go to the bank and set up an ISA

After a couple of letters saying “We’re dealing with it, we’ll get back to you”, they finally did get back to me with their offer – a letter that appeared to say “Oh, sorry. You can have an ISA after all. Give us your money and we’ll backdate the interest.” Now, tell me if I’m wrong, but given that they’ve cocked up mightily, that is a piss-poor and rather airy-fairy apology. It’s not even compensation. I was livid. So I rang the woman who’d sent me the letter, all psyched up to have a proper go at her.

I explained the situation, but before I could start ranting, she said, “Yes, I don’t think I really made it clear. What I meant was that we’ll backdate your interest to the start of the tax year, and give you the interest on the full £3000 investment even if you don’t put that much in.”

Well, OK, then! Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I have a form to fill in upon which she has written various mystical symbols, and I’ve asked for her to send me a copy of what she told me in writing, for my own records. It looks like I might do better out of this than I had previously expected.

Right. I rang the savings and investments helpline as kindly supplied by Calypte and told the (rather pleasant) lady on the end of the phone that my cheque hadn’t been cashed, nor had I received any kind of confirmation in the post. She got me to rattle off pretty much all my personal details as security, then put me on hold for a few minutes while she searched for my details.

She came back and told me that the central ISA office had received my application at the end of May. And they had turned it down, because the woman who’d taken my details at the bank failed to get three years worth of addresses off me (see, I told you she was 12).

Not only that, but having been informed that my application had been rejected, and asked to get in contact with me to tell me, the branch in question totally failed to do so.

And because I therefore missed the closing date because of their incompetence, I will now no longer be allowed to open that ISA with them!

I am livid.

I started to protest, but the phoneline lady said that she was going to put a complaint in about all these events, and that I should receive compensation. Too bloody right I should, I should receive the interest I would have earned on the full £3000 that I was going to slam in there just as soon as the account came through. That’s my gut feeling, anyway, though it might be because I’m riled.

Technically, I don’t know what I’m entitled to – it’s very hard for me to prove what my intentions were, and the point at while the compensatory interest should end is unclear. And I have no idea how to go about getting the best deal out of this.

What’s more, if I now take that £3000 and stick it elsewhere in another ISA, and Barclays then relent and say I can have the ISA after all, I’ve blown it and used my allowance elsewhere, somewhere with a lower rate of interest. Although I’m inclined not to give them any of my money now, the fools.

Any smart money people got any ideas?

Just checking out my bank statement for settling-up purposes, and found that Barclays haven’t even cashed my cheque yet! What the hell is that all about? No wonder I haven’t heard a peep out of them. This is ridiculous. I’ll be calling them on Monday.

Cheque was cashed yesterday, and today I got a small pack with details – so my money hasn’t just disappeared into the ether!

However, I’m very disappointed to see that they’ve marked my opening date as May 31st – I was told my opening date (and thus interest) would be backdated to the day I was actually in the bank, rather than when they got past their technical problems. Although there is a note in the letter about the delay…

I might phone tomorrow to check and/or have an argument!

My initial deposit cheque came out of my account today, so I can only assume that things are in progress.

Or, a former employee of a major UK bank has just stolen my money.

I’ve not even had so much as a confirmation letter (although they did say that it would be another couple of weeks before the info pack came out). They’ve not even cashed my cheque yet, so I’m wondering if I’ll see cash disappear from my account tomorrow.

I left work early to get into town and to the bank on time, and for a brief moment I thought it was going to be fruitless when the man behind the glass told me I’d have to have an appointment, but it turned out that the 12-year-old financial advisor had a slot free, so we ducked into a cubicle and sorted it all out. I’m a bit miffed that to transfer any more money into it I have to actually call them on the phone – it’s a bit antiquated – but for the massively high rate of interest they’re offering, it’s worth it.

And last night I set up another high-interest savings account for anything that spills over my ISA allowance. My finances are well sorted. All I need now is, like, a permanent job ;-)

‘Tis done, and with the least possible amount of interaction. Apparently the fact that I had everything prepared afforded me the right to not be inundated with idle chit-chat and/or offers of credit cards and loans.

Rather bizarrely, I did bump into an old colleague who now lives in London but happened to be in town helping his dad out with a few things (they own several businesses, I think).

I took the opportunity to get some groceries afterwards, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time having to go in in order to have two pieces of ID photocopied.

..thanks to moneysavingexpert.com that Barclays are not accepting any more application for the ISA I want after Tuesday, so I need to sort this out tomorrow! That’s galvanised me. I’m going to have to duck out of work early tomorrow and leg it into town to set this thing up. I’ve put my application form, proof of address, ID and chequebook into my bag in preparation.

Really, I could have gone last Saturday but I was too lazy to get my butt out of the house before lunchtime on a Saturday. Eeep! Today was close – bank closes at half twelve on a Saturday, and it has to be a Saturday due to bank/work locations being nowhere near each other – and there’s me in the shower an hour after I told myself to be.

Still, off I went eventually, with a vague knowledge of where I was heading (my grasp of the geography of ‘my’ own city is awful (as Agent99 will testify!)). Didn’t help that an address on St Andrew’s Square turned out to be just off the square – useless!

Spent more time waiting that setting it up, naturally, and almost had a fit when the woman told me “Not today!” when I said I wanted to set up an ISA – images of having to trail through for a second time, or that ISAs were a weekday-only thing! Turned out she meant all my details could be taken and sent off, but it might take a fortnight to set the account up due to whatever problem, although my interest would be backdated until today anyway. Which in my mind equates to, I set up my ISA today!! :)