Goodbye Barclays

letsbehonest

After 54 years of being a Barclays customer we decide to jump ship and transfer to another bank/building society, the main reasons being they closed our local branch and their ridiculously savings rate. All this said did Barclays ask me why (good customer service) no they didn’t, do they care? probably not. bye bye Barclays your loss.

penners324

They've had dreadful savings rares for 15 years.....

Have you CASS your accounts?

eskbanker

letsbehonest said:

After 54 years of being a Barclays customer we decide to jump ship and transfer to another bank/building society, the main reasons being they closed our local branch and their ridiculously savings rate. All this said did Barclays ask me why (good customer service) no they didn’t, do they care? probably not. bye bye Barclays your loss.

They'll know (and accept) that customers will leave after local branch closures and that those attracted by better savings rates will go elsewhere to find them, so your reasons are unlikely to be news to them, even if it may have made you feel better to be asked....

Marchitiello

CASS to another bank would be the obvious choice, but if this was your only account and now you are switching to another only account, you could have well kept the Barclays account as a back up with £1 on it and still open as many new account and/or saving account you wanted.

adindas

letsbehonest said:

After 54 years of being a Barclays customer we decide to jump ship and transfer to another bank/building society, the main reasons being they closed our local branch and their ridiculously savings rate. All this said did Barclays ask me why (good customer service) no they didn’t, do they care? probably not. bye bye Barclays your loss.

It costs you nothing to keep your Barclays account, keep bare minimum of £1 balance will not hurt.

In the meanwhile, if this is the only high street Bank Ac you have, it might be useful to keep showing your continuos Banking History with the high street bank. It might be useful helping you getting major credit, if you need it in the future.

Bridlington1

I would strongly advise against closing your Barclays current account altogether for the reasons detailed above. You could still keep doing your day to day banking business with Barclays but move your savings elsewhere. You don't even have to keep £1 in Barclays, just transfer £1 in, then out again 2 minutes later every 6 months or so to stop the account going dormant. There's also the option of a partial switch. As for your local branch closing, it's the same with all banks at the moment so switching won't help that in the long run. If you can show me one of the major banks that isn't shutting branches, then I'll show you a 2 headed unicorn.

Chino

adindas said:

In the meanwhile, if this is the only high street Bank Ac you have, it might be useful to keep showing your continuos Banking History with the high street bank. It might be useful helping you getting major credit, if you need it in the future.

Bearing in mind the length of time the OP has had the account, its existence might not be reported to CRAs.

binao

Chino said:

adindas said:

In the meanwhile, if this is the only high street Bank Ac you have, it might be useful to keep showing your continuos Banking History with the high street bank. It might be useful helping you getting major credit, if you need it in the future.

Bearing in mind the length of time the OP has had the account, its existence might not be reported to CRAs.

 If I've had a  bank account longer than a cra has existed, it's off the radar then?

Are you sure? KYC?

eskbanker

binao said:

Chino said:

adindas said:

In the meanwhile, if this is the only high street Bank Ac you have, it might be useful to keep showing your continuos Banking History with the high street bank. It might be useful helping you getting major credit, if you need it in the future.

Bearing in mind the length of time the OP has had the account, its existence might not be reported to CRAs.

 If I've had a  bank account longer than a cra has existed, it's off the radar then?

Are you sure? KYC?

It's not about how long the CRA has existed, it's about how long it's been necessary for banks to report accounts to them - it's often mentioned on here that many accounts predate that requirement and so such accounts simply aren't visible to the CRAs....

Marchitiello

Data Point: I have an account with Lloyds opened in 1999 that has never reported to the CRA until I asked to increase the overdraft limit 2 years ago. Not sure why that was the case? Maybe because it was originally opened as a basic account and automatically upgraded by the bank after a while? But always found it off that it was not showing on any of my credit reports with all three agencies 

[Deleted User]

penners324 said:

They've had dreadful savings rates for 15 years.....

Have you CASS your accounts?

They've been uncompetitive for as long as I've known them. The only exception was a HTB ISA and that was likely a loss leader to give them a foot in the door for a mortgage.