Yes!

Hi Katy I agree, it is clear that there is strength in numbers. Bob Diamond pontificated in front of the Select Committee arrogantly telling them to stop bashing the banks, and now presides over a company able to get away with paying less than 3% tax on their published profit! I know life is not fair, but I have an absolute faith that for those who chose to receive it, there is a universal grace available to us all. We are with you in this fight for decency, and the very survival of our Children’s Day Nursery business, yes it is a partnership, and we could loose everything we have worked so hard for during the last 15 years, just like so many other posts on this forum. These are not just words, every post here represent the real lives of hundreds of people no longer able to sleep at night. I am definitely in the ‘silver’ generation! I have an understanding of how social media works, but no idea how to use it! We should empower our children to try to find something to make this injustice ‘viral’ on the web and make Barclays sit up and listen. Our Children’s Day Nursery can not survive the onslaught of a ‘Business Development Manager’ in London and monthly charges of £5,000 to pay for a ‘product’ no one comprehends. Mike

My wife is a child care professional and with my help borrowed £1.4 million in August 2007 from the bank that had genuinely supported the Children’s Day Nursery partnership since 1998, Barclays. They changed Relationship Managers on us about 6 months earlier, the one we had, trusted, and knew well took early retirement. The new one was keen to lend the money, in part for a non related land purchase the bank held no security on. The loan offer letter clearly stated that is was for a term of 20 years and could be re-paid without penalty. It also required a ‘fixed rate’ to be applied to a portion of the loan for a minimum period of 5 years. We are in our late 50’s and made our new Barclays relationship manager abundantly aware that we wished to sell the business within the next 5 years. I even requested written confirmation that there were no penalties for early repayment. No came the reply from Barclays by Email. Long story short as the interest rates fell our payments increased, considerable more than the 6.8% (I think) on the ‘fixed’ loan paperwork. We complained, and refused to make the payments. A ‘Business Support’ Manager was put in place from London, and all our charges immediately increased. They wanted to engage an expensive accountancy firm to ‘review’ the business, and consider breaking it up. We used the media card, prevented this action, and 18 months later are just about to have our account ‘returned’ to the ‘Local’ management team. We had a meeting with our Relationship Manager, and two of the BarCap people. They told me I was obviously ‘finance savvy’ and well capable of understanding the product that I ‘bought’ (I was told it was free and there was no mention in any call that I was ‘buying’ anything) during the last of three telephone conversations in 2007. They told me the Bank was quite correct, the loan could be re-paid without penalty, BUT the ‘product’ was stand alone, and charged to the business properties. If we wanted to sell we would have to pay Barclays the money outstanding on the loan at the time (obviously) PLUS a ‘breakage fee’ of £280,000. I was sent one product overview by Email after the second telephone call. Some months later the Relationship Manager visited with a very large document, and insisted it be signed by both me and my wife. She was instructed to sign it as she entered the building, neither were given the chance to even read it. This smacks of miss-selling, but it seems the law is on the side of Barclays. It is my uninformed view that the only possible way to obtain redress is by adverse media coverage, and weight of numbers from those customers of Barclays. If ALL their customers took simultaneous action they would not have enough staff to cope?

Hi I would love to but how do I send an Email to you? Mike

I am definitely in the ‘silver’ generation! I have an understanding of how social media works, but no idea how to use it! We should empower our children to try to find something to make this injustice ‘viral’ on the web and make Barclays sit up and listen. Our Children’s Day Nursery can not survive the onslaught of a ‘Business Development Manager’ in London and monthly charges of £5,000 to pay for a ‘product’ no one comprehends.

I know life is not fair, but I have an absolute faith that for those who chose to receive it, there is a universal grace available to us all. We are with you in this fight for decency, and the very survival of our Children’s Day Nursery business, yes it is a partnership, and we could loose everything we have worked so hard for during the last 15 years, just like so many other posts on this forum. These are not just words, every post here represent the real lives of hundreds of people no longer able to sleep at night.

I agree with Katy, it is clear that there is strength in numbers. Bob Diamond pontificated in front of the Select Committee arrogantly telling them to stop bashing the banks, and now presides over a company able to get away with paying less than 3% tax on their published profit!

Hi Our Barclays Relationship Manager did much the same. We wound up being 'sold' a complex product we did not even have the chance to read the papers. He just turned up one day and told us to sign them! Long story short we are tied to a complex product that has nothing to do with the original loan, and it is costing us £5,000 PCM the loan was £1.4M at base + 2% in August 2007 We had meeting and was offred a 'restructure' provided we offered more security! They have lost all the records of the deal being offered, and have produced Emails that we did not receive. We do have one saying '...the product you have bought...' we questioned this but never received any reply. It seems there is little we can do from the posts here, but if there are enough of us in the same boat? It worked in Egypt? Impercunious :mad2:Mike