I live in Watford (well someone has to). Ex-Sheffield Uni, work in reaserch. My claims to fame. Walk...
I live in Watford (well someone has to). Ex-Sheffield Uni, work in reaserch. My claims to fame. Walking out on my life in Sheffield and never looking back
Member since:27.04.2001
Reviews:14
Members who trust:2
My boyfriend has a graduate loan with Barclays, and these are the experiences we have had with them
The Interest Rate The rate for the loan is 8.9%. This is the one for the graduate loan which is meant to be at a preferential rate. For comparison, the HSBC graduate loan rate is around 7% and the bog standard rate is 8.9%.
Payment protector Insurance for the loan is pretty standard but what we did not realise from the outset (i.e. no one told us) is that you pay for the 5 years of insurance in one lump sum at the begining and you get interest charged on it. (e.g. if you borrow £3000 and insurance for the loan period of 5 years is £500, you pay interest on £3500). This is probably fairly standard across all banks but is annoying.
Application Process My other half had a student account with them so it was fairly easy-although we had to get to a branch to sign the documents
Customer Service/sorting out mistakes We suspected that my boyfriend was paying too much on his loan, and with the total lack of statements that he had for the loan it meant getting in touch with them
With loans we have found that the telephonebanking and internet bank will only have very basic details of the loan (in my boyfriend's case, six months worth of statements). Counter staff at branch level have no access, you have to see a personal banker (in bank hours), which if you work is nigh on impossible, especially given the queues to see them (as they seem to be responsible for most things). We have been sent from our local (small) branch (E. Finchley) to a larger one (Muswell Hill) because the only personal banker was ill and we couldn't come back the next day as it would have meant another afternoon off work. We spoke to the personal banker, who wasn't able to access any of the systems but requested statements from the beginning for us.
We gave up with the bank and tried the loan part of Barclays directly. We rang them and apparently they didn't have access to the records-yes the people who issue the money do not have records of clients they are kept at the branch, apparently these are held at the branch! We eventually found out that a clerical error meant that the branch the account was held at with in St John's Wood and not a local one.
We eventually got all the documents through, rang up the loans people again and the people at Barclays at St John's Wood (the branch that we'd never been to)and after weeks of wrangling, being on hold on the phone, not having calls returned and standing in queues, we finally got them to admit they over charged us by £400 (a mistake with the insurance). We still think they are overcharging interest because of the £400 but we're not sure.
Generally the staff have tried to be helpful but are hampered by their own company
Overall The package is bog standard, but there is a total lack of transparency as far as how things are calculated. There is a lack of information for the customer (once they have the account) and to customer service staff who would sort these things out. I'm sure that if there hadn't been the mistake we wouldn't have noticed these other things (I wouldn't have checked out the loan rates for HSBC), but the way they have dragged their heels to sort things out and recredit the account is appalling. I would say to people to keep every scrap of paper, and get regular updates on the balance and challenge anything that looks vaguely suspect.
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My own experiances with barclays are enough to put me off,
nice op,
cheers
pink jane x
Sarah_Louise 06.01.2003 00:32
VH, I'm looking into student loans at the mo because I want to study Veterinary Medicine in the US, it'll set me back about £110,000 though so I'll certainly need a few loans!
sporty 11.10.2002 16:56
Very useful op for all those considering their finances after college. I left my college 6 years ago now, and received some very bad financial advice from my bank - which I am still paying for! Make sure you go through all things like this in really close detail - the banks are there for 1 reason only after college - to "caputre" your custom for a good few years to come, and make a lot of money out of you in the process!
Sep 13th, 2002
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