Barclays are awful

philatio

Decided to review my savings and, following recommendations here, decided to open a Marcus and a Virgin Money account and close my Tesco Savings and Barclays Direct accounts.
The rates on both are rubbish now and I've had no money in the Barclays one for years. It used to be an ING account until Barclays bought them out.


Close Tesco account.. Easy. Just write to them. A few days later, job done.


Close Barclays account. Sigh.
According to their website you can EITHER call in a branch with 2 forms of ID, OR write to them with a completed downloadable form. I did this.
Few days later gets a letter back saying the account can't be closed by post I need to go into a branch with 2 forms of ID. So already wasted some of my time. And a stamp.
So today on my lunch I calls in the branch. Massive queue for the 2 'human' desks, and loads of unused machines and ATMs.
5 mins of queuing and someone asks me what I need. I explain and am told I need to go upstairs.
I do. More people waiting.


5 mins later I actually get to see someone. Explain what I need to do and hand over my Driving Licence and a Nationwide bank statement.


She looks at the statement and asks if I printed it myself. No I say, its the one that comes in the post each month. She then tells me it doesn't 'look right' and asks me to go to the Nationwide down the street and ask them to give me something 'better'.
I explain I'm not going to do that, its the bank statement I get every month. I used the very same statement to open my Virgin and Marcus accounts. I've got 6 years worth of them at home, looking the same.
She then says she doesn't think its genuine and she won't accept it.


(remember here, I'm trying to CLOSE an account. an empty one. thats been empty for years)


I also had the letter Barclays sent me 2 days ago about this matter. She won't accept that as a proof of my address either.


I left at this point. Rather wound up.

preable

Barclays have always been great for me.

CakeCrusader

So they have security checks so they can make sure that the person wishing to close your account is actually you and not a fraudster, and you think they are "awful" for it? Umm.... OK. I'd be grateful that they were looking after my interests myself but hey ho.

boo_star

CakeCrusader wrote: »

So they have security checks so they can make sure that the person wishing to close your account is actually you and not a fraudster, and you think they are "awful" for it? Umm.... OK. I'd be grateful that they were looking after my interests myself but hey ho.

To be fair, refusing statements because they look like they've been printed by them is getting more and more ridiculous.

Guess what? A lot of banks either won't give printed statements at all or send statements that don't exactly look the best if they do.

We're being pushed to a "greener" paperless world but the banks require us to give printed statements, that in some cases they don't even send themselves.

It's a bit ridiculous.

CakeCrusader

boo_star wrote: »

To be fair, refusing statements because they look like they've been printed by them is getting more and more ridiculous.

Guess what? A lot of banks either won't give printed statements at all or send statements that don't exactly look the best if they do.

We're being pushed to a "greener" paperless world but the banks require us to give printed statements, that in some cases they don't even send themselves.

It's a bit ridiculous.

Can you see it from their perspective though? It's better they check then hand over the contents of someone's bank account, whether it be 5p or £500,000. There has to be a better way though, you're right.

boo_star

CakeCrusader wrote: »

Can you see it from their perspective though? It's better they check then hand over the contents of someone's bank account, whether it be 5p or £500,000. There has to be a better way though, you're right.

I'm not sure I can.

Not giving people printed statements but asking for them as proof you are who you say you are is just nonsensical.

Granted, perhaps Barclays haven't jumped on the "no paper statements" bandwagon yet but several have and it's only going to get worse.

shaun_from_Africa

CakeCrusader wrote: »

So they have security checks so they can make sure that the person wishing to close your account is actually you and not a fraudster, and you think they are "awful" for it? Umm.... OK. I'd be grateful that they were looking after my interests myself but hey ho.

I don't think that the OP is too concerned about the need for the security checks, more the fact that the Barclays website stated that the account could be closed by post then when the time and effort to send of the correct paperwork has been done, barclays then backtrack and say that it needs to be done in a branch.

philatio wrote: »

According to their website you can EITHER call in a branch with 2 forms of ID, OR write to them with a completed downloadable form. I did this.
Few days later gets a letter back saying the account can't be closed by post I need to go into a branch with 2 forms of ID. So already wasted some of my time. And a stamp.

Baby_Angel

Barclays actually have "no paper statements" option and I use that.

I need to close my barclay accounts soon and I am not even in the country anymore. Oh dear!

philatio

The craziest part is that you can't close the account online.


To get online I have to go through all the password / cardreader etc security. This is good enough to get in there and transfer all the money (if there was any) out.. but not enough to close the account which apparently requires going in branch.


I suspect the reason is so they can bombard you with sales patter for their other accounts, insurance etc.. when they get you in there.


I didn't get that far though, as I look like a massive dodgy fraudster apparently.

Ro2124

Well have to say Barclays is one of the worst bank ever dealt with, even more annoying I never actually intended to be with them. I was with the old Woolwich Building Society and had some savings in there and apparently Barclays took it over, only found out later as I was away abroad for quite a while. Tried to get the details of the new account which was ISA as I never received the details but they said they couldn't find any account and with the amount of nearly £7,000 involved I was a bit cheesed off and worried about that.
So I made a complaint and eventually they did find it, thank God. Seems it had been been put into a holding account ,so they offered to send me a cheque.
Anyway wanted to keep the ISA account which I think it's possible even if abroad if it was opened originally in the UK. So I phoned their helpline which was absolutely bloody useless, seems they are still using Indian call centres.The guy I spoke to was clueless and didn't seem to understand English very well, kept asking me to hold several times, had l to check this and that with supervisor, so waited for ages clocking up my phone bill, at the end he said "Oh you better write!
Ok, so I write- twice- to Barclays headquarters, no answer whatsoever. So decided to try the electronic way , their website for Barclays headquarters had an email address on there which also was completely useless,because it was invalid and didn't even exist at all.
Any fool could have seen that it wasn't a proper email address,since it didn't even have a @ symbol in it, but apparently Barclays cant!
And finally found another Email one, not at headquarters Leicester but in Coventry, so wrote email to them and guess what, nothing again!
So phoning them is useless, writing is useless and sending emails don't work either, as they don't seem to be very interested in answering enquiries!
Do these people actually ever answer customers or have staff who can answer the telephones competently ?