Colin Leake Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 CliveH - 2012-07-30 8:59 PM I have no expertise in these matters - but did select a bank that assured me it provided telephone numbers to its branches in the UK and did not use call centres either here in the UK or elswhere. The bank that ticked all those boxes? RBS 8-) Their service is crap now and I have several issues with them. But they do not use out of UK call centres as far as I am aware. I can still call my branch direct. As someone who is in Financial Services as an IFA - we advise clients NOT to use providers that use call centres in other parts of the world. We have had reports of Prudential clients having policies surrendered and the first thing the client knew was that the contributions were no longer being collected. You should also be aware that the Data Protection Act only applies within the UK and to a certain extent the EU boundaries. For that reason, about 5 years ago we all stopped using providers that processed bank details and/or medical details in overseas call centres. All the major providers soon realised that this was a cost cutting measure too far because suddenly having no new business was a bit of a shock. However, the Banks have never had a product of any sort that is remotely attractive compared to others when compared to the Whole of the Market, so they were not affected as they never appeared at the top of the list in the comparrison charts. They continued to push substandard crappy products direct to those clients who sadly for them "trusted" the banks and were happy to have their details vulnerable to people outside of the UK who were not subject to our consumer protection laws. My advice Colin? Chose a better Bank. (And no - I would not recommend any of the big 4 - and certainly not RBS) We use several different banks and building societies to provide government cover for our hard earned dosh. Up till now all have worked fine, including Barclays. It's not untill they don't you find out these sort of problems. The two we like best are NationWide, who keep us informed of any interest changes on our various, or rather my wife's various accounts to help keep,tax as low as possible. And Scottish Widows who operate a draw down pension for me with a maximum of flexability and a minimum of fuss when we need to make changes again for tax reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Aaaaaaaaaaaaah the joys of having money :D...............Glad I'm a shallow oike living on the cusp rather than an old git thinking who shall I leave it too (lol) (lol) (lol)....................I'd rather leave a debt >:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveH Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Colin Leake - 2012-07-30 10:46 PM CliveH - 2012-07-30 8:59 PM I have no expertise in these matters - but did select a bank that assured me it provided telephone numbers to its branches in the UK and did not use call centres either here in the UK or elswhere. The bank that ticked all those boxes? RBS 8-) Their service is crap now and I have several issues with them. But they do not use out of UK call centres as far as I am aware. I can still call my branch direct. As someone who is in Financial Services as an IFA - we advise clients NOT to use providers that use call centres in other parts of the world. We have had reports of Prudential clients having policies surrendered and the first thing the client knew was that the contributions were no longer being collected. You should also be aware that the Data Protection Act only applies within the UK and to a certain extent the EU boundaries. For that reason, about 5 years ago we all stopped using providers that processed bank details and/or medical details in overseas call centres. All the major providers soon realised that this was a cost cutting measure too far because suddenly having no new business was a bit of a shock. However, the Banks have never had a product of any sort that is remotely attractive compared to others when compared to the Whole of the Market, so they were not affected as they never appeared at the top of the list in the comparrison charts. They continued to push substandard crappy products direct to those clients who sadly for them "trusted" the banks and were happy to have their details vulnerable to people outside of the UK who were not subject to our consumer protection laws. My advice Colin? Chose a better Bank. (And no - I would not recommend any of the big 4 - and certainly not RBS) We use several different banks and building societies to provide government cover for our hard earned dosh. Up till now all have worked fine, including Barclays. It's not untill they don't you find out these sort of problems. The two we like best are NationWide, who keep us informed of any interest changes on our various, or rather my wife's various accounts to help keep,tax as low as possible. And Scottish Widows who operate a draw down pension for me with a maximum of flexability and a minimum of fuss when we need to make changes again for tax reasons. Certainly Nationwide get my vote for banking - just a tad frustrating that clearing takes longer, but overall a very good provider. Scottish Widows are ok'ish We have found their admin to be poor and the willingness to correct mistakes lacking. Their charges are also higher than other Drawdown providers. Have to say I stopped using them for Drawdown when a drawdown client we put with them was told that because Scottish Widows failed to apply the reduced income at the triennial review date and it was only picked up by us when we did the first annual review after that Triennial Review, that our client would have to take considerably less income in the last two years of the three year period! 