📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

1525355575864

Comments

  • TomsMom
    TomsMom Posts: 4,251 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    chissy252 wrote: »
    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)

    Chissy, I don't know if it's on Barclays website anywhere but Martin mentioned this here

    http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa

    Scroll down to "The UK's top cash ISAs" where it 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. Many people have also been asked to meet with a Barclays ‘financial adviser’ when they apply – this is of course usually an attempt to flog you more Barclays products – so beware. (my underlining).

    I don't know if this will help or whether there is any official Barclays confirmation of Martin's information; however, OH and I were told in branch that interest would be paid from day after application. After the delay in opening our ISAs we contacted the chap in branch who opened them asking about backdating the interest. He said it would be backdated to day 15. When we reminded him he had originally told us it would be backdated to day after opening he made enquiries and got back to us and admitted he had misunderstood Barclays instructions and gave us wrong information BUT because it was his mistake we each got a cheque for £20 to make up for this. The £20 covers the lost interest and he didn't suggest adding it to the ISA money but we were happy enough with a cheque.

    At no time have we dealt with the ISA centre, only the chap in branch who opened them for us.
  • chissy252
    chissy252 Posts: 54 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture
    TomsMom wrote: »
    Chissy, I don't know if it's on Barclays website anywhere but Martin mentioned this here

    http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-cash-isa

    Scroll down to "The UK's top cash ISAs" where it 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. Many people have also been asked to meet with a Barclays ‘financial adviser’ when they apply – this is of course usually an attempt to flog you more Barclays products – so beware. (my underlining).

    I don't know if this will help or whether there is any official Barclays confirmation of Martin's information; however, OH and I were told in branch that interest would be paid from day after application. After the delay in opening our ISAs we contacted the chap in branch who opened them asking about backdating the interest. He said it would be backdated to day 15. When we reminded him he had originally told us it would be backdated to day after opening he made enquiries and got back to us and admitted he had misunderstood Barclays instructions and gave us wrong information BUT because it was his mistake we each got a cheque for £20 to make up for this. The £20 covers the lost interest and he didn't suggest adding it to the ISA money but we were happy enough with a cheque.

    At no time have we dealt with the ISA centre, only the chap in branch who opened them for us.

    Thanks very much for that info Tomsmom. The branch manager where I opened my account told me he can't/won't get involved because I have an official complaint in hand. As I previously posted, my delay was caused by his assistant manager keying in our "time at residence" as being the same day when I took the cheques in.

    I've already forewarned him I'll be in that branch like a raging bull if they try this 14 days con on me!!
  • MrAnalogy
    MrAnalogy Posts: 96 Forumite
    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. Many people have also been asked to meet with a Barclays ‘financial adviser’ when they apply – this is of course usually an attempt to flog you more Barclays products – so beware. (my underlining).

    Although very new to this forum I am still rather disappointed that MSE still apparently condones Barclay's attempt to retroactively introduce new T&Cs which were not present at the time of application. The financial impact of 14 days loss of interest may not be that great, but surely the principle should be that interest should be paid according to the T&Cs in force at the time of the application? If this one gets through I would suggest that a very dangerous precedent would be set which surely can only be to the detriment of the consumer?

    Also be aware that they are still maintaining that the 1% bonus will only be paid from the date of account opening (i.e. no back-dating - in my case 2.5 months after application), so although the "overall financial effect shouldn’t be a problem", it is still not completely negligible on a £3600 investment.

    I sincerely fail to see why the many customers who applied for this account should be penalised and effectively be told to compensate Barclay's for the bank's own failures.

    Best Regards
  • chambta
    chambta Posts: 2,770 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    MrAnalogy wrote: »
    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. Many people have also been asked to meet with a Barclays ‘financial adviser’ when they apply – this is of course usually an attempt to flog you more Barclays products – so beware. (my underlining).

    Although very new to this forum I am still rather disappointed that MSE still apparently condones Barclay's attempt to retroactively introduce new T&Cs which were not present at the time of application. The financial impact of 14 days loss of interest may not be that great, but surely the principle should be that interest should be paid according to the T&Cs in force at the time of the application? If this one gets through I would suggest that a very dangerous precedent would be set which surely can only be to the detriment of the consumer?

    Also be aware that they are still maintaining that the 1% bonus will only be paid from the date of account opening (i.e. no back-dating - in my case 2.5 months after application), so although the "overall financial effect shouldn’t be a problem", it is still not completely negligible on a £3600 investment.

    I sincerely fail to see why the many customers who applied for this account should be penalised and effectively be told to compensate Barclay's for the bank's own failures.

    Best Regards


    Spot on. I'm still awaiting a response to my formal complaint that's along much the same lines ableit not quite such a long delay.

