I have just been to my local Barclays to try and open a Tax Haven ISA. I have been advised that I need to make an appointment which will last between 1 - 1.30 hours during which time all my personal details will be taken, a credit check undertaken and they will need to undertake a financial assessment to ascertain that their Tax Haven ISA is the correct one for me. As a non Barclays customer what on earth has my financial situation good/bad or otherwise got to do with them. You would think they would be glad just to take my £3,600 and pay me the interest they advertise. Needless to say I shall not be wasting 1 1/2 hours of my day giving personal and private information to a bank that I don't deal with just for a better ISA rate. No thanks

They obviously want to take down all your details to flog you stuff down the road.

Yes, that's what it sounds like. They likely are trying to get you to invest in other things as well.

As a Barclays customer, I opened my tax haven ISA online and it took just a few minutes.

Barclays are unbelievable. A Couple of years ago they were advertising 10% but only if you had a current account already which is understandable. I guess. Anyway Hubbs went into the local branch and they refused to acknowledge this venture but it was still advertising on the Internet. So I wrote them a letter asking why and although we got the reply it didnt say that much but we managed to get the 10% after all. Personally wouldnt bank with them anyway as charges are too high.

Found First Direct at 7% for the cash Isa and ICICI are doing 7% as well but the drawback - you have to have a deposit account. This is easy to set up and money transfere is easy too, so it will only take a couple of days to do. Not looked into First Direct thats up to you but let me know what you think

They tried to do the same with me as well.

I sat down but was only there for 20 minutes, I answered all the questions really fast and just gave them the general impression I din't want to be there, so i think they took the hint and just got it over with quickly.

The rate is about to be reduced on the Haven ISA to 6.08 AER, I went into my local Barclays and enquired about transferring, and was told that as I'd opened the account when it was paying 6.50% that i would get the whole rate for a year with the 1% bonus. I question this as it was a variable rate and the guy told me that it didn't matter, as I'd got in. I told him I was confused by this statement and he explained again that i will get 6.50% for the whole year. I queried the variable rate and again was told that it didn't matter as I had secured my money at the 6.50% rate.

I'm very dubious of this, so will be keeping my eye on how much interest I earn, and if I get less than the 6.50% I will be straight into Barclays demanding an explanation and the difference.

Hi,

That's very interesting. Let me know if you get any further news on that.

I read your post and immediately rang my local branch Barclays where I set up my Isa before April 5 with intention of adding a further £3600 to my account. I read out your post to the Barclays advisor(!) as I wanted your points clarifying as to whether the 6.50% was a fixed rate for 12 months. I was told Barclays has never advertised their Tax Haven ISA rate as a fixed rate and ONLY the 1% gross bonus is guaranteed, the actual rate will fluctuate with any changes in the bank rate and is due to be reduced on 1st May as you mentioned

I will now move my existing Barclays Tax Haven ISA and open a new one with the Nationwide who are offering a fixed rate for the full 12months at 6.2% (a colleague just advised) and I will now check out Nationwide rates and research whether there is currently any other higher fixed rate ISA available. I believe I was misled by Barclays sales advisor and information given to me when I took out ISA was less than upfront regarding the term of their 6.50% rate. I will be more switched on next time regards any ISA offerings from high street banks.

Thats what i thought.

I will wait until i get my 1st interest payment at the end of this month and then take them to task on it.

I think you'll find the Nationwide is 6.15% on a 1 or 2 year term, I've just transferred my existing ISA's to these.

If your looking for new Investment Bradford and Bingley are doing a 6.25% Fixed rate 1 year.

Thanks for that, it is appreciated

I have been to my local Barclays to open a Tax Haven ISA this morning. No appointment necessary but the form filling did take 1/2 hour. As a non Barclays customer they tried to persuade me to open a dormant current account to transfer funds in the future - I declined. When I questioned that the rate is changing next month - they knew nothing of this, but confirmed that this is a variable rate with a 1% bonus for 12 months.

The rate's always been variable.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/isa/IsasDetails.asp?IsasID=3157&Amount=3000

I 'opened' a Barclays Tax haven ISA at a Branch Office on 7th April 08 - at least i thought I had. The Personal banket took my details, including details of my Braclays current account from which funds were to be transferred into this ISA. At the end of the process I asked for a deatils of the new ISA, i.e. Account No etc and was told that the Welcome Pack would be with me in a couple of days.

It's now 29 April 08. the funds have not been taken from my current account and transferred to the Tax haven ISA. I rang to see what was happening and was told that my Tax haven ISA has not been opened and that my 'application' was one of a large backlog waiting to be processed. I stated that I had been assured on 7 April 08 that it had been opened and funds transferred. Not so. i was informed that i should have been told on 7 April that my application may take 14 days to process - I was not told this. Anyway, its now 22 days and my 'application' has still not been processed and barclays cannot tell me when they will get around to doing so!

they have registered my complaint and tell me that when its opened it will be backdated to 7 April 08 - quite honestly I don't believe them.

So, do I cut my losses and tell them to forget it and go elsewhere? Or do I beleive them and wait for them to get around to this. And how many more people have been 'conned' in this way? I feel a complaint to the FSO coming on.

Sp - if you think you've opened a Barclays Tax haven ISA - please check - if I'm in a queue and I 'opened' mine on the first working day possible - how long is that queue?

It's true. I pre-opened mine on the 20th of March for this tax year but they only opened the account last Friday.

Do you mind me asking if they backdated it to the 5th April or does it show an openeing date of last Friday? I just wanted to know if what they have told me is true, when they say they will backdate it 7 April?

Thank you