8-) As the mistake was clearly that of Scottish Widows we expected them to be helpful in sorting the problem out. Sadly they were anything but. Quite the opposite in fact. So we transferred the IDD (Income DrawDown) to another provider - and in so doing were able to reset the GAD rate so that the financial impact on the client was minimal. One very happy client who now tells all and sundry NOT to use ScotWid - and likewise we rather feel the same. Don't forget Colin, that you can transfer your IDD to another provider and i suspect that there are better and less expensive plans available. Scottish Widows is part of Lloyds bank - not known for its generosity and in my experience the concept of "Treating Customers Fairly" as set out by the FSA is an inconvenience to them rather than a Principle of their business model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 Ohhh how I am enjoying this http://news.sky.com/story/967142/italian-police-raid-barclays-over-rate-fixing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 CliveH - 2012-07-31 8:10 AM Colin Leake - 2012-07-30 10:46 PM CliveH - 2012-07-30 8:59 PM I have no expertise in these matters - but did select a bank that assured me it provided telephone numbers to its branches in the UK and did not use call centres either here in the UK or elswhere. The bank that ticked all those boxes? RBS 8-) Their service is crap now and I have several issues with them. But they do not use out of UK call centres as far as I am aware. I can still call my branch direct. As someone who is in Financial Services as an IFA - we advise clients NOT to use providers that use call centres in other parts of the world. We have had reports of Prudential clients having policies surrendered and the first thing the client knew was that the contributions were no longer being collected. You should also be aware that the Data Protection Act only applies within the UK and to a certain extent the EU boundaries. For that reason, about 5 years ago we all stopped using providers that processed bank details and/or medical details in overseas call centres. All the major providers soon realised that this was a cost cutting measure too far because suddenly having no new business was a bit of a shock. However, the Banks have never had a product of any sort that is remotely attractive compared to others when compared to the Whole of the Market, so they were not affected as they never appeared at the top of the list in the comparrison charts. They continued to push substandard crappy products direct to those clients who sadly for them "trusted" the banks and were happy to have their details vulnerable to people outside of the UK who were not subject to our consumer protection laws. My advice Colin? Chose a better Bank. (And no - I would not recommend any of the big 4 - and certainly not RBS) We use several different banks and building societies to provide government cover for our hard earned dosh. Up till now all have worked fine, including Barclays. It's not untill they don't you find out these sort of problems. The two we like best are NationWide, who keep us informed of any interest changes on our various, or rather my wife's various accounts to help keep,tax as low as possible. And Scottish Widows who operate a draw down pension for me with a maximum of flexability and a minimum of fuss when we need to make changes again for tax reasons. Certainly Nationwide get my vote for banking - just a tad frustrating that clearing takes longer, but overall a very good provider. Scottish Widows are ok'ish We have found their admin to be poor and the willingness to correct mistakes lacking. Their charges are also higher than other Drawdown providers. Have to say I stopped using them for Drawdown when a drawdown client we put with them was told that because Scottish Widows failed to apply the reduced income at the triennial review date and it was only picked up by us when we did the first annual review after that Triennial Review, that our client would have to take considerably less income in the last two years of the three year period! 8-) As the mistake was clearly that of Scottish Widows we expected them to be helpful in sorting the problem out. Sadly they were anything but. Quite the opposite in fact. So we transferred the IDD (Income DrawDown) to another provider - and in so doing were able to reset the GAD rate so that the financial impact on the client was minimal. One very happy client who now tells all and sundry NOT to use ScotWid - and likewise we rather feel the same. Don't forget Colin, that you can transfer your IDD to another provider and i suspect that there are better and less expensive plans available. Scottish Widows is part of Lloyds bank - not known for its generosity and in my experience the concept of "Treating Customers Fairly" as set out by the FSA is an inconvenience to them rather than a Principle of their business model. So far Scotish Widows have done