Additions Account Lives Up To its Name

[wildcat77]

Have received this month's bank staements with a nice £30 paid referral (which I can iinclude in the claim) and note that the "Additions Account Fee" has gone up another £1.50.

 

As soon as I get my act together (which is happening gradually) I'm going to close this account.

[callumsgran]

good for you!

[Laineybelle]

Hi Wildcat77,

 

I have literally only just picked up on your this particular thread and not read any previous ones so excuse me if I am totally on the wrong wavelength but you mention about Barclays additions going up some more. Do you use any of the facilities it offers as we were mislead by Barclays some time back and had 2 additions accounts only to find out that we shouldn't even have been running two because you don't get any extra benefits from having two but were paying for it twice and no-one in Barclays ever had the decency to tell us until by chance I found out from a work colleague that you didn't actually have to have any at all. When we were 'upgraded' we thought we didn't have a choice and it turns out we did.

Not only were we paying for two additions that should have only been one but we didn't even have to have one and had never used any of the benefits from it. Both of our accounts were reverted back quite easily and we did not have that charge any longer.

 

Totally off the point of the site I know but another way these cunning banks get money off people that we trust that they would know better than us mere mortals.

 

Regards

laineybelle

[emmaspoo]

You mean we dont have to pay for the the additions account fee of £11,50?

[Laineybelle]

Well, it was a long time ago that I discovered this but I can remember that all of a sudden we had this new additions added to our account and we just ran with it for ages and then when we were talking about Barclays at work one day a colleague of mine said she didn't have the additions and when i quizzed her about it she said I told them I didn't want it and I kept just my current basic account.

 

The next time I was in there I spoke to an advisor and she checked and said she couldn't believe I had it on 2 accounts anyway as it should only be applied once. At the time I was very nieve and never followed up the fact that we should have been refunded the charges applied from the one account anyway as they just 'upgraded' both accounts automatically. But she definately lifted the additions off both accounts as I told her we did not want it. In all the years we were paying for it we never once used ANY of its benefits so we wasted a lot of money that we needn't have. We didn't even use the free will writng service that was available at the time.

 

It ended up that both accounts were reverted back to the basic account and we never paid it again. Perhaps we could start another ball rolling eh? Barcalys charging people for accounts that they don't need or want!!!

 

If you are paying for it and you don't want it and don't use it then you should definately get it removed. I know we did.

[Welshman]

Some Claimants have already been querying with Barclays about the Additions accounts and the most (I think) that anyone's been refunded is £118.

 

It's well worth sending them a letter asking them to produce the authorisation you signed in order for them to deduct the fees for that service. If they can't, (and I bet they can't) take it from there.

[lukeyboyuk]

I don't believe that you sign anything unless it's a new account thinking about it.

 

I didn't add my signature to anything.....

[Laineybelle]

I know we didn't, we were basically under the impression that it was our only option. They certainly didn't tell us we didn't need to 'upgrade' and charged us twice for the privelage.

 

Maybe I will get over my first hurdle and then carry on if successful and claim back all the charges for the 'additions' that we didn't want.

[Welshman]

Maybe I will get over my first hurdle and then carry on if successful and claim back all the charges for the 'additions' that we didn't want.

 

What do you mean, "if" successful?

[emmaspoo]

laineybelle

 

I just wanted to say a huge thankyou - i put in a complaint in thru their internet banking site a couple of days ago about the account fee - saying i was unhappy they were charging me and making me believe i had to have this.... without any contact from barclays (i just logged into my account) theyve refunded a years charges - £132.50 fabulous!!

 

thanks again

[wildcat77]

Do you use any of the facilities it offers

 

I don't know - what are these so-called benefits? I certainly use the overdraft facility, that's what got me into all this bother in the first place.

[emmaspoo]

nope thats a seperate thing, go on barclays website and have a look

[Spotted Dog]

I am pretty close on my penalty charges case, as soon as that is sorted I am definitely going after them on the 'Additions' account fees which they will have to prove I signed up for.

 

Spotty

[Laineybelle]

Hi Emmaspoo,

 

Well done for that, I'm glad I could help. I have done nothing about mine, but mine was several years ago now when I wasn't so aware of my rights. I am mad that I didn't do anything about it at the time as they were both lifted several years ago now. I'm really pleased such a little thing you did got a good result, refund and no more of those so called 'additions' charges.

