Woolwich Loan Pots, service

[hissedoff]

Has anyone had issues with The Woolwich, Now Barclays since they tried to merge products and service centres etc 2 months ago, in particular Barclays saying they were removing the loan pot facility from open plan accounts, on the grounds of a business decision, now doing a U turn following complaints?

[brown1950]

Yes i have had similiar experience with Barclays (Woolwich)
Barclays have now changed the 'goalposts' regarding my mortgage reserve account ! Previously if i was within my credit limit i could issue a cheque however now they say i must have a minimum of £2,000 available before i can use this facility ? I have asked them to explain this change and under what condition they are allowed to change the 'goalposts' . Still waiting for a response! Also seems many offices of Woolwich now closed however i get letters from Leeds/Bexleyheath/Leicester etc - very confusing.

[thms]

count me in. i only found out something was amiss when i checked my balance at an autobank. barclays cancelled all my woolwich loans pots, my monthly repayments and transferred the balance to my current account. i contacted their call centre, and although they don't know about the problem (allegedly) they were polite, efficient and able to log my complaint. i am expecting a response from theiir customer services within 5 days. i also intend to raise the matter with the banking ombudsman. barclays has rendered my current account incomprehensible by their arbitrary actions. i haven't a clue what all this will mean since they have not bothered to tell me. after years of excellent banking with the woolwich, barclays have reminded me of the unacceptable face of capitalism.

[Deepthroat]

To correct any understandings, Barclays are not doing a U-Turn on Loan Pots. They are all in the process of being closed.

I can appreciate that this had caused some confusion, which I think has been caused by the poor way in which Barclays have handled the situation. Firstly they told us they were being closed, they they wrote to us to say they are considering their options then they write to us against to say they are being closed.

Anyway....

Are people actually aware of how a loan pot actually works. Forgive me if i am teaching anyone to suck eggs, but I think that a little more detail will resolve peoples concerns..

When you applied for your mortgage, you may have also applied for a reserve facility. This would have increase automatically as you repaid your mortgage.

Customers were offered the chance to have loan pots, Basically this allowed us to borrow a fixed amount over a fixed term. Now this is the bit people may not understand.

The amount of the loan pot was deducted from your reserve facility. For example if you had a reserve of £10k and applied for a reserve of £5K you would be left with a reserve of £5k

Now that the loan pots are being closed the outstanding balance of any and all loan pots are being transferred back to our currents accounts from where the money originally came from.

I can imagine that this has caused a great deal of worry and confusion. However, I think that we all have to remember that the amount we have borrowed has not actually changed. More importantly as the interest rate applied to both our loan pot and current account is the same, we are in fact paying the same in interest.

If your salary is paid into your current account, this could actually work in your favour, as the interest is calculated daily and could result in major savings. As for the negative balance of our accounts, the payments we previously made to our loan pots can instead be made to our current accounts.

So in summary, nothing has really changed. We still owe the same amount of money. We are still being charged the same rate of interest and if our salary is paid into the account we could actually save money.

I don't feel that the removal of the loan pot is really the end of the world. I would like to thank the Branch Customer Care Team at the Woolwich for the above explaination and for dealing with my complaint in a professional manor. Before they were involved, Barclays pretty much ignored my complaint. i received three holding letters from them, which just annoyed me.

Bring back the Woolwich PLEASE !!!!