Woolwich/Barclays OpenPlan Offset Tracker Mortgage

Hi All, I'm considering getting one of the above. I've seen several posts on this group suggesting that it is better to get the Offset Tracker mortgage through Barclays rather than the Wooliwch (I assume these are the asme company now). Why is this?. Are the terms different or is it a 'service' issue?.

Dave

Reply to
David
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because Woolwich are a bunch of incompetent tosspots who couldnt find their own arse with the aid of both hands, the dagenham girl pipers, and a detailed !:1 scale map, and neither could they find the 2 or 3 sets of duplicate documents I handed in to them personally at a branch after they lost them once or twice. I could fully tell you about my issues with Woolwich but I'm not sure I have enough electrons in this computer, however they pale into insignificance compared to those of several friends who also suffered their incompetence, so I dont think its a one-off......so, yes, it is a service issue!

FWIW the banking interfaces and systems are also completely different, I use Barclays and like it, dunno about Woolwich since I never got around to using them. Plus if you already have a Barclays account all you need do is add the offset facility to it, whereas with W you'd need to xfer your entire bank account, even if its Barclays. If its neither, so you'll have to xfer in any case, well after 8+ weeks waiting for Woolwich I gave up and cancelled (several weeks later they opened one up anyway!). Barclays took less than 2 weeks (though I was already with them).

AFAICS they arent really the same company at the 'bank account' level that you and I would interact with them, eg its still entirely different computer systems, personnel, call centre staff and so on. They just happen to be both owned by Barclays.

Barclays are by no means perfect but I can say I have had no issues with my offset account with them.

Reply to
Tumbleweed

Interestingly, I've been with Woolwich for many years, and have been very happy with their service. In fact, during a recent possible remortgage exercise, after all was agreed and in place, they rang me and offered me a lower rate that had just been introduced, back dated to the date of the previous one!

In terms of their web banking services, the only thing that miffed me was that they no longer offer any ability to download statements into MS-Money, but then the volume of transactions on my woolwich account is not that significant, yet. As long as you can browse the web, their web-banking service should work fine on your computer.

Reply to
Me

I'm sure that was an error :-)

there is an 'export data' function with Barclays , according to the menu it will download to many versions of msmoney plus quickbooks, sage and spreadsheet.

Reply to
Tumbleweed

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