Barclays personal reserve

kat21

I too have received the naturally assumed letter, that i have opted in! Ive never come across this before, after all if we wish to have additional functionality then naturally we ask for and pay for that service but, to have such a service imposed upon us and, we have no proof that our opt out letters have been received then theirs potential problems. I wonder what Martins views are on this issue?
is this classed as "fair trade"?
Even though i request regular bank statements sadly i dont always recieve them, sad really and a no win situation, that utilities companies prefer us to go direct debit so they get their money but at what cost to the consumer? like most have commented its not until the end of the month when we receive our bank statements (if at all)? i can see many having to go to loan sharks a pattern does seem to be imerging on this thread, we are all very frith with our money and spending patterns and the banks are keen to push us into dept and dependancy at a time of great financial instability.
kat

finley909

I also received a letter from barclays about the reserve, but mine did not offer the opportunity to "opt-out". This strikes me as a bit strange, but what is more odd is that recently they have charged me 3 times in a week for being over my overdraft (which they call the referral fee) for £30 each time. Isn't this in direct conflict with their new policy? Also I thought most banks dropped their charges to £12 after June 2006? Do the world's biggest bank now want to claim the title of world's biggest bank charges too?

I'm going into Barclays today to shake things up a little.
Fetch my shotgun.

tiptoe_mouse

finley909 wrote: »

I also received a letter from barclays about the reserve, but mine did not offer the opportunity to "opt-out". This strikes me as a bit strange, but what is more odd is that recently they have charged me 3 times in a week for being over my overdraft (which they call the referral fee) for £30 each time. Isn't this in direct conflict with their new policy?

According to their website, the Personal Reserve system doesn't come into effect until 18th August.

tiptoe

pukkamum

MrsTine wrote: »

You know... I really don't see the big problem either...
Now: You get charged £x for going over your overdraft accidently (about what? £35 at the moment? Sorry not been over mine so not sure about current rates etc...) and then you get charged for being further over your overdraft thanks to the charges...
New thingy: You go over your overdraft, you have 5 days to sort it (I might be reading it wrong), if after 5 days you haven't then you get charged £22 and again if you haven't fixed it in another 5.
So this is theoretically not a bad thing... IF you manage your money and it's only a temp glitch

It IS bad if you use it as an overdraft! - it's exceedingly bad if you are one of the many customers who's OD gets reduced with a 10 or 14 day notice...

But for people who manage their money and just have one unexpected bill go out then it's not a bad thing. I guess the argument will relate to who they decide to GIVE these facilities to... if it's everyone then it's bad, if it's people with history of managing their accounts well - maybe one or two glitches in 10 years etc then I think it should be seen as positive.

Just my point of view really

When i read my letter i understood it as £22 for the first five days then more after NOT free for 5 days THEN £22.

pukkamum

Can i ask my husband gets paid weekly and we have no overdraft, we were 'burnt' by credit many years ago and now run a VERY tight ship, however, as every so often things happen, a bit of mis-calculation or a direct debit coming earlier than expected we have occasionally been overdrawn only ever by one direct debit which we amend immediately. So am i right in thinking that we are better opting out and paying the £8 per item fee?

littleowl

pukkamum wrote: »

When i read my letter i understood it as £22 for the first five days then more after NOT free for 5 days THEN £22.

According to my letter from Barclays one can use the reserve for 5 days but will be charged £22 if one goes over the 5 days - and then for each 5 days thereafter that the account is in the reserve.

CLAPTON

kat21 wrote: »

I too have received the naturally assumed letter, that i have opted in! Ive never come across this before, after all if we wish to have additional functionality then naturally we ask for and pay for that service but, to have such a service imposed upon us and, we have no proof that our opt out letters have been received then theirs potential problems. I wonder what Martins views are on this issue?
is this classed as "fair trade"?
Even though i request regular bank statements sadly i dont always recieve them, sad really and a no win situation, that utilities companies prefer us to go direct debit so they get their money but at what cost to the consumer? like most have commented its not until the end of the month when we receive our bank statements (if at all)? i can see many having to go to loan sharks a pattern does seem to be imerging on this thread, we are all very frith with our money and spending patterns and the banks are keen to push us into dept and dependancy at a time of great financial instability.
kat

what, no internet access to your bank account?

tiptoe_mouse

littleowl wrote: »

According to my letter from Barclays one can use the reserve for 5 days but will be charged £22 if one goes over the 5 days - and then for each 5 days thereafter that the account is in the reserve.

From the Barclays website:

One Reserve Usage Fee of £22 for each five consecutive working day period from the day you start using your Reserve.

Could you quote the part of your letter which says the first 5 days are free?

tiptoe

littleowl

tiptoe_mouse wrote: »

From the Barclays website:


Could you quote the part of your letter which says the first 5 days are free?

tiptoe

I am so sorry I am in error. Using the reserve for the first five days does incur the £22 fee.

bluflashlite

CLAPTON wrote: »

what, no internet access to your bank account?

Fiy, some folk still really can't afford to get internet access, while other's can't even access a pc! Others of us have ancient pc's that are simply too slow to cope with the software that's needed for online banking......

......we should all count our blessings & be less dismissive of folk who are worse off than ourselves here

Just to make it clear, the Barclays literature I received clearly states that if I opt-out and DON'T have their Reserve facility, I will STILL only pay £8.00 for any returned transaction &/or guaranteed transaction that exceeds my overdraft limit.

So, in a nutshell, IF I happened to exceed my overdraft accidentally by, lets say £1, for just SIX working days, had I had the Reserve, I'd have to pay £22 twice (£44 in total) because I'd have exceed the "5 consecutive working days". Whereas without the Reserve, I only pay £8 for spending £1 above my overdraft limit. (I know which fee I'd prefer!!)

It also states that, with OR WITHOUT the Reserve facility, the overdraft will be charged at the "current interest rate applicable". It's worth noting that this is printed in a table format and quite equally worded when it comes to the overdraft interest, which is suggestive of indicating that the same overdraft rate applies to either option.

Barclays do claim to subscribe to the Banking Code, which is supposed to assure us of clarity of information about accounts and services, as well as a commitment to "lend responsibly".....

.....so how do they justify offering £1,250.00 to someone who's on long-term Income Support due to a disability then ?!?!?!?