Any Barclays recent experience?

NinjaTune

I've had truly dreadful customer service from the Barclays Bereavement Team just recently.

When I spoke to them on 12.5.20 they assured me that my late father's funeral bill would be paid from his current account "in the next 2 days".  The deadline for payment was 15.5.20.  Barclays failed to pay the bill and so we had to give credit card assurance in order for the funeral to go ahead.

I tried calling the Bereavement Team on Friday to ask why the bill hadn't been paid but was kept waiting in a queue so long that the office closed while I was still waiting to be put through.

Managed to speak to them on Saturday and was told that now we had given credit card assurance they would no longer pay the bill!  When I insisted that they had to pay the funeral costs (we will struggle to pay the credit card bill) I got the sarcastic reply 'oh, so you want to pay for the funeral twice do you?'.  I have to admit I lost it at that point and began crying and shouting that the only reason we put the costs on a credit card was because their employee had failed to do her job properly and pay the bill on time.  I told them that the funeral directors would refund the credit card once they received the payment from Barclays.

The person I spoke to said they would escalate it to their manager and ensure the bill was paid by Monday (18.5.20).  They also took my phone number but never rang me back.  As far as I know, they still haven't paid the funeral directors.

It has been incredibly stressful for me at a time when I really didn't need any additional distress.  

fromdusktilldawn

I sent the bereavement team an email 5 weeks ago and never got a reply. Phoned them the following day, took an hour to get through and got an answer to my question and yes I could scan and send everything online as executor to close the account and transfer the balance. Heard nothing since then, not even an acknowledgement. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if I sent it to the right email address. 
Had a bad experience last year when closing accounts for mother in law, they completely missed closing her ISA. 

Emmia

NinjaTune said:

I've had truly dreadful customer service from the Barclays Bereavement Team just recently.

When I spoke to them on 12.5.20 they assured me that my late father's funeral bill would be paid from his current account "in the next 2 days".  The deadline for payment was 15.5.20.  Barclays failed to pay the bill and so we had to give credit card assurance in order for the funeral to go ahead.

I tried calling the Bereavement Team on Friday to ask why the bill hadn't been paid but was kept waiting in a queue so long that the office closed while I was still waiting to be put through.

Managed to speak to them on Saturday and was told that now we had given credit card assurance they would no longer pay the bill!  When I insisted that they had to pay the funeral costs (we will struggle to pay the credit card bill) I got the sarcastic reply 'oh, so you want to pay for the funeral twice do you?'.  I have to admit I lost it at that point and began crying and shouting that the only reason we put the costs on a credit card was because their employee had failed to do her job properly and pay the bill on time.  I told them that the funeral directors would refund the credit card once they received the payment from Barclays.

The person I spoke to said they would escalate it to their manager and ensure the bill was paid by Monday (18.5.20).  They also took my phone number but never rang me back.  As far as I know, they still haven't paid the funeral directors.

It has been incredibly stressful for me at a time when I really didn't need any additional distress.  

That's absolutely awful. I used HSBC when my Dad died (partly because he and I bank with them) and the only issue I had with  was when the funeral director took a deposit for the funeral from my Dad's account, and then tried to take a second payment for the balance, which was blocked as his account was frozen. (HSBC allow(ed) funeral costs to be paid out of the deceased's bank account - but only expected 1 transaction...) Slightly awkward, but resolved super quickly on the telephone with HSBC and the second payment was then made without any problems. 

NinjaTune

fromdusktilldawn said:

I sent the bereavement team an email 5 weeks ago and never got a reply. Phoned them the following day, took an hour to get through and got an answer to my question and yes I could scan and send everything online as executor to close the account and transfer the balance. Heard nothing since then, not even an acknowledgement. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if I sent it to the right email address. 
Had a bad experience last year when closing accounts for mother in law, they completely missed closing her ISA. 

Sorry you've also had a bad experience (or two) with them.  I know things are difficult for all organisations at the moment but I really don't think it's a good enough excuse.  Hope you get things sorted soon.

Quick update.  Barclays did finally pay the funeral bill, thank goodness.  Credit card now refunded by the funeral directors.

Now, however, I'm having a nightmare with Barclays rejecting refunds of overpayments to my Dad's account.  Apparently they will accept cheques so I now have to chase up any rejected payments and ask for them to be reissued in cheque format.  More things to add to the 'To Do' list that I really didn't need!

xylophone

Barclays did finally pay the funeral bill, thank goodness.

I should hope so, too!  

Now, however, I'm having a nightmare with Barclays rejecting refunds of overpayments to my Dad's account. 

  You are the executor and have applied for probate?

Might it be simpler to advise the refunding organisations of your father's death and ask them to retain the payments until you have probate?

NinjaTune

xylophone said:

Barclays did finally pay the funeral bill, thank goodness.

I should hope so, too!  

Now, however, I'm having a nightmare with Barclays rejecting refunds of overpayments to my Dad's account. 

  You are the executor and have applied for probate?

Might it be simpler to advise the refunding organisations of your father's death and ask them to retain the payments until you have probate?

Not applied for probate yet, still waiting to hear back from a couple of organisations about amount of money in the accounts at date of death before filling in Inheritance Tax forms.  Dad will be well below the limit as he has most of Mum's nil rate tax band plus 2 x Residence Nil Rate.  Mum left her half of the house to me and my brother with Dad having life interest in the property.  Dad then left his half to me and my brother in his will.

The organisations are already aware of Dad's death hence the refunds.  I think some banks do accept payments into frozen accounts of a deceased person, but Barclays doesn't.

lisyloo

fromdusktilldawn said:

I sent the bereavement team an email 5 weeks ago and never got a reply. Phoned them the following day, took an hour to get through and got an answer to my question and yes I could scan and send everything online as executor to close the account and transfer the balance. Heard nothing since then, not even an acknowledgement. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if I sent it to the right email address. 
Had a bad experience last year when closing accounts for mother in law, they completely missed closing her ISA. 

I would call them even if you have to wait 2 hours (put in on speaker and do something else).
they didn’t do anything with mine for 3 weeks, but when I called they did it there and then and the money came quite quickly.

lisyloo

NinjaTune said:

xylophone said:

Barclays did finally pay the funeral bill, thank goodness.

I should hope so, too!  

Now, however, I'm having a nightmare with Barclays rejecting refunds of overpayments to my Dad's account. 

  You are the executor and have applied for probate?

Might it be simpler to advise the refunding organisations of your father's death and ask them to retain the payments until you have probate?

Not applied for probate yet, still waiting to hear back from a couple of organisations about amount of money in the accounts at date of death before filling in Inheritance Tax forms.  Dad will be well below the limit as he has most of Mum's nil rate tax band plus 2 x Residence Nil Rate.  Mum left her half of the house to me and my brother with Dad having life interest in the property.  Dad then left his half to me and my brother in his will.

The organisations are already aware of Dad's death hence the refunds.  I think some banks do accept payments into frozen accounts of a deceased person, but Barclays doesn't.

Not sure what you mean by “the” limit - inheritance tax maybe?
each organisation has its own limit, for NSi fo example it’s £5k, so if only one of them is breached you’ll need probate.
I’d check for yourself (use google, coop have a good list) and the. If necessary it may wel, be worth started probate. Some organisations have long backlogs.
we know we were well over the limit for Nsi so we’ve just got on with probate rather than waiting for them to tell us we need it. 
Depending on The circs you maybe able to do it online, but if not the paper form is not that bad.
entirely up to you but some places do have a 6 week backlog and that could grow even longer, so I’d check the limits online (or you can phone and ask if you have the time).

badger09

lisyloo said:

NinjaTune said:

xylophone said:

Barclays did finally pay the funeral bill, thank goodness.

I should hope so, too!  

Now, however, I'm having a nightmare with Barclays rejecting refunds of overpayments to my Dad's account. 

  You are the executor and have applied for probate?

Might it be simpler to advise the refunding organisations of your father's death and ask them to retain the payments until you have probate?

Not applied for probate yet, still waiting to hear back from a couple of organisations about amount of money in the accounts at date of death before filling in Inheritance Tax forms.  Dad will be well below the limit as he has most of Mum's nil rate tax band plus 2 x Residence Nil Rate.  Mum left her half of the house to me and my brother with Dad having life interest in the property.  Dad then left his half to me and my brother in his will.

The organisations are already aware of Dad's death hence the refunds.  I think some banks do accept payments into frozen accounts of a deceased person, but Barclays doesn't.

Not sure what you mean by “the” limit - inheritance tax maybe?
each organisation has its own limit, for NSi fo example it’s £5k, so if only one of them is breached you’ll need probate.
I’d check for yourself (use google, coop have a good list) and the. If necessary it may wel, be worth started probate. Some organisations have long backlogs.
we know we were well over the limit for Nsi so we’ve just got on with probate rather than waiting for them to tell us we need it. 
Depending on The circs you maybe able to do it online, but if not the paper form is not that bad.
entirely up to you but some places do have a 6 week backlog and that could grow even longer, so I’d check the limits online (or you can phone and ask if you have the time).

NS&I say they might need Probate if funds exceed £5k. However, in my case, they released over £11k without it.

lisyloo

badger09 said:

lisyloo said:

NinjaTune said:

xylophone said:

Barclays did finally pay the funeral bill, thank goodness.

I should hope so, too!  

Now, however, I'm having a nightmare with Barclays rejecting refunds of overpayments to my Dad's account. 

  You are the executor and have applied for probate?

Might it be simpler to advise the refunding organisations of your father's death and ask them to retain the payments until you have probate?

Not applied for probate yet, still waiting to hear back from a couple of organisations about amount of money in the accounts at date of death before filling in Inheritance Tax forms.  Dad will be well below the limit as he has most of Mum's nil rate tax band plus 2 x Residence Nil Rate.  Mum left her half of the house to me and my brother with Dad having life interest in the property.  Dad then left his half to me and my brother in his will.

The organisations are already aware of Dad's death hence the refunds.  I think some banks do accept payments into frozen accounts of a deceased person, but Barclays doesn't.

Not sure what you mean by “the” limit - inheritance tax maybe?
each organisation has its own limit, for NSi fo example it’s £5k, so if only one of them is breached you’ll need probate.
I’d check for yourself (use google, coop have a good list) and the. If necessary it may wel, be worth started probate. Some organisations have long backlogs.
we know we were well over the limit for Nsi so we’ve just got on with probate rather than waiting for them to tell us we need it. 
Depending on The circs you maybe able to do it online, but if not the paper form is not that bad.
entirely up to you but some places do have a 6 week backlog and that could grow even longer, so I’d check the limits online (or you can phone and ask if you have the time).

NS&I say they might need Probate if funds exceed £5k. However, in my case, they released over £11k without it.

We have a lot more,
Ive spoken to several people at nsi and we think it’s extremely unlikely they’ll release it without letters of administration (we have a will but single executor is pre deceased).
They are one of the organisations who are way behind. They were about 5 weeks behind when I called and it could be worse although they did send the documents back immediately so they have someone doing that.
i agree it may be worth waiting if it’s borderline but in our case weighing up the likelihood we just didn’t see much point in waiting given the timescales are extended at the moment