Anyone been in Barclays recently?

vacheron

FOREVER21 wrote: »

Barclays, in Newcastle city centre has also now gone "automated", no sign of a cashier at all. Although I was told afterwards cahiers were available downstairs for business and premier customers.......

I'm hardly ever in branches either but I had to use the HSBC near Monument in Newcastle a few weeks ago and that was a pretty grim experience. Same arrangement, guy with iPad standing at the door. Large extermely prime location branch but looked so desolate and lifeless I felt like I was in Terry Gilliams "Brazil".

Told Mr iPad I needed to have my locked card reset.

"You have to do that over the phone. We CAN'T do that here."

"I called the phone helpline. They told me I HAVE come in to a branch with ID."

Oh, OK then, take a seat there and someone will sort it out. :undecided

3 minutes later i'm pointed to the one actual working real person hidden in a booth in the back corner of the branch where they activated the card without even requesting my ID which was the specific reason I apparently had to travel all the way into the city center! My nearest HSBC branch is hardly ever open, and certainly not outside of working hours.

I didn't pop into the Newcastle Barclays but will do next time. But at least there I have premier banking so speaking to a human should be a bit easier.

Flobberchops

FOREVER21 wrote: »

I was withdrawing money and this hit a snag when I was asked which notes I wanted, I keyed in what I thought was the correct amount but I had obviously done something wrong as I got an error code and told to try again.

I had then to start from scratch again but this time I got the cash. Interestingly checking my account at home I found the first attempt had been shown as a withdrawal ,together with the second attempt, but then a correction had been made and one amount was credited back to my account.

99% probability this is down to a note jam. Most branches "recycle" their notes, i.e. take cash reserves from the tills to fill up their ATMs and other machines rather than ordering in new notes - makes perfect sense since most branches operate at a cash surplus, but it does have the downside of sometimes rather scrappy notes making their way into the machines. In my experience the most common culprits are tatty old tenners and fivers (hopefully this will become a thing of the past as the polymer notes are introduced). You may have noticed that on the second attempt some denominations of notes were no longer shown as available?

As you correctly spotted this is processed as a debit immediately followed by a credit, putting you back at the right balance. Unfortunately this transaction counts towards your daily ATM limit and can even trigger "multiple withdrawal" checks - pain in the backside, but currently it's the best system we have.

Mrs_Ryan

I've used the branch in Newcastle a few times. It seems to be reasonably well organised and pleasant unlike my local one in Leicester which can only be described as anarchy. That does have counters which are open usually but the queues are ridiculous. I went into the small branch local to my mum the other week and it's one of the old fashioned branches where the cashiers do everything over the counter and there were no machines. Things actually got sorted in a reasonable timeframe even though it was a complex problem.

Bloomberg

takman wrote: »

Why would you want to visit a branch when you can do your banking online and on your phone from any location , even the comfort of your own home.

Also why would people want to get foreign currency at their bank!. They always offer really poor rates and you can get much better rates online or even better use a no fee card to withdraw abroad!

With the exception of paying in a cheque what can you not do on-line?
I have the Barclays mobile app, if you need to speak with someone it allows you to phone the call centre from the app without further identifying yourself. My phone is my branch, you really couldn't ask for more.

jamie_02

You can now pay cheques into Barclays accounts through the app. One less reason to have to visit a branch. I can't post a link as I'm a new member but Google "mobile cheque imaging Barclays"

takman

Bloomberg wrote: »

With the exception of paying in a cheque what can you not do on-line?
I have the Barclays mobile app, if you need to speak with someone it allows you to phone the call centre from the app without further identifying yourself. My phone is my branch, you really couldn't ask for more.

Exactly my point and you also get a better service from telephone banking because they can put you through to the correct department who have specific knowledge. It is also easier to escalate any issues you have using this method. So that's why I don't know why people want to waste time going to the branch!.

Plus as the poster above says you can even pay in Cheques on mobile banking now!