Barclays' Personal Banker Refused me a Current Account

cha0s

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Hi All,

Sorry for the long post but I want to rant and get someone elses view about a current account application I made with Barclays.

I applied for a Barclays current account a few months ago online (im still miffed about this) and passed their credit check and received a letter which said to complete the application just go into any branch at any time with some I.D. and speak to a personal banker who will complete the account opening once details have been verified. So I went into my nearest branch and asked to speak with the personal banker regarding the completion of the account application.

Firstly, I was told off by the Personal Banker for randomly turning up and was told I should have booked an appointment which the letter didn't indicate was necessary, so it seemed she was already in a bad mood.

She asked me questions about my current financial status and questions about accounts I already had open. I told her I had 4 current accounts to which she questioned why I wanted to open another. I advised her I wanted to take advantage of the barclays mobile banking service which my current banks did not offer and also their wireless debit card. They also had a good interest rate regular saver I wanted to have access to.

She initially said these weren't good enough reasons to open the account but proceeded with the process asking for further information so I assumed there was no problem thus far. She took all my financial information down about credit cards(0), mortgages(0) whether i plan to take out mortgage soon (yes) etc. Part way through her questioning she just suddenly blurted out with "are you going to let your friends use the account". Confused, I threw the question back at her and said why would I let my friends use MY bank account and have access to MY money? She ignored this and proceeded with the application.

Eventually, I got to the end of the questioning and she said her decision was that she was personally not happy to open the account for me as I had not given her a good enough reason to open the account and that she didn't want any of the repercussions of me opening the account "on her back". I asked her what repercussions is she referring to and she just said anything negative that might occur from me having an account with them.

She then said however I can go away and complete the application online as she has approved my identity and security details (passports, drivers license etc). I obviously questioned why if she was okay for me to open the account online then why would she not be okay with me opening it in branch, which she just responded she didn't want my account opening to be associated with her name.

I found this incredibly unprofessional and of course very embarassing for myself being rejected for an account in front of other customers and decided to end it there and just forget about the whole account and banking with Barclays. But she wouldn't stop her arrogant ways and suggested if I was not happy I should make a complaint. I said I didn't want to make a complaint and just want to leave it at that, but she wrote her name down on a card with her branch number and urged me to make a complaint in an incredibly patronising manner, as if she was confident I wouldn't get anywhere with it if I did. So just because of this I took the card and registered a complaint through the branch who said I would hear back in 10 days.

I did not hear back about the complaint so went back to the branch to enquire why not. They rang the complaints department who after a long call claimed they sent a letter out responding to my claim - which must have got lost in the post, Yeah Right! Although the letter they claimed they sent out was supposedly sent before I even visited the branch in the first place!!!! They faxed over a copy of the letter which had nothing to do with my complaint whatsoever and had a ridiculous date on it. It was just a generic letter quite obviously printed from a template.

I went home and rang the complaints department myself and was told the personal banker was well within her right to refuse me an application, I asked on what basis given that she was more than happy for me to open the account online and also asked why she questioned whether my friends would use it when nothing about my friends or anyone else were mentioned at all. They said they could not comment on the majority of the points in my complaint but could only confirm she was within her right to refuse to progress my application if she wished to for any reason she sees fit.

So I ended up basically getting nowhere. I don't want an account with Barclays now but I just want them to admit they are wrong and they shouldn't have rejected me in branch but then allow me to continue opening the account online!! It doesnt make any sense. Also the way she treated me was embarrassing and unacceptable especially when other customers were around. Was the personal banker correct to refuse to open the account despite no negative data about myself ever having been revealed?!?

As a result I decided to go to another bank and a few days later I opened 3 current accounts consecutively with Lloyds TSB instead and had no trouble whatsoever!!!

ses6jwg

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... something doesnt smell right here

Jojo1daffy

Why do you want 7 current accounts.......?....... *twoddle alert*

chambta

What an odd story.

SpudGunner

You do sound a bit like a serial current account opener!

They do cost money for the banks to run at the end of the day and there are equivalents to the .mobi banking out there so I dont see that as a great reason for wanting yet another current account

Also the monthly savings is open to anyone not just current account holders.

Cmdr_Bond

errrrm 1st post???

cha0s

Jojo1daffy wrote: »

Why do you want 7 current accounts.......?....... *twoddle alert*

I don't particularly want to have to manage 7 current accounts but some of them have offers I would be crazy not to take advantage of! for example some of the accounts I have are:

1. Natwest - Student account with £1000 interest free overdraft (all withdrawn and in a savings account)
2. Santander - First £2500 gets 5% interest
3. Halifax Reward - £5 per month
4. LTSB with vantage- 4% Interest (up to £7000) x 3
etc.

They help significantly with savings and they offer instant access so its a no brainer to open a range of them.

Anyway, from the answers I've read so far i'm guessing everyone else is as stumped as I am by what happened.

chambta

If what you posted happened exactly that way, clearly something about you or what you were saying didn't add up as the Barclays bod saw it. That said they dealt with it poorly.

JuicyJesus

chambta wrote: »

If what you posted happened exactly that way, clearly something about you or what you were saying didn't add up as the Barclays bod saw it. That said they dealt with it poorly.

Indeed. Most banks will be suspicious of people who have lots of current accounts already and want to open another one, especially when they don't give any particularly good reasons to do so.

Agreed that they could have phrased it better. But Barclays are under no obligation to open an account for anyone, and a clerk is not under any obligation to open an account for anyone either.

Jojo1daffy

No-one here is stumped. Sounds to me like they were as suspicious of you as we are (in fact bank lady thought you were a complete fraudster!) Random multiple current account opener.....really, who has the time!
And you're a student? You opened a student account and went a grand overdrawn to put that money in a savings account and you're paying off that debt with......the 5% interest that you are getting from the Santander account..?
If you withdrew the grand in one hit after openeing the account, with no regular income ( and as a student that would be from your student loan?) then I would think Natwest will be investigating you.

But the twoddle-alert is still sounding so you are just an entertaining, incredulous read.

jonesMUFCforever

cha0s wrote: »

I don't particularly want to have to manage 7 current accounts but some of them have offers I would be crazy not to take advantage of! for example some of the accounts I have are:

1. Natwest - Student account with £1000 interest free overdraft (all withdrawn and in a savings account)
2. Santander - First £2500 gets 5% interest
3. Halifax Reward - £5 per month
4. LTSB with vantage- 4% Interest (up to £7000) x 3
etc.

They help significantly with savings and they offer instant access so its a no brainer to open a range of them.

Anyway, from the answers I've read so far i'm guessing everyone else is as stumped as I am by what happened.

Ok Troll!

LTSB rates for new customers has come down to 3%