    I'm looking forward to next year when I can transfer away from a company that so clearly has contempt for its own levels of service. I feel sorry for the people in the branches as clearly those way up above have made promises that they could never ever deliver.
  • After you've exhausted the complaints procedure, go to the TOP Man.

    It's far cheaper for them to backdate than enter into a stream of correspondence between you and the Directors (they have much bigger problems to solve). 14 days interest is less than £10.

    It works, believe me.

    I have to say that it's a shame Martin Lewis couldn't have solved this.
  • Savannah02K
    Savannah02K Posts: 307 Forumite
    In my local Barclays! Went in to complain about lack of resolution of complaint, the usual I've read about here for weeks, 6 weeks to open, my £2K languishing in low interest current a/c while they decide to open it, not backdated to appropriate date, the 0845 Helpline not being open Sat mornings, blahdy blah. Branch staff v unhelpful, my fault they can't help as because I wrote and complained it's now out of their hands - silly me! When I mentioned that some branches had made compensation I got the same response. Told them that was abdicating their responsibility and if they didn't take responsibility I'd be outside every Sat a.m. handing out paper to say don't invest in this ISA. They said they'd call the police if I did, I pointed out I wouldn't be obstructing anyone, pavement is public area, just the same as guys who hand out mobile phone leaflets. They were so damm rude that as I was leaving I decided to do my best teaching voice and announced, to a packed bank of people waiting to go in to see advisors, that if anyone was thinking of opening a Tax Haven ISA they should check out this site, etc. Total meltdown of staff, one ran out to get police, one practically died of embarrassment. I on the other hand, had a whale of a time. Best five mins of my involvement with Barclays! Hey ho, Financial Ombudsman beckons .......
  • unless I'm missing some information, this poll does not ask whether the applicant is an existing Barclay customer or not. As I understand the write-up this can make a big difference to the procedure for and time delay in opening a new account.
  • TomsMom
    TomsMom Posts: 4,251 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    In my local Barclays! Went in to complain about lack of resolution of complaint, the usual I've read about here for weeks, 6 weeks to open, my £2K languishing in low interest current a/c while they decide to open it, not backdated to appropriate date, the 0845 Helpline not being open Sat mornings, blahdy blah. Branch staff v unhelpful, my fault they can't help as because I wrote and complained it's now out of their hands - silly me! When I mentioned that some branches had made compensation I got the same response. Told them that was abdicating their responsibility and if they didn't take responsibility I'd be outside every Sat a.m. handing out paper to say don't invest in this ISA. They said they'd call the police if I did, I pointed out I wouldn't be obstructing anyone, pavement is public area, just the same as guys who hand out mobile phone leaflets. They were so damm rude that as I was leaving I decided to do my best teaching voice and announced, to a packed bank of people waiting to go in to see advisors, that if anyone was thinking of opening a Tax Haven ISA they should check out this site, etc. Total meltdown of staff, one ran out to get police, one practically died of embarrassment. I on the other hand, had a whale of a time. Best five mins of my involvement with Barclays! Hey ho, Financial Ombudsman beckons .......


    :rotfl: :rotfl:

    Wish I'd been there, would have loved to see it!
  • MrAnalogy
    MrAnalogy Posts: 96 Forumite
    Hopefully this will be my last post on this thread! Received two letters from Barclay's this morning - one saying that they need more time to resolve the problem, the other containing their resolution!

    They somewhat annoyed me by stating that their 14 days deferment of interest was "reasonable", and also that as a "gesture of goodwill", they would backdate the interest to application date. How big of them!

    All well and good you might say, but their enclosed account statement was totally indecipherable, with amounts added on, then taken away again!

    I had created a spread-sheet showing accumulated interest on a daily basis (6.32% for April, 6.08% onward) which showed a difference between their total on the 21st July and my calculation of what should have been there if full interest had been paid from the application date (about £16 shortfall).

    I contacted Customer Services (on their 0800 number) and eventually persuaded the CS person there to do the calculation and agree that the statement was incorrect.

    Fortunately she was very helpful, and although she could not add the difference to the ISA she did make a credit to my account (and a cheque to my Wife who also had the same shortfall).

    It took a lot of time and patience, but eventually (assuming that the shortfall payments are made) I feel as though we will both be back into the same position as we should have been in if the application process had gone smoothly and swiftly.

    Good Luck to all of you who may still have outstanding issues.

    Best regards
  • DUS
    DUS Posts: 184 Forumite
    unless I'm missing some information, this poll does not ask whether the applicant is an existing Barclay customer or not. As I understand the write-up this can make a big difference to the procedure for and time delay in opening a new account.

    Being an exisiting customer with Barclays didn´t make a difference in my case. It took them 3 months (March - June) to open my 08/09 ISA account. Still arguing with Barclays about the interest that has not been backdated. Seems to be a never-ending story. Hugely disappointing.

    DUS
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.2K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 244.2K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599.4K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.1K Life & Family
  • 257.7K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.