now been registered.

They are bl...dy USELESS.

UPDATE.

Having heard nothing from Barclays regarding progress of my complaint I went into a local branch today andd spoke to a very helpful lady. She went through to the complaints team who now advise that Barclays have contacted the Inland Revenue to see whether the account can be reopened.

They have admitted they closed it down in error but can do nothing until they receive an instruction from IR.

Also the lady said when the matter has been resolved to pursue the claim for compensation for the distress and worry I have been caused. Furthermore she said in the circumstances she could not defend Barclays for the unacceptable service I have received.

Yorkytart

My husband and I applied to open a Barclays Tax Haven Isa, at branch, on the 11th April. My account was opened on 15th May, only took a month! hubby's took another month and was finally opened on the 18th June,
:mad: can you believe it - two months to open an account - incredible.