Barclays Bank frustration 16 September 2020 at 8:48AM in Charities 4 replies 75 views

andrewrees

As treasurer to a charity, I've been trying to get a business debit card for 6 months. Repeated contact with Barclays have said we'll get one to you', 'you've already had one (not true)' etc. Letter to ceo and response from lackey just get promises of new forms. What can I do, please?

Savvy_Sue

Raise a formal complaint?

I presume your banking terms and conditions allow for this: we wouldn't be able to have a debit card because all our transactions need dual authorisation. We do have some business credit cards however. 

kazzah

this was my understanding also - dual authoruty Charity accounts are not allowed to have online banking or debit cards - our Charity banks with Barclays also - we have two credit cards with them and actually it works out better for our organisation in terms of managing the accounts as the payment is one payment once a month rather than a lot of small transactions so our accountants bill is not quite so high as they don't need to scrutinise the banks statements as closely because there are  fewer to deal with if that makes sense
also we have banked with Barclays for over 20 years and they are ridiculously clueless for the most part about what is allowed and what isn't - you should really speak to the  business team if you are able to they are much more au fait with the processes and eligibility criteria than "customer services"    the number we have for them ( direct line) is 02476 842200  - that was used quite recently so I hope it helps you 

Savvy_Sue

kazzah said:

this was my understanding also - dual authoruty Charity accounts are not allowed to have online banking or debit cards - our Charity banks with Barclays also -

This is Barclays? I know NatWest was the same, but I just want to make clear that it is possible to have a charity account with dual authorisation requiring dual authorisation.

The three places I always mention for charity banking are Unity Trust, Triodos and CAF. I'd recommend any of those in preference to a high street bank. If you need to pay in or withdraw cash you'll need to make arrangements with a high street bank or Post Office to do so. They're not perfect, they're not free, but you get there in the end ...

kazzah

sorry yes we bank with Barclays  we can have an account with dual authorisation - but NOT  online banking and I was told not for debit cards - for cheque book only.
I was only given this information after a formal complaint about being misled after we had to change account numbers following a restructure of the organisation.  The Bank member we spoke with to open the new accounts told us we could have dual debit cards and dual online banking but when two cards failed to materialise we were told it was not available for dual signatory accounts