Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

rozzy_2

My partner has had a nightmare with opening this account...

Applied for Tax Haven ISA end of March(deposited £20 initially and then would transfer over £1000 once set up), Asked Barclays to stop DD on 07/08 ISA.

Barclays had only set up a standard Cash ISA at just above 4% opposed to the Tax Haven ISA. Girlfriend complained and suggested that she close the account using the 28 day procedure and reapply for the correct ISA. Barclays assured her this isnt necessary and reffered the matter to the complaints department.

Barclays have since missed all the dates which they promised a response, and also failed to stop the DD on her old ISA after telling them on 3 occasions. SO therefore effectively she had 2 ISA's open.

Barclays sent out a letter the other week stating she had 2 ISA's open but to rectify this has transferred the previously made payments into her new Tax Haven ISA. we thought great it has been solved and then transferred the £1000 or so figure into the new ISA.

Barclays sent another letter saying complaint still not dealt with and after ringing them realised it is still the 4% standard cash ISA that she has. So she is losing out all round.

What a waste of time, never again will we use Barclays, we are now going through the ombudsman but not sure what will be achieved. The back dated interest that Barclays promise is no good for us as only £20 was initially put into the account.

JayZed

Crumbs, I was on the verge of apply for one of these, but after reading this I'll look at other options. As a Barclays current a/c customer (though not for much longer!) I've had consistently appalling customer service from them, so this doesn't surprise me at all.

I would encourage people to go ahead and complain to the ombudsman, but the one time I had to do that (not Barclays-related!) the ombudsman still hadn't got to my complaint after six months, by which time the issue had finally been resolved.

mrfear

sjoe wrote: »

Has anyone actually received a satisfactory response to any complaints that they have raised with Barclay's over the ISA?

I have two complaints open and both have reached the point where I am now allowed to report the matter to the ombudsman. I've had letters from Barclay's telling me that I can do this but they hope I won't.

I'm holding out for interest from the date account paperwork was submitted to be added to the account (for compounding reasons) as well as backdated interest for the period when I was unable to transfer from my current account.

The Mrs and myself are in exactly the same position. We deposited the cheques with Barclays on April 11th and the accounts have still not been opened. That means we've had £7200 sitting in our current account waiting to be cleared which means the interest deficit is really building up. Obviously we can't stick that cash anywhere else as there would be financial overdraft penalties from our bank if Barclays then decided to bank the cash.

I have resorted to writing to Frits Seegers, Barclays retail banking boss, to try and get the shower in the customer services team to take responsibility for this dismal, inept perormance. If I had performed like this at work I'd have been fired weeks ago.

More than 12 weeks to bank two cheques and process an account? Beyond belief.

obsessed_saver

JayZed wrote: »

Crumbs, I was on the verge of apply for one of these, but after reading this I'll look at other options. As a Barclays current a/c customer (though not for much longer!) I've had consistently appalling customer service from them, so this doesn't surprise me at all.

I would encourage people to go ahead and complain to the ombudsman, but the one time I had to do that (not Barclays-related!) the ombudsman still hadn't got to my complaint after six months, by which time the issue had finally been resolved.

To be fair, I have opened an account recently, and it was all set up well within 2 weeks.

I just called to confirm that my deposits via online transfer from my BoS current account have gone through alright. Seems like it's capable of receiving Fast Payments as well.

A tip for people needing to call the Barclays Savings and ISA Helpline on 0845 6030845, you can use one of the followings: 024 76842100 or the freephone number 0800 0854551.

sjoe

Has anyone received a logical response to any complaint they have logged? I finally got a response after about 9 weeks but they have failed to answer any of the questions I raised, just told me my account details and that they would backdate interest for all but first 14 days.

Its really not good enough for an organisation like this. :mad:

Bye bye Barclay's......

TitianRed

Applied for my ISA on 8th April and am still waiting, even after making several complaints!!!!!!!

King_Weasel

I applied on April 9.

Almost 3 months to the day they wrote apologetically asking me to re-present my identity documents to a branch in the next fortnight.

I wrote back saying they sent a near-identical letter a month ago and wasn't prepared to make monthly visits.

I'm applying to IceSave instead. My wife's already opened one with them - didn't have to go to Reykjavik even once.

Forgot to say I also asked for interest foregone compensation - will let you know how I get on.

MrAnalogy

Have now received a response to the complaint I logged for my Wife and myself. Disgusted but not surprised that it was the typical line of "interest back-dated to 14 days of application, and bonus from date of account opening". Totally unacceptable, both in the fact that due to their errors relating to our Post Code they took over two months to finally open our accounts, and no mention at all of my Wife's identical complaint under the same reference.

The sum of interest is not huge, but in my view the principle is - and I am certainly not going to accept this cynical attempt to fob me off with a financial loss (however small) because of their gross incompetence.

At a minimum I will be holding out for a settlement that puts us in the same position we would have been in had the application been processed as we believed (and were told) it would be - i.e. full interest (including Bonus) from the date of application credited to the account.

It would also be a nice gesture of Barclay's to actually compensate us for the cost of the 'phone calls to their ISA centre and branch trying to resolve their problem, not to mention the time taken and stress involved in doing so.

However, I fear I am more likely to see a squadron of pigs flying over my house before that ever happens.

Anyhow, good luck to all who still have outstanding issues - and keep on fighting for a fair and just resolution!

Best Regards

chissy252

Sorry for being vague but can anyone point me in the direction of where this "14 days of application" interest con refers to?
I'm ready for a real fight with them and am expecting a letter similar to MrAnology's but I'm fairly sure none of my paperwork has a mention of this (unless it is hidden away in T & C s somewhere)

MrAnalogy

As far as I am aware there is no mention of 14 days in the T&Cs with regard to opening an account.

Further to my official complaint response - I contacted them on 0800 282390 (note the number on their response letter contains a typo - the actual number is 08457 555 555 as per the heading not 0845 755 555 in the body of the letter - really confidence-inspiring!) rather than pay them to further the pursuit of my complaint.

The upshot is that it will be referred back to the ISA team (fortunately on my original complaint mention was made of backdating to application date) so I will have to wait and see.

I do recommend persisting - if not for the money, at least the principle.

In addition I contacted the F.O.S. - very helpful although they cannot give advice prior to dealing with the case. The general impression I got that it is best to wait and see what the "Final Response" to your complaint is, and only then if you are unsatisfied with that should you refer the matter. Prior to that theoretically the matter is still open to negotiation with Barclays.

Once again Good Luck to all still pursuing outstanding problems with Barclays.

Best Regards