Barclays behaviour

caper7

A couple of days ago I tried to login to Barclays online banking and was met with a landing page that informed me that I was gong paperless today. "As soon as you continue into online banking, you'll be paperless" "By continuing, you agree to become paperless" and a big blue button to click labelled "continue to go paperless".

In the small print it does say you can switch back at any time, however there was no option but to agree before being allowed to access online banking and my accounts/money.

Others may feel differently, and I'm not interested in a debate about going paperless/the environment, but personally, forcing me to agree to something before being able to access my own money leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I don't appreciate feeling like I'm being held to ransom to access MY money. Had there been other options, say to disagree or look at it after carrying out the banking I was logging in for, that would be one thing, but one button forcing you to agree? No.

kaMelo

At no point is you're money being held to ransom, that's a rather nonsensical statement. Yes you were forced to opt in to paperless but, as you've said yourself, it is simple process to change that and choose to receive paper statements/documents/etc instead so change it back. You could probably have done so faster than it took you to write your post here.

I know your not interested in the why but banks, like other businesses, are under pressure from Government and their shareholders to reduce their carbon footprint, reducing paper statements etc. will all help in that aim.

flaneurs_lobster

Have to agree, serious misread of their audience. Sort of thing you'd expect from a FinTech (except those are mostly paperless from the get-go) not Barclays, whose customer demographics will probably veer away from the tree-huggers environmentally engaged.

By all means have a mechanism whereby you announce that you would like your customers to choose paperless or not but without an explicit opt-in you do nothing.

They are trying to get round the problem of informing customers of an action they want to take, but don't have a way of ensuring customers have seen the message so can't do a default switching.

Hence the clunky big button.

Even Barclays are not crass enough to put this notification on a paper letter inside a paper envelope……

caper7

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059595#Comment_82059595

It's the fact that I was forced to agree to something before being allowed to access my accounts, it's not about going paperless, next week it could be something else, it's the principle and the delay when I have banking to do. Why was there not an option to "skip"? I'm sure Nationwide have done something similar, but it was about updating your info, but you were allowed to skip it a couple of times.

friolento

If you are so upset about it, vote with your feet and switch to a different bank.

kaMelo

I get your point, and to some extent agree with the idea that there should have been an option to skip the step but it is what it is. I've experienced the same thing with Lloyds, RBS, NatWest and Barclays, there may have been others however that's all I remember off the top of my head. Some I've stuck with paperless and others, RBS and Lloyds, I've chosen to keep paper statements for at least the current account, just so as I have an original statement should the need arise to share it in the future.

As I said they're under pressure from Government and especially shareholders who ask questions about their environmental credentials all the time, this is something the bank can point to to say they're doing their bit. At least changing back to paper is painless and there is no indication at this time this will change. It may do eventually but not at the moment.

dunstonh

At the end of the day, they're all going paperless. Given the cost rises of postal services in recent years and the fact that the vast majority of people take absolutely no notice of their statements, it's a bit of a no-brainer from a commercial point of view.

What will probably happen is that a smaller number of niche building societies will continue to offer a paper option. Or in time, they will introduce fees for paper statements on the basis that the vast majority of consumers shouldn't have to pay for the small number that want paper statements.

So you just make your choice with a provider that offers paper statements if that's what you want

masonic

If I'm understanding correctly, to proceed to internet banking you must agree to switch to paperless. After clicking continue, you can then proceed directly to your paper free settings and switch back? And they'll respect that from this point forward? With no penalties, charges, or loss of account benefits?

caper7

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059627#Comment_82059627

I completely get all that, this isn't about going paperless, it's about how it was handled.

You were forced to agree before being able to access your accounts. That simply doesn't sit comfortably with me.

Yes you can then find the settings and make whatever choices you wish, but those choices could have been presented on the landing page.

And that landing page should have had the option of being able to "skip" it, or deal with it before logging out or some such...

caper7

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059629#Comment_82059629

After clicking continue you are on your usual dashboard of accounts, if you want to alter the paperless situation you have to find the settings to do so and make your choices.

I don't think there are any penalties if you switch back to paper.

subjecttocontract

Barclays probably prioritise profit and shareholder returns and going paperless helps supports that plan. Having one of two customers who feel disenfranchised ain't gonna concern them. Could it have been done better ? Yes. I'm probably signed up for paperless with all the cowboy firms I deal with But I know it can be changed quite easily when I need it. Most Barclays shareholders support any move to reduce costs for obvious reasons. You are just a customer and I would imagine from Barclays perspective rank lower than a shareholder.