Irresponsible lending from Barclays? Advice please

lavieenrose77

Key features

Surely though if I have only received the paperwork on Friday and the PIN number came through on the Monday, this means they had already taken the necesaary steps to issue such a card... Yes - I am fortunate that I have time to sort this out before signing everything off but others would find this far to easy an option to surely increase their debts. This is my main point to be fair. Yes it's great that other people have the option to overpay but as far as I am aware, most products allow you to overpay do they not? But surely this does not require you to have a card and PIN, sitting there tempting fate...?

lavieenrose77

Also - I have not yet read through the key features in section 12... as I mentioned: I only received the paperwork on Friday evening when I returned home from work and as I have had family commitments for the entire weekend, I did not have the chance to read through anything as of yet.

Can I also please point out that I have not signed OR completed ANYTHING as of yet... I appreciate that Mortgage Advisers need to be protected here but so too do the needs of the customer and if the customer is not presented with all of the facts until the final paperwork comes through, then I, as the customer, think that my needs need to be looked after and should have been looked after much more throghroughly.
Is this perhaps the difference between broker fees and no broker fees when it comes to mortgage broker's service levels? I don't know...

minimike2

All new Woolwich mortgages have this current account linked to them as they have adopted the Open Plan mortgage style.

The payments do not go into the account. The payments come off the mortgage, and for every £2000 of balance reduced you get £2000 increase to the "limit" on the current account (know as the reserve) to borrow back at SVR if you want to.

Its not irresponsible lending, its a feature of thier mortgages and can be very useful for people. You should have a. had this explained to you and b. Read your KFI which clearly states that this account and an openplan savings account are mandatory.

You have used an online broker, so the KFI falls even more onto your own shoulders to read as you did not have someone sat with you to go through it.


The accounts are opened before the mortgage completes, they have to be for the mortgage to go through and thats part of thier T&Cs. You have applied for the mortgage, therefore the accounts need to be opened.

All I can say is read your paperwork before you jump the gun.

lavieenrose77

I have not received any KFIs until Friday is what I am trying to explain!! And I received the card on Monday... I have come on ehre for advice and I thank you for advising on the fact that these are linked in... I have not received any other paperwork from the Woolwich until Friday... I am not sure how I was supposed to know that I had to go searching for details of a current account.
I am not sure why you are trying to justify the "£2000 increase to the "limit" on the current account (know as the reserve) to borrow back at SVR if you want to" - this is the bit which is surely going to be to SO MANY people's detriment and eventual downfall is it not?

dmg24

But surely the card is not yet active?

lavieenrose77

That's correct. The card is not active until hte funds are transferred... again I did not know this until I spoke to Barclays today... however the point here is that "The payments come off the mortgage, and for every £2000 of balance reduced you get £2000 increase to the "limit" on the current account (know as the reserve) to borrow back at SVR if you want to"... am I going crazy here or is this just financial suicide??? You would essentially have the options to pay off your mortgage gradually for example to the value of £4,000 in repayments and one day you could decide to go on holiday for example to the value of £4,000... if you did not have the money, you could use your Barclays connect card to pay it.... and then you'd be right back at square one with your mortgage payments... having paid nothing off... for some people, this would be too easy to do, would it not?

silvercar

Presumably if you are financially responsible enough to handle a large mortgage you can also manage access (or to deny yourself access) to an extra £2,000?

I think the facility would be useful.

dmg24

lavieenrose77 wrote: »

That's correct. The card is not active until hte funds are transferred... again I did not know this until I spoke to Barclays today... however the point here is that "The payments come off the mortgage, and for every £2000 of balance reduced you get £2000 increase to the "limit" on the current account (know as the reserve) to borrow back at SVR if you want to"... am I going crazy here or is this just financial suicide??? You would essentially have the options to pay off your mortgage gradually for example to the value of £4,000 in repayments and one day you could decide to go on holiday for example to the value of £4,000... if you did not have the money, you could use your Barclays connect card to pay it.... and then you'd be right back at square one with your mortgage payments... having paid nothing off... for some people, this would be too easy to do, would it not?

If the card is not active, and will not be active until after you have received the KFI and completed on the mortgage, that completely invalidates your argument!

At the moment you have a piece of plastic which has no use until you agree to the terms and conditions of the product.

I don't see the problem?

G-G_4

I think it's ridiculous to say that every £2000 you pay off means your limit in increased by £2000. Yes, i'm sure it's very handy for some people, but financial suicide for others!

I'm not suprised the OP is shocked..!

lavieenrose77

I, as the customer, have not been presented with the full facts. If indeed the information relating to this card I am presumably going to receive in a couple of days is in the KFI, then great and thanks to all who have kindly pointed this out. I will read through this and presumably everything will be a lot clearer.

What I am upset about is the fact that a. I was not warned that such a facility was part of the mortgage package, b. I was not advised that I would be receiving a PIN number from Barclays, and c. I think it is pretty poor from them to assume I would even want this service and that they have taken it (very assumptively) upon them to send this out before ANY paperwork has been sent, and anything has been closed off.

My initial instinct was fear as I firstly thought that someone must have been applying for a card in my name at my adress. The letter states Barclays on it and all paperwork I have had thus far has cleary stated Woolwich on it. Secondly, I assumed that the card was already circulated and in someone else's hands as all previous experience with any cards I have received from any other bank is that the card comes out first and you either send back an activation slip to confirm receipt of the card or the PIN just follows in 3-5 days...
So.. to sum up... I felt firstly anxious and worried and now I feel angry that Barclays see this as being a useful tool for everyone to have. Surely in light of the current financial climate, they should at least send you a form to sign to say that YES you WOULD indeed like the facility to pay all your hard earned cash off on to your monthly mortgage payments and YES PLEASE Barclays... please send me a card to allow me to subsequently go in and take the whole bloomin lot out again! They should not leave this information to the KFIs or whatever comes out in the final paperwork.

Presumably if you are financially responsible enough to handle a large mortgage you can also manage access (or to deny yourself access) to an extra £2,000? I think the facility would be useful.

In response to this: Yes I would consider myself responsible with my finances and hence why I am trying to get this account frozen and to stop them sending out a card or indeed to have the card frozen... I already have debt that I am trying to stay on top of and I, along with many others I'm sure, do not need any more cards to tempt fate with!
I did not instruct my mortgage borker to set me up or find me a mortgage that offers me an additional current account. I instructed them to find me a good package with decent monthly payments. I have since advised them of what has happened to try to ensure that no other customers end up in a similar position.