everything they should for me and I have found their charges very reasonable. Possibly because I have a very simple cash policy with them. In theory I will get a reduced income from time to time but so far this has not affected me because I reduced the amount taken out for tax reasons a few years ago. Even if it does get reduced it wont matter because at the moment all I do is take the payments out and invest them in other accounts. It may have helped that my son is one of the principles in a very large firm of actuaries and although he only deals with the pension schemes of very large companies they do have a division that deals with personal pension advice and he has appointed someone from there to look us free of charge. As it happens that person was the best man at his wedding and we have known him for years. I do have a few annuities as well and being a diabetic, all be it a very healthy one, helped in getting me some good annuities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 For the benifit of anyone else who is having problems with the Barclays on line banking app or any other apps I tried starting all over again but found I could not even creat an app. It seems that I updated the system in my iPad to the latest spec and some apps are not compatable with this, which I found amazing! All is not lost as I Can still get on to the site and use it with the iPad so all I did was to creat a bookmark and use this instead. Wonder how long it will take Barclays to catch up and deal with this and why after spending to long on the telephone none of their script following Indian experts could not have simply told me what the problem was. I would be helpful and tell them myself but there is no simple way of phoning them and telling them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 pelmetman - 2012-07-30 11:14 PM Aaaaaaaaaaaaah the joys of having money :D...............Glad I'm a shallow oike living on the cusp rather than an old git thinking who shall I leave it too (lol) (lol) (lol)....................I'd rather leave a debt >:-) We started married life with literally nothing, we couldn't even afford a set of curtains for the windows and lived for the first year a caravan we borrowed from my wife's mother. We worked hard for what we have and even now we do not spend money unwisely but I must say it is a comfortable feeling not haveing to worry about financial matters. As for leaving any we bought each our three children nice houses to avoid some inheritance tax. As for what ever is left our will simply leaves fixed amounts in trust for our five grandchildren and tells the kids to devise up what is left, look happy and pay whatever taxes are due in good spirit. O yes and in order to upset certain individuals on this forum I should mention that provision has been made for one of our daughter to look after any dog we may leave behind us. I might add that we have always paid our taxes in full and never had any government handouts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveH Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Colin Leake - 2012-07-31 10:07 AM CliveH - 2012-07-31 8:10 AM Colin Leake - 2012-07-30 10:46 PM CliveH - 2012-07-30 8:59 PM I have no expertise in these matters - but did select a bank that assured me it provided telephone numbers to its branches in the UK and did not use call centres either here in the UK or elswhere. The bank that ticked all those boxes? RBS 8-) Their service is crap now and I have several issues with them. But they do not use out of UK call centres as far as I am aware. I can still call my branch direct. As someone who is in Financial Services as an IFA - we advise clients NOT to use providers that use call centres in other parts of the world. We have had reports of Prudential clients having policies surrendered and the first thing the client knew was that the contributions were no longer being collected. You should also be aware that the Data Protection Act only applies within the UK and to a certain extent the EU boundaries. For that reason, about 5 years ago we all stopped using providers that processed bank details and/or medical details in overseas call centres. All the major providers soon realised that this was a cost cutting measure too far because suddenly having no new business was a bit of a shock. However, the Banks have never had a product of any sort that is remotely attractive compared to others when compared to the Whole of the Market, so they were not affected as they never appeared at the top of the list in the comparrison charts. They continued to push substandard crappy products direct to those clients who sadly for them "trusted" the banks and were happy to have their details vulnerable to people outside of the UK who were not subject to our consumer protection laws. My advice Colin? Chose a better Bank. (And no - I would not recommend any of the big 4 - and certainly not RBS) We use several different banks and building societies to provide government cover for our hard earned dosh. Up till now all have worked fine, including Barclays. It's not untill they don't you find out these sort of problems. The two we like best are NationWide, who keep us informed of any interest changes on our various, or rather my wife's various accounts to help keep,tax as low as possible. And Scottish Widows who operate a draw down