There were a whole list of benefits you could get from the account at the time. It may have changed but I remember some being the free will service, although I'm sure that was coming to an end, some sort of holiday insurance cover and things like that but it definately did not include an overdraft facility that you can't get on a bog standard account. You did get a £250 one I recall but so can you on any normal account.

 

Go for it Spotted Dog and let us know how you get on. If it was as simple for Emmaspoo as just asking on line then what have you got to lose?

 

Regards to all,

Laineybelle.

[wildcat77]

I've just rung them up, horrified to find I had been automatically upgraded to the even more expensive Additions plus. They've agreed to remove the charges from now on, but I couldn't persuade them to give me a refund, in fact the woman was quite stroppy, she offered to put me through to "complaints" but by then I was getting a bit riled up myself, so thought it best to let myself simmer down and put it in writing. Additions gives you £250 interest free overdraft and 9% on the rest, as opposed to 15% on your whole overdraft (mine's £800) so I'll be slightly better off overall. Apparently I have used the "benefits" ie the reduced interest rate, so I'm not liable for a refund.

Any ideas as to how best to word this letter?

The next plan is to get this damn overdraft down. I will write to them asking them to reduce my overdraft facility to £700 to start off with, then hopefully I can creep it down gradually.

[Laineybelle]

Hi Wildcat,

 

Good for you on getting it cancelled anyway, that's a start. Re. what to put in the letter, Welshman knew of this before we came along with other members of the group chasing for refunds on this particular area so perhaps he will be able to advise you of who has done it previous to you for advice on how to word your letter. If other people have got refunds it must be available, surely most people with the additions account will have used the overdraft facility or why would they have it in the first place. Don't let them get away with it!

Don't overstretch yourself with the overdraft thing though as we reduced ours once trying to get us in a better financial state but then later down the line when we needed to up it again slightly we couldn't because of some time frame they have, even though it was us that asked for it to be dropped.

Ours is quite large at the moment but we plan to pay it off with our money when we get it back and close the account for good. The only time we will alter is if Barclays get funny and demand all the money back, in which case we will follow someones advise on here saying to offer to pay it off bit by bit whilst we wait for the money.

Good luck with your letter and chasing for refund for additions.

Keep us posted.

 

Regards

Laineybelle

[Snoopy1977]

I will follow this one with interest as we have additions on both our joint account and my wifes account - she set them both up as she thought that you had no right to an overdraft without the additions fee). Coincedentally I called Barclays last week and asked them if this was true they said no and I cancelled the Additions fee on our joint account straight away. This basically means we have been charged twice monthly (once for each account for about 4 years now).

 

Naughty naughty!!

[wildcat77]

Thanks for the advice Laineybelle, maybe I should go for a different battle-plan re the overdraft.

 

I've got a parachute account with First Direct (and one of their savings accounts too in order to qualify for free banking) and I've put a little bit of money in there, if I can try and keep squirrelling it away in there where I don't see it, then hopefully it'll pay the overdraft off.

 

I'll also have a word with Welshman.

[emmaspoo]

snoopy put a complaint in via internet bankin - i got a years of it back - apparently they cant do mroe than that

[Crafty]

I have the additions account, and due to the fact that it allows a reduced interest rate on overdrafts, it saves me money (down from about £20/month to £11). Can't see why anyone would have it otherwise.......

[Laineybelle]

Sorry to hyjack your thread Wildcat but I wanted to tell Snoopy that whatever he does he should certainly follow up the fact that he should not have more than one Additions full stop and that any more is a waste. Without even asking for a refund on all you should definately get refunded on the other accounts as apart from the overdraft facility you only get the other benefits once and so should only pay once.

 

Laineybelle

[Snoopy1977]

Wildcat,

 

Sorry to hijack as well!

 

Laineybelle I have just sent them a preliminary approach letter to get my bank charges back then intend to explore this next.

 

Thanks

[Snoopy1977]

Just an update - sorry for the hijack again!

 

I sent Barclays an email saying that I believe that the Additions had been missold to me as I had it on two accounts but was only really benefitting once etc etc

 

Never heard back from them but they have given me £87 for my trouble.

 

I wasn't to fussed really about recovering money from the Additions but may pursue it further later on.