Jargon Busters

Taking the confusion out of banking

If you don't know your APR from your EAR, or your excess from your equity, help is at hand. We've included five jargon terms for each of our product ranges. If you don't see the term you want here, we've included a handy link that will take you through to the full glossary.

Credit Cards terms

APR: The Annual Percentage Rate is the rate you will be charged on your credit card balance over the course of a year. It takes into account the interest you pay, how often you make repayments, and any other additional charges such as processing fees. Any company issuing a credit card must provide you with the APR so that you can compare different offers and decide which is the best for you. Make sure you are aware of other factors such as rewards, interest free periods, balance transfer offers and purchase offers. These can affect how much you spend with your card.
Balance transfer: The transfer of money you owe on another credit card, store card or loan to the balance on another credit card. If you are opening a new credit card account, the interest rate on your balance transfer may be as low as 0% for the introductory period. Balance transfers may include a handling fee this will be clearly communicated within the product details.
Cashback credit cards: A credit card that will pay you back in cash a small percentage of all the purchases you make on your card. You must still clear your balance before the end of the interest free period or the interest charged will probably be more than the cashback received.
Chip and PIN: A security technology that replaced the former method of signing your name to confirm a purchase. The use of a PIN (personal identification number), rather than a signature which can be forged, makes this a more secure system. Our new contactless payment technology system speeds up this process whilst retaining the same high level of security.
Contactless payment technology: A new, quick and easy way to pay for purchases of £20 or under. Simply hold your Barclays debit or credit card against the reader at the till. Enjoy the same fraud protection as Chip and PIN. All new Barclays debit or credit cards now come with integrated contactless payment technology.

Need other terms explained? See our Credit cards Jargon Buster

Current accounts terms

EAR (Equivalent Annual Rate): For overdrafts, we quote an Equivalent Annual Rate (EAR). This rate shows the effect of interest accruing on interest in a situation where no repayments to the borrowing are made in a year. The calculation does not include fees - these charges are quoted separately.
Gross rate per annum: The amount of interest paid on an account before the deduction of any income tax.
Chip and PIN: A new way of paying with credit, debit and charge cards in the UK that's designed to cut the cost of card fraud. When you use your card to pay for goods at shops, restaurants, petrol stations etc, you'll enter a four-digit personal identification number (PIN) into keypads at the checkout instead of signing to authorise the transaction.
Personal Reserve/Reserve: Personal Reserve gives you your own Reserve – an additional amount by which you can go overdrawn or exceed an arranged overdraft limit on a personal current account in an emergencies. It is designed to help you avoid having payments returned unpaid because of insufficient funds in your personal current account. You only pay for this service when you actually use it. Reserve is subject to status and eligibility.
Fee cap: This is the maximum number of guaranteed transaction and/or returned transaction fees that can be applied to an account on any given day. This is currently set at five. This means that although a customer may have a total of (for example) ten guaranteed and returned transactions occurring on the same day, only five fees will actually be applied.

Need other terms explained? See our Other accounts Jargon Buster

Insurance terms

Assets: Your assets are the goods that you own, including your property, car, household goods such as furniture or jewellery, cash, savings, investments, land or anything that has a tangible value.
Excess: The amount of an insurance claim that will be paid by you and is normally subtracted from the claim amount by your insurer. For example if your mobile phone is stolen and a replacement costs £250 and your excess is £100, your insurer will pay you £150. A standard or minimum excess applies to most types of insurance policy and aims to reduce the cost of cover by limiting claims for small amounts. You could be able to specify a higher excess, known as a voluntary excess, in order to reduce your premium further.
Home Emergency Cover: Additional home insurance that covers emergency repairs for services in your house that you rely on such as electricity, plumbing and heating.
Legal Expenses Cover: Insurance against any fees you might incur for consulting or hiring a lawyer, or other expenses from legal proceedings. This is usually offered as an optional cover, but may be included in your basic policy. Legal expenses cover is frequently offered with home or motor insurance.
Voluntary excess: You may be able to specify a higher excess, known as a voluntary excess, in order to reduce your premium. The excess is the amount of an insurance claim that will be paid by you and is normally subtracted from the claim amount by your insurer.

Need other terms explained? See our Insurance Jargon Buster

Investments terms

Bear Market: A market in which fund prices have been falling for a period of time or are expected to fall going forward.
Benchmark: An index or other market measurement that is used by a fund manager as a yardstick to assess the risk and performance of a portfolio. There are many different benchmarks to accommodate different types of investment mix.
Capital: The funds used to acquire any type of savings or investment product.
Commodity: A tradeable item that can generally be further processed and sold, for example metals, wheat, sugar, coal etc.
Bull Market: A bull market is one in which prices have been rising or are expected to continue rising in the near future (as opposed to a Bear market) .

Need other terms explained? See our Investments Jargon Buster

Loans terms

APR: The Annual Percentage Rate is the rate you will be charged on your loan over the course of a year. It takes into account the interest you pay, how often you make repayments, and any other additional charges such as any processing fees.
Interest holiday: A break from paying interest on your loan. We offer interest holidays on our Professional and Career Development Loan which means you don't have to pay any interest while you're studying and for up to one month after the end of your course but we will continue to add interest to your account during this time.
Payment Protection Insurance: An optional insurance policy that could cover you if you can't meet further loan repayments due to involuntary redundancy, illness, accident or disability.
Professional and Career Development Loan: A Government-sponsored scheme that will cover your interest payments while you study and for up to two months after you finish your course. If you would like to take up full-time, part-time or distance learning studies to improve your career prospects but are worried about the costs, we may be able to offer you a Professional and Career Development Loan.
Secured loans: Secured loans, which usually come in the form of homeowner loans, allow you to borrow more money over a longer amount of time, giving you lower affordable monthly repayments. To get these terms, the loans need to be secured on something you own, such as your home. This means that your property may be at risk if you do not keep up your repayments.

Need other terms explained? See our Loans Jargon Buster

Savings terms

AER: The Annual Equivalent Rate shows what the earnings on your savings would be if interest was paid and compounded once each year. If you have an account that pays interest monthly or quarterly you will only get the full AER rate if you leave the interest in the account for the entire year. Use the AER to compare rates on different accounts and decide which one works best for you.
Fixed rate: A rate of interest that is fixed on the day of investment.
Gross pa: The amount of interest paid on an account before the deduction of income tax. Like the AER, you can use the gross pa figure to compare different savings accounts and decide which one works best for you.
Tiered interest rate: As your balance grows the interest rate applicable may increase to a higher rate.
Variable rate: A rate of interest that can go up or down throughout the lifetime of the savings account.