pension for me with a maximum of flexability and a minimum of fuss when we need to make changes again for tax reasons. Certainly Nationwide get my vote for banking - just a tad frustrating that clearing takes longer, but overall a very good provider. Scottish Widows are ok'ish We have found their admin to be poor and the willingness to correct mistakes lacking. Their charges are also higher than other Drawdown providers. Have to say I stopped using them for Drawdown when a drawdown client we put with them was told that because Scottish Widows failed to apply the reduced income at the triennial review date and it was only picked up by us when we did the first annual review after that Triennial Review, that our client would have to take considerably less income in the last two years of the three year period! 8-) As the mistake was clearly that of Scottish Widows we expected them to be helpful in sorting the problem out. Sadly they were anything but. Quite the opposite in fact. So we transferred the IDD (Income DrawDown) to another provider - and in so doing were able to reset the GAD rate so that the financial impact on the client was minimal. One very happy client who now tells all and sundry NOT to use ScotWid - and likewise we rather feel the same. Don't forget Colin, that you can transfer your IDD to another provider and i suspect that there are better and less expensive plans available. Scottish Widows is part of Lloyds bank - not known for its generosity and in my experience the concept of "Treating Customers Fairly" as set out by the FSA is an inconvenience to them rather than a Principle of their business model. So far Scotish Widows have done everything they should for me and I have found their charges very reasonable. Possibly because I have a very simple cash policy with them. In theory I will get a reduced income from time to time but so far this has not affected me because I reduced the amount taken out for tax reasons a few years ago. Even if it does get reduced it wont matter because at the moment all I do is take the payments out and invest them in other accounts. It may have helped that my son is one of the principles in a very large firm of actuaries and although he only deals with the pension schemes of very large companies they do have a division that deals with personal pension advice and he has appointed someone from there to look us free of charge. As it happens that person was the best man at his wedding and we have known him for years. I do have a few annuities as well and being a diabetic, all be it a very healthy one, helped in getting me some good annuities! Glad to hear that Colin - Only point I would add is that there is now two types of Drawdown - Capped and Flexible. Capped is the new name for what an IDD plan always was (with a few exceptions) whereas Flexible Drawdown is where if you have guaranteed income (via annuities, FS Pensions, OAP etc) of £20,000 or more, then the money in Drawdown can be used more like a Bank Account - i.e. you can draw out what you want rather than be dictated to by the rules as to what you can take. You may want to explore if this could apply to you if you have annuity and pension income as well as your IDD. R Clive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave225 Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Colin Leake - 2012-07-31 10:15 AM For the benifit of anyone else who is having problems with the Barclays on line banking app or any other apps I tried starting all over again but found I could not even creat an app. It seems that I updated the system in my iPad to the latest spec and some apps are not compatable with this, which I found amazing! All is not lost as I Can still get on to the site and use it with the iPad so all I did was to creat a bookmark and use this instead. Wonder how long it will take Barclays to catch up and deal with this and why after spending to long on the telephone none of their script following Indian experts could not have simply told me what the problem was. I would be helpful and tell them myself but there is no simple way of phoning them and telling them! You will have to explain this to dunderheads like me. What is an 'app'? My daughter has an Ipad, or something like it. It is a bit like the old school slates but with a plastic front. She uses it to watch movies while she is travelling for work purposes. I did suggest a book but she had already read most of what she liked. Also while on the subject of technical things, my computer keeps flashing a message that an 'RSS' feedis available. What is that and do I need it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 Here is some of the costs associated with the Libor fixing scandal, as the Yanks say some of the banks are going to burn. http://www.wealthwire.com/news/finance/3636?r=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveH Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Interesting article Syd - But the figures it quotes from Morgan Stanley do not add up to the "Five Banks are gonna Burn" headline tho I agree with the sentiment of the article in that it is critical of the "too big to fail" stance our governments took when dealing with these banks and it cites some of the awful things things these banks got up to. But as I say looking at RBS as an example from the data in the article :- 2013 EPS (Earnings