Barclay's or Lloyd's - What would you choose ?

MikeSmith61

Does that matter ?, surely you cant have a two tier banking system ?, so 'Normal' people have to pay to call the bank and get connected to a Foreign call centre, where others get it for free and get a UK call centre ?, I cant see them getting away with that !.

And anyway the Guy on the phone said there was NO number for a UK call centre and ALL barclays cards had a £300 daily limit, and surly Barclays own Staff would know.

ceredigion

MikeSmith61 wrote: »

And the 0800 number does not work !, it asks you to enter your card number, fails and then its says to call the number on the back of your debit card or something similar.

There is a trick, to always getting a GB Call Centres

MikeSmith61

I did click the link for the 0800 number, but as I said once I entered my Barclays Debit card number it failed and said to call the number on the back of your card, and its not a 0800 number on the bank of my card. So the number does not work !, and the Barclays call centre says there is no number for a UK call centre anyway.

YorkshireBoy

MikeSmith61 wrote: »

surly Barclays own Staff would know.

They only know what they are told/trained in. If they aren't required to deal with Premier account customers they won't be aware of the Premier account features and intricacies.

YorkshireBoy

MikeSmith61 wrote: »

I did click the link for the 0800 number, but as I said once I entered my Barclays Debit card number it failed

Did you read post #9 et al?

colsten

MikeSmith61 wrote: »

surely you cant have a two tier banking system ?, so 'Normal' people have to pay to call the bank and get connected to a Foreign call centre, where others get it for free and get a UK call centre ?, I cant see them getting away with that !.

There is no two tier banking system. There are different accounts that have different charges and entitle you to different things. A bit like you can buy a cheap suit that may not last very long or look very good, or a more expensive one that's more stylish and might last longer (although more expensive obviously doesn't alway equate with better).

You have a vast choice of bank accounts in the UK, and there is no question about banks "getting away with it". You don't have to bank with Barclays if you don't like their offerings.

BankSaver

The only thing that Puzzles me about the Barclays Premier option is its 'Free' so no charges, which makes me wonder how they make money.

Some of the freebies with the account sound good such as the Gourmet card, the Days out etc, now I know some banks would charge for those benefits as a Packaged account, so not sure how Barclays can offer this for free ?.

mgdavid

BankSaver wrote: »

The only thing that Puzzles me about the Barclays Premier option is its 'Free' so no charges, which makes me wonder how they make money.
............

They choose who to offer Premier to; IMO it's safe to presume that Premier customers tend to be the good customers who manage their finances well and don't mess Barclays around with lost cards, unauthorised o/ds, bad debts, 'lost' transfers and a hundred and one other things that cost banks a lot of time and effort to sort out.

BankSaver

colsten wrote: »

There is no two tier banking system. There are different accounts that have different charges and entitle you to different things. A bit like you can buy a cheap suit that may not last very long or look very good, or a more expensive one that's more stylish and might last longer (although more expensive obviously doesn't alway equate with better).

You have a vast choice of bank accounts in the UK, and there is no question about banks "getting away with it". You don't have to bank with Barclays if you don't like their offerings.

I can see where he is coming from a bit with the 'Two Tier' thing, as Barclays are saying have a bulk standard account for free with no benefits, standard card and a chargeable Overdraft, if you need to call us you have to pay for it and you will have to deal with a foreign call centre. Or pay in oodles of cash and we will give you a different account with lots of free benefits and a overdraft of £1k that we wont charge you for, a freephone number and a UK call centre. I mean some of the benefits are getting your shirts dry cleaned for free !, free drinks, half price meals,free ice cream in the Summer at Thorntons etc.

So I suppose at first sight it does look like a them and us situation, the richer get better treatment than the poorer, if the Premier account had a charge for having it then that would be different, but it seems to be free but with either £75k or £150k minimum funding.

System

'Premier' banking is for those they think will make the bank more money.

They typically have higher than average income and will have (or the potential to have) multiple products with the bank.

It comes with nicer branding, and slightly superior service over standard branch banking, to make the customer feel special and appeal to their inner snob essentially.