Barclays Premier Banking Eligibility

IanManc

Section62 said:

If there is no significant benefit from having Premier Banking, save the speedy phone access, then the risk/reward equation looks particularly bad.  (Not that I would ever suggest or condone anyone giving false information when applying for a financial product.)

Don't underestimate the benefit of quick access the the knowledgeable and helpful staff at the UK based Premier Banking call centres compared with the long waits for the less user friendly, less competent and sometimes unintelligible overseas ones that everyone else has to use.

Section62

IanManc said:

Section62 said:

If there is no significant benefit from having Premier Banking, save the speedy phone access, then the risk/reward equation looks particularly bad.  (Not that I would ever suggest or condone anyone giving false information when applying for a financial product.)

Don't underestimate the benefit of quick access the the knowledgeable and helpful staff at the UK based Premier Banking call centres compared with the long waits for the less user friendly, less competent and sometimes unintelligible overseas ones that everyone else has to use.

Ah yes, that would be priceless.

Marchitiello

Section62 said:

Marchitiello said:

...there are reports of many  not eligible (declaring the right sub £75k income but being upgraded anyway, as declaring false upper income would be reported to National Hunter with the associated problem) but being upgraded (having to first apply for standard Personal Account and then ask for the upgrade, as when applying directly for PB were rejected and given a standard account.

Thanks for the insights Marchitiello.

The part of your post I quoted was the thing that I had in mind - the OP's idea of paying £3,330 into their account would only work if you are able to get past any questions/checks that Barclays make on your actual income, with the obvious pitfall that falsely declaring an income of £75k+ could win you a NH record.

If there is no significant benefit from having Premier Banking, save the speedy phone access, then the risk/reward equation looks particularly bad.  (Not that I would ever suggest or condone anyone giving false information when applying for a financial product.)

I wondered whether diystarter7 had discovered a Premier Banking benefit the rest of us had missed. Seems not.

Your point about being able to get sums of up to £1000 for occasional cash payments is well made, but for those of us with multiple current accounts with different banking groups it is relatively painless to get hold of that sum by making withdrawals on more than one account.  Arguably there may be some advantage to not withdrawing £1000 in cash from a single account in one go if the intention is to make a cash payment to a trader.

I also have several bank accounts (maybe to many) including also PB with HSBC, RBS and Santander Select, and whilst I understand the comment about doing ATM withdrawals with different cards, it was highly convenient for me to be able to do it quickly in one go. Also worth nothing that the ATM limit is manageable in the App so as for some reason I have a much higher limit that the official £1k, I have in fact flexed it up and then back down just before using it and after. Just also to be clear, there was nothing dodgy with those cash transactions, the Traders even had one of those portable POS device linked to their phone but preferred to avoid the minimal fee and see the money straight away as the work progressed. 

As a side note, HSBC and RBS Premier are more strict with eligibility requirement (I had to book an appointment and go over some documents including P60 etc, not sure if it has changed though) but they offer some more tangible benefits, like a very good Travel Insurance (HSBC) and Rewards (RBS- Paying £2 pm but getting £10 back, or £8 net gain per month)

diystarter7

ForumUser7 said:

Thanks all - I suppose the main handy thing for me would be, should I need it, you can get through on the phone quicker I believe

Hi

I missed your post.
As I said, I'm not sure if they still have the dedicated premier banking number the last couple of times I called, I could not find it.  - 

lol, out of curisoisty just looked it up and the non PB number is an 0345 number and PB is 0800 924 7365, ie the one i ring as saved on our landline. You do get through quickly.

Thanks

ForumUser7

diystarter7 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Thanks all - I suppose the main handy thing for me would be, should I need it, you can get through on the phone quicker I believe

Hi

I missed your post.
As I said, I'm not sure if they still have the dedicated premier banking number the last couple of times I called, I could not find it.  - 

lol, out of curisoisty just looked it up and the non PB number is an 0345 number and PB is 0800 924 7365, ie the one i ring as saved on our landline. You do get through quickly.

Thanks

Yeah - someone I know has premier banking, and when they called up the other day (through the app direct call) they were straight through to a UK-based call centre and on a very clear line. Unfortunately I tend to find when calling abroad call centres, there is quite a bad line (potentially just because of the sheer distance, idk), but this coupled with a different accent that I'm not that used to hearing can just make it very difficult to understand what is being said.

Marchitiello

ForumUser7 said:

diystarter7 said:

ForumUser7 said:

Thanks all - I suppose the main handy thing for me would be, should I need it, you can get through on the phone quicker I believe

Hi

I missed your post.
As I said, I'm not sure if they still have the dedicated premier banking number the last couple of times I called, I could not find it.  - 

lol, out of curisoisty just looked it up and the non PB number is an 0345 number and PB is 0800 924 7365, ie the one i ring as saved on our landline. You do get through quickly.

Thanks

Yeah - someone I know has premier banking, and when they called up the other day (through the app direct call) they were straight through to a UK-based call centre and on a very clear line. Unfortunately I tend to find when calling abroad call centres, there is quite a bad line (potentially just because of the sheer distance, idk), but this coupled with a different accent that I'm not that used to hearing can just make it very difficult to understand what is being said.

Just to add some data point from a long standing PB customer: you do not always get a UK based assistant on the Premier line (like you do with Lloyds, RBS, Santander and HSBC in my personal experience for example) but they do answer fairly quickly. If I had to average it out, I would say 80% of the call where first answered from abroad actually, but follow ups or escalations always when to a UK based manager. Out of hours you do get some Premier Bankers answering from home in the UK at times.  

WillPS

Marchitiello said:

you do not always get a UK based assistant on the Premier line (like you do with Lloyds, RBS, Santander and HSBC in my personal experience for example)

You should do, they advertise it as a "24/7 UK-based Premier Banking team".

Are you definitely calling the correct number? Is it possible you've been speaking to somebody with a non-UK accent rather than somebody in a foreign call centre?

Marchitiello

WillPS said:

Marchitiello said:

you do not always get a UK based assistant on the Premier line (like you do with Lloyds, RBS, Santander and HSBC in my personal experience for example)

You should do, they advertise it as a "24/7 UK-based Premier Banking team".

Are you definitely calling the correct number? Is it possible you've been speaking to somebody with a non-UK accent rather than somebody in a foreign call centre?

I always use the app to call as it allow you to pass pre security and they thank me for it. It gets automatically routed to Premier because of customer profile. 

carpediem88

Hi i'm having trouble creating a Barclays Premier Current account despite fulfilling the eligibility criteria. I have been into the branch multiple times to do so, but my attempts were of little/no avail. Probably because I had profile created previously (Rewards Card which was closed and still own a Barclaycard Travel). So latest branch visit helped to create a basic current account, which I was told could upgrade to Premier Current account but later on been told it's NEVER possible. I'm abit stuck, and wondering if anyone had this problem and how you went about it?  Thanks

WillPS

carpediem88 said:

Hi i'm having trouble creating a Barclays Premier Current account despite fulfilling the eligibility criteria. I have been into the branch multiple times to do so, but my attempts were of little/no avail. Probably because I had profile created previously (Rewards Card which was closed and still own a Barclaycard Travel). So latest branch visit helped to create a basic current account, which I was told could upgrade to Premier Current account but later on been told it's NEVER possible. I'm abit stuck, and wondering if anyone had this problem and how you went about it?  Thanks

If you were told that in branch then it's time for a complaint.