Impossible to close barclaycard account??

Cheesedoodles

A few months ago I sent a secure message through the Barclaycard online message system that I wanted to close the account. I got a confirmation back saying that it will be closed withing the next 2 weeks.

The account is still not closed so I phoned up customer services today and after going through a whole list of questions as to why I wanted to close it they said I had to be transferred to a DIFFERENT department that was able to close my account....after being on hold for 5 minutes, the guy I spoke to first said that department was too busy so he had to fill in a form...and someone would call me back next week!

How the h*ll can it be so difficult to close an account! I guess they are trying everything to make me not close it.

I'm now going to send them a letter hoping that will work.

Anyone else had problems closing their barclaycard account?

Venusflytrap

Nope. Though a few years back, closed mine with one simple phone call. Oh, wait, that was before the call centre was teleported to ND...

Probi

I closed mine on thursday, phoned them then got put through to the retentions dept who tried everything to get me to keep the card open, then eventually they said that they could close it and would send me a letter to confirm. Only took about 10mins.

Ash1982

I rang them up to close the other week and they gave me £40 to keep it open!

They must have a aggressive retentions strategy at the moment (I took the free money off course, I pay off in full every month so never any interest!)

cherie1122

I phoned Barclaycard and closed my account with one phone call. They asked why I wanted the account closed and I told them it was because my card had been cloned.

The woman made me laugh because she said "it's only happened the once" - like it was nothing to worry about.

Being cloned once was too much for me so I closed it down.

Degenerate

cherie1122 wrote: »

I phoned Barclaycard and closed my account with one phone call. They asked why I wanted the account closed and I told them it was because my card had been cloned.

The woman made me laugh because she said "it's only happened the once" - like it was nothing to worry about.

Being cloned once was too much for me so I closed it down.

Not sure I follow the logic of your reasoning here, unless:

1. You are never going to use any form of payment card again

Or:

2. You suspect the cloning to be an inside job.

atlantis187

Ash1982 wrote: »

I rang them up to close the other week and they gave me £40 to keep it open!

They must have a aggressive retentions strategy at the moment (I took the free money off course, I pay off in full every month so never any interest!)

Did u have to say anything particular to get the £40 and also what no. did u ring?

Thanks

jen245

The aggressive retentions tactics of Barclaycard is not a recent thing. I had a nightmare closing mine down back in 2005. The guy I had on the phone was basically trying to blackmail me into keeping my account open, saying I wouldnt be able to get credit anywhere else if I closed it! He was very aggressive, especially as I was basically ignoring his arguments, and just repeating "close the account the please". I got fed up, and demanded to speak to a manager, he gave in after that, but it put me off ever applying for a Barclaycard again

Ash1982

atlantis187 wrote: »

Did u have to say anything particular to get the £40 and also what no. did u ring?

Thanks

I was in branch on the phones they provide for free but I just went through the normal select 1, 2 etc and go through to their cancellations.

It was an Asian sounding lady who said to me 'you have a good credit history over the past year with us (I have only had the card for a year) and you pay your balance in full every month, for this I will give you £40 credit on your account and you can spend it however you like.' I said 'how long do I need to keep the account open to get this' and she said 'as long as you like'.

I guess I could have gone spent the money and rang them back to cancel but I didn't. Guess that's what they are counting on!

cherie1122

Hi Degenerate

I did suspect that it was an inside job because my card had been locked in a safe at home for around 9 months (after I had used it to buy a large item) before the first of the payments were made on the cloned card.

I was making the point that it took one quick and easy call to close the account down.

the_insider

I closed mine down in about 10 minutes as well. Just rang customer services and they put me through to retentions, he tried the hard push but you just say no thanks!