Barclays Tax Haven ISA: Have you opened one?

TomsMom

Lokolo wrote: »

I don't have a Barclays current account and so I cannot get online banking with them.

Is there anyway I can get a free statement or anything? Can I just go in branch and ask them for one and not cost me a thing?

Yes, OH and I have done this a few times.

Just make sure you have your ISA account number and sort code and ask the cashier for a print out. You will get an "Entries Report" which will be a statement of transactions with dates, amounts and balance. We did this just last week.

Edited to add: Doesn't cost anything and they do it on the spot.

MABLE

peas wrote: »

I have just received a letter from Barclays cancelling my Tax Haven ISA. Apparently my standing order into 07/08 ISA although it left my account in the first couple of days of april arrived at barclays on 8th april ie in new tax year. they therefore took that as an opening deposit for my new ISA which was just the one I opened last year.
so they have moved my money to a low interest paying savings account and deducted the tax on the interest I earned.

I am sooooooooooo angry I don't know which way to go. Do I have a valid case for complaint or shall I just drop the case?

If I should complain do I contact customer services or go into the local branch?

Any advice gratefully received.

Cheers

Well I speak from bitter experience. I applied for this Tax Haven ISA and deposited £1.00. About 5 weeks later I put the remainder into the ISA which was £3,599. The next day the total amount of £3,600 was credited back to my Barclays currant account and account closed.

I rang them up and they were confused as I was and could not offer an explanation as why this happened. I contacted the complaints dept on 0845 603 0845 and they said they would investigate.

About two weeks later received a letter from them advising they were going to contact the Inland Revenue to see if they could reopen the ISA. Today
I have received a letter from Barclays stating despite their error they are not allowed to open up the ISA account. So I have lost out completely.

However as compensation they deposited my account with a credit of £220.00 to make up for the error.

I rang today and said I was not willing to accept it. That means I have lost out for future years because the interest would have added without deductions of tax.

I would suggest you speak to the complaints dept rather than going into a branch.

Never again will I touch one of their ISA accounts.

babsx

As I previously wrote, Barclay's mucked up on opening my 07/08 ISA, I did complain to the Financial Ombudsman, although due to a back log of cases to look into so I've not had a final response from them as yet.

However, I'm not sure if Barclay's were aware I had made a complaint, but they've written to me today, and basically there's no way they can rectify the problem, (so I've lost my tax allowance for 07/08)...and they've calculated the interest on what I would have earned from my deposit of £2950 for tax yr 07/08 and they've given me a cheque for £191.75

I wondered what you guys thought of that offer

Crabman

babsx wrote: »

As I previously wrote, Barclay's mucked up on opening my 07/08 ISA, I did complain to the Financial Ombudsman, although due to a back log of cases to look into so I've not had a final response from them as yet.

However, I'm not sure if Barclay's were aware I had made a complaint, but they've written to me today, and basically there's no way they can rectify the problem, (so I've lost my tax allowance for 07/08)...and they've calculated the interest on what I would have earned from my deposit of £2950 for tax yr 07/08 and they've given me a cheque for £191.75

I wondered what you guys thought of that offer

Surely they should be compensating you for the losses you've incurred (and will incur) as a result of their incompetence.

I'd be looking for the tax-free interest for as long as you would have kept the cash in their account, e.g. you may have kept £2950 in the ISA for 10 years, so if you put that into a normal savings account with about 4% AER (taxed), they should "top-up" the interest with what you would have earned in the ISA.

That's my view anyway, what do others think?

sjoe

Crabman wrote: »

Surely they should be compensating you for the losses you've incurred (and will incur) as a result of their incompetence.

I'd be looking for the tax-free interest for as long as you would have kept the cash in their account, e.g. you may have kept £2950 in the ISA for 10 years, so if you put that into a normal savings account with about 4% AER (taxed), they should "top-up" the interest with what you would have earned in the ISA.

That's my view anyway, what do others think?

We need to stand up for what is ours. Barclay's have made a complete mess of these accounts yet again. I have a response to one complaint that fails to even address the issues that I raised and I have just chased my second complaint only to be told that there is no issue to complain about. I was also told there were some 25,000 complaints in the isa dept waiting for attention.

So Barclay's how is it reasonable to keep customers money for 14 days and not pay interest and why have you made such a mess.