Per Share) down 10% for 2013 and 7% for 2014 And the impact on RBS's BVPS (Book Value [of Equity] Per Share down in both 2013 and 2014 by just 0.4% ..........................hardly seems like Morgan Stanley are stating that anything is going to "burn" - unless I am reading the article totally wrong!! Which has been known 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Colin Leake - 2012-07-31 10:27 AM pelmetman - 2012-07-30 11:14 PM Aaaaaaaaaaaaah the joys of having money :D...............Glad I'm a shallow oike living on the cusp rather than an old git thinking who shall I leave it too (lol) (lol) (lol)....................I'd rather leave a debt >:-) We started married life with literally nothing, we couldn't even afford a set of curtains for the windows and lived for the first year a caravan we borrowed from my wife's mother. We worked hard for what we have and even now we do not spend money unwisely but I must say it is a comfortable feeling not haveing to worry about financial matters. As for leaving any we bought each our three children nice houses to avoid some inheritance tax. As for what ever is left our will simply leaves fixed amounts in trust for our five grandchildren and tells the kids to devise up what is left, look happy and pay whatever taxes are due in good spirit. O yes and in order to upset certain individuals on this forum I should mention that provision has been made for one of our daughter to look after any dog we may leave behind us. I might add that we have always paid our taxes in full and never had any government handouts. A CARAVAN 8-).................Luxury..............We started out in a Potting shed :D............then a boat.......a couple of married quarters..........and eventually we could afford a Caravan ;-)..................mind you I had to renovate it first 8-)..........Sold that to give us a deposit for our first 2 up 2 down which I had to renovate............My Mum cried when she saw it 8-)...............I didn't think it was that bad :-S But I guess having kids does change your out look and its only natural to want to give them the best start in life.............As we don't have any :D............Just need to earn enough to keep us in reasonable comfort and allow us to spend as much time doing what we want to do now..... rather than having wait until our old age ............hence my thrift agenda ;-)............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 Clive When one wishes to employ new staff one can pay for and get a CRB check on them. Are you aware of any site where one can do CRB checks on financial institutions such as banks and Insurance companies etc Wouldn't such a site be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveH Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Well we use Moody's, Standard & Poor's - not cheap but reasonably reliable with known and well published limitations so you can take these into account. And yes the results are interesting! 8-) One thing that I noted and i still think is valid today is that the "attractiveness" of any provider based on financial strength, claims paying history, feedback etc is in inverse proportion to its advertising budget. Below is a link to S&P's website - but be careful! - this sort of analysis does not come cheap. http://profile.standardandpoors.com/forms/70140000000Fbwh_Google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 Thank you very much Clive but having read the notes on the information required I have absolutely no doubt that they would not supply me with the information that I require as I most certainly do not fit into either the company profile or job status requirements. I will give it a go but there it will end I think, will report back if they reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 CliveH - 2012-08-09 7:15 AM One thing that I noted and i still think is valid today is that the "attractiveness" of any provider based on financial strength, claims paying history, feedback etc is in inverse proportion to its advertising budget. So what your saying Clive is those that advertize the most provide a cr*p service............and those that don't provide the best? ;-) I don't advertize either :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliveH Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 As a rough rule of thumb - yes Dave - that is exactly what I am saying. The best example being the TV adverts for those bl00dy awful Over 50's Life Cover and Equity Release loans - that nobody should touch with a bargepole!! - But some people must be swayed by the chance of getting a free clock or parker pen I suppose. No Independent Adviser would recommend those plans in a month of Sundays. So they get marketed by the hugely expensive media and so have hugely expensive costs that those silly enough to buy them have to pay. But then - you do get a free clock or pen :-S In contrast GOOD providers usually put their plans out for scrutiny and the IFA selects the best one for that client. The client pays an agreed fee or a commission for the service the IFA provides which is a fraction of the hidden costs incured by those forced to flog their dubious plans via the TV advertising. Anyone know what the time is? Where did I put my pen? 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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