I’ve just spent an hour on the phone with Barclays Bank and I accomplished nothing, except making my mind up to change banks.
I won’t go into details, except to say that in May last year I applied to have a couple of ISA’s transferred from Barclays to Santander. It’s now February and Barclays have only managed to do one of them (although not until November!), but only after my chasing them repeatedly, as to the other one, as it’s been so long, I now have to start the process again and reapply!
But that’s not all, I’ve been paying monthly for a Barclays Premier account for over 10 years, (that adds up to about £1,500) and not seen a single benefit of having had it, so I want to downgrade my account, or create a new one with my standing orders, direct debits etc remaining in place. But to do so I have to go into a branch! why? You’ll love this… because I’ve been with Barclays too long?!?!?!?
Yep you heard right, I’ve been with them too long… I opened the original account in 1985, so I cannot downgrade it, as it’s an account that Barclays no longer offers… create a new one you suggest… not as simple as you’d expect, to create a new account I have to go into a highstreet branch with photo ID?
I’ve had a Barclays account for more than 25years, if anyone knows who I am, my income, my buying practices, where I live, my lifestyle, it’s Barclays… yet I have to go into a branch to prove who I am, and ironically, probably to a customer service agent that is younger than my account!
Yet I can call Santander’s transfer team and do the entire thing over the phone, automatically including all my direct debits etc, without once stepping into a branch!
So I put the question to the guy from Barclays, “I’ve been with you for 25 years, I have several personal accounts plus 2 business accounts, yet to create a new account I have to go to a branch with a passport to prove who I am? yet I can call Santander right after this call and have one created in minutes… now, which one do you think I’m going to do?”
“I assume you will call Santander”
“You’re right”
and I did
you should follow me on twitter here