If anyone gets any success from Barclay's or the ombudsman please can you post it here.

MABLE

Crabman wrote: »

Surely they should be compensating you for the losses you've incurred (and will incur) as a result of their incompetence.

I'd be looking for the tax-free interest for as long as you would have kept the cash in their account, e.g. you may have kept £2950 in the ISA for 10 years, so if you put that into a normal savings account with about 4% AER (taxed), they should "top-up" the interest with what you would have earned in the ISA.

That's my view anyway, what do others think?

This is what I have pointed out to Barclays that because of their error the money has been taken out of a tax free environment. I paid in the full £3,600. They have offered me £220.00 but i have now refused it and asked them to look at the matter again.

Savannah02K

Well, following on from my standing up in the branch and telling everyone not to take out a Tax Haven ISA without checking out this website, latest is a response from Barclays. They WILL backdate interest to the day of opening (so don't be fobbed off by the 14 days bull) but ........ re my complaint of them not cashing my £2K cheque for almost 8 weeks and me being without this money, their response was that I was not without this money, I could have cancelled the cheque at any time and had access to the funds. What??????? Are they totally missing the point? Sure, I could have done that, but for Pete's sake, it's a savings account, I just wanted my money to be in a safe place, nicely earning interest, not lost in Barclays Limboland where no one can find it.

I was going to just write this off now until I read NickyDee's post that if I complain to the Financial Ombudsman it will cost Barclays money so I'm off to fill in the forms for this.

Just one question, and excuse me if it's simplistic, I'm new to this money saving lark: I really really don't want to give Barclays another penny so, if at the end of the ISA year I put the remaining £1600 of my ISA allowance into an 'old' ISA account (last year's ISA was with Brad and Bing), how likely is it that that will get picked up? I'm assuming you can't split your yearly ISA allowance between 2 providers - yes? And it is wrong to do that, what are the likely consequences? Would appreciate any advice.

TomsMom

Savannah02K wrote: »

Just one question, and excuse me if it's simplistic, I'm new to this money saving lark: I really really don't want to give Barclays another penny so, if at the end of the ISA year I put the remaining £1600 of my ISA allowance into an 'old' ISA account (last year's ISA was with Brad and Bing), how likely is it that that will get picked up? I'm assuming you can't split your yearly ISA allowance between 2 providers - yes? And it is wrong to do that, what are the likely consequences? Would appreciate any advice.

Don't know about splitting your allowance between two providers, presumably someone more knowledgeable will come along and answer that.

But I can tell you that I have now transferred my Barclays Tax Haven 08/09 ISA out to another provider. I had put the full allowance in when I opened it and I fully expected NOT to have the bonus added when I transferred it but to my amazement and delight the bonus was added. So if you are totally p'd off with Barclays you can transfer now without waiting until the end of the ISA year. Just find a provider who will accept transfers in.

Savannah02K

TomsMom - I did think of transferring but I actually couldn't find another ISA that would accept a transfer and pay as high as the Tax Haven. Much as I'm disgusted with Barclays I'm not going to cut off my nose etc. Did you manage then to find a better/same as payer, and if so, who was it? Would love to stick it to Barclays twice, once costing them on the Ombudsman and again by transferring the money out!

TomsMom

Savannah02K wrote: »

TomsMom - I did think of transferring but I actually couldn't find another ISA that would accept a transfer and pay as high as the Tax Haven. Much as I'm disgusted with Barclays I'm not going to cut off my nose etc. Did you manage then to find a better/same as payer, and if so, who was it? Would love to stick it to Barclays twice, once costing them on the Ombudsman and again by transferring the money out!

I transferred mine to Newcastle ISA+ whose current rate is 6% on amounts of £3000 and above.

Barclays is currently 6.25% AER including bonus, or 6.08% p.a.

The way I looked at it is, because of the bonus only lasting 12 months then I would transfer out at the end of 12 months when the rate drops, therefore I would never get 6.25% AER anyway which is the compounded rate if you leave your interest in. But the rate drops after the 12 months anyway, so does anyone actually get 6.25%?

Looking at it that way, the actual loss of interest is only 6.08% down to 6% and 0.08% isn't really anything to worry about!

Hope you can understand my logic.