Barclays slash overdraft charges

emmagrey

its just an overdraft with a different name-but one they charge you for using.

its ok for the people always in credit or those who never go over their overdraft, but those arent who barclays is targeting with this reserve. they are targeting the vulnerable customers.

if you can-just increase you're overdraft by how much you need, and have the peace of mind-with the tiny amount of interest for use (or if its free), rather than a reserve, with the massive charge to use it and keep using it.

i feel sorry for the people who have been refused a bigger overdraft but have been given a reserve. we all know why that is. :rolleyes:

so if you dont have an overdraft and go more than £1 in the red-they charge you £22 for using you're reserve. and if you do have an overdraft, and go more than £1 over, they charge you £22. then if you dont put it right and get out of you're reserve within 5 days they charge another £22 and keep doing so till you get out of you're reserve.

ridiculous. ive opted out, i wonder though, are these charges deemed unfair too? what is martins take on this????

they seem very unfair to me. especially for someone going a couple of quid over.

krisskross

This has been covered elsewhere on the site. However it appears Barclays have written to all their customers individually so no one can say ' no one told me s'not fair'. It is easy to opt out, the prepaid envelope is supplied. What else would you like them to do? The answer to your question though is not to go overdrawn, treat your overdraft as a safety net not your extra spends, and the limit as just that, not a target to aim for.

emmagrey

yeah i know, i already said i have opted out, and i dont use my overdraft now anyways. my point was to other people, to people who are more vulnerable. we all know we shouldnt go overdrawn if we can help it, but people do, evidently, 100's of thousands are claiming back bank charges for going overdrawn or over an agreed overdraft, so while it isnt a situation people want to be in, many do find themselves in that situation. a reserve just encourages the worse off to get even more in dept.

this is just another way for barclays to charge a large amount of money for going as little as just over £1 over. if you go say £2 overdrawn, you are going to get charged a fee 10 times greater than what you went over. hardly fair. totally unfair charge.

rbougaardt

Hi all.

Could someone more knowledgable than I give their opinion on Barclays new introduction of a single charge 'Personal Reserve' (in addition to personal overdraft) to their current accounts? It would seem to me that this is at least moving in the direction of an admission of defeat in the sense that they anticipate their charges being ruled as unlawfulf/unenforceable (whichever applies), otherwise why bother taking this course of action, which potentially could lose them millions.
Your thoughts would be much appreciated (in anticipation of receiving my charges back as part of a hardship claim, fingers crossed).

Regards
Rick

emmagrey

i dont know why they dont just offer customers a overdraft increase if they want/need one, instead of offering a new 'personal reserve', which is basically the same thing, apart from you get fee's for using the reserve, so its even worse than a larger overdraft. i opted out as i said on principle, but yes i agree, its is mighty suspicious that they are decreasing fee's as the test case is going on and moving things around. to me, it seems obvious its because they expect the charges to be found to be unfair or are preparing for the worst.

i got my first letter from barclays today about my complaint about the charges, the standard one saying, my compliant has been logged etc, a 2 page letter, then a page on the test case, etc. it was fairly polite, but what made me laugh was their talk about how they believe their charges are fair. lol. no they arent. so someone who goes over by 23p for mere hours and gets a £35 charge-that is fair?
especially when its a standard charge. so someone who goes over £100 in the red and someone who goes 23p in the red, both get the same charge. yeah that seems fair too.
someone who goes £30 over the week before they get paid. their pay goes in, the £30 they were over comes straight out, and they get a £35 charge taken out. so the bank makes more than a 100% return on money borrowed for a week, and thats fair? the banks are delusional arguing that the charges are fair.

forest6

This is my first time posting so sorry if its in the wrong place.

Barclays have introduced something called a reserve for your current account. If you go over your overdraft the give you a reserve amount that they charge you about £22 for.
If I spend to much my bank usually stops me when i hit my overdraft limit. I assumed I hadn't reached my overdraft yet and made another transaction.
This morning I checked my account and lovely ole Barclays had given me £150 extra to spend (that I didnt ask for or know about). So now I owe them a fee. I think this is a bit naughty, I wasn't warned.
On the other hand, it might be helpful for some of you who do need a bit of extra credit to get through the month.
I would have liked to have had the choice.

oasisfeverish

Be very very careful of using this.

As a ex-employee of Barclays for 19 years.

The majority of customers that have this reserve will not realise that if you go into your reserve and borrow just £1 of it for the whole month will be charged £88.

So for example you have a overdraft of £100
A reserve of £150
You account balance currently stands at -£101, as you have used £1 of your reserve overdraft and remain at this balance for the whole month, every 5 working days you will be charge £22. As a average month has 20 working days, this charge will add up to £88 for borrowing just £1 of your reserve limit.

Additionally Barclays have stated that 90% of their customers want it, however being a opt out rather than opt in scheme, many people probably don't fully understand it or just haven't got round to cancelling it.

I have two accounts, and as of this morning now have reserves on both. This afternoon I will call them and cancel this. I would rather my cheque/direct debit be bounced for £8 then not be able to credit my account at a later date to clear the reserve overdraft balance I had entered.

Weigh it up, a bounced item and a £8 charge for the whole month or,
a reserve overdraft that you can't clear for a whole month and therefore a charge of £88.

A no brainer, please be careful folks.

oasisfeverish

Sorry to respond to my own reply.

Another reason Barclays have gone down this route (other Banks probably will too) is that with the Test Case for bank charges there was a rummour of £8 as an acceptable fee for returning a item, that the court/OFT/Banks may agree on.

That way from today it will stop anyone being able to reclaim these fees from the 18th August 2008 onwards. As a account/overdraft/reserve fee is not permissable to reclaim, effectively closing the hole for future claims from today onwards.

Although please be assured you can still claim charges that were applied before today going back 6 years.

A clever move for Barclays, not the customer.

ray50

I am re-applying for a NEW Barclays current account that was mistakenly closed by them in the new year but thats another story. As a part of their new account blurb-for cash card and connect card-they say that there is a returned transaction fee for direct debits and standing orders returned due to insufficient funds in your account and it is:-

£8 (maximum per account per day)

Since I only have an (empty) savings account with them I havent received this letter with the £22 per 5 working or otherwise days on it. Perhaps it is also a ploy to get new customers??

Would it not put a spoke in the works to close down your existing accounts and open a new one if it pans out that you may get a cheaper (day) rate?
In other words, if you can do something about the situation sooner rather than later you can save yourself £14...

mccarthystuart

Is it true that barclays aren't accepting any more bank charge claims? If so, is there nothing I can do about it?

Any feedback greatly appreciated.