Wanting to move from HSBC Premier to Barclays Premier and they aren't interested

Publius

I've been a happy HSBC Premier customer for >2 years. The recent trouble with HSBC and China has me looking around at other Premier banks that will take me.

Today I called Barclays Premier line. What unhelpful people. They are clearly not enabled in the same way HSBC are to deal with customers and can only read scripts - the entire reason for a Premier service is to avoid this type of interaction.

Specifically they tell me that they wont sign me up until they can see 6 months of income into the account. Which is insane. I would only be switching for the Premier service. As a contrast HSBC would helpfully sign me up looking at my salary from my employment contract - Barclays wont.

I'm not going to move my banking (and all the hassle) on some vain hope that I might get Premier in the future.

Are Barclays really this useless as a bank? Are all my interactions with them going to be like this?

adamp87

Perhaps you got through to the wrong person or a bad day?

Looking at the page for Premier Banking on their website it doesn’t indicate needing to be a customer for 6 months - in fact it advertises the switch service to come over quickly. 

Fighter1986

Your observations of Barclays are indeed representative of many others'

Publius

adamp87 said:

Perhaps you got through to the wrong person or a bad day?

Looking at the page for Premier Banking on their website it doesn’t indicate needing to be a customer for 6 months - in fact it advertises the switch service to come over quickly. 

And yet I was told I wouldn't qualify until they had evidence through the account that I met their criteria, they wouldn't take me on a "promise". I offered to show them employment contracts and they didn't want to know.

Person I was talking to said "well everybody would say they qualify if we did that!".

If they're only going to offer me Premier if it makes it easy for them, then they've got the wrong idea of the point of the service.

Publius

I dropped a email to my local Handelsbanken branch and almost immediately had them offer to call me.

They're happy to have me, but its going to cost £15/mth for an account.

Is good service worth £180/year to me? I do like the idea that their accounts aren't loss leaders to sell me other products unlike all the other banks.

I asked what their daily cash withdrawal limit on their debit cards is, they said "whatever you want - it's to benefit you not us" which very much appeals to me and says a lot about how they are empowered. Tempting.

Archi_Bald

Publius said:

 I do like the idea that their accounts aren't loss leaders to sell me other products unlike all the other banks.

You can opt out of Marketing at all banks so the selling is kept at a minimum, or doesn't exist at all. You are almost certainly reading far too much into it, including at HSBC UK who are unlikely to even blink if you left them out of protest over the HSBC Hong Kong operations.

ratechaser

Honestly if you just want someone you can call for 'service stuff' on top of a basic current account structure, the free Natwest Premier Select does me perfectly well. I never even asked for it, they just upgraded me years and years ago, presumably as they see my salary going in. And the couple of times I've needed it (I'm not a high maintenance customer), I've been able to get through to my local relationship manager quickly, and they've sorted out my problem. But apart from that I get nothing special (ok, a slightly different debit card, woo hoo), pay for nothing, and am perfectly happy.

If it's packaged add-ons that you want, there are good but less 'pseudo-private banking' accounts out there, e.g. Nationwide, Santander...

Shakin_Steve

My wife has been offered the Barclays premier account twice, she has been a customer for 33 years. But when we looked what this 'upgrade' actually got you, it didn't seem worth it. In my experience the 'personal banker' is usually someone who 'recommends' products to you........products that cost you money.

C320UK

I switched to Barclays Premier a couple of years ago (from Citibank).

in the documentation about Premier it does suggest that you can switch straight to it. In reality the way it works is that they switch you to a standard account and then upgrade it once your salary has come through. I can’t recall exactly how long, I think it was after the 1st or 2nd month but certainly not 6 months. Seemed entirely sensible and I did say I can show you payslips, previous bank statements and contract of employment but they insisted their systems need to see the money come in.

From a due-diligence perspective I can kind of see why it’s like that as it’s easy to fake a lot of that type of documentation.

I’ve been really happy with Barclays and their online services and App are great. Coming from Citibank I had toyed with the idea of handlesbanken too but the fact they don’t have proper branches put me off and I doubt their online banking is anywhere near as sophisticated as any of the major banks or the new challenger banks (those are the main reasons I decided to leave Citibank, but the catalyst was when they closed the branch nearest my office).

Hope this helps...

London7766551

Publius said:

I dropped a email to my local Handelsbanken branch and almost immediately had them offer to call me.

They're happy to have me, but its going to cost £15/mth for an account.

Is good service worth £180/year to me? I do like the idea that their accounts aren't loss leaders to sell me other products unlike all the other banks.

I asked what their daily cash withdrawal limit on their debit cards is, they said "whatever you want - it's to benefit you not us" which very much appeals to me and says a lot about how they are empowered. Tempting.

Are Handelsbanken still snobs?

I contacted the London branch many years ago, I did get a call back and as soon as they guy heard my working class accent he kept repeating there was a £20 charge per month, then he asked me where I worked and responded "Well I have never heard of that". He didn't ask my income or background etc. I still told him I wanted the account, again he hit me with "there is a £20 a month charge". I pressed ahead but never received an appointment as I was promised. After that I gave up. I believe you have to attend an interview and provide six months of statements to get an account. Absolute snobs of the highest order!  I dare say they would accept me now but the damage is done. I would not give them the steam off my......

[Deleted User]

You do realise that these mass affluent accounts are not actually private banking but are just platforms for the bank to sell you more? HSBC Premier seems to been amongst the best of these in terms of perks.