Which bank to stay with? Barclays or Abbey?

rockykabir

After the regretful decision of opening two bank accounts whilst a poor uni student, I'm thankfully in a position to pay off my overdraft and move to one single bank.

i'm with Abbey and Barclays. I'm reasonable happy with both tbh. I did have some fraudulent payments taken from my Abbey account and they dealt with it fast and refunded my money. From experience, are Barclays quick to respond too? Do you have to take extra cover?

Abbey's customer service is poor though...and I hate the use of 0870 ...how are Barclays as I haven't much experience with them tbh.

So, from experience, which one do you recommend? Or not recommend?

Midas

Neither - sounds like its time to move! Check out Martin's article here for the best buys.

medic1978

neither

definitely time to move.

no need to close either of your existing accounts- could come in handy for budgeting etc

Kilty_2

I'd recommend you ditch them both and open a Nationwide FlexAccount.

[Deleted User]

I agree the only place that will have consistently competitive products across the full range will be nationwide, if your not a switcher its the best option always very good, never superb.

techno_geek

Go with Nationwide and/or First Direct - both are excellent!

jamiesun

I prefer Abbey,,,or Neither...

[Deleted User]

LIke the OP, I also have accounts with both Barcalys and Abbey, slthough my main account is Barclays. ie salary and all direct debits. I never had any problems with either bank (30 yrs with Barclays, 20 yrs Abbey). I know they are not great for paying interest and I do understand Abbey's poor customer service particularly on the phone, but TBH, for online banking they're both OK. So, what is your overall dislike with these 2 banks? I don't use current accounts for savings, and I always move any excess money to my savings accounts. I don't consider say Halifax who give a high interest on credit balances, to be a good incentive to move to them, or am I missing something out?

Spend-a-holic

Hiya

I would say neither. From experience Barclays take a long time to deal with fraudulant transactions. My OH had his account emptied by a fraudster (£41k). The account barely had any money going out of it on a day to day basis and Barclays didn't seem worried enough to query it when £10k a day on one of the days left the account, plus when money was paid back they still made it clear that they thought it was his fault.

Stay clear of Barclays!!!!

poppy_f1

i found abbey very poor for a bank (and i worked for them at the time albeit in a non banking division)
i hated how i couldnt pay bills over the counter and had to lift most of the money from the cash machine rather than in branch (thus doubling any time i had to spend in branch and queing at the cash point)
there telephone banking was done in india i think and i used to get frustrated having to explain a few times what i wanted
they *lost* 160 quid of mine (although it wasnt all their fault, part of the responsibility was me) but refused to help me trace it considering they had alerted me to the fact it was missing

barclays not had any dealings with them apart from the cc side of things and havent had a real problem with and its my longest held card (12 years nearly)

im with rbs now, considered other banks when i was switching from abbey (heh they were making me redundant so they deffo wasnt keeping my business) and even though i do the most of my transactions on the internet i still have the back up of a local branch if i wanted/needed to go down and have to say they were very helpful when i accidently sent a 240 payument to my rbs cc to the wrong account

oscarhugo

rockykabir wrote: »

After the regretful decision of opening two bank accounts whilst a poor uni student, I'm thankfully in a position to pay off my overdraft and move to one single bank.

i'm with Abbey and Barclays. I'm reasonable happy with both tbh. I did have some fraudulent payments taken from my Abbey account and they dealt with it fast and refunded my money. From experience, are Barclays quick to respond too? Do you have to take extra cover?

Abbey's customer service is poor though...and I hate the use of 0870 ...how are Barclays as I haven't much experience with them tbh.

So, from experience, which one do you recommend? Or not recommend?

...but you don't HAVE to use 0870 numbers (as far as I know, they use 0845 numbers, anyway) if you use the 'Outside UK' number that's shown on the back of the Abbey Visa Debit card, i.e. 01908 237963