This dreadful, dreadful bank effectively gives you what you are entitled to if you write an outstanding letter. I left my letter lying around at home and a friend of mine, a brilliant engineer but not good at this type of thing read it and said “this is excellent, you should charge people for this sort of thing”. PLEASE ACCEPT I AM NOT PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK! :-). The letter I got from Barclays was condescending and unacceptable. They accepted that I had not been told of their 14 day policy (totally ignored the BBC extract coupled with the fact that in my case it was nearly a month + my request for compensation) and that on two occasions I had been told in separate branches that there was a delay but interest would be backdated to application day. BLUNTLY my letter was so strong and strong on detail that the lamentable FOS would have had to have found in my favour. They ended up saying “Therefore, on this occasion I am willing to backdate your interest to the date we received your application”. I allege that WHAT BARCLAYS are doing is saying give it your best shot and if it looks like the FOS would agree with you, here’s your money, pick it up off the floor. If I had the power I would ban them from issuing any ISAs in 2009/10 and then getting some heads to roll. I’m sorry I can’t be any more help than point out the difficulties I see for most but I hope this helps some members to “go for it or leave it alone” rather than be racked with indecision.

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