New Account Opening Problem at Barclays

Pint_Glass

Hi there, long time reader, first time poster.

My partner and myself have recently opened a joint current account at Barclays. Everything went well, account was opened, offered overdraft (very surprised these days) and both told we would get visa debit/connect cards, exactly what we wanted.

7 weeks down the road, I have switched the DD's over, and salaries, did it myself, despite the switching service, after 5 years working for a rival bank, I prefer to do these things myself, and was no bother to do at all. BUT. We are still waiting on my partner's card showing up, mine was here within a week of opening, and no funds in the account at that time.

We visited a local branch and had a chat with the nice lady behind the counter, and after about 10 minutes she said that my partner didn't qualify for a connect card. This was a bit of a shock, as she said we'd been credit checked 3 times so far, for the account opening, the overdraft, and the cards, as well as their own internal scoring procedures.

It goes without saying we are not impressed.

They tried to appeal it, but no success, so as a 'solution' they said they could downgrade my card, and we can both have electron cards.

We were even less impressed.

Has this happened to anyone else before?

td_007

Can your partner not get the electron card while you hold onto your present card?

starM

Well Barclays no longer do an Electron Card so if your partner do not qualify for a full debit card then she will receive a Connect/Visa Debit without Cheque Guarantee facility.

davethorp

That sounds a bit daft to me. Surely when you open a joint account the pair of you are credit checked and products are offered based on the results of both those checks. If her score wasn't high enough they would have declined the joint account on the basis of her score

Pint_Glass

td_007 wrote: »

Can your partner not get the electron card while you hold onto your present card?

No, we were told in no uncertain terms we had to have the same cards, and electron was the only one offered.

starM wrote: »

Well Barclays no longer do an Electron Card so if your partner do not qualify for a full debit card then she will receive a Connect/Visa Debit without Cheque Guarantee facility.

As above, we have only been offered an electron.

davethorp wrote: »

That sounds a bit daft to me. Surely when you open a joint account the pair of you are credit checked and products are offered based on the results of both those checks. If her score wasn't high enough they would have declined the joint account on the basis of her score

It is daft, and very annoying. The worst bit is they can't tell us why. When asked, tyey just said it is some sort of internal scoring, sorry.

Would a request under the Data Protection Act get us the information for at least why she waas turned down?

Fire_Fox

Have you checked your partners credit reports with Experian and Equifax? Does you partner have a lot of available credit (dormant credit cards) or is she not on the electoral roll at the address used to open the account?

Extant

Pint_Glass wrote: »

No, we were told in no uncertain terms we had to have the same cards, and electron was the only one offered.

As above, we have only been offered an electron.

The card is not an Electron. Although we previously issued Electron, they have been replaced with regular Visa cards that simply do not have a cheque guarantee and require full authorization - i.e they couldn't be used on payment systems that store transactions to process "later" - i.e. on trains and planes.

The confusion here likely lies around how they are marked on Barclays systems. Any personal customer issued a card with a cheque guarantee will have it listed as "Connect Card" on their product holdings. Any customer with the alternative, the full authorization card, will see "Connect (Electronic)" - it is not an Electron, however (and does not act like one, you can use it where Electrons are typically refused).

iblametheparents

Also, both account holders must hold the same type of card, both having Connect or Connect (Electronic).

iblametheparents

BarclaysManager wrote: »

they have been replaced with regular Visa cards that simply do not have a cheque guarantee and require full authorization - i.e they couldn't be used on payment systems that store transactions to process "later" - i.e. on trains and planes.

Isn't it just like an Electron then, albeit in name?

Extant

Kneale wrote: »

Isn't it just like an Electron then, albeit in name?

It fills the same "niche" in that it allows for a basic debit card with all authorized transactions, but it doesn't process through as an Electron - removing many of the day to day usage problems users tended to encounter. I don't think we've even issued Electron since 2007.

Unless you require a cheque guarantee (essentially pointless anyway), there's nothing really wrong with having the "lower" kind.

never-in-doubt

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Unless you require a cheque guarantee (essentially pointless anyway), there's nothing really wrong with having the "lower" kind.

Other than not working in 'offline' terminals of course

So on a train, plane or tesco pay-at-pump it would not be accepted. The terminal has to be a live processing one, otherwise you 'could' go overdrawn.