Made an application to a carrer and development loan back in february, within days got a letter saying that I could only apply 3 months prior the course starts, since my course had started in january, i called them straigh away. The customer service adviser was friendly and entered the right data into their system, since whoever did that job before , did it really bad. She then said to wait up to 3 months for the application to be considered. 3 months gone and had not heard from them, then decided to call them just to be told that my application had expired. I questioned the cutomer service advicer of how such a thing could happen, she said that when making an application you have to keep calling them until a decision is made. Thats ridiculous, at the end of the day I’m a customer and surelly they should have at least sent me a letter to let me know about the progression of my application, they had my correct contact details, however the customer advicer could not explain why I was not contacted. My advice never deal with them again, THEY ARE USELESS.

Thanks
Fabio

Thanks,
Fraser

I can also backup the fact that the Barclays CDL team are completely useless. I think the major problem is that the people you are talking to the other side of the world have absolutely no understanding about how things work over here.

Having been told my course would only be supported for 12 months because the Young Peoples Learning Agency said so.. I got in touch with the YPLA (who were really helpful). Said I just needed a letter from my uni stating my actual course dates (amounting to 15months). So letter obtained.. I sent it all off to barclays with a cover letter explaining what I had been told. I then had to follow up with another phone call to Barclays explaining that they need to send the letter to the YPLA who would then authorise it. A few more phone calls in between and still no update..
Then today I finally get a response from Barclays… “Yes Sir,.. we have a reply from YPLA… you will need to send a letter to us from your learning provider stating your course dates.. ” :-s
After 10 mins of arguing on the phone and insisting they already have that letter.. I was left with the only option of “You need to obtain a letter from your learning agency and then we can progress your loan !!!”
So, second letter will be on its way shortly and a follow up complaint to Barclays… Sort it out! I just need some money for my Masters.. not a load of extra stress to go with it!!

i have been desperately scouring review forums to see if anyone else is furious with the Barclays CDL department- it seems I am not the only one! I applied last September with the relevant documentation (bank statements etc) and THREE times they sent the same letter back saying that “there are some details missing which I require in order to reach a decision” even though I had done what they asked every time. After that, it was accepted and I sent off my college’s bank details etc and didn’t hear from them, expecting the funds to come directly to the school. Well, they never did and by the time I rang to chase them up, my application had expired so I am having to go through the whole bloody thing again- and it’s the same thing this time- every time I send my bank statements they find a different problem with them! The last one is that I didn’t have “the correct stamp verification” on them and now they’re telling me i need to put two different stamps on them, one with the certification from my local branch and the other with the branch’s sort code. Despite having sent statements with both of these stamps on them in separate batches, it is apparently insufficient because they need to be on the same one. Has anyone else had to send their statements so many times???!! I have found their service absolutely appalling- everyone says different things and no one knows what the hell is going on. My theory is that they make it so difficult to take out a loan that you eventually give up! And the worst thing is that my application was accepted in November the first time round, so why can’t they just make a decision based on that???? I am furious and hadn’t even thought about formally complaining, but now that i know other people are suffering too I just might. I would ideally like to speak to bloody Helen C Schofield who signs all the bloody letters, but of course, in true Barclays fashion, she is seemingly untraceable……!

as to your many calls – i wrote a complaint letter to them about that and they reimbursed the cost of the calls – i suggest you do that.

there should be someone in branch who can deal with the issues or at least be a witness to whats going on its totally unacceptable.

if you get through to a manager its better – things went quite speedy from there. so if your thinking of applying for a CDL – my advice is to apply as soon as possible – months before the course if y ou can. its the only way – and also – if you can eek out a couple of months into your course before they give you the money all the better – you can tell them the start date of your course but if you tell them you want the loan to begin one or two months after then you will have longer before you start paying the loan. i have NO IDEA why the learnign skills council puts these crazy restraints on “support” periods for a course – my course they would support for 12 months but my uni course start and finish dates is 14 months.. so why onearth dont they just support the full length of the course. As you say morwenna – you getting only 9 months – its madness and completely defeats the objective of the loan.

as to applying for a top up loan – i also thought it was ludicrous that they base it on your earnings – i just finish my exams and started my research dissertation and desperately needed the top-up (as i didnt apply for much initially), thouh i was working part-time casually it couldnt support me. but they based whether i got the top-up loan in part on that .. i was even asked what the reason was i wasnt working fulltime… umm… what? duh? cos im studying fulltime so i can get a better job to pay back your loan…. so my advice is to apply for the most amount you can at the beginning when your credit rating is best and dont rely on getting a top-up. even if you dont need all the money you can dump it in a savings account and use it to pay off the loan more quickly when you finish.
goodluck people

I wrote a 